Psalm 22 (ESV):
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.
3 Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4 In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
From the triumphant entry to the humble ending, Jesus was a man hated by many. Perhaps, we forget how hated he was.
Matthew 21:5 (ESV): ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”
Fully man, fully God, full of burden to a fallen world.
Jesus, a hero to the oppressed, lame, abused and misused. A friend to the weirdos. A seat saver for the unworthy. An outcast, outlier, and outright man. Scorned by mankind and despised by people, they mouth and mock and wag their heads.
Power corrupts.
Matthew 23:2–13 (ESV):
2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat,
3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.
4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long,
6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues
7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.
8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.
9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ.
11 The greatest among you shall be your servant.
12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
Why the “Woes?”
Jesus reveals the corruption of power and sinful motives.
If Jesus fulfills the law, all power and glory be to Him. However, for the Pharisees and scribes, they will lose all power, honor, and glory if the law is fulfilled. Their job will be finished, forced into retirement, identity lost. You want to make someone lose their mind? Steal their identity.
However, Jesus wasn't coming like a thief in the night. He was expected, but even when you think you're ready to retire, ready for the change, if you think too long you begin to reconsider.
What will we do now? What if Jesus doesn't lead the way we have? What if he changes what we have done?
Then, when they realize, Jesus isn't going to do anything they expected, cue the plotting for execution. Power and control was the motive of their hearts, unto death.
What if, what we see as a burden or threat, is exactly what the Lord sent for the redemption of many but because OUR PERCEPTION got in the way, we ended up metaphorically slaying a giant that wasn't Goliath?
Woe to us who slay the wrong giant in self-righteous pharisaical fashion; slaying a brother, exalting our honor, in a performance-driven manner to cover the scarlet with the wrong blood making heavy laden burdens for others.
Matthew 23:37–39 (ESV):
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
38 See, your house is left to you desolate.
39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ”
Desolate will be our houses or churches.
Humbled.
Matthew 26:1–5 (ESV):
26:1 When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples,
2 “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”
3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas,
4 and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.
5 But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.”
They will plot and plan, and create extravagant stories. But we can be different…
Psalm 1:1–6 (ESV):
1 Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
Be different, transcend toward mercy!