Serving When It Hurts – Luke 23:26-31

If I were to ask you, what is the greatest human tragedy? How would you answer that question? Would you say it’s the tragedy that caused the most suffering, like the use of slavery? According to endslaverynow.org, a nonprofit partner of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, there are an estimated 20.9 million people trapped in some form of slavery today, sometimes called modern-day slavery, you might be familiar with it as human trafficking but it takes many forms like domestic servitude, forced labor, forced marriage, sex trafficking, child labor and more.

Or, would you say it’s the tragedy that brought the most death, like World War 2. More people died in World War II than in any other war in history. Between the civilian and military casualties, the death toll adds up to roughly the entire 2013 population of the states of New York, New Jersey, and California … combined.

Or, is the greatest human tragedy the worst natural disaster that brought loss of human life? You may immediately think of the tsunami that hit Indonesia in 2004; or the earthquake that crumbled much of Haiti in 2010 but The China Floods of 1931 is regarded still as the worst natural disaster in recorded history. In the summer of 1931, three of China’s biggest rivers all flooded. Some 70,000 square miles were swallowed by water up to 15 feet deep for months. Nearly 4 million people died as a result of these floods.

For many months, we’ve been studying through the Book of Luke, and today we’re in chapter 23 in between Jesus’ trial and His execution; as Jesus takes his last walk. I’d like for us to view today’s text with that question in mind and maybe, today, the Bible will show you and I an answer that’s different than what immediately comes to mind when we think “human tragedy.”

Last week we covered the trials of Jesus and in Jesus’ day, there was no delay from the trial-to sentencing-to execution. The Romans would carry out the sentence almost immediately and they do that here. The soldiers take Jesus out of the Praetorium and start to lead him down what we call today, the Via Delorosa, or Way of Sorrows. This would be Jesus’ last walk through the streets of Jerusalem, but this time, He’s led out as a prisoner. And as part of adding to a prisoners shame and humiliation, Roman soldiers made him carry either the cross or the cross beam, up to the execution site.

Now somewhere along this journey, Luke tells us that the soldiers seized a man named Simon to carry the cross for Jesus. Simon is from Cyrene, and to tell you a little about this place, it’s a city on the north coast of Africa about 800 miles from Jerusalem and this was an important city for dispersed

Jews in North Africa. Maybe Simon was one of the many Cyrenian Jews living in Jerusalem that Acts tells us about or he was just part of the thousands of pilgrims coming to Jerusalem for Passover. We don’t know much about this Simon; but I do know for sure that he did not wake up that day thinking, man, it’s a great day to help a prisoner carry his cross. The text tells us the soldiers “seized” Simon. The word Luke uses for seize carries with it the idea of violence, that this was a forceful engagement between the soldiers and Simon as if he was the criminal. Just imagine for a second…you’re Simon and you’ve traveled 800 miles from Africa to celebrate Passover and as you’re minding your own business coming back from the countryside that morning, maybe you’re trying to make the 9am prayer meeting in the temple, you get “volun-told” by Roman soldiers to get into the street and pick up this prisoners cross. You may not even know this prisoner; perhaps you’ve heard the name. Could you imagine what could be going through his mind…the fear, the uncertainty, hearing the mocking of the crowd now towards him, probably asking himself why me?

What we see of Jesus in this scene is a clear picture of his humanity, the body of man physically breaking down from a terrible flogging, lack of food, severe blood lost and body trauma; honestly it’s amazing that Jesus made it this far. Remember, He isn’t using his deity to mask the pain; no he’s taking this punishment head on, like a man, and seeing his body failing, the soldiers grab Simon… probably the first dude they saw, to ensure Jesus makes it to Golgotha alive.

What’s interesting about Simon is what happened afterwards. Before Simon met Jesus he had religion and devotion, being a practicing Jew. But there’s good reason to believe that Simon became a Christian following this encounter with Jesus. When Mark writes his account of this event he tells us that Simon had two sons, Alexander and Rufus. It’s likely this is the same Christian Rufus Paul greets in Romans 16. Something happened to Simon that day and it affected his entire family and ultimately his community.

I wonder if Simon knew ahead of time that he would be called to do this if he would have left the house that morning?

I was doing some reading on the North American Mission Board’s website and read about Roni Mugaki. He was a Kenyan youth minister in urban Kenya, 2006. He had no formal theological training but he worked hard at reaching his homeland with the Gospel. Roni began to feel God tugging on his heart for higher education and to ministry outside of Kenya so he registered for the U.S. green card lottery, formally called The Diversity Visa Lottery. Millions of people register for the chance to get selected to come to the U.S. but few actually qualify…in the Spring of 2010, Roni was one the few out of the millions of applicants to get selected.

