In the film The Grand Canyon, an immigration lawyer breaks out of a traffic jam and tries to bypass it. His route takes him along streets that get darker and more deserted. Then his expensive car stalls, and he realizes that he is an a neighborhood guarded by young thugs who also like expensive cars as well as expensive guns.
The lawyer does manage to call a tow truck. But by the time he arrives, a small group of the youngsters have gathered, and they definitely see the truck driver as someone who is interrupting their meal.
So the driver takes the leader of the group aside, and gives him a five sentence introduction into the way things are supposed to be.
“Man,” he says, “the world ain’t supposed to work like this. Maybe you don’t know that, but this ain’t the way it’s supposed to be. I’m supposed to be able to do my job without askin’ you if I can. And that dude is supposed to be able to wait with his car without you rippin’ him off. Everything is supposed to be different than what it is here.”
I can agree with the truck driver's philosophy a far as it goes. But God does allow a car to stall because parts just naturally wear out. And he allows the earth's crust to shift naturally and produce earthquakes like the one in Haiti. We call such things acts of God over which we have no control. But even there those in the area who were less affected by the earthquake have the choice to love or loot. That choice is within our control, and looting is not the way it is supposed to be.
But there are some things that we can definitely say are not the way things are supposed to be. Those are the things that it would appear we do have control over. The domestic violence rate within Christian families is 1 family in 3. Christian families. That is not the way it’s supposed to be. The divorce rate – Christian or non-Christian is about 1 in 2 marriages. That is not the way it’s supposed to be. In some denominations, the number of new Churches formed by conflicts and splits exceeds the number of churches formed by outgrowing facilities. That is not the way it’s supposed to be.
It seems that our existence will never be the way it is supposed to be, until we get to the other side of the grave. But we live in the now. And we want something closer to the way it’s supposed to be now by at least controlling the things we can control.
We ask for the way things are supposed to be when we pray, “Thy kingdom come.” We will pray this today. Many of us have prayed that thousands of times. What does it mean? Martin Luther explains it as well as anybody in his small catechism.
287. What is meant, in a particular sense, by the kingdom of God which you pray for in this petition?
It is #1 kingdom, the now kingdom, the kingdom of grace, that concerns us as we walk out of this building today. The kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, within the realities that sin hurts both the sinner and those sinned against and that there is a natural world that we cannot control.
That’s the way it’s supposed to be for now. That’s what Easter means for us now in this life. Easter means new life - in particular our new life in Christ that we pray for in "Thy kingdom come."
But today is Good Friday. Good Friday is not speed bump to Easter. It is a pathway to Easter.
The pathway from Good Friday to Easter seems a bit uncertain. We tend to think of Good Friday as theory. Yes Jesus died for our sins. But it seems that Good Friday is only good for getting us to that future Easter, that kingdom of glory. Worse yet, some think that Good Friday only keeps us out of hell.
I am going to give you three words that illuminate the pathway from Good Friday to Easter, the now Easter that we are concerned about today, the kingdom of Grace. Words that will help us grab life the way it’s supposed to be. Three words to remember.
Once for all.
Jesus died once for all. The exact phrase “once for all” appears four times in the New Testament letters, and I believe it can be clearly seen in many other passages.
Jesus died once for all.
All means all.
“Once for all” means all people. John 1:29 the apostle John quotes John the Baptizer as saying, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
“Once for all” means all time. In Revelation 13:8 John calls Jesus “Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.” In our time Good Friday took place in 31 AD. In God’s timeless world, it took place before the Big Bang.
“Once for all” creates some theological questions. But God didn’t give us a theology book; he gave us a story book where the central Character is God so that we come to know God. The most revealing story is the one we just read, the Crucifixion story. “Once for all” is easy to see with a story. A child is born out of the parents love. The “Big Bang” instant that the parents know a new life exists, they commit to loving that child unconditionally. They certainly hope that that child will live life the way it was supposed to be. They will love that child even when the child lives life in ways that are not supposed to be. The child has no control over the parent’s love. Of course I am talking about a perfect parent here. And the only perfect parent is God the Father.
We as loved children of God have no control over Good Friday. We cannot say it’s “Once for some” and then determine who God has forgiven and who God has not forgiven. Good Friday is the supreme and true act of God for all humanity. And we do not control acts of God.
We have all heard the voices of Paul and Silas to the jailor: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” But again, it seems to be so much theory, having nothing to do with contributing to the world the way it is supposed to be. There are two beliefs that we must hold to come to this world, and bring others with us.
We must believe that Good Friday has happened for us. It is a message for every human being – to you and to me. It’s a message from God that says “I love you.” The prodigal son was willing to settle for less than the Easter life until he saw the love of his father when the Father ran to him. The apostle John says “We love because he first loved us.”
And the second belief that we must hold is that Good Friday applies to everyone we meet. How will that bring Easter?
Let’s think about a meeting with another person. I’ll choose the name Dale, name that could be either male or female. And let’s say that our meeting with Dale might involve some disagreement, even conflict.
If I give myself the power to decide that Good Friday does not apply to Dale, then I am free to take Dale with me into the land of the way things are not supposed to be. I can, for example, decide that I must win, and if I do not, will get even. If I think I can control Good Friday, Easter doesn’t comes for me and probably not for Dale.
But if I surrender to the fact that the grace of Good Friday is given Dale then I surrender my power to do what it is natural for me to do. But in my powerlessness I am free to surrender to a living Jesus bring before him a “Thy Kingdom come prayer”: “Dear God, what can I say and do to love in this interaction, knowing that Dale is one for whom you gave your life.”
Most often the answer won’t be what I want to do or like to do. Often the answer won’t be a fix to problems – it will just help me walk in that other person’s shoes.” God doesn’t say that life the way it’s supposed to be shouldn’t be messy. Good Friday was messy for Jesus, too. And a living Jesus walks with us in that messiness to bring us to Easter, the life lived the way it’s supposed to be.
In the answer to such prayers by a living Jesus Christ and a loving Father through the Holy Spirit both me and the other person become partakers of the righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, which is Easter.
And that’s how we get from Good Friday to Easter and contribute to the way things are supposed to be.
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