Sermon Illustrations for Passion Sunday (2024)
Illustration
Isaiah 50:4-9a
The sufferings of the servant in this passage are personified in Israel. That is what the prophet saw in a people destroyed by the Babylonians, their city leveled, their temple destroyed, their artifacts carried away by a jeering conqueror to a foreign land. Suffering, humiliation, and death. But the prophet was originally celebrating the survival of the people and the extraordinary miracle of their return.
The early Christians, whose scriptures were the Hebrew Bible, available to them in a Greek translation known as the Septuagint, interpreted the sufferings of the servant in this passage as personified in Jesus, who unjustly bore rejection and disfigurement, bearing our infirmities, and now, restored in resurrection, saving all of us “sheep (who) have gone astray” (53:6).
We usually get the second and maybe not the first interpretation, but let’s not forget there is a third legitimate interpretation – we ourselves and our suffering are personified in this passage. We too have not been shielded from life’s buffeting, and we too through our suffering are restored with Christ into an eternal relationship with God. We’re also a part of this story.
Frank R.
* * *
Isaiah 50:4-9
USA Today reported on April 20, 2007, about a senior at Virginia Tech University who went on a shooting rampage. By the time his murderous spree ended, he had killed 32 people and wounded 17 more. Most of those killed were shot as they sat in classes in the engineering school. The assailant chained the doors shut to ensure it would be hard for his intended victims to escape. Panic broke out as students began to realize what was happening. When the shooter came to one classroom, he found the door barred by the professor, 76-year-old Liviu Librescu.
Librescu, a Romanian Jew who survived the Nazi Holocaust and later moved to Israel before coming to America to teach, told the students to open the windows and escape outside. On that day, he saved the lives of a number of his students before falling victim to the gunman’s bullets. His son later told of the emails he received from young people who had been in the classroom when their professor saved their lives by literally placing himself into the line of fire. In the moment of adversity, he stood strong.
Standing strong in a time of adversity. Professor Librescu did, and, before him, Isaiah and Jesus did. Isaiah wrote of himself and Jesus, “God helps me; therefore, I have not been disgraced; therefore, I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near” (vs. 7-8). Standing for the Lord will not preclude God’s people from suffering, but it what God calls us to do. In our moments of adversity, will we stand strong?
Bill T.
* * *
Philippians 2:5-11
Humility is hard. I like to be proud of my accomplishments, not to brag but to acknowledge the accomplishments and the hard work they took. Yet, when I think about the life of Jesus, fully human and fully divine, and walk the journey through the scripture, I realize how important humility is. Every gift I have, every accomplishment I have made, all rests at the foot of the cross. Jesus renews and refreshes me. God created me with opportunities and gifts for my human life. The Spirit sustains me. Whatever I am rests in the arms of God, in the sacrifice, ministry and love of Jesus. I am humbled to know that God loves me, that Jesus redeems me and that the Spirit empowers me. Oh, how humbled those realizations make me.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Philippians 2:5-11
John Calvin offered thoughtful and moving reflections on the meaning of this text (and of Passion Sunday):
For it is the design of the Holy Spirit, that we should, in the death of Christ, see, and taste, and ponder, and feel, and recognize nothing but God’s unmixed goodness, and the love of Christ toward us, which was great and inestimable, that, regardless of himself, He devoted himself and his life for our sakes. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XXI/2, p.59)
In the same spirit Calvin also once claimed that “faith is like an empty, open hand stretched out toward God, with nothing to offer and everything to receive.” Inspired by Jesus’ emptying himself, famed medieval mystic Meister Eckhart once observed that “to be empty of things is to be full of God.” The saint we celebrated last Sunday, Patrick, clearly exhibited this Lenten spirit in his most famous work as he wrote:
I Patrick a sinner, very badly educated, in Ireland... I am quite certain that I have received from God that which I am. (Life and Writings, p.58)
Mark E.
* * *
Mark 14:1--15:47
Passion Sunday so well reminds us of our sin and sinful condition. French intellectual Blaise Pascal so clearly describes the misery of our condition:
All our life passes in this way; we seek rest by struggling against certain obstacles, and once they are overcome, rest proves intolerable because of the boredom it produces. We must get away from it and crave excitement. (Pensees, p.69)
John Calvin made it clear how we need this appreciation of our sin in order to appreciate what Christ has done for us. He put it this way:
For if we are desirous to profit aright by meditating on the death of Christ, we ought to begin with cherishing the abhorrence of our sins, in proportion to the severity of the punishment which he endured. This will cause us not only to feel displeasure and shame of ourselves, but to be penetrated with deep grief, and therefore to seek the medicine with becoming ardour, and at the same time to experience confusion and trembling. For we must have hearts harder than stones, if we are not cut to the quick by the wounds of the Son of God, if we not hate and detest our sins for expiating that the Son of God endure so many tenements. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVII/1, p.290)
The Genevan reformer sees significance in Christ being stripped of his clothes (15:24). By his nakedness, Calvin contends, we have obtained the riches that make us honorable in God’s presence (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVII/1, p.298). He adds that thinking of Christ being fought against by those surrounding the cross gives us a remedy for overcoming temptations when we feel that the world is against us. He wrote:
And, therefore, if we learn to raise our minds to God, it will be easy for us to look down, as it were, from above, and despise the ignorance of unbelievers; for whatever may be their strength and resources, still they know not what they do. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVII/1, p.301)
Mark E.
