Peer pressure
Mark 11:1-11
A little boy was sick on Palm Sunday and stayed home from church with his mother. His father returned from church holding a palm branch.
The little boy was curious and asked, "Why do you have that palm branch, dad?"
"You see, when Jesus came into town, everyone waved Palm Branches to honor him, so we got Palm Branches today."
The little boy replied, " Aw Shucks! The one Sunday I miss is the Sunday that Jesus shows up!"
We are not quite out of lent but we are getting close. Today we have listened to the scripture that describes the “Triumphal Entry of Jesus in Jerusalem.
If you were one of the followers of Jesus, it looked like the show was getting on the road. While we know there is still danger in Jerusalem, it looks like it is all going to turn out ok. The crowds like Jesus and are responding with celebration and acknowledgement given to a king.
Jesus has been on the way to Jerusalem for weeks or months, he is not in a hurry and he stops and teaches all along the way. He zigzags’ his way there and arrives just in time.
He arrives on the last possible day to be involved in the full celebration of Passover. The place is packed, some historians say that their could have been 110 Thousand people in Jerusalem that week. The noise of people and animals had to be deafening. You really can’t see anything except the sea of humanity.
It is like going to Six Flags on discount ticket day. There are so many people it is uncomfortable, everything is expensive. The lines for everything are long.
I imagine that almost everyone is carrying something, food, water, snacks for the kids, bedding, cooking stuff. You name it someone is struggling to get it through the crowd.
This was the week before Passover, the most important festival of the year. It was a time of preparation for the huge celebration. The celebration of freedom and salvation provided directly by the work of God. Generations before, God instructed the people to use the blood of a lamb to protect their families. And in Jesus day the celebration of the event was still celebrated by the offering of blood and the sharing of a meal and telling the story.
Many country folks brought their offering, their lamb with them. The city people would have to purchase an animal. And today was the day that you had to have your lamb. The lamb was to be treated as a pet; it lived with you for the week.
The general idea is that the lamb would take on your sins by exposure to you.
On Friday the lambs would be taken to the temple and slaughtered and the blood offered for the protection of the family. The keeping of the feast, being faithful to remember God’s past salvation and by obedience in remembering God’s past acts continue to receive God’s mercy in the future.
So, Jesus is coming to town for the celebration of this great feast. He books a room outside of town by a few miles. Then he says,
"Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ’Why are you doing this?’ tell him, ’The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’ "
So, one or two miles out, Jesus stops and sends two disciples, go get a donkey colt. Let me get this straight, he walks everywhere for months and now that He is within a couple of miles of Jerusalem and, He needs a ride!
He sends two unnamed followers to the edge of the village on a heavy travel day to borrow a ride. Notice he did not tell them to ask first.
Horse/donkey thieving was a big deal back then. This sounds like something that is a little risky.
It is like He is asking these followers, “go into town to the car dealer and you will find a new 4 wheel drive pickup truck. It will be brand ne, now one has ever driven it will still have sticker on the front window. The key will be in the ignition. If the salesman or security guards ask you a question, tell them that the Lord needs it and will send it back in just a little while.
Are these the disciples that Jesus did not like very much?
These two disciples could end up being stoned right on the spot.
He has asked them to do some strange things but, this seems a little dangerous for the disciples.
This is pretty radical stuff, and it gets my mind going.
-- The thing that really stands out is that the Lord needs something.
I don’t recall many times that Jesus says he needs or wants anything. He asks for water at the well. He will borrow a tomb for the weekend. I am sure there are others but I don’t recall him whining about his personal needs.
Couldn’t he just Pray and God make or send a New pickup or donkey. Flash, it’s there, or have it lowered slowly out of the clouds. Wouldn’t that be more impressive than borrowing.
I think he could. I think he could have changed one to the disciples into a donkey for a few minutes too, maybe no one volunteered.
But, don’t we already know what he could do and what he does do are often very different things.
So, even with Jesus physically present the Lord wants someone to do something physical.
He needs something to help him fulfill prophesy.
The prophesy Jesus is going to fulfill comes from : Zechariah 9
9 Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation,
gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
He wants willing people to carry out tasks on behalf of the Lord. The disciples must go and do and the owner or responsible person must let what he owns be used.
Humans, Christians must choose to participate in Gods plan.
Jesus provides the directions of where and what to say and the disciples scoot up the road and get the ride.
They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people standing there asked, "What are you doing, untying that colt?"
That’s where it could have gotten interesting. And even though they had started the task, when confronted they had a couple of choices. After all Jesus was not there to see the looks on the faces or to hear the tone of voice used.
- They could have just said, “O. is this yours, I thought it belonged to my friend…sorry about that. His must be up the way some place.”