Here’s what I find humorous about Roni’s story is after finding out he got selected and that he, his wife Joyce and two sons were coming to the U.S. he had two prayer request: “God, please don’t send me somewhere cold!” and “Please not somewhere rural!”

The family moved to Chicago and he began attending Moody Bible College. As he neared the end of his studies they hoped that God would answer his prayer to send him to a city much warmer like Dallas or Austin, that was their hearts desire. Listen to Roni’s words during an interview about his new church plant: “ I hate cold weather more than anything…I realized that if the Lord asked me to go to Alaska, I would have to go. So I took a mission trip to Minneapolis where it was colder than ever. And that’s where I am serving now! When God calls you do something, being obedient pays off.”

Roni is the senior pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel Downtown Minneapolis that launched in February of this year.

There are many Christians who, when they come to faith in Jesus, say Jesus I’ll do anything and go anywhere for you but here… I think there’s a fear we have of the unknown of what our faith may actually call us to do for Jesus in our town or abroad, that we’d rather live a passive faith than a faith that’s actively engaging those around us. You see church, there’s something you and I have in common with Simon, we’ve both been “voluntold” for service. Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” This isn’t optional for the believer, it’s not a If you have time this weekend or think about it on Tuesday. Henry Blackaby wrote in his book, On Mission With God, “To say No Lord, is an oxymoron. If He is Lord, you can’t say no. If you say no, He isn’t Lord in your life.” As you go Jesus said…be ready and willing to love me by serving others.

That’s first thing we see from today’s text, to be ready to serve Jesus at any time and in any way. As Jesus continues this walk, the second thing we learn is we need to have a heart that’s broken for our community.

It wasn’t unusual for a public execution to draw a crowd but this being Passover and Jesus, the crowd was significantly large following Jesus. Luke mentions these “grief stricken women” that followed behind Jesus wailing and lamenting. This would be customary to have professional mourners who would do a Jewish death wail at funerals or high profile executions. They would beat their bodies and cry loudly, signifying this person is as good as dead, they’re filled with hopelessness and they cannot escape this doom… basically you’re not coming back from this. We don’t have any reason to believe that this wasn’t genuine sorrow but their crying drew the attention of Jesus to the point that despite his own suffering, he stops and addresses them and what he says is profound.

Look back at verse 28, Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For the days are coming when they will say, Fortunate indeed are the women who are childless, the wombs that have not borne a child and the breasts that have never nursed.”

In the verses before this we saw the body of the man breaking down from the physical toil of his punishment yet here Jesus again shows us the heart of God, both his humanity and Godhead on display. Jesus redirects the tears of these women back to themselves because He knows that something awful is going to happen to Jerusalem very soon…and it grieves Him to think about the doom that’s coming to Jerusalem and what affects it will on those who are alive when it comes. Jesus is speaking of the impending destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 led by the future Emperor Titus. Jesus says this will be so bad that what people commonly dread in life, they will wish for! This is counter-cultural right…in Israel if you were a woman who was childless it was viewed as a sign of judgment from God and you would be viewed with shame and disgrace from your neighbors. A woman would envy those who were mothers…much like Rachel envied Leah. But in this case, Jesus says it is the mothers with children who will envy the motherless because of the grief they will face watching their children starve or being killed or taken captive. That would be mind blowing to hear someone say.

But Jesus goes further and says in verse 30, “People will beg the mountains, Fall on us and plead with the hills, Bury us.” Do you know what taphephobia is? It’s the fear of being buried alive and Jesus is referring to a prophecy in Hosea 10 where Hosea speaks of the destruction of Samaria by the Assyrians and the connection is this: the Jews will say equally in their days when Jerusalem is being attacked that they would prefer a sudden, cataclysmic death by mountains falling on them…i.e. an earthquake of unspeakable proportions than to face the daily terrors and horrors of the attacks by Rome.

Don’t think that Jesus was angered by their cries or unappreciative of the sympathy…but while they were crying for the injustice of one man, His heart was broken for a community and a city that he loved so dearly because of the terrible destruction of a nation he knew was coming.

