Sunday Thoughts: Certain of God's Promises

Today is Palm Sunday, the day in which we Christians celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem for the Passover. It’s an account that we can find in all four of the Gospels, and it set into motion the events that led to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection — what we call Holy Week.

The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,

“Fear not, daughter of Zion;
behold, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.

John 12:12-16 (ESV)

There will be another event on my family’s mind this Holy Week because Monday marks the third anniversary of my dad’s passing. That morning, shortly after he died, a friend of mine asked me how I was feeling — admittedly, it’s a weird question to have to answer minutes after losing your father. But I told that friend that I was never more certain of God’s promises than I was at that moment.

In the Gospel of John, the triumphal entry comes after another account that really ministers to me when I think of my dad’s passing. In chapter 11, Jesus found out his friend Lazarus was sick. He deliberately waited until a few days after Lazarus had died to visit his sisters, Mary and Martha, in Bethany, and He waited to that he could bring glory to God.

When Martha saw and greeted Him, He gave her one of the promises that I cling to.

So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

John 11:20-27 (ESV)

One of the most remarkable things about that conversation is that Martha — the woman who, elsewhere in the Bible, had a come-to-Jesus moment with Jesus Himself about focusing on the preparations for dinner with Jesus instead of just being with Him — was the sister who exhibits faith that Jesus is the Messiah. (I’ve often said that Martha gets a bad rap.)

My favorite artist, Makoto Fujimura, writes that “Martha makes this confession of Jesus as ‘the resurrection and the life.’ She sees analytically what no others could discern at the time. She is the first to say ‘yes’ to Jesus’s words ‘I am the resurrection and the life.'”

He adds, “Martha is a faithful follower who simply chooses to believe Jesus’s word as truth. Even before she sees evidence, she is able to discern God’s voice, and accepts it.”

Shortly after that conversation, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Now, of course, we know that Lazarus would go on to die again, but because of his faith in Jesus, he had an eternity that was secure.

That promise comes for anyone who has called on the name of Jesus as their Lord and Savior. I’m going to dig into my favorite book of the Bible — Romans:

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23 (ESV)

…because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

Romans 10:9-11 (ESV)

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39 (ESV)