Promises Kept

        Have you ever had a person break a promise or agreement with you? My wife and I were foster parents for several years.  One of the saddest things to watch was when a parent promised to visit with their child and then they would not show up.  The child was devasted.  Or maybe you stood in a church in front of family and friends and pledged to love, honor and cherish a person for the rest of your life.  You listened as your significant other made the same promise.  You entered the holy covenant of marriage with confidence only to have them eventually walk away, promises shattered.  Politicians tend to make promises that help them get votes but are hard or impossible to keep.
       But a promise kept.  Now that’s powerful.  A life-long friend helps a best friend check off a “bucket list item.”  An employer gives the promotion that was promised.  A faithful wife holds the hand of her dying husband of 55 years.  She lived out the covenant promises of marriage, one man plus one woman for one lifetime.  These are beautiful moments.
     This Sunday churches across the country celebrate Palm Sunday.  This is a celebration of promises kept.  At the very beginning of the Bible when Adam and Eve brought sin and death into the world through their disobedience, God promised that he would send someone to help, to crush the head of Satan (Genesis 3:15).  This person, this Messiah, was talked about throughout the Jewish Scriptures.  He was to be a descendant of Abraham and then King David.  The “boring” genealogy we find at the beginning of Matthew painstakingly documents the lineage of Jesus.  He was to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2).  He was to be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7;14).  He would be a light in Galilee (Isaiah 9:1,2). He would come to the Jews riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9). He was to be a sacrifice for our sins (Isaiah 53:5).  I love how Paul sums up the promise-keeping life and ministry of Jesus.  Paul states,” For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes” in Christ. . .(2 Corinthians 1:20 a).  When Jesus entered Jerusalem in what we call the triumphal entry, the Jewish people erupted in celebration.  They waved palm branches and laid cloaks in front of him like a first century version of our red carpet.  They responded so enthusiastically because shortly before Jesus had very publicly raised his friend Lazarus from the dead.  The power of Jesus was shocking and exciting. They cried Hosanna which means “save us now.”  While most of the crowd probably intended Jesus to save them politically, God had something more important, more critical in mind, to save the people from their sins.  Jesus would do that later in the week when he died on the cross for the sins of the world.
     The death of Jesus, the long-awaited Messiah, is a tremendous promise kept - God’s promise to deal with our sin problem and provide a way to save us.  In a world of broken promises such as divorce, shattered contracts and forgotten campaign pledges, God’s word is steadfast and true.  His promises are always kept!
Pastor Derek Dickinson
Journey Christian Church