In Jesus Holy Name April 10, 2022
Text: Matthew 21:1-3,10 Palm Sunday Redeemer
“What Happens When The Cheering Stops?”
Corrie Ten Boom was a famous Christian whose testimony of suffering in Nazi concentration camps and God’s grace through it all touched millions of lives. A few years ago, in a press conference following a ceremony in which Corrie Ten Boom was given an honorary degree, one of the reporters asked her if it was difficult remaining humble while hearing so much acclaim.
She replied immediately, “Young man, when Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on the back of a donkey, and everyone was waving palm branches and throwing garments in the road and singing praises, do you think that for one moment it ever entered the head of that donkey that any of that was for him?” She continued. “If I can be the donkey on which Jesus Christ rides in His glory, I give him all the praise and all the honor.”
The Palm Sunday parade has color and spectacle, cheering and singing, festive voices and joyful exuberance. It was a happy day. You can almost hear the sheer drama of the parade, the brass drum beating. No miracles break in, no supernatural rescue to save Jesus from the tragedy about to come. The most sophisticated religious system of its time is allied with the most powerful political empire. They were arrayed against a solitary figure, the only perfect man who has ever lived. Jesus is about to fulfill God’s eternal plan of redemption in Jerusalem.
This was the week of the festival of the Passover, millions of pilgrims had arrived in Jerusalem. Through the centuries, empires rose and then fell into the dust bin of history. Through those same countless centuries, the Jewish people paused as a nation to remember God’s great feat of deliverance from slavery in Egypt. God’s eternal plan to rescue His creation and free His people, whose lives have been held in the slavery of the fear of death, will soon end at the cross and empty tomb of Jesus.
Crowds have been following Jesus. More than a million pilgrims are filling the streets and hotels. Just south of Jerusalem in Jericho Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem. He healed two men who were blind, and the crowds grew. It did not take long for the word to spread. Jesus is coming to Jerusalem. The streets were already crowded. There was a buzz throughout the city about Lazarus who had been raised from the dead by Jesus. People were hearing amazing stories about this man feeding thousands of people, healing the lame, the blind. Religious expectations were running high.
Jesus enters the ancient city on a donkey. The crowds went wild with their cheering. “Hosanna to the Son of David”. People grabbed anything they could get their hands on. They tore palm branches from trees. They took the clothes off their backs to throw them in his path. Visitors to the city were asking… Who is this? This is Jesus, the prophet, from Galilee.
Singing, shouting, the crowd, sweeps through the city gates and finally stopped on the plaza in front of the Temple. There Jesus dismounted and entered the temple.
Mark tells us what happened next. “Jesus entered Jerusalem ……… He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve” to the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus.
The crowd must have been stunned. Disappointment. Was this the end of the singing and shouting, the hosannas, the waving of palms. You and I know why. There is no salvation, no forgiveness from God for His people on Palm Sunday. What happened when the cheering stopped? Jesus returns to Bethany for a night of rest. In His heart Jesus knew how the week would end. God’s eternal plan for the salvation of humanity was nearing its climax.
On Monday, Jesus returns to the temple. He overturns the tables of the money changers and drives out those selling animals. This was God’s house of prayer and it was being mis used. Both Matthew and Luke tell us that Jesus taught the people in parables in the temple each day….
On Tuesday, the Pharisees and teachers of the law kept looking for a way to arrest Him. They argued with him about paying taxes to Caesar. They challenged him on marriage in the resurrection. Jesus tells them the parable of the father with two prodigal sons and the “Nobel owner of the vineyard and His son”. Matthew writes: “when the chief priest and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables they knew he was talking about their disbelief. The religious authorities resented Jesus. They looked for a way to arrest Him but they were afraid of the crowds. (Matt. 21:45)
From the time the Savior had raised His friend Lazarus from the dead, they had been conspiring on how to get rid of Him. They knew that Jesus had done something wrong. He made the claim to be the Son of God. When Jesus said it, it was the truth. He was the Son of God, sent to earth so that we might be saved from sin, death, and Satan. Born of a virgin in Bethlehem, Jesus' years were passed in perfection. Even so, Jesus was condemned to die.
