Sand Mountain Sermonette 45
Luke 19:37-38; Luke 15:20
A Long Way from Home!
“As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, shouting: ‘BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!’” Luke 19:37-38
“So, he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” Luke 15:20
My dad was invited to be one of several chaperones for the Albertville High School Senior Class of 1968 on their trip to Washington, D.C. I remember my dad’s being so excited about going on that trip and when he returned, he had a lot to tell his family.
For one thing, he brought back 8mm film of the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier along with other historic places in Washington, DC. But nothing prepared him for the afternoon the chaperones and Seniors went to the Cinerama theater to see the movie, “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Dad said, that near the end of the movie, one of the Albertville High School boys sitting next to him left to go the bathroom at the time when, on the screen, one of the astronauts is traveling in his space pod through what appears to be a tunnel of psychedelic lights.
When the boy returned, he whispered to my dad that in the bathroom he met a “hippie” and asked him if he understood what this movie was supposed to be about. The “hippie” responded, “Man, you’ve got to be on a trip to understand this movie.” And the little high school boy told my dad he said, “We are!” “We are!” “We’re all the way up here from Albertville, Alabama!”
Luke tells us in his gospel that Jesus came a long way from home! He left His rightful place in heaven beside His Father to come to earth to be born in the flesh with the sole purpose of riding into the city of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to receive the sin of humanity upon Himself upon the cross on Good Friday! Hardly the king the Jews were looking for but the very King, by God’s plan and Jesus’ humble submission, that both Jew and Gentile; that you and I, so desperately needed! Just ask the prodigal son of Luke Fifteen who, with his face down in a pig’s trough eating “yuk” with the pigs, “came to his senses” and returned to “The Prodigal’s Father” only to find him being received as if he had never left!
The cross of Christ reveals the heart of the heavenly Father! Jesus traveled a long way from home so you and I could come home to Father; accepted, reconciled, and restored: wearing God’s robe, ring, and shoes now and forever! Once lost, and now found! Praise the Lord!
Pastor Louie