20200405 From Hosanna to Staurodeto

May God's grace be with you, wherever you worship the Lord today. As mentioned in today's prayer, our body is the holy temple of God, so we believe that it will be the most appropriate place for our worship when we truly worship the Spirit and wherever we are. I don't know how many weeks we will have to worship online in the future, but depending on the situation, if we are forced to worship in this way, we will think of the best way out of the way, and worship God with the highest anticipation.

Today is Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday. Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday each have a special theme. In some churches, a separate worship service is held on Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday. However, I prefer to worship with the theme of Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday together. So, as we worship today, you may find that there is a mixture of triumphant theme like Hosanna and a heavy, dark theme like suffering, death, Scripture reading, sermon, and prayers. In a way, these two themes are intermingled, and I believe we'll get deeper enlightenment by finding the mystery of what it means to us. Today's sermon title is “From Hosanna to Staurodeto.” First of all, let me explain them meaning of the title of today’s sermon. We are familiar with Hosanna, but I think many of you are wondering what Staurodeto is. Staurodeto is the word found today in Matthew 27:22, 23 and is the ancient Greek expression for the sentence "Pruce him." or “Let him be crucified in English. ”The English translation or the Korean translation is a sentence composed of several elements, but the ancient Greek expression is expressed in one word. This is because the Greek word reflects both tense and declension. The word staurodeto is the third person singular passive imperative of the verb stauros, and the tense belongs to the aorist. Because it is a passive command, the translation of the Scripture, "He must be nailed to the cross," is more accurate than the new translation, "Put Him on the Cross."

I'm going to give this word a detailed explanation because it is a very accurate expression of the needs of the crowd at the time. Specifically, it expresses exactly who is going to be crucified (he must be crucified), but it remains ambiguous about who crucified him by using passive statements. Even if we use our common sense, when we ask someone to “crucify him,” the person receiving the command will have to crucify. But by saying in passive voice, he said, "Let him be crucified." The crowd clearly expresses that they do not have the authority to execute the crucifixion, and thus have no responsibility, and further suggest a sort of indulgence to Pilate. In other words, according to Israel's law, Jesus' death was decided because Jesus had sinned to die, and Pilate simply said that the execution would be allowed to proceed.

That such interpretation makes sense can be clearly understood through Pilate's actions afterwards. Pilate was actually aware of the offer. He knew that Jesus committed no sin to die, but he did not reject the unjust demands of the crowd. It is because he feared that his status would be lost if a riot breaks out. Let us look at verse 24, he was taking this very seriously. In other words, he wanted to make it clear that he was not actively involved in this execution. In that sense, he asked to bring water, washing his hands in front of the crowd and said, “I am not responsible for this person's blood, so do it for yourself.” Pilate wanted to show that he was passively involved in this execution. In fact, it was the Roman soldiers who executed the crucifixion. So it wasn't "you do it yourself." However, he wanted to make it clear that he was not responsible for Jesus' crucifixion. Unfortunately, on the contrary, Christians around the world have been repeating that for nearly two thousand years, Jesus “died suffering on Pilate and was crucified and died.” How paradoxical is it?

The cry of Staurodeto would have been a chant that we could hear clearly from a distance if we were in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. If we look at verses 22 and 23, you can see that they were not just crying, but crying at the top of their lungs. Even Pilate must have been threatened by the tremendous cry.

As I read this verse, I really wondered if the people of Jerusalem at that time were exactly saying "staurodeto" in Greek, or was this a Greek translation of the word they sang. There are many possibilities, and the languages spoken in the region at the time were Aramaic, Greek, and Latin, which are a type of Hebrew. However, since Pilate was Roman, it seems that Aramaic was not used, and Latin was not used routinely because it was the language of the aristocratic people at the time.

And The ancient Greek was a language spoken worldwide, as well as more than today's English. Most likely, I think the word that the crowd actually shouted at that time was the Greek word. If we had relayed the protests, we would have been able to hear the slogan Staurodeto prosperously, just as we could not have missed the slogan of Korea during the 2002 World Cup broadcast.

The cry and the similar situation that rang the whole city is described in Matthew 21. Similar crowed gathered and witnessed a frenzy of shouts. It was said that if this cry was too loud this time, Jerusalem was hilarious. What was the relief in this call? They called Hosanna. “Hosanna, to the offspring of David! Blessed, who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna from the highest! ” I shouted like this. Again, if you had relayed this scene, you could have actually heard the word “Hosanna” from a distance.

Hosanna was a Hebrew word that means "please save us." However, as people screamed this slogan too often, it was also used to mean “praise God.” However, it can be said that the people of Jerusalem at that time, when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, chanted Hosanna to be delivered by God, shaking the branches of a palm tree, rather than simply praising God. In other words, they have longed for and hoped that Jesus would come as the Messiah of Israel and save Israel from this Roman oppression.

By the way, the same crowd shouted staurodeto a few days later. How could this happen? How one could explain this dramatic scene? How did Hosanna turn into Staurodeto? This is a serious question for all of us. It is a question like a big assignment for all of us, which is not easy to solve, especially when worshiping on Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday like today. What was the reason that the crowd that yelled at Hosanna called Staurodeto a few days later? I think the crowd had a sincere heart at the moment I shouted Hosanna. I don't think there was lack of sincerity in their slogans or that they screamed Hosanna falsely.

