A Paraphrase of John 12:12-18 by Meredith Miller
“Jesus is Lord”
Preached Sunday, September 6, 2026
Today is the final Sunday in our “God Is…” sermon series. This series is based off the book “Woven: Nurturing a Faith Your Kid Doesn’t Need to Heal From” by Meredith Miller which explores key attributes about God that children, or people of any age, need to know and trust about God so that we can have an abundant and life-long relationship with God. Thank you for journeying with me as we’ve worked through God is Good, Good is Powerful, God is Just, God is Joyful, and God is With-Us.
And now, I have a question for you - which God?
This may sound strange to our ears - especially asked here in a Christian church. But the question would not have been strange in the ancient world. When talking about God the question would not be “Do you believe in God?” but “What gods do you worship and what are they like?”
We see this spread throughout the Old Testament as Yahweh God, the God of the Israelites, is proving over and over that They are different from Ra, Molech, Baal, Asherah and others. More powerful, not bound by borders, not accepting of child sacrifice, a Good God who is Powerful, Just, Joyful, and With-Us. A God who is different from all those other gods and that makes this God worth following. The first commandment in the 10 Commandments is “Have No Other Gods Before Me” - not “I am the only God” but “Don’t put any others before me.”
Some people make distinctions between the “Old Testament God” and “The New Testament God.” At times they really seem like different gods, don’t they? How could the same God who told Joshua to murder all the residents in the land, including men, women, and children be the same God who told us to love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us, and turn the other cheek?
Now, there is definitely some understanding of history and who gets to tell it at play here, also some historical and Biblical criticism that the historical events as portrayed to us in Judges & Joshua don’t align…and, I am going to tell you how I approach this struggle of Old verses New Testament God:
We, as in humanity, constantly get who God is wrong.
That’s been part of what we’ve talked about in this sermon series. We struggle with a God who is Good because we picture a God who delights in smiting us, sending us lighting bolts whenever we get something wrong. We struggle with a God who is Powerful because we think power is all about control and obedience. We struggle with a God who is Just because our world is so unjust and we grow comfortable with the oppression of others as a given, so God must be comfortable with it too. We struggle with a Joyful God because we think religion must be somber and serious. We struggle with a With-Us God because the noise of our world and lives has blocked so much of our ability to listen to God.
So too, did the Israelites struggle with knowing who God is. When all the other Gods accepted child sacrifice, why wouldn’t their God? When all the other Gods approved of the slaughtering of enemies and establishing nationalist and tribalistic borders, why wouldn’t their God? If all the other Gods had idols made out of them to be worshipped, why wouldn’t their God?
And so, the Hebrew people in the Old Testament, constantly got who our God was and is wrong. Their misunderstanding of God is reflected in the Biblical text - Human fallibility. We also see in the text, example after example, miracle after miracle, of God trying to show the people who their Yahweh God was and is.
And we, humanity, whether it was back in the times of the Old Testament or us here in 2026 - we constantly put other idols before God. And instead of wrestling with those things as idols, which means false god, it’s easier for us to tweak our understanding of who God is to make it so that God is okay with those things.
Meredith Miller says this about the idols of “money, power, sex, status, family, violence, nationalism, or tribalism”: “These idols are deeply connected to our current culture, using the conversations of the day to hide themselves in plain sight. These idols take the form of pervasive lies about who God is, lies that twist God’s character and deceive us about what God is like.”
I think one of the most pervasive lies about who God is in our world today is the heresy of Christian Nationalism which conflates God and Country as equals and makes Jesus a mascot for a certain country or empire versus Lord of all.
And so we ask - “Which God?” For there are many things and ideologies that are not of God, that people make into their God. They may even use Scripture to justify their idol - but the God they paint is not a God who is Good, Powerful, Just, Joyful, and With-Us.
And so, because over and over again, the people of God constantly got it wrong, they kept on trying to understand and know who God was and is but the idols and gods of the day kept on getting in the way, God sent God’s self in Jesus to be the ultimate revelation to us of who God is.
Jesus, the incarnation of God, begotten not made, God who took on flesh - this means Jesus was and is always God. Part of God. One with God. God loves us so much. God delights in us so much. God wants to be with us so much - that God became one of us. To come down to earth. To live as a human. To walk among us. To touch us. To speak to us. To hear us. To truly be one-of-us. God came in Jesus to us to be with us, because God wanted to be seen and known by us.
God wanted to show us, definitively in Jesus, who God was and is and will always be.
If we want to know who God is - we must look to Jesus.
Philip and Jesus had this conversation in the Gospel of John. We heard it read today. Philip has asked Jesus “How can we know the way?” Really that means, you either are what you say you are, God, the Messiah, our Savior - or a dangerous person who is gonna get us in trouble with Rome - how can we know how to follow you? Jesus replies, “If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
If you have seen Jesus. If you listen to his words. And look at his actions. God the Father, God the Creator of the Universe, God the Divine, will be revealed to you for they are one in the same.
