Palm Sunday
March 28, 1999
INTRODUCTION
READ TEXT
This Friday you’re going to die.
Those very words might have crossed Jesus’ mind on this Sunday some 1,970 years ago. The day we now call Palm Sunday was the first day of the last week of Jesus’ earthly life.
This Friday you’re going to die. But today – today is a day of applause.
We know that…
I. THE APPLAUSE WAS DESERVED
When Jesus approached Jerusalem the scene was intense.
He arrived at Passover time. A crowd of Jewish religious pilgrims had already flooded the city. And into this throng rides Jesus on the back of a donkey, and with him, his own parade.
The text tells us around v. 37 that the crowd “began joyfully to praise God.” The lifted up shouts of Hosanna! Which means, “Save!” (Luke doesn’t include this word b/c it might have been strange to his Gentile readers – but you find the word in Matthew, Mark and John). They shouted, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.”
The other 3 Gospels say that the crowd waved branches (John says they were palm branches).
These had in the last few hundred years become one of the nationalistic symbols of Judea. Consistently used to celebrate military victories, and probably stirred up messianic hopes.
The Old Testament prophet Zechariah had written:
“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.” (Zechariah 9:9)
This was to be the last spontaneous display of public approval of Jesus, and it was also to be the greatest.
Why would these people applaud him at all? The text gives us some clues.
v. 37 says, they “praised God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen.”
They had seen the crippled walk. They had witnessed the blind receiving sight. Even the dead were raised. Lazarus was proof!
In a word, He brought hope
Yancey’s insight
He imagines a Roman soldier galloping up to check on the disturbance. He has attended processions in Rome where they do it right. The conquering general sits in a chariot of gold, white stallions pulling at the reigns. Behind him are officers in polished armor carrying the colorful banners of the defeated enemies. At the rear comes a ragtag procession of slaves and prisoners in chains – living proof of what happens when you get in Rome’s way.
In Jesus’ triumphal entry, the adoring crowd makes up the ragtag procession: the lame, the blind, the poor and children from Galilee and Bethany. When the soldier looks for the object of their attention – he sees a man riding on a donkey using a borrowed coat as a saddle. Not a very impressive sight, perhaps, to a Roman. But it was the best display these people could give. The reception of a meek and peaceful king.
To these people Jesus was the hope of better days physically, economically and politically. Even though not all of these concepts were not correctly understood, He was their “Messiah.”
There’s another reason why the applause was deserved. As the crowd cheered, they witnessed…
God pass by
At the end of v. 44 we read that Jesus is disappointed with the city as a whole for not recognizing the time of God’s coming to them. In Jesus Christ, God was physically there in their town, and not everyone could see it.
The applause was certainly deserved.
But we are also aware that
II. THE APPLUAUSE OF THIS DAY PRECEDED BETRAYAL
There is something ambivalent about this day of excitement. If you know the rest of the story you’re probably aware that the week goes downhill from here all the way to Friday.
The story comes to its climax, not in Jesus entering Jerusalem, but in his weeping over it. While Jesus deserves a triumphal entry as king, Luke emphasizes that he is moving instead to the place of his rejection.
Eventually the applause ends. Quickly the mood will change. And a great truth is dramatically reinforced. That truth being that voice of the people is a fickle voice.
Illus – W. Frank Harrington, a minister in Atlanta, tells the story of Marvin Griffin. Marvin ran for governor of Georgia in the early sixties against Carl Sanders. His strategy was to have great gatherings around barbequed dinners all over the state of Georgia. Sometimes over 10,000 people would show up at just of these dinners to eat Marvin’s BBQ. But when the election was over, he had lost decisively. At a news conference that followed he simply said, “They ate Ol’ Marvin’s barbeque, but they didn’t vote for me.”
Yes, politicians know very well that the voice of the people is a fickle voice. Remember how popular George Bush was after the Persian Gulf War? Remember how few votes he received in the ’92 election?
And so today we hear of lawmakers who follow the polls and check the blowing breeze of public opinion with a wet thumb in the air before taking a stand on policies. As if the greatest legacy you could leave behind is that you were a popular politician. If this day in the life of Jesus tells us anything about public popularity it is that the favor of the people is fleeting.
Napolean, traveling through Switzerland with his army, was greeted with thunderous applause and enthusiasm. He remarked to one nearby supporter, “This same unthinking crowd, under a slight change of circumstances, would follow me just as eagerly to the scaffold!”
Remember the Bee Gees? There was a period of time in the late 70’s when you could find a Bee Gee’s song playing just about every time you turned on a radio.
Then at the beginning of the 1980’s their records were being blown up with explosives at an anti-disco demonstration between games of a White Sox double-header at Comiskey Park. The crowd, being provoked by Chicago radio personalities Steve Dahl and Gary Meier, went absolutely crazy and the place went up for grabs. The second ballgame had to be cancelled because of the hysteria. Disco was put to death, and I have a hunch that the Bee Gees would have been too, had they been there. Public opinion about music had decisively shifted in the matter of a few short years.
I learned my own harsh lesson about the voice of the people at an early age.
Illus I’m reminded of the unfortunate event surrounding the time of my birthday when I was in 4th grade. My dad and I were at K-Mart the week before, and I noticed that they had a bin full of Payday candy bars on sale for only 17 cents each. Since they were so cheap I asked my dad if we could buy enough for each person in my class to give out as treats for my birthday. He said, “Sure.” So I counted out 25 candy bars and we bought them.
Near the close of one school day the next week our teacher told me I could go ahead and distribute the Payday candy bars. I was a 4th grade hero as I made my way up and down the rows depositing a candy bar on each of my classmate’s desk.