Nowhere in the Bible is the negative portrayal of the chanting of Hasanna. At least at that moment, you can imagine that many of them have gained great revelation, the realization of God's secret. As if the clouds broke in the sky full of dark clouds and the bright sunlight shined for a while,

Another analogy, this moment can be thought of as a coincidence that the seeds of the gospel were sown in the hearts of the Israelites. At that moment there was great gratitude and enlightenment. However, the seeds are sown, not fruitful. In Mark 4, the parable of the sower comes, and some seeds come from the devil and take them away from the heart; They say that temptation and all kinds of greed came in and did not bear fruit.

People who cheered for Hosanna once realized the wonderful news, the mysterious revelation of God, and accepted it in their hearts, but for various reasons, they couldn't keep it in their hearts, and the sound of Hosanna weakened and shouted as Staurodeto.

There may be many reasons why they changed their minds, but Jesus did not respond to their wishes, and the actions and teachings of Jesus after entering them were very disturbing. Jesus cleansed the temple, prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem, warned against calamity, preached on the final judgment, and so on. The attitude of Jewish leaders and the people involved in their agitation began to change. The expectations and hopes of the mind when they shouted at Hosanna disappeared, and they gradually became concerned about their lives being threatened by Jesus. Previously, people cried Hosanna and welcomed Jesus, but then they realized that Jesus was ridiculously riding a donkey. So people changed their mind and thought that Jesus was not the one who would satisfy their expectations and decided to abandon him. This is why Hosanna turned into Staurodeto.

This would not be particularly because the people of Jerusalem were evil. In the blink of an eye, we can commit the same sin. When our lives are calm and at peace, when we are respected in this world, when we are not persecuted because of our faith, we are willing to live by shouting Hosanna. However, when we are persecuted, damaged, or held in the hands of the others for our faith, we can accept this statement as a vigilance that we can continue to live the life of shouting Hosanna.

What we must confirm through these people's false repentance is the fact that when Jesus comes to us as a Savior, there must be something to give up and change in our lives. There will be a crisis in our faith if we want Jesus to accept and bless my life as it is, while retaining my existing thoughts, customs and values. God demands reforms that are hard to follow. If we are not prepared to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, then it is hard for us to wholeheartedly confess Jesus as Messiah.

In this great chant, in such an atmosphere of excitement and uproar, Jesus stayed calm. He was quiet and calm, and he kept his usual self. He was not excited or flattered by others' shout of Hosanna. He entered Jerusalem in silence. And when the cry of Staurodetos, the chant for crucifixion, was called, Jesus did not shrink or run away. He went his way in the same way, unwavering in his equanimity. The road for Jesus, where the crowd cried for Hosanna, or Staurodez, did not waver him a bit. What was the secret? I think the secret is the Gethsemane prayer. This road to cross was certainly too hard for Jesus to bear. He went out to God and prayed. "Take this cup from me, O God. It's too difficult and burdensome. But do not do as I wish; do as you wish". How did this prayer come about? Wasn't it because Jesus trusted God's goodness and God's power?. He believed in God's sovereignty and God's good nature, he did not decide anything by his own will, but entrusted all to God. Absolute trust, this is the essence of our faith. If we are true Christians, we must trust God absolutely wirhout any doubt. And we must live without compromising the life that God wants us to live. What does God want in our lives? He will want mercy, peace, justice and truth in our lives. If we abandon these precious values in our lives and compromise with evil forces for our own interests and safety, we are no different from the crowd shouting Staurdeo at that moment.

As you can see in the today’s Scripture, it depicts the image of a saint who is so undaunted and obedient to God's will. The text of Isaiah, which we read, describes well how Jesus walked through the moment in what manner and mind during this difficult period. So let's read it again. Let's take a look at these passages in Jesus' mind. "7 Lord helped me, and they did not offend me, but I was prepared and endured all the difficulties. I know that I will not be ashamed because there is someone near me who is righteous about me. Who dares argue with me! Let's go to court together. Who will sue me? If anyone wants to accuse me, let me do it. The LORD God will help me, and who will say I am guilty?" Jesus overcame the difficulties in this manner.

We shout Hosanna in a Sunday service. And think of the suffering of Jesus Christ. The crucifixion that the people of the world regarded as the worst punishment was changed to a new meaning by accepting the cross through Jesus' obedience. Too, paradoxically, so mysteriously, today Christians pray for me to be crucified.

In Galatians, chapter two, verse twenty says that "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." There, the Greek expression of being nailed with Jesus Christ is 'Cinestauromy'. 'Cine' will mean together and 'Stauro' will mean crucifixion as we saw earlier.

Mysteriously, even though the crowd of Jerusalem was crying to crucify Jesus, realizing the true meaning of the cross of Jesus Christ, we can now cry out to crucify me. This is because the cross is the most decisive symbol of absolute trust, absolute faith in God. And we believe that Jesus, after being crucified, has conquered all evil forces by resurrection and returned the true eternal life to us. How many difficulties and pains are there in this world we live in? How many evils and temptations? Whenever these things come to us, I urge that we should live every single day with the belief that Jesus Christ will accompany us on our way to the end. Therefore, God is good and almighty, and I sincerely hope that all of us can be the friends of each others, believing that when we follow Jesus Christ on the path of the cross, he will keep us to the end and guide us