These verses are not saying “believe in Jesus” as in - you’re in or you’re out depending on whether you confess that Jesus is God. What Jesus is saying here is, if you want to know who God is, what kind of God our God is, if you want to know if you can trust God, if you want to know if you can claim this God as your God - you only have to look at who I AM, for I am the Great I Am.
And so if you ask - Which God is it who is Good and Powerful and Just and Joyful and With-Us? The answer is, this God is Jesus, Jesus who is Lord, Jesus who is Lord of All.
There are so many stories in the Gospels that point to who Jesus and thus who God the Father was, is, and will always be.
This morning, we are looking at the Palm Sunday story, of Jesus’s triumphant entrance into Jerusalem.
Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem was not the only parade happening that day. One was a parade of the empire and declaring that Caesar was King. And one was a peaceful protest, lifting up Jesus as King.
On one side of the city, Pilate rides into Jerusalem for Passover to squelch any uprisings that the Passover festivities may bring. He comes with military fanfare. He comes riding on a war horse, decked out in the symbols of the Empire. He comes with power and prestige and foreboding to remind the Judeans that Caesar is King and they are under his rule - so don’t go getting any ideas.
On the other side of town, Jesus and a whole lot of people were getting other ideas. Whereas Pilate entered at the main gate, Jesus came to the city through a back entrance. Whereas Pilate entered on a war horse, Jesus entered on a donkey. Whereas Pilate came to remind them that Caesar was King - Jesus rode in to shouts of, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord-- the King of Israel!" That is - Save us, the King of Israel! The shouts that Jesus was King - were shouts that Caesar was not.
That is one thing that this passage reveals to us about Jesus - that Jesus is King, and Caesar is not. Caesar was the King of the Day. Rome was the Empire of the Day. Now in 2026 we have Kings of the Day and Empires of the Day. But Jesus - Jesus is King for Eternity, The Kingdom of God will last beyond an empire. And it was a Kingdom of Love and Justice.
Moreover, in the battles between the Empires of this World and the Kingdom of God - and quick aside - I am going to define the Kingdom of God as Meredith Miller talks about it with young kids, and we talked about it in our God is Just sermon, the Kingdom of God is fully here on that that day when it is on earth as it is in heaven, “all the good and no bad, all the joy and no sad. It’s where everyone knows they are unconditionally loved, and they treat others well because they know they are too.” That day is already here in part and we experience the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God in our midsts because Jesus has already won. A king at war would ride in on a warhorse, as Pilate did. A God of peace, who had already won, who had already established a peaceful eternal kingdom, rides in on a donkey. Miller says, “God is the sort of king who relies neither on violence nor force to get God’s way, but rather one whose presence brings peace.”
It also shows us another contrast - Rome and Caesar use violence, force and power to achieve their aim. Jesus uses sacrifice. Jesus is Lord, Jesus is King - but the only crown that was ever placed upon his head was a crown of thorns. Jesus sacrifices himself for his people - Jesus brings victory through humility, not violence.
And out of that sacrifice, out of humility and death, Jesus brings life. Right before Jesus entered Jerusalem, he raised Lazarus from the dead. And it is in Jerusalem that he will die, rise again, and break the power of sin and death over us all - and I mean all. The power of empire is contained within borders and conquests. Jesus’s power, God’s power, God’s Kingdom, Jesus’s Lordship - knows no bounds and for is every corner of the earth, every nation, every peoples.
Which God? The God who is revealed in Jesus who is Lord of all.
And so now, as in every week of this sermon series, we will talk about faith practices, spiritual disciplines, that we can adopt to lean into this attribute of God - that Jesus is God revealed, and Lord of all.
And first, we have to admit that if Jesus is Lord, our idols aren’t - and even that we have idols. And we do. We all do. We turn to idols out of fear, out of a desire for security - idols promise us protection, prevention, provision. Idols promise us that everything will be all right as long as….
As long as we have enough money.
As long as we are smart enough.
As long as we follow this political party or leader.
As long as we have a gun.
As long as we are married.
As long as we….
Fill in the gap for your idol or idols. And yet, we are called to place our trust and faith in Jesus, not in idols.
Trusting in Jesus though is not a prevention strategy to stop bad things from happening to us or those we love. Miller says, “Those fears may indeed be realized, and yet they won’t consume us. As God has proved time and again in the stories of Scripture and in the lives of those who have put their trust in Jesus through the years, even when the worst happens, it will be okay, somehow, because of who God is. The God who is good, powerful, just, joyful, and with us is really and truly Lord. Jesus is Lord.”
