Kids love to help their parents out.  “Dad, can I help you mow the lawn?”  “Mom, can I help you make the cookies?”  “Dad, can I help you shovel the snow?”  “Mom, can I help you fold the laundry?”  “Dad, can I give you a haircut?”  “Mommy, can I help you put your makeup on?”  We are born with the desire to help out.

But sometimes, in those toddler years, before the children are old enough to actually be good helpers, the “help” they offer and give, though charming and adorable, isn’t really “help,” is it?  The “help” they give actually makes a big mess, and ends up creating even more work for the parent!  For example, here was my son Jonah “helping” Dawn bake cookies.  (show image).  Here was Elijah “helping” moving some furniture around.  (show image).  And here was Moira “helping” Mommy “write out the bills.” (show image).

What do our children often want to help us out with in the first place?  Isn’t it often the mess they made!?  “Sweetie,” you say, “look at the big mess you made!”  And your precious cherub says, “We clean up, Mommy.  I help you!”  We never really get over wanting to clean up the messes we made.

Which brings us to Lent.  Our Lenten journey begins this year just as it did so many years ago for Jesus and his disciples:  With Jesus’ call to go with Him to Jerusalem.  We hear Jesus’ graphic description of what would happen to Him at the cross.  The Creator mocked and insulted.  The Giver of every good gift tormented and executed.  Covered in shame.  Glory hidden.

This isn’t what we want to see!  Does your “I wanna help!” urge kick into place?  Do you wish you could have been there for Jesus?  “Jesus, if only You could have taken me along!  Maybe I could have helped You!  Maybe I could have wiped your face with a clean towel.  Maybe I could have yelled at those crowds who were bugging You!  Maybe I could have been at least one defense witness for You at your court trial.  Maybe I could have done something, even one little thing, to lighten your burden!  Lord, could I help you out?  Maybe if I live my life a little better this Lenten season, maybe if I was kinder, more loving, less sinful, your trip to the cross won’t be as bad.  Maybe if I gave up something for Lent, your job would be easier!”

Jesus didn’t think much of the disciples’ suggestions to help Him out.  And He isn’t going to think much of our suggestions to help Him out.  We can’t help Him out.  We not only can’t help Jesus out with this mess.  We caused it all in the first place.  Everything He did on this journey to the cross, He did because of you and me.  Was Jesus despised and rejected?  We should have been.  Was He left alone with no help in the hour of pain and sorrow?  We should be.  Did even his Father abandon Him at the crucial moment on the cross so that He would suffer the torments of hell?  That should have been us.  We were born deserving that. 

We turned from God, went our own way and deserve to be abandoned by the Father.  And truthfully, have we cared that our sins brought Jesus to such suffering?  How many times a day do we turn aside from Him without even thinking?  We have better things to do.  Aren’t our minds fixed on pleasure and convenience instead of on Him?  Isn’t it easier to watch TV than to pray?  Isn’t it more convenient to love gossip or the forbidden desires than his cross?  There’s always time for family bickering.  But do we make time for family devotions?  You’ll always make time for the sports page or your favourite web page.  But how about for a Bible page?

Here’s the worst news about us:  We often imagine we don’t need his help.  We don’t really deserve what He endured.  And we yawn or get irritated when someone points that we do, especially during Lent!  We vainly assume there is some scrap of merit in us for which we shouldn’t have to suffer, and for which Jesus shouldn’t have had to suffer, either.  We foolishly imagine at times there is some good in us making Jesus’ journey to the cross unnecessary.  In other words, we can help Him!  This might be our greatest sin of all.  The sin of arrogance.

Jesus is going to Jerusalem.  And even though we may want to help Him, we can’t.  It Frustrates Us that we Can’t Help Him in securing our salvation.  The Twelve couldn’t help Him either.  Notice how clear Jesus made that in our text!  He tells them: “WE are going up to Jerusalem.”  But after that one little word, we, the subject changes to He.  HE will be handed over, suffer, be mocked, flogged, and killed.  Jesus alone would do the suffering at the cross.  All of us who follow Him there can do nothing but watch.  And appreciate. 