The Jewish Supreme Court, the Sanhedrin had a problem. Because of the Roman occupation, they no longer had the authority to carry out a death sentence. The law said that those who were convicted of blasphemy should be stoned. Yet the Jewish leaders knew that the Roman Procurator, Pontius Pilate, would never allow a Man to be executed for something as tiny, trifling and trivial as blasphemy against a non-Roman god.
More worrisome than Pilate were the crowds which had, only a few days before, welcomed the Messiah’ parade into Jerusalem. They would not be pleased if the religious leaders underhandedly assassinated the Son of David, the One Who had come in the Name of the Lord.
On Wednesday, all is quiet. We know nothing. The Gospel writers are silent.
On Thursday, in the upper room Jesus celebrates the Passover with his disciples. He gave it a new meaning. No longer would his followers remember the Exodus from Egypt in the breaking of the bread. They would remember his broken body and blood given for the forgiveness of sin.
“In the midst of this intimate evening with his closest friends Jesus dropped a bombshell: One of the twelve men would betray Him to the authorities. They were shocked and questioned one another.” (“The Jesus I Never Knew” Philip Yancey p. 192)
Late Thursday night, Jesus and His disciples leave the upper room and headed for the cool, spacious olive groves in the garden called Gethsemane. In the cool of the evening the disciples quickly drift into sleep. But Jesus felt no such peace. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow and distress to the point of death.” He said. “Father, Take this cup of Your “holy” wrath away”. He pleaded to His Father in Heaven. The cup of suffering was not removed, for God the Creator would place upon His holy Son, all the sins of humanity. He was the “perfect lamb of God” through whom God’s grace and mercy would be offered to all who place their faith in Jesus. (II Cor. 5:21)
A torchlight parade was snaking through the pathways of the garden. A friend betrays Him with a kiss. There is the arrest, the imprisonment, desertion by the disciples, false trials, the beatings. From heaven God watched His holy and perfect Son, stripped naked, flogged, spat on, struck in the face and garlanded with thorns. Pilate handed Jesus over to crucifixion with two other criminals. (ibid p.199) He died upon a Roman cross.
Friday night, before sunset, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea ask Pilate for the body of Jesus. Pilate asked the Centurion if Jesus was dead. He assured Pilate that one of his soldiers pierced his heart. He was dead.
On Saturday, all is quiet. The disciples are in hiding. A guard has been posted at the grave of Jesus.
Stop right here. Is this all there is? Is this how the story ends? Pretend you did not know about Sunday Morning. What if the story of Jesus ended with His death. What if there is no “rest of the story”? Human experience tells us that when death comes there should not be the “rest of the story.” Modern Medicine says there should not be a “rest of the story.” Doubters and deniers, skeptics and cynics, don’t want a “rest of the story.” But there is, as Paul Harvey said: a “rest of the story.”
The women who were at the cross, the women who were also disciples, came to the garden tomb of Jesus to finish the funeral details. Upon their arrival they found out that there was a “rest of the story”. An angel announced. “I know you are looking for Jesus, He is not here He has risen from the dead. Go and tell His disciples. Peter and John ran to the empty tomb, wondering… is there “a rest of the story.” Mary Magdalene, crying her eyes out was met by the risen Jesus. She knew there was the “rest of the story”. That very Sunday Jesus appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus and they knew He was alive. On that very Sunday evening Jesus appeared to the disciples, His mother and brothers and they knew He was alive.
After John wrote down these events he writes: “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”
Every human soul wants to believe there is life beyond the cemetery. We want there to be “the rest of the story for us”. Where can we find hope? Some religions created “re incarnation “because they did not want to believe in Jesus. Other religions say there is no “hell”, everyone goes to heaven, because they did not want to believe in Jesus. Others simply say, “Eat, drink, be happy for this is all there is.”
Palm Sunday and events of “Holy Week” proclaim that the promise of forgiveness that God made to Adam and Eve was finished at the cross of Jesus. God, the Creator of the Universe, was pleased to have all his full deity dwell in Jesus….in order to bring humanity back into harmony and peace with Himself by His blood shed on the cross”. (Colossians 1:19-20) Promise fulfilled. Sins forgiven. Satan and death defeated.
A great gospel hymn by Bill and Gloria Gather proclaims the “rest of the story.”
God sent His son, they called Him Jesus
He came to love, heal, and forgive.
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives.
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives, All fear is gone.
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living just because He lives.
