Palm Sunday: I Don't Know What I'm Singing!

I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M SINGING! (Mark 11:1-10)

Have you ever found yourself singing a song, but really, you had no idea what you were singing? I was a teacher at a high school for a year, and as I walked down the hallway one morning I could hear one of my students singing a song. It was a song I had just read about the day before. The melody was good, but the words glorified violence and immorality – this song was about as bad as you could get. And so I asked this student, “Do you know what you are singing?” And she had no idea. The melody was good, but the words that were coming out of her mouth - she wasn’t paying attention to them. And after she realized what she was singing, she felt a sense of embarrassment.

I think a similar thing happens in church. People sing hymns. Sometimes they like the melodies. But really, I wonder how many people really know what they are singing. It happened on Palm Sunday, many years ago. People were singing a song as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. “Hosanna!” they said. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest!” These people were shouting and singing at the top of their lungs. But I wonder how many of them actually understood what they were singing. I wonder how many of them knew this person they were singing to.

The word “Hosanna” means “Lord, save us!” Were these people asking Jesus to save them? Not in a spiritual way. You see, these people thought that Jesus was coming to save them from the Roman government. Finally, someone had arrived, who will lead a rebellion against the Roman regime that is oppressing us! He comes in the name of the Lord! And the kingdom they were looking forward to - that was an earthly kingdom – freedom from the Romans! They wanted Jesus to bring things back to the way they were when David was king. Hosanna in the highest to Jesus!

These people did not understand what they were singing, or whom they were singing to. These words fit Jesus, but not in a political way. Jesus was the Lord God, and he had come to save them, and so the word “hosanna” works. He was coming in the name of his Heavenly Father, who had sent him into the world. And he was going to establish a kingdom, but not a physical one. Jesus had come to establish spiritual peace – peace between you and God, peace that comes from having a clear conscience, peace in your heart – that is the kind of peace Jesus had come to establish. These people had no idea who Jesus really was, or what he was going to do for them.

How do we know that? Look at how these same people treated Jesus just five days later. Just five days later, instead of shouting “Hosanna,” they shouted “Crucify him.” Instead of welcoming him, they mocked Jesus’ claim to be king, as they watched him hang from a cross. I wonder what Jesus thought as he listened to all these people who were shouting “hosanna,” and most of them really did not know him at all. When these people eventually died and met Jesus face to face, I wonder if he asked them, “Why did you sing to me, and then mock me? Why did you sing to me, and then crucify me?”

What about you? Do you know what you are singing, or are you like those people on Palm Sunday? Today is not only Palm Sunday at our church, it is also “favorite hymn” Sunday. They hymns we are singing today have been chosen by our members. When you sung the first hymn, did you truly believe what you were singing: “Beautiful Savior, King of Creation. Son of God and Son of Man. Truly I’d love thee. Truly I’d serve thee. Light of my life, my joy, my crown.” Did you really mean that when you sung those words today?

I would venture to say that there are many who go to church and sing hymns, but, just like those people on Palm Sunday, many have no idea what they are singing. How can sing to Jesus Christ, “Truly I’d love thee, truly I’d serve thee” and you then go out and do the things you do during the week? What does Christ think when he hears you say that you love him and that you want to serve him, but then he sees how selfish you are? He sees your lust. He sees how you are driven by nothing but money. He sees that you only pray to him when you are in trouble. He sees that you rarely worship him in church, you hardly ever read his Word – in reality you don’t care about him at all. He isn’t even close to being the light of your soul, your joy, or your crown. How can you look Jesus Christ in the eye and sing, “Truly I’d love thee, truly I’d serve thee,” and then live the life you live?