A young mother and her baby were flying from Tucson to Phoenix.  Both of them wore matching white outfits, and the baby girl had a little pink bow where there would eventually be hair.  The mother was smiling, and the baby kept saying “Dada, Dada” every time someone walked down the aisle.  The mother explained that “Dada” was waiting for them after they had been gone a few days.  She was so adorable the passengers made a big fuss over her.

However, there was a fair amount of turbulence on this particular flight.  And that was a bit hard on the wee one.  But food helps, right?  The mother kept giving her orange juice and fruit, whenever the baby cried.  Seemed like a good idea at the time.  But the turbulence traveled from the air around the plane into the babe’s gastro-intestinal system, and ultimately, all of the fruit that had gone down, in a sudden giant explosion, came up.

Now the coming up was a bit messier than the going down.  It also seemed to have increased tremendously in volume between the going down and the coming up, so that not only were the baby and the mother covered in it, but so were most of the passengers in the near vicinity.  Fortunately, they were very gracious about it, and tried to help the mother and tell her it was OK, even though she was mortified.  The baby was crying now.  The puked-on passengers looked awful, and smelled awful.  The mother apologized over and over again. 

After the plane landed, a young man met them who had to be “Dada.”  He was wearing white slacks, a white shirt, and he carried white flowers.  And what do you think that shiny clean Daddy all dressed in white did when he saw his baby girl with all that sticky, smelly stuff all over her clothes and face and hair?  He ran to the young mother, who gladly handed the baby over, and he held that baby and hugged her and kissed her and stroked her hair.  As he held her close, he said, “Daddy’s baby is home!  Daddy’s baby is home!”  All the way to the baggage claim, he never stopped kissing the baby and welcoming her back home.  His pure white clothes covered with filth.

Don’t we have a God even more loving than that?  Look at Him standing there, the holy, pure, Son of God.  But you couldn’t tell it by looking at Him.  He’s covered in filth.  Spit.  Bloodied and bruised.  Pathetically standing on trial to be condemned to death.  But He is there, willing to get the filth of our sins all over Him, only because of his love for his children.  His love for you and me.  His spiritually filthy children.

The difference between us and the airplane baby is that we rejected our Father.  His own people rejected Him.  Look at Jesus standing before the High Priest.  The High Priest was supposed to be the closest man to God there was!  He is the one who brought the blood of the sacrifice into the Most Holy Place once a year on the Day of Atonement.  He is the one who sprinkled that blood on the Mercy Seat to picture the work of the Messiah, who was coming to shed his blood to blot out the sin of the whole world.  The High Priest knew that!  He was the overseer of all the ceremonies which pictured and taught about the coming Saviour, whose sacrifice would redeem the world.

If anyone should have known that Jesus was the fulfillment of all those ceremonies and sacrifices, it was the High Priest!  As one who knew by heart all of the promises in the OT that pointed to the Saviour, the High Priest’s behaviour should have been much different at the trial.  He should have stood up in front of all the people and shouted at the top of his lungs the words of John the Baptist:  “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”  But he did the opposite.  He wasn’t impartial.  He already made up his mind about Jesus.  He arranged for false witnesses so that everyone else saw it the way he did, too.  Finally, he asked Jesus to identify himself on oath.  When Jesus declared He is indeed the Son of God, the High Priest cared nothing about all the proof that backs that up.  He rips his robes in rage and calls for the death sentence!  Shocking, isn’t it?  Jesus – rejected by his own representative on earth.

What about the rest of the teachers of the Law?  The ones there who had the OT memorized?  What about those who had seen Jesus heal the sick, give sight to the blind, and raise the dead?  Those who had heard Him preach the Word?  Even with this overwhelming evidence that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, they hardened their hearts against Him.

God has been rejected by his own.  That includes you and me.  Rejected by us when that temptation we were supposed to keep away from lured us and we went hook, line, and sinker.  Rejected by us when that coworker asked us a question about God, and we had the golden opportunity to share Jesus with them, but we cowardly changed the subject.  Rejected by us when we preferred our own self-centered needs above serving someone else.  Rejected by us when we doubt in God’s love and figure we have to rely on ourselves instead.

Didn’t stop Him, though, did it?  No more than it stopped the loving daddy from getting his child’s mess all over him.  He let us get the filth of our sins all over Him.  In fact, He let us pile ALL of them on Him, and He went and paid the dry-cleaners bill for us.  Us – who rejected Him.  And we have come out clean.  That is how deep His love is!  That is grace.