Let me ask you this…what are you willing to give up for your community? I learned a valuable and really an unforgettable lesson on this when I was in High School, it was my second mission trip to Costa Rica. Our team was serving in a Nicaraguan refuge camp outside of San Jose, helping to finish the construction on a church. Here’s a picture of me and the pastor of this church. He was a business man in San Jose and by Costa Rican standard very successful. He would go back and forth to this refuge camp and minister to the people there but soon he realized he couldn’t really effectively reach people he wasn’t sharing life with and living life with. So in a bold move of faith he left everything in San Jose…job, house, friends and moved into the refuge camp with the people. Imagine leaving your neighborhood you currently live in and moving your family to this… (PICTURE 2) This pastor showed me as teenager what it meant and looked like to have a heart so broken for a community of people you’d sale all to live with them.

When was the last time you took a drive around Columbus? And not to your normal coffee stop or new eatery…but just drove through an area you haven’t been to in a long while or ever at all just to see it? It’s really hard if not impossible to have a heart broken and burdened for your community if you don’t place yourself within it; to see the hurts, needs and brokenness first hand.

And often times our route to work or to get groceries or do a little shopping won’t show us that. Do you know what breaks my heart for the Chattahoochee Valley? That nearly 74% of our population is not regularly involved in a church body. That tells me there is a huge population of people around us everyday that isn’t hearing about the love Jesus has for them and is living life one day at the time, hoping for the best, unaware or in disbelief or without a care as to what’s to come to them when they exit this life and enter into the next. And what a tragedy it would be for Christians in this town to stand idly by and allow that to happen. My prayer for Calvary is that our heart would be broken for the Chattahoochee Valley the way we see Jesus’ heart broken for Jerusalem…that we would weep for our city and boldly put ourselves on the frontline with the Gospel.

We’re learning from Luke today that we must be ready to serve Jesus at any time and in any way; to have heart broken for your community and lastly today, Luke teaches us to…

Okay this is an odd statement by Jesus; it’s a self-answering riddle-like question which makes the interpretation and our understanding of it difficult. The picture He gives is pretty clear and if you’ve ever burned wood before at the house in the yard you know this…green wood…freshly cut, non seasoned wood that’s still moist doesn’t burn as easily or readily as dry, seasoned wood. That’s not the real issue in this saying; if you look closely at your Bible your translation may say: “If they” or “If people.” This is where our understanding of this gets complicated…who is Jesus actually referring to?

Is he talking about the Romans? Which would mean, if Pilate, who acknowledge my’ innocence is doing this to me, then what on earth will the Romans do to you, Jerusalem, in A.D. 70 when you are truly guilty of rebellion?

Or is He speaking about Jews…What will God do to them for having killed his Son who has come as their Anointed One for their salvation?

Or is He speaking about humanity in general?

The general idea is this…Jesus is saying what’s happening to me now, as horrific as crucifixion is, is nothing compared to what is going to happen to the people here in Jerusalem. If God allows this to his innocent son, what will his righteous wrath look like on a sinful nation that’s dry, and ripe for judgement?

This is what should motivate us for the advancement of the gospel…regardless of the risk involved… knowing that their eternal judgment is far greater a pain than any earthly suffering we could endure. When Jesus said, take up your cross and follow me…for some he meant that literally.

Han Chung-Ryeol was a pastor in Changbai (chung-byee), China which borders North Korea. They moved there in 1993 to lead a small church of ethnic Korean Chinese. But their audience changed in the mid 90’s when many North Koreans fled into northern China looking for relief and aid from a famine ravishing their community. The North Koreans quickly figured out they could get help from the buildings with crosses on top. And as Pastor Han helped them, he also taught them they should be the ones to receive the gospel and go back to their country and make North Korea a light to the world.

Pastor Han knew his work was dangerous, and he took a risk every time he helped a North Korean, but he remained faithful when the opportunity to share the love of Jesus presented itself. On April 30, 2016, Pastor Han was found in his car by the North Korean border, killed by the trademarks of North Korean assassins.

Knowing the dangers of his work, Pastor Han served Jesus faithfully, with a heart that was broken and burdened to see a nation become a light to the entire world.

I pray today that as we listen to the words of Jesus that we too become passionate, faithful followers. Who could have ever guessed that this Simon of Cyrene would be converted? Not only Simon but also his wife. Not only his wife but his two sons. Not only this but they would meet and minister to the Apostle Paul?
All this because Simon was at the wrong place and the wrong time…or maybe all things work together for those who are called according to God’s purpose and Simon was really at the right place at the right time.
The cross gets amazingly brighter as our Lord, even at the point of His death, cares for the daughters of Jerusalem and the man behind him who was forced to carry His cross.

For us, Jesus’ death is not true tragedy. We shed no tears for Jesus, we shed our tears to Jesus. He alone is our hope for salvation and the reason you and I are completely spared the greatest human tragedy of all.