And thus, all other things are not.
Identifying and naming the things that we are tempted to put our trust and hope in that are not Jesus, is in and of itself, a worthwhile - and hard - spiritual practice.
Another way we can lean into Jesus’s Lordship is celebrating Christmas and Easter - and I truly mean celebrating the Incarnation of God in Jesus and Jesus's resurrection. This isn’t a bash on Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. That can be a part of your family traditions if it’s right for your family. And, emphasizing the actions of God in these seasons and holidays, roots us to the two most powerful and important actions that our God ever took to reveal God’s self to us. Spend time in the Scriptures related to these stories, talk about them with the children in your life, limit the busyness and consumerism of the seasons and allow yourself to wonder and marvel at God’s loving and immense actions for us.
And as you are time in Scripture reading the stories of Christmas and Easter, spend time in Scripture regularly. But perhaps read it through different eyes - don’t read it with the eyes of “how should *I * act?” but instead “Who is God?” How is the God who is Good, who is revealed to us in Jesus, being made known to us through these Scriptures?
And speaking of studying the Bible and Jesus’s Lordship - starting this week, Wednesdays at 11am, a Bible study group here at the church is going to spend six weeks on a book called “Jesus is Lord” and wrestling with that and the Scriptures. You’re all invited.
And the last spiritual discipline I am going to offer up today, is to treat the beliefs of others with respect and curiosity. Whether the beliefs of those others is Christianity, a different religion, or no religion. In the Old Testament people would ask, “Which gods do you worship and what are they like?” Today, we often yell at one another about differences in religion and draw battle lines, metaphorical and literal, between ourselves and those of different faiths. When we treat others with respect and curiosity, we invite others to treat us in the same way. When we listen well to what others believe and why, we open the same door for us to share about what we believe and why - to share with our words and actions to reflect a God who is Good, Powerful, Just, Joyful, With-Us, and revealed in Jesus who is Lord to all the world.
This doesn’t mean a covert way to convert people. This does mean that we get to reflect Jesus to all we meet.
And now, as we end this sermon, and this whole sermon series on God is… My prayer for all of us is - that all of us would spend our whole lives coming to know who God is. That we would never stop seeking to know God better. That we would come to trust God with our whole being, and that we would help lead children to know who God is and that they can trust God. And by leading others to know God, we ourselves would continue to grow in that journey as well. Holy God, may we know and trust you.
Amen.
And thus, all other things are not.
Identifying and naming the things that we are tempted to put our trust and hope in that are not Jesus, is in and of itself, a worthwhile - and hard - spiritual practice.
Another way we can lean into Jesus’s Lordship is celebrating Christmas and Easter - and I truly mean celebrating the Incarnation of God in Jesus and Jesus's resurrection. This isn’t a bash on Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. That can be a part of your family traditions if it’s right for your family. And, emphasizing the actions of God in these seasons and holidays, roots us to the two most powerful and important actions that our God ever took to reveal God’s self to us. Spend time in the Scriptures related to these stories, talk about them with the children in your life, limit the busyness and consumerism of the seasons and allow yourself to wonder and marvel at God’s loving and immense actions for us.
And as you are time in Scripture reading the stories of Christmas and Easter, spend time in Scripture regularly. But perhaps read it through different eyes - don’t read it with the eyes of “how should *I * act?” but instead “Who is God?” How is the God who is Good, who is revealed to us in Jesus, being made known to us through these Scriptures?
And speaking of studying the Bible and Jesus’s Lordship - starting this week, Wednesdays at 11am, a Bible study group here at the church is going to spend six weeks on a book called “Jesus is Lord” and wrestling with that and the Scriptures. You’re all invited.
And the last spiritual discipline I am going to offer up today, is to treat the beliefs of others with respect and curiosity. Whether the beliefs of those others is Christianity, a different religion, or no religion. In the Old Testament people would ask, “Which gods do you worship and what are they like?” Today, we often yell at one another about differences in religion and draw battle lines, metaphorical and literal, between ourselves and those of different faiths. When we treat others with respect and curiosity, we invite others to treat us in the same way. When we listen well to what others believe and why, we open the same door for us to share about what we believe and why - to share with our words and actions to reflect a God who is Good, Powerful, Just, Joyful, With-Us, and revealed in Jesus who is Lord to all the world.
This doesn’t mean a covert way to convert people. This does mean that we get to reflect Jesus to all we meet.
And now, as we end this sermon, and this whole sermon series on God is… My prayer for all of us is - that all of us would spend our whole lives coming to know who God is. That we would never stop seeking to know God better. That we would come to trust God with our whole being, and that we would help lead children to know who God is and that they can trust God. And by leading others to know God, we ourselves would continue to grow in that journey as well. Holy God, may we know and trust you.
Amen.