Some time ago, the newspaper headlines in Savannah told about someone called Baby Grace.  Baby Grace was a newborn girl discovered in a dumpster by a garbage worker.  Amidst the refuse of a ghetto area of Savannah, lying in pornography, in the green broken glass of discarded cheap wine bottles, in coffee grounds and rotting food, was a tiny little girl not over a week old.  The garbage collector named her “Baby Grace.”  Shocking and disturbing, isn’t it?

Well, isn’t God’s grace in Christ equally shocking and disturbing?  On a garbage dump outside of a two-bit occupied country, on a Roman cross, Grace could be found.  Grace isn’t found in the pretty religion of men, but in the garbage dump of our own lives.  And those who find grace, and tell it best, aren’t professional clergy, but people who have lived close to the dumpster themselves.  Fellow refuse workers, who have discovered grace.  You and me.  People, who, with our words, actions, and even thoughts, have rejected God.  But have been shown his grace by that trial He went through for us.  How Deep His Love For Us!

How deep his love for the world.  The world has rejected Him too.  The world rejects his truth.  Jesus was also rejected by Pontius Pilate.  Jesus told Him that He came to bring truth.  Pilate, who didn’t believe in truth, challenged Him, “What is truth?”  In other words, there’s no such thing as truth.  There is only me.  Only the moment.  My needs.  My wants.  My will.  My goals.  My ambition.  My pleasure.  My power.  These are all the truth Pilate wants and all the truth anyone else wants.  Any other truth is bound to get in the way of such things.  Pilate doesn’t even want to think about the possibility that there might be something else, something more.

Jesus brings this truth into the world:  The truth about us is the problem.  The truth about Him is the solution.  And the world doesn’t like to hear it.  We don’t like to hear it!

Our own sinful flesh says:  Don’t bother me with preaching about what is right and wrong.  Don’t tell me about this perfect God from the Bible who demands perfection from me.  There’s no right and wrong – only values.  Today I like this, tomorrow that.  People shouldn’t commit adultery, but if my children, my friends, or finally I myself decide to live outside of marriage in a relationship reserved for marriage, well, who’s to judge?  People shouldn’t hold grudges or gossip.  But you don’t know what was done to me!  People shouldn’t steal or cheat.  But the government wastes my money and businesses charge too much anyway!  Besides, people steal and cheat from me.  I just want what’s coming to me.  People shouldn’t be arrogant and self-righteous, but let’s face it, we really are better than most, aren’t we?  And that confession in church?  “I, a poor, miserable sinner…”  Hey – that isn’t me!

Then there’s the other truth we struggle with:  Jesus did it all for you. Nothing you did saved you. Your sins are forgiven because Jesus paid for them with his love.  But we object!  “I work hard!  I deserve what I get!  God is a bit lucky I’m on his side, and He should feel at least a little flattered that I believe in Him at all, given the world we live in today.  And if He doesn’t treat me right, I’ll show Him.  I won’t believe in Him anymore, and I will quit the church!”

Sound familiar?  And yet, this loving God’s main focus is to bring us to Him where we will spend eternity with Him.  Even though we have been kicking and screaming, his love moved Him to stand trial, stand up for the truth, and make sure He would go to that cross to pay for our sins.  And that is exactly what He did.  How Deep His Love For Us!  …who rejected Him…

In 1915, Colonel T.E. Lawrence was traveling across the desert with some Arabs.  Things were desperate.  The food was almost gone, and the water was down to its last few drops.  The wind was burning them and the sand was stinging them.  Suddenly, someone asked, “Where is Jasmin?”  Another said, “Who?”  “Jasmin, where’s Jasmin?”  “You mean that criminal we were dragging with us?  The traitor who killed the Turkish tax-collector and fled into the desert?  The one who made an attempt on the Colonel’s life?  The one we should have killed ourselves instead of dragging with us?”  “Yeah, that’s the one.  His horse is empty.”  “Maybe he got lost in a mirage – he isn’t that smart!”  Maybe he just fainted and fell off his camel!  Then the first man said, “What does it matter?  Jasmin wasn’t worth half a penny!”  And the men rode on.

But Colonel Lawrence turned and rode back the way he had come.  Alone, in the blazing heat, at the risk of his own life, he went back.  After two hours’ ride, he saw something against the sand.  It was Jasmin, blind and mad with heat and thirst, being murdered by the desert storm.  Lawrence lifted him up on his camel, gave him some of the last precious drops of water, and slowly plodded back to the company.  When he rejoined them, the men said, “Here is Jasmin, not worth half a penny, and saved at his own risk by the Colonel, the leader he wouldn’t accept.”

My friends, that is what Jesus has done for you and me.  He didn’t come to save the righteous.  It wasn’t God’s friends Christ died to rescue.  It was people who had rejected Him.  It was people like you and me.  How Deep the Father’s Love for Us!   Amen.