Preachrblog

“The Triumph of Christ's Humiliation” Philippians 2:5-11 Today we observe Palm Sunday – and especially that time when Jesus came to Jerusalem shortly before his death, we call it his triumphal entry. But triumph, with Jesus, is not what it looks like to the world. For him, it is found in humility. It is a strange sort of triumph, a very odd celebration, in which most of the participants have it right, in spite of having it wrong. He is the king, but not the way they think. He is there to save them, but not from whom they think. He is the Son of David. But David's son is also David's Lord. And his humility is ultimately his glory. Humility – the overarching theme. Today, humility is almost universally regarded as a virtue. Even outside of religious circles, humility is held up as a worthy character treat, and important component of leadership. It is seen as the opposite of arrogance. A willingness to admit you're wrong. An attitude th...

Mark 10:35-45 “The Cup and the Baptism” Peter isn't the only one of the disciples that makes a fool of himself from time to time. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, could give him a run for his money. Jesus called them the “sons of thunder”, perhaps because they wanted to call down the fire of heaven on some Samaritan villagers who wouldn't welcome Jesus. This earned them a stern rebuke from Jesus, as they just moved on to another village. Here, James and John come with a request of Jesus. Matthew's parallel account tells us they even got their mother involved in making this request. And they tried a little trick - to get Jesus to agree to the request before saying what it was they wanted – which, even today, is never a good thing to agree to. “Promise me you won't be mad” or “Promise you'll keep this a secret”. We try to use these little tactics to get people to react the way we want, give the answer we want them to give. But Jesus...