- They could have just run off being confronted on this strange mission.
But, they responded just as Jesus told them. They gave this vague response, “The Lord needs it and will send it back.” And the potential problem just vanished. They just made the lame statement and the people said OK.
They headed back down the road mission accomplished.
When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields.
So, Jesus is sitting on an unbroken donkey, and is not bucked off. That is a bit of a miracle in itself. Perhaps a special revelation of his divine nature, but the donkey is never quoted. So we can only guess what made him so calm in the strange crowds and with a person suddenly on his back..
The people, most likely disciples, start taking off their coats and collecting palm branches and wave them and throw them in the road in front of the donkey.
This is done as a sign of respect for Jesus. The people are making an offering of support and treating His procession like a king returning from battle.
They make it a parade like when people come home from IRAQ. People waving American flags, tears of Joy for the return of family and friends perhaps just as a sign of patriotism.
The Jews were looking for a king. They were looking a king that will release them from captivity, and give them absolute freedom from Rome.
So it is not just any King. , They are looking for a God sent king of the Jews.
This little parade has things lining up as if Jesus was that person.
As the parade moves toward Jerusalem the people along the way join in the excitement and the group grows. More people grab branches to wave and throw their coats on the ground.
They are escorting Jesus into the city, their action draws attention and a crowd gathers, some just watch but others join in the excitement.
The excitement from the crowd is a bit like peer pressure. The excitement draws to participate in the event.
Everybody wants to get in on the fun.
There is a chant that starts.
Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
"Hosanna!"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!"
"Hosanna in the highest!"
Hosanna – in Hebrew means “please save or save now.” It is used in Jewish and Christian worship to give adoration and praise to God.
In today’s scripture it is part of the identification that the crowd was telling the hearers that Jesus was the messiah. I wonder if it was done as a chant, the leaders shouting one thing and the followers another.
-- Let’s divide it in half and try it. LEFT and RIGHT It’s on the insert in your bulletin.
-----(depending on how it comes out – Talk about peer pressure – Positive and negative.)
Do ya’ll remember peer pressure in school? It could be terrible; some smoked or drank alcohol and their friends felt pressure to do it too. There were other kinds of pressure, what to ware, where to go.
I remember begging my parents for a pair of Converse high top tennis shoes.
I finally ended up with a pair by spending my own money. I found out that I really did not jump any higher except for the difference of weight in my wallet.
My joy was short lived in other ways too.
I was happy and proud of my bright red shoes with the logo on the ankles. But it had no lasting value. It never really made me a part of the group, I just dressed like them. But the shoes did not make me one of them.
-- Here is the point, do you think that some of the people involved in the parade on Palm Sunday were also in the crowd outside of Pilot’s residence on Friday morning?
There was their excitement then too. The disciples were no longer leading the parade and a different group was influencing the crowd.
I hope you will recall that Pilot offers to free one prisoner and they shout for Jesus to be free….But not Jesus of Nazareth,
They shouted for Jesus– Bar –Rabus.
They were asked what should happen to Jesus of Nazareth? The shouts of Crucify Him start someplace and then they ring out all around
Peer pressure makes people want to be in the popular group.
Peer pressure makes people want to fit in with the crowd and not stand out.
Peer pressure keeps people quiet and self-controlled even when wrong things are happening.
Peer pressure keeps people from taking risk and speaking the truth.
Peer pressure is choosing the group over choosing God.
They were influenced to choose a murder and thief instead of the Lamb of God.
Now, we could never be influenced like that right?
We are sophisticated and mature we could not be influenced by peer pressure to choose something other than Jesus.
Folks, here is our focus this morning, Today on Palm Sunday it is easy to be caught up in the excitement of the crowd. It is easy to celebrate as the parade is passing by and easy to look forward to Easter morning.
From here it is easy to leap from This Sunday to Next Sunday and not remember that the world influences us negatively during the week.
It is easy to just to go with what ever the crowd is doing and not be bothered by our flip flopping in our faith and our witness.
It is too easy to go with the flow during the week and never really prepare ourselves for a full celebration of the proof of our faith demonstrated Easter Sunday.
The Lenten journey is a time of reflection on how you live and seek the direction of God. A time to leave the crowd and stop listening and responding to what everyone else says is ok.
Peer pressure will lead you to a life where you are never satisfied. Where you will never really know Jesus because His ways are old fashioned and simple. Peer pressure will make you act out against what God wants and lead you into utter darkness and ultimate disappointment.
Folks, today is a good day to choose to revive your relationship with the father through the son. It is a day to leave what the group wants and be willing to break out of their expectations and work toward Gods. His direction and plan offer you eternal promises not just a warn-out pair of tennis shoes.
All Glory be to God!
