SERMON
FOR MARCH 16, 2008
PALM
SUNDAY
Reading
I: Isaiah 50:4-7
Psalm:
22
Reading
II: Phillippians
2:6-11
Gospel:
Matthew
27:11-54
The
Measure of Our Worth
“The figure of
the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard.” These are the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor and theologian, who
was hanged during the Second World War.
“The figure of
the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard.” In other words, if we, in any way, see
success as the goal in life, then one moment’s awareness of what the death of
Jesus on the cross means, will shatter that false standard. If we can grasp with our hearts the meaning
of Jesus crucified, then we will be freed from any false standards of what a successful
life really is.
So many people live so much of their lives trying to be
successful. Success becomes not a means
to an end, but the end in itself. It is
obvious that people need to earn money so that they can support themselves and
their families. That’s not what I’m
talking about, I’m
referring to the fact that in our Western society, success has become the
measure of worth. If we have achieved a
certain position, or live in a certain neighborhood or home, or have a certain
amount of education, or all of the above, then we can falsely believe that we
have made it in life. Nothing could be
further from the truth.
When we see Jesus crucified, what must we think about our
little bit of so-called success? Our
accomplishments in themselves mean nothing.
They are no measure of what it means to be fully human.
As we look at Jesus, crucified on the cross, what are we
seeing? A criminal, a
failure, a worthless human being, a defeated person? If, with the eyes and hearts of a believer,
we look at Jesus crucified, then what we see is a lover. The death of Jesus on the cross was his
greatest act of love. It was Jesus’ way
of saying without words, that he loves us so much that he would give everything
he could to show us that love.
The only real measure of success is how we have loved. Nothing, absolutely nothing else, really
matters when it comes down to it. At the
end of our life, we only have to answer one question: did we love as fully and as strongly and as
freely as we could have?