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Last weekend we had Parent’s Weekend at Trinity University where my daughter is a second year student. For the out of town parents in our midst, I feel your pain. Sunday is a tough day as you look forward to leaving your baby – that is who they are and who they always will be to you.

We went to Oak Hills Church last Sunday where Max Lucado serves as pastor. He began his sermon with, Excerpts from the Diary of a Dog:

• “ 6 a.m. - My master got up to let me outside, outside - Oh boy, my favorite.
• 6:30 a.m. - Dog food – Oh boy, my favorite.
• 7:00 a.m. - went for a walk, Oh boy, my favorite.
• 7:30 a.m. - kids pet me before going to school, Oh boy, my favorite.”
• The excerpt continue with the coming and going of human figures, chasing squirrels, eating dog food and taking naps. When each item on the agenda occurred the dog’s response mirrored that of our dog, “Oh boy, my favorite!”

Then Lucado read Excerpts from the Diary of a Cat. He began:

• “Day 288 of my captivity. My captors continue to torture and taunt me with strings, yarn and balls of all sorts.”
• The cat speaks of foiled attempts to escape, menacing acts of clawing furniture and coughing up hairballs. He is amazed that the half-witted dog is freed and then on his own volition returns to captivity with a sense of euphoria.

The same day as viewed from two perspectives. The same day, yet so different.

I’m sure there were many such days in Jesus’ life. Take the day when there was trouble in the synagogue described in Mark 3:1-6. This was a day with a trap, a tragedy and a triumph. It all depends on how one looks at it. Hear now the word of the Lord found on page 37 in the New Testament of your pew Bible.

Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.”

Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

The Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. In this passage Mark recorded the confrontation between the Christ of relationships and the keepers of the ritual. Let us pray.

Did you see how this day could be viewed so differently depending how you looked at it? If we move around this story we can see a trap, a tragedy and a triumph – all these things tend to continue to exist in places of worship.

There is a trap to catch the Messiah misbehaving.

The Pharisees were fed up with Jesus’ complete disregard for their traditions and core beliefs. Five times already in Mark’s Gospel Jesus challenged their religion of the Sabbath. It was not that Jesus wanted them to forget the Sabbath; he only wanted them to remember their God, who was not a day, but the Creator of days. The Pharisees had become Sabbatharians. They had laws, traditions and teachings that carefully defined what could and could not be done on the Sabbath. It was their core belief. If you kept Sabbath you were holy, but if you broke one of the 39 prohibitions regarding Sabbath, you were unholy. Healing was one of those prohibitions. There were six other days in which to heal people. There was to be none of that on the Sabbath. So just which would the Healer from Nazareth choose. The last time we saw him in the synagogue on a Sabbath he delivered a man from an unclean spirit and immediately went to Peter’s house and healed his mother-in-law. They spotted the infirmed man and watched Jesus to see if he would take the bait.

Beware of the Sabbatharians.They are all over the place. One time I was teaching a men’s Bible study and I reached in my brief case to pull out a notebook. Inside my briefcase was my Voter’s Registration Card and on the Voter’s Registration Card was a stamp bearing the name of the political party’s primary in which I had recently voted. Murmurs began to stir in our Bible Study group. Some nodded their heads and said “I knew he was one of us” while others shook their heads wondering, “How can a follower of Jesus Christ, let alone a leader of followers of Christ believe so differently from me?!” Beware of the Sabbatharians.They are all over the place. Sometimes they are even in me. I tend to believe or discredit people by the seminary they attended, the church they attend, or the TV shows they watch. I can even trap them with certain subjects. “Uh-huh, just as I thought – a liberal, a fundamentalist, a democrat, a republican, an Aggie, a non-Aggie from a school west of here…”

Beware the Sabbatharians.They’re all over the place. Sometimes they may even be in you.

There is also a tragedy in this story for hearts that have hardened.

