DO YOU KNOW JESUS?

This Sunday, called either Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday, we begin our celebration of the most important week in Jesus’ life.

And we are at war.

Ironic? Not at all.

We’ve been at war since Adam and Eve welcomed Satan to this world. Every generation since Eden has replicated their sin by seeking to make ourselves gods instead of letting God make us His children. The demonic lie that says, “You can be in charge,” motivates not only mad tyrants. It also motivates the petty selfish dreams of sinners like you and me, who long to have our own way, and fuss when we can’t.

The wars raging around the world are graphic evidence of why Jesus came to earth. He came to save us from ourselves. He came to His own, and even His own rejected Him. Those who sang, “Hosanna!” on that first Palm Sunday were soon screaming for His blood.

Early in the last week of His life, one of Jesus’ followers met with those who were plotting His death and made a secret deal to hand Him over for a price. Later in the week, His closest and dearest friends fled Jesus in His hour of greatest need. One even swore he’d never met the Man.

But lest we be too harsh on them, let’s think about all the Sunday mornings of our lives when He has come riding into our midst amid the songs of our praise, and we ended up during that next week turning away from Him. Let’s recall the dark nights of our lives when we cursed rather than be known as His. Let’s remember the secret deals we made with sin and selfishness to sell Him out, if only we could stay popular and well-liked.

You see, that Palm Sunday crowd who sang His praise one moment and turned their backs on Him the next — that crowd still shows up in Church.

“Doubting Thomas.” “Fleeing Mark.” “Denying Peter.” Who are they?

They’re us.

He knew them then, and He knows us now. And knowing that we are weak, that we will fail and turn and run, He loves us still. For them and for us, He stayed the course. He followed through. He carried the cross. And He died on it.

Then they took His body down and buried Him in a borrowed tomb. On the third day, He rose from the dead. Alive!

In dying, He paid the guilt-price for your sins. In rising, He opened up His own home for you to join Him there. He is alive to be believed on and to be known, the eternal Son of God, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

The only hope of a world at war, as well as the only hope of wounded hearts and hostile souls, is to know the Son of God, crucified, dead, buried and resurrected.

Do you know Him? I’m not asking if you believe in Him. I’m asking if you know Him, if you can honestly say you’ve met Him alive and know Him personally.

After all, that’s why He’s alive! Is He alive to you?