* * *
Mark 14:1--15:47
I came across this in a blog post I was reading. I believe it originated with Alistair Begg. I found it thought-provoking. Think about the thief on the cross. What an incredible story. I can’t wait to find that fellow one day to ask him, “How did that shake out for you? Because you were a criminal, getting what you deserved. You’d never been in a Bible study. You’d never gone to church. You didn’t know a thing about redemption. And yet—and yet, you made it! You made it! How did you make it?” Perhaps the conversation went like this:
An angel says, “What are you doing here?”
The thief answers, “Well, I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“Well, because I don’t know.”
“Well, you know… Excuse me. Let me get my supervisor.”
They go get the supervisor angel: “So, we’ve just a few questions for you. First of all, are you clear on the doctrine of justification by faith?”
The guy says, “I’ve never heard of it in my life.”
“And what about… Let’s just go to the doctrine of scripture immediately.”
This guy’s just staring.
And eventually, in frustration, he says, “On what basis are you here?”
And he said, “The man on the middle cross said I can come.”
That’s really the bottom line. It all comes down the man on the middle cross. It is good and right to know the truths of the Bible. It is right to grow and understand the teachings of our faith. However, salvation is only received through the atoning work of Jesus. It is all about what Jesus did on that cross. His actions on that day shouted to the world, “I say they can come.” Dr. Billy Graham said of the crucifixion, “The cross is the only way of salvation. And the cross gives a new purpose to life.”
Bill T.
* * *
Mark 14:1-15:47
The final Passover of Jesus’ earthly life was a complex celebration. The church leadership was waiting to kill him. Judas was willing to betray him. There was no place previously reserved or prepared for the Passover meal. Yet, hospitality was offered. An opportunity to commune with Jesus was introduced. The disciples in their humanness fall asleep while Jesus is praying. Pledges of faithfulness are made. So much happens, it is hard to recall everything. Yet, the essence of this night for me is the love expressed in every action of Jesus.
Jesus offers his body and blood, symbolically at the meal, and actually in the garden to everyone present — Judas the one who betrays, Peter the one who denies, the people gathered who ridicule, the soldiers who crucify. Everyone is a recipient of the life and love of Jesus. The details are many, but the essence is simple and yet, profound. Jesus loves. In the face of everything, Jesus loves — and not just the faithful, but everyone.
Bonnie B.
The sufferings of the servant in this passage are personified in Israel. That is what the prophet saw in a people destroyed by the Babylonians, their city leveled, their temple destroyed, their artifacts carried away by a jeering conqueror to a foreign land. Suffering, humiliation, and death. But the prophet was originally celebrating the survival of the people and the extraordinary miracle of their return.
The early Christians, whose scriptures were the Hebrew Bible, available to them in a Greek translation known as the Septuagint, interpreted the sufferings of the servant in this passage as personified in Jesus, who unjustly bore rejection and disfigurement, bearing our infirmities, and now, restored in resurrection, saving all of us “sheep (who) have gone astray” (53:6).
We usually get the second and maybe not the first interpretation, but let’s not forget there is a third legitimate interpretation – we ourselves and our suffering are personified in this passage. We too have not been shielded from life’s buffeting, and we too through our suffering are restored with Christ into an eternal relationship with God. We’re also a part of this story.
Frank R.
* * *
Isaiah 50:4-9
USA Today reported on April 20, 2007, about a senior at Virginia Tech University who went on a shooting rampage. By the time his murderous spree ended, he had killed 32 people and wounded 17 more. Most of those killed were shot as they sat in classes in the engineering school. The assailant chained the doors shut to ensure it would be hard for his intended victims to escape. Panic broke out as students began to realize what was happening. When the shooter came to one classroom, he found the door barred by the professor, 76-year-old Liviu Librescu.
Librescu, a Romanian Jew who survived the Nazi Holocaust and later moved to Israel before coming to America to teach, told the students to open the windows and escape outside. On that day, he saved the lives of a number of his students before falling victim to the gunman’s bullets. His son later told of the emails he received from young people who had been in the classroom when their professor saved their lives by literally placing himself into the line of fire. In the moment of adversity, he stood strong.
Standing strong in a time of adversity. Professor Librescu did, and, before him, Isaiah and Jesus did. Isaiah wrote of himself and Jesus, “God helps me; therefore, I have not been disgraced; therefore, I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near” (vs. 7-8). Standing for the Lord will not preclude God’s people from suffering, but it what God calls us to do. In our moments of adversity, will we stand strong?
Bill T.
* * *
Philippians 2:5-11
Humility is hard. I like to be proud of my accomplishments, not to brag but to acknowledge the accomplishments and the hard work they took. Yet, when I think about the life of Jesus, fully human and fully divine, and walk the journey through the scripture, I realize how important humility is. Every gift I have, every accomplishment I have made, all rests at the foot of the cross. Jesus renews and refreshes me. God created me with opportunities and gifts for my human life. The Spirit sustains me. Whatever I am rests in the arms of God, in the sacrifice, ministry and love of Jesus. I am humbled to know that God loves me, that Jesus redeems me and that the Spirit empowers me. Oh, how humbled those realizations make me.
