“Pop Star or Messiah?”
Mark 11:1-11
What is going on here?
It appears that a whole crowd of people have fallen head over heels in love with Jesus!
The people are infatuated.
It’s as if Jesus were a pop star or something!
“Many people spread out their clothes on the road while others spread branches cut from the fields.”
Those in front of Him were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”
It’s not hard to imagine a wild kind of “Woodstock” scene or something out of Beatlemania when we read about Palm Sunday.
The people are partying!
The streets are overflowing as folks are streaming into town for the Passover Festival and Jesus has become the headlining act.
He is the star of the show.
He on top of the charts.
He is the coming King—the One Who will reign on David’s throne.
Jesus will defeat Israel’s enemies with a rock show-like barrage of pyrotechnics.
Everything is going to be alright now.
The King has come!
It’s such an ecstatic atmosphere that crowds of adoring fans are taking off their clothes and spreading them on the dusty, stony Middle Eastern Road in order for a donkey carrying Jesus to ride over them.
Do you think they ran home saying: “I’ll never wash this coat again!”?
This is a big deal.
This is something you do in the midst of an emotional frenzy.
You don’t cut branches off trees to wave in the streets for just anyone.
And what were they shouting?
“Hosanna” is a Hebrew word that mixes exuberant praise to God with the prayer that God will save God’s people, and do it right away!
You know, if we stick with the rock star or pop star theme for a minute we can, perhaps fairly easily, sum up what happens…rather quickly to the frenzy and crazed love of their fans.
Let’s see, Davey Jones of the 1960’s Beatles parody band—the Monkeys, who passed away several years ago—probably caused quite a stir for a while.
Then there was David Cassidy from the Partridge Family who died in 2017 of organ failure due to alcoholism.
Later, his younger brother, Shawn Cassidy, had a run with the “teen idol” thing.
He was on a t-v show called the Hardy Boys, and even had a hit song on the radio called the “Do-run-run.”
My oldest sister, Wendy, had a big crush on him for a few months when we were kids.
She also had a short-lived infatuation with another guy named Leif Garrett.
In the 1980’s we had The New Kids on the Block.
They were huge and then they were gone.
Even Michael Jackson was a has-been for the last…say…20 years of his career.
Being a pop star or a pop idol usually doesn’t last very long.
It must be quite a rollercoaster ride for those who live it.
(pause)
On the first Palm Sunday, so long ago a big crowd of people seemed to “fall in love” with Jesus.
His fans could hardly contain themselves.
Psychologist Robert Johnson writes that “Romantic love, or falling in love [or emotional infatuation] is different from Real Loving.”
Real loving is steady.
It’s constant.
It’s unconditional.
It’s not here today and gone tomorrow.
There is something a bit overblown and bigger-than-life about infatuation or falling in love.
It’s like an emotional roller coaster.
It’s got a lot of excitement.
It can be fun.
But it’s short-lived.
The ride does come to an abrupt halt.
The kind of love we heap upon pop idols is a superficial kind of love.
Once the singer or actor begins to age a bit, or after their show is canceled…
…or we grow up…
…our love fades.
It’s not real love is it?
Actually, there is not much about it that is real at all.
And that was one of the big problems on Palm Sunday.
There wasn’t a lack of love for Jesus.
The problem was that the love was the superficial kind.
It was smoke and mirrors.
It was like a vapor or fog that disappears by mid-morning.
It was here; then it was gone.
Within a week, this acclaim for Jesus will turn into humiliation, mockery, hatred, and then murder.
Talk about a fickle crowd.
What is our love like for Jesus?
Is it real or is it superficial?
Does it stick with us even when things don’t go our way?
Jesus seeks us out in love, and we are often found by Him when things aren’t going well…
…when we are facing a crisis…
…when we are at a cross-road…
…when we have come to the point where we realize that the emotional highs this world has to offer are not real, not lasting, not worth much.
And then we finally accept the free offer of faith in Christ.
And we fall in love.
And we think all our problems are finally solved.
But that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Grace is free but it is not cheap.
It comes to us at a great cost.
It cost Jesus Christ, the Son of God His life.
We don’t have to pay for it, but it’s not something we can take for granted either.
Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
How important is our faith to us?
Is it the most important aspect of your life, of my life?
Jesus died to give us this faith.
I have had times in my life when I didn’t treat this precious gift with care.
And those times are some of my worst memories…
…they are my “wilderness” times…
They are the times when I have forgotten who I am and Whose I am.
They are times when I have turned my back on my Lord.
And when a person turns their back on the Lord, they can never be satisfied with the mess they find themselves in.