When my two-year-old daughter drops a big glass platter on our ceramic tiled floor, and it shatters into a million knife-sharp shards of glass, and she wants to help clean it up, there is no way in the world I would let her.  She wouldn’t be much help, and she would harm herself in the process.  No sooner would God let us help Him carry out our salvation than would I hand over my van keys to my four-year-old son to “help me run errands.”  Jesus alone is our Saviour!  He had to do this alone!  Without our help!  And while, on the one hand, that might bum us out because of our desire to be “helpful,” to be honest, It is our Greatest Joy that We Can’t Help Him!  Could anything comfort us more thank knowing Jesus took care of us Himself?

There is an old story about a man in China who was walking on a rain slick road. He lost his footing and fell into a ditch filled with mud. He kept sinking deeper and deeper in the mud. The more he struggled to get out of the ditch, the deeper he sank. Buddha came by, looked at him and said, “My, what a predicament you are in. Here is a paper that tells you ten ways to get out of ditches.” The man started reading and he tried all ten ways to get out of the ditch, only to discover that the harder he tried, the deeper he sank.  Then Confucius came along and looked at him, & said, “You are in a terrible condition, but I have good news for you. If you’ll take 5 steps toward me, I’ll take 5 steps down to meet you, and then together we will walk out of the ditch.”  But the man said, “I couldn’t even take the 5 steps. The more I struggled, the deeper I sank.”

Then Jesus came by.  Jesus looked at him, took off His crown and His royal robes, got down in the ditch with him and pushed him until his feet were on solid ground once again!  We haven’t helped Jesus!  Jesus helped us.  And that doesn’t need to be frustrating!  That fills us with joy!  That shows how deep his love for us is.  That displays How Deep the Father’s Love for Us is!  Jesus calls us to go to Jerusalem with Him this Lent because He wants us to see and experience how deep that love is!

Listen to Jesus!  There is not one word of complaint that falls from his lips.  There is not the least trace of bitterness or anger in his tone.  He does not accuse us as we deserve.  He does not shame us as we might expect.  No, none of that.  He alone will suffer, and He will suffer alone.  That’s the only way it can be.  His march to Jerusalem is a march of doom for Him but of triumph for us!  He is determined to pay the penalty we deserved.  And that is exactly what He did.  That’s how deep his love for us is!  He not only doesn’t need our help!  He doesn’t want it!  Without our help, He created us.  Without our help, He redeemed us too.

Last Saturday, a group of hikers had gotten caught in bad weather on Mt. Hood in Oregon.  As they tried to descend to safety, three of them and a dog tumbled off an icy ledge and were separated from the others in a 500-feet fall.  A rescue call was put out and rescue workers began the search while 70 mph bone-chilling winds howled through White River Canyon where the three huddled with their black Labrador, Velvet, to keep warm.  The great news is that they were found and rescued on Monday – alive and safe!  One of the rescue workers said, “The most important part of this rescue is that they did everything right.”

Think about our spiritual situation.  We, too, were dangerously lost when we fell off the straight path that leads to heaven into the canyon of sin amid the howling winds of hell.  Like those hikers, we were rescued, saved from certain death!  But unlike the hikers in the news story, we weren’t saved because we did everything right.  Quite the contrary.  Even as our Rescuer was coming to find us, we did everything wrong.  We didn’t help Him.

But that didn’t change his mind about rescuing us!  He set out to rescue us.  He shared his plan with us.  And even though we thought we had a better way, that we could rescue ourselves, and that our efforts kept burying us deeper, He came after us and found us.  But thank God that our Father recognized just how lost we were!  And so, He didn’t let one part of the rescue plan depend on us doing anything right!  He rescued us by sending his Son who did everything right in our place!  Jesus loved us more than Himself.  So He willingly, single-handedly went to the cross to take our deserved death Himself.  All alone, with no help from us, He found us and rescued us from the Devil, the world, and even our own stubborn, rebellious, sinful flesh. 

What a joy it is to remember this great rescue again this Lent!  What a joy it is to see such deep love for us that would not give up the search for lost souls.  What a joy to know that thanks to his rescue, we can do the right things!  Armed with his holy Word, we can fight back against temptation and overcome them.  Armed with his forgiveness and love we can repair relationships and make them joyful!  Armed with his strength we can be witnesses and rescue others who have fallen off that spiritual cliff!  Praise God for this rescue!  He has done everything right!  How deep the Father’s love for us!   Amen.