You Have Motive

Today’s lesson from Luke 23 seeks to help us grow in our witness for Christ by learning to boldly tell others about His death and resurrection. This is the dark, Palm Sunday lesson. Next week will be filled with light – I promise.

Motivation and “The Method” - Actors are taught to act their part using the Konstantin "Stanislavski Method," named after the drama teacher who invented it. Actors using the “Method” imagine an emotional event in your own life that might parallel the event they are portraying at this moment and attempt to use their own personal motivation to show how their character is likewise motivated. One of the great “Method” actors was Marlon Brando, famous for many roles perhaps the most famous being the portrayal of Stanley Kowalski, the heroine’s brother in “A Street Car Named Desire.”

“A Streetcar Named Desire,” by Tennessee Williams and set in the New Orleans French Quarter after World War II, is a study of mankind without Christ and gives a platform to explain why we should be motivated to share Him with these people.
In 1951 the famous play was made into a movie starring: Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois; Kim Hunter as Stella; Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski and Karl Malden as Mitch. In the play, the DuBois sisters were once a patrician Old South Family seized of a great mansion up in Mississippi. Times change, the family and the mansion had been lost.

The story opens with Blanche DuBois coming to New Orleans to visit her sister, the pregnant Stella, and the sister's husband Stanley Kowalski. To get to their seedy apartment, she has to take a streetcar named Desire. Thus the Desire streetcar became the most famous street railway in the world.

The three principals in the story represent facets of mankind without Christ. Stanley is the “ape man” who views life through his “desires” and thinks life is about what he can get by his own efforts. He represents man in supposed total control of his own destiny. Blanche views life as she wishes it were and cannot see or believe reality. She represents the totally intellectual view of life that denies reality. And Stella, pregnant Stella, sees life exactly as it is. She represents man (woman) who is in the middle of life and who is overwhelmed by it. Neither view is totally wrong but neither is totally correct either because none of their views have a spiritual aspect. They are, thus two-dimensional.

This is a picture of man without Christ. Man, left to his own devices will view life through his own lens – and he will be totally lost in that view on the “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” It is for this reason that God sent His Son, Jesus into the world to give man life and life more abundant. John 10:10. If we are to receive life and life abundant, we must believe whole-heartedly on Jesus. That’s where we are going with this. What must we believe? We must believe in Him intellectually, spiritually and physically. For Jesus to be the Messiah, He must have fulfilled all these of these aspects of God. To leave out any of them is to make Jesus less that God and less than our Worthy Savior.

Many more folks believe in Jesus intellectually than believe in him all sufficiently. Many of the religions of the world teach and many of the world’s lost people will tell you that there was a Jesus and that He was great teacher. That’s good, but as Dr. Van Tuyll would say, “it is not enough,” because if that’s as far as we go, then we are limited by our intellect. I don’t know about you, but my intellect is fairly limited! It is imperative that we believe in Him physically. It is for that reason that He came physically and had to suffer as He did, die as He did and be raised on the 3rd day as He was. Thus, we study the physical aspects of His death to learn that they are real. If they aren’t real, then He is as the Gnostics held, merely a phantom. But, they are real.

It is interesting to note that over the centuries, many scholars have tried to disprove the facts of Jesus life, death and resurrection. Periodically, they uncover a here-to-fore unknown “gospel” that seems to cloud the issue They try, but in vain. The Truth lives on.
So, why should we believe this? Jesus was asked by the lawyer what the greatest commandment was. He said it was to love God and love man. If we do not believe what God says, then we do not love God. If we do not love God, we are hopelessly lost.
If we do not have a burning “desire” to tell others, then perhaps, just perhaps, we do not “love man,” because there is plenty of “motivation.” Let’s examine it.

Forgiveness of the Past (Luke 23:32-39.) On the cross, Jesus forgave the sins of the very men who were putting Him to death. “Father, forgive them,” He said. The best part of that story is that in so doing, He forgave you and me as well. Is that enough motivation for you to share? In Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion of the Christ,” there is the very dramatic crucifixion scene. In the scene, Jesus is on the cross on the ground. As the soldiers begin to drive the nails into His hands, the camera isolates on the hands of Jesus and the hands of the Roman driving in the nails. In real life, that man was Mel Gibson. Gibson wanted to make the point that it was his (Gibson’s) sin that nailed Jesus to the cross. By extension, it was ours. Yet He says, “Father, forgive them.” Without that, we’d still be lost. Still need more motivation?

Assurance of the Future (Luke 22:40-43.) Jesus took time out from dying to forgive the sins of a fairly worthless rogue who merely cried out to Him. Jesus assured him, “this day you will be with Me in paradise.” Will, that’s a word of certainty, isn’t it. Jesus did not temper the import of those words nor confuse them with an “if – then” clause as we see so prevalent under the Law in the Old Testament. He simply said, you will be with me. As great as that promise is for the dying thief, the better part is that this promise also flows to us. Jesus promises that we will be with Him in paradise when the time is right. Will, what a great word. We can be assured that we will be in paradise with Jesus. He said, “in My Father’s house are many rooms and I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you will be also. John 14:2. Still a little uncertain of your motivation?

Glory to God in the Present. (Luke 23:44-47.) As Jesus dies, because of the eerie nature of the day, even the battle-hardened Roman Centurion says, “surely this was the Son of God.” This was probably the man who was in overall charge of the crucifixion detail. He was a man who had literally seen it all. But this was something he had not seen before – the Son of God. Now, he saw it clearly. The details of the crucifixion show just how great God is. The more you read the story, the more of the glory you see. And that’s our God, our Father. We serve a great God!.

Epilogue. Need more motivation? Are you ready to share this Christ with those around you? You are, really? What about when you are tired or scared or disinterested or tied up in you own stuff. Was Jesus tied up in His own stuff? Thank God, you were His stuff and He was totally tied up in you (and me.) Let me submit to you and to me that if we are not ready to share Christ, we need to check who we love more. Jesus asked Peter, “Simon Bar- Jona, do you love me more than you love these?” John 21:15. He asks us the same question. If the answer is not “yes,” then we need to get to “yes.” If it is, then there was a follow-up. Jesus said, “then feed my sheep.” John 21:17. What do you feed them? Jesus said, “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Matt. 4:4; Luke 4:4. Feed them the gospel. Don’t let them starve to death. Starvation is a very physical death, but Jesus is a very physical Savior who has the power “to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10.
Now, are you motivated?