Bonnie B.
* * *
Philippians 2:5-11
John Calvin offered thoughtful and moving reflections on the meaning of this text (and of Passion Sunday):
For it is the design of the Holy Spirit, that we should, in the death of Christ, see, and taste, and ponder, and feel, and recognize nothing but God’s unmixed goodness, and the love of Christ toward us, which was great and inestimable, that, regardless of himself, He devoted himself and his life for our sakes. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XXI/2, p.59)
In the same spirit Calvin also once claimed that “faith is like an empty, open hand stretched out toward God, with nothing to offer and everything to receive.” Inspired by Jesus’ emptying himself, famed medieval mystic Meister Eckhart once observed that “to be empty of things is to be full of God.” The saint we celebrated last Sunday, Patrick, clearly exhibited this Lenten spirit in his most famous work as he wrote:
I Patrick a sinner, very badly educated, in Ireland... I am quite certain that I have received from God that which I am. (Life and Writings, p.58)
Mark E.
* * *
Mark 14:1--15:47
Passion Sunday so well reminds us of our sin and sinful condition. French intellectual Blaise Pascal so clearly describes the misery of our condition:
All our life passes in this way; we seek rest by struggling against certain obstacles, and once they are overcome, rest proves intolerable because of the boredom it produces. We must get away from it and crave excitement. (Pensees, p.69)
John Calvin made it clear how we need this appreciation of our sin in order to appreciate what Christ has done for us. He put it this way:
For if we are desirous to profit aright by meditating on the death of Christ, we ought to begin with cherishing the abhorrence of our sins, in proportion to the severity of the punishment which he endured. This will cause us not only to feel displeasure and shame of ourselves, but to be penetrated with deep grief, and therefore to seek the medicine with becoming ardour, and at the same time to experience confusion and trembling. For we must have hearts harder than stones, if we are not cut to the quick by the wounds of the Son of God, if we not hate and detest our sins for expiating that the Son of God endure so many tenements. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVII/1, p.290)
The Genevan reformer sees significance in Christ being stripped of his clothes (15:24). By his nakedness, Calvin contends, we have obtained the riches that make us honorable in God’s presence (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVII/1, p.298). He adds that thinking of Christ being fought against by those surrounding the cross gives us a remedy for overcoming temptations when we feel that the world is against us. He wrote:
And, therefore, if we learn to raise our minds to God, it will be easy for us to look down, as it were, from above, and despise the ignorance of unbelievers; for whatever may be their strength and resources, still they know not what they do. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol.XVII/1, p.301)
Mark E.
* * *
Mark 14:1--15:47
I came across this in a blog post I was reading. I believe it originated with Alistair Begg. I found it thought-provoking. Think about the thief on the cross. What an incredible story. I can’t wait to find that fellow one day to ask him, “How did that shake out for you? Because you were a criminal, getting what you deserved. You’d never been in a Bible study. You’d never gone to church. You didn’t know a thing about redemption. And yet—and yet, you made it! You made it! How did you make it?” Perhaps the conversation went like this:
An angel says, “What are you doing here?”
The thief answers, “Well, I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“Well, because I don’t know.”
“Well, you know… Excuse me. Let me get my supervisor.”
They go get the supervisor angel: “So, we’ve just a few questions for you. First of all, are you clear on the doctrine of justification by faith?”
The guy says, “I’ve never heard of it in my life.”
“And what about… Let’s just go to the doctrine of scripture immediately.”
This guy’s just staring.
And eventually, in frustration, he says, “On what basis are you here?”
And he said, “The man on the middle cross said I can come.”
That’s really the bottom line. It all comes down the man on the middle cross. It is good and right to know the truths of the Bible. It is right to grow and understand the teachings of our faith. However, salvation is only received through the atoning work of Jesus. It is all about what Jesus did on that cross. His actions on that day shouted to the world, “I say they can come.” Dr. Billy Graham said of the crucifixion, “The cross is the only way of salvation. And the cross gives a new purpose to life.”
Bill T.
* * *
Mark 14:1-15:47
The final Passover of Jesus’ earthly life was a complex celebration. The church leadership was waiting to kill him. Judas was willing to betray him. There was no place previously reserved or prepared for the Passover meal. Yet, hospitality was offered. An opportunity to commune with Jesus was introduced. The disciples in their humanness fall asleep while Jesus is praying. Pledges of faithfulness are made. So much happens, it is hard to recall everything. Yet, the essence of this night for me is the love expressed in every action of Jesus.
Jesus offers his body and blood, symbolically at the meal, and actually in the garden to everyone present — Judas the one who betrays, Peter the one who denies, the people gathered who ridicule, the soldiers who crucify. Everyone is a recipient of the life and love of Jesus. The details are many, but the essence is simple and yet, profound. Jesus loves. In the face of everything, Jesus loves — and not just the faithful, but everyone.
Bonnie B.