I am certain that the Pharisees did not mean to be mean, but rules are rules. If they loosened their hold on the Sabbath then people may ask them to take the Torah with a grain of salt and where would it all end? This renegade from Galilee had to be stopped. Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek Church in the Chicago area, believes that this man with a disabled hand did not appear in the synagogue by accident. He believes he was a “plant”. Hybels supposes that a search committee was formed to find someone with a malady and place that person in a conspicuous place where Jesus could see him and where they could watch Jesus. This is, of course, calloused exploitation. They cared nothing for the self-conscious man whose hand caused him to be looked upon as less than whole. They were so focused on their own agenda that they could no longer see the pain of humanity around them. Beware of the Sabbatharians, their indifference is tragic.

I was reminded of that just last week when I received a letter from a college student with whom I had visited months ago. She was like many students - at a vulnerable place in life and faith, not knowing where to turn or what to believe. I listened to her story, prayed with her, took down an e-mail address through which to contact her and said good-bye. One day I was cleaning off my desk and I came across that e-mail address. How long had it been since we had visited? Weeks? Months? I sent her an e-mail inquiring about her well-being. I received no answer until last week in a letter. She said she remembered sharing with me, praying with me and my taking down her e-mail address. Unfortunately in the six weeks between our visit and my e-mail life had gotten worse for her. She returned home to regroup. She is better now, but when she came to church and saw me standing up here and heard me say, “Today is a great day to do something with Jesus,” she wrote, “Somehow I felt those words were empty.” She came for help and I had gotten too busy to tend to her wounded heart. It was not my job to heal her, but it was my responsibility as a follower of Christ to connect with her and help guide her toward the necessary aid. But I had an agenda to keep. Beware of the Sabbatharians. They’re all over the place and tragedy can go unnoticed because of their commitment to their own agendas.

But when healing comes triumph comes with it.

Can you see the man standing before the Messiah and those men who would exploit him? He must have been self-conscious. He must have been a bit embarrassed. It must have seemed like an eternity to stand there and hear Jesus ask, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath to save life or to kill?” The silence must have been deafening. The man must have been thinking, “Hey, it’s me here. Do something. Say something. Hello!” The first thing they saw was his anger. How could they have used another human being to set a trap? How could they not see that they had worked and were working more to get him to work (thus breaking the Sabbath), than anything he would have to do to heal the man? How could they not see that their intent to do harm was more egregious than anything the Messiah might do through an act of kindness? The first thing they saw was his anger.

Next came his grief. Angry eyes, turned sad as he realized that these blind leaders with hardened hearts were those who had been entrusted with his Word. It would not be the last time they would see those eyes. Halfway down the Palm Sunday road, he had to stop and wipe tears from his eyes as he wept over Jerusalem who never saw the One who made the way for peace. But on this day there was something that must be done. He turned toward the man stricken with an infirmity and said to him, “Stretch out your hand!”

He did and life returned to that lifeless limb. A trap for the Messiah, a tragedy for the Sabbatharians, but a triumph for the one who saw Jesus in all his grace. His hand was restored.

His grace continues to bring triumph to many. My soul was refreshed as I listened to Fabienne Brandenberger give her testimony a couple of weeks ago. I play the recording of that testimony to everyone who rides in my car. With her permission I share part of it with you. Listen for the triumph. (March 26,2006; Track 1; 29:30-30:00)

Elsewhere in her testimony she had said, “I had never heard of this before.” But through the youth, youth leaders and adults on this mission trip triumph came into her life. Triumph has also come into the lives of youth whose confirmation we celebrate today, Palm Sunday. One event in one synagogue on one day and yet three very different perspectives: a trap, a tragedy, a triumph. The same perspectives continue to exist in places of worship. Beware the Sabbatharians.They’re all over the place and their desire to pigeonhole people will produce all sorts of traps. Their unbending focus on their agenda will overlook many who are hurting – a tragedy.

If you’re looking for the perspective of triumph on this Palm Sunday, look into the faces of those who see Jesus (these are the ones with the “oh boy, my favorite” look in their eyes), then follow their gaze. You may very well find there a Savior.

Amen.