But when we persevere in our faith through hardships, through illnesses, through times when it seems nothing is going our way…
…we will find that Jesus is right there with us through all of this…
…and nothing can take that away.
There is a significant little detail that is often overlooked in this story.
Jesus sent two of His disciples to get Him a colt which had never been ridden.
And Jesus rode into the city on that colt that had never been ridden.
It was an unbroken colt!
Anyone who has ever seen any riding or roping shows has seen what usually happens to people who sit on untamed colts, especially in the midst of shouting crowds.
Here we have a miracle right in the midst of Palm Sunday.
It may seem less spectacular than calming a storm or raising the dead, but it is significant none-the-less.
Jesus is able to take the wild and chaotic and transform it into something manageable, peaceful even.
Jesus is able to take what we may see as a lost cause or a hopeless situation and turn it into a bright, sunny and gentle day.
Instead of being bucked off when He sits on the colt, Jesus rides it heroically and peacefully into Jerusalem.
Have you ever felt as if life were a wild ride which was threatening to “buck you off”?
I sure have.
And sometimes I still do.
And that is when I have learned to intentionally remember that Jesus has come as the Prince of Peace, the Only One Who can ride into my heart and give what the world cannot offer.
Knowing and remembering this is what is most important in this life.
(pause)
When the crowds cry: “Hosanna!” they say the right words, but they still miss the point.
They have all the right notes and none of the music.
They are excited and enthusiastic about Jesus—head over heels really—but they will still end up rejecting Jesus and calling for His death by the end of the week.
Knowing the truth is not the same as doing the truth.
Saying we “love Jesus” does not always mean we really know Jesus or would love Him if we knew Him.
Perhaps you have seen the old bumper sticker: “Honk if you love Jesus.”
Well, I saw a better one.
It said, “Tithe if you love Jesus. Any fool can honk.”
Or it could say: “Serve if you love Jesus.”
“Humble yourself if you love Jesus.”
“Love your neighbor if you love Jesus.”
“Take up your cross if you love Jesus.”
Palm Sunday reminds us that Jesus came with a choice.
We can stand and get all emotional and wave and treat Him like we would a pop star…
…and then watch Him pass by…
…and eventually move on to the next fad or in-thing.
Or we can follow Him and stand with Him at the Cross.
It’s easy to shout, but it’s harder to serve.
It’s harder but it is much more rewarding…
…it is also real.
Someone once said, “Everybody wants to go to Rome to see where St. Peter is buried, but nobody wants to live like him.”
Palm Sunday is a great day to think about what it really means to welcome Jesus into our hearts.
In verse 11 of our Gospel Lesson for this morning we are told that when Jesus entered Jerusalem He went straight to the Temple and then…went home for the night.
But notice what Jesus does when He goes into the Temple.
Verse 11 tells us that Jesus “looked around at everything.”
The Greek word used here does not suggest that Jesus had a quick glance but rather a long careful observation.
Jesus’ careful gaze exposes what is really going on in the Temple.
And the next day Jesus will return not to simply look but to act.
If we are believers, the Bible tells us that we are the Temple of God.
Jesus is the King of the ages and the King of our hearts.
And that is intense and personal.
The God of the universe lives inside those of us who open the door to Him.
He comes in bringing peace, but He also comes in and disrupts things.
He drives out the devil, and the “money-changers” if you will.
He transforms us.
He starts giving us heart surgery.
And, as a result, our love for Him becomes greater and greater the longer we hold His hand.
And the more we love Jesus—really love Jesus—the more we will love our wife, our husband, our kids, our neighbors, even our enemies and ourselves.
And this is a love that does not disappear or fade away.
It lasts for life and on into eternity.
Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem among palm branches should help us fight against our tendency toward superficial love.
Because in Jesus, there is no superficial love.
Instead, we are given a love that withstands and overcomes even the horror of crucifixion, and all the worst that people are capable of…
…even the worst that Satan is capable of.
Jesus’ love is the love that stops at nothing and is defeated by nothing.
And nothing can separate us from that love.
What is your love for Jesus like?
Is it real?
Loving Jesus isn’t like a rock or a pop concert.
It doesn’t end when the last song is sung.
It isn’t over when we get tired of listening to the music or looking at the posters.
It is real.
It never ends.
It takes risks.
It can make us uncomfortable.
It changes us.
It causes us to do things we never would have known we could do.
It puts us in touch with people we never would have thought we’d associate with, let alone serve.
It walks straight, all the way to the Cross.
And because of it we will live in glory forever.
Praise God.
Amen.