But then came the sound that still haunts me in my sleep to this very day -Tami Schleder screaming as though she had witnessed the worst of all imaginable traumas. She ran from the back of the classroom up to the teacher’s desk, all the while holding her slightly unwrapped Payday candy bar as far from her body as her arm would reach as though if it got any closer to her it might bite. “Look!” she wailed as she shoved the candy bar under Mrs. Gilchrist’s nose. “It’s disgusting!”
There on the very tip of her Payday candy bar sat a very tiny, hardly visible, practically microscopic green worm. All horrified eyes in the classroom suddenly turned to me. In my panic I blurted out, “But they were only 17 cents!” And at that I found myself being tossed around in the middle of a stampede of half-crazed children who each immediately dropped their candy bars back into the empty bag I had been holding. I went from 4th grade hero to first class zero in a matter of seconds – all because Tami Schleder couldn’t keep quiet and eat a little green worm.
But the story does have a happy ending. Once school let out, my best friend Danny Cross and I sat on the front steps of the school, and I think we each ate 10 of those Payday candy bars – carefully checking for green worms with every bite.
No, the voice of people can’t always be trusted. At sporting events the same crowd who boos at a player madly after a series of mistakes will cheer for him wildly after a great play. Crowds have a short memory. They’re usually asking, “What have you done for me today?”
That happened to Jesus. The same voices that shouted, “Hosanna!” on Sunday were yelling, “Crucify him,” and “Give us Barabbus,” by Friday morning. It’s pretty sad.
Judas ended up selling out for 30 pieces of silver. And when Jesus was arrested Thursday night in the Garden of Gethsemane, Matthew’s Gospel closes the scene with these chilling words, “Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.” (Matthew 26:56) Where was all the applause then?
You know what’s even more sad? A little earlier in the evening in a moment of applause Peter told Jesus, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.” (Matthew 26:33)
But Peter took off too. Then he denied knowing Jesus 3 times before the sun came up.
When Jesus was on the way to Calvary on Friday, severely lacerated and beaten, struggling under the weight of his own cross, he needed someone to carry the cross for him. Surely one of the disciples would leap from the crowd and volunteer. Surely one of them would surface now and show his face. But no, a stranger named Simon, who just happened to be passing through the city, had to be forced at spear-point to carry his cross.
Palm Sunday leaves me with a question about myself. Would I have fared any better than those disciples? Do I fare any better today?
Question for each of us to ponder…
III. ARE YOU A CARNIVAL CHRISTIAN?
What’s a “Carnival Christian?” A Carnival Christian is someone who enjoys the fun. Someone who gets caught up in the excitement of cheering for Jesus, but sometimes has a hard time taking a personal stand for him when the crowd isn’t around. Commitments for them are difficult to keep. And because of that, apart from the crowd, the Christian lifestyle isn’t always evident in them.
Ann Weems has penned some words that reveal a little Carnival Christian in each of us:
“We’re good at planning! Give us a project and we’re off and running! No trouble at all! Going to the village and finding the colt, even negotiating with the owners is right down our alley. And how we love a parade! In a frenzy of celebration we gladly focus on Jesus and generously throw down our coats and palms in his path. And we can shout praises loudly enough to make a Pharisee complain. It’s all so good, the parade! It’s between parades that we don’t do so well. We don’t do so well from Sunday to Sunday. For we forget our hosannas between parades. The stones will have to shout because we won’t.” (Ann Weems, Kneeling in Jerusalem, p. 69)
Maybe you’ve been to a big Christian gathering where there was excitement in numbers. Like Promise Keepers or the NACC. Great times of worship, great times of learning, a big crowd. Easy to be a Christian there. Easy to applaud Jesus in a setting like that.
As a Youth Minister I went to several CIYs, ICTCs, Weeks of Camp. Students would frequently get what’s called a “spiritual high.” You give Jesus applause in a large crowd – you’re surrounded by people who support your decision to live for Christ. But eventually you go home. Then what?
It can even happen at church. It’s easy to applaud Jesus when you’re in a crowd that’s already giving him applause. Then you go home. Then what?
Will you fall away this week?
Will you be like the disciples who made promises by day and then fled by night?
Will you be like one in the crowd who praises him one day and then loses interest in Him the next.
THESIS: The point is we can’t gauge our commitment to Jesus solely by the applause we give Him.
Without close contact with the source of the excitement, your fervor will not remain
If your life is consistently marked by the absence of a personal quiet time, there is no way that you will ever be anything but a Carnival Christian.
If you don’t personally read the Bible and spend time in prayer regularly on your own you have no chance at ever becoming a committed follower of Jesus Christ.
Many of you study the Bible in a small group or Sunday School class (and you need to do that to grow) – but for some of you that may still just be a carnival atmosphere. Because there’s other people there. There’s a crowd, and when you join in you’re just giving Jesus public praise. You know how to do it because you’ve been playing the game for a long time. Inside you may be dry as a bone spiritually when it comes to time spent one on one with Christ. When you’re alone it’s easy for you to fall away.
It’s about a love relationship with him. Something we talk about a lot around here. Do you want to kick the Carnival habit and take the next step toward becoming a committed Christian? Then make this pledge today
Read the Word (Go to John 12 and start reading a/the last week of Jesus’ life)
Spend Time in Prayer
Origen – once attributed the sad fact that he had denied being a Christian to the neglect of his time in prayer in the morning.
If ever the disciples should have been in prayer for themselves it was the night Jesus was arrested. He found them sleeping 3 times. How might things have been different when the mob arrived at the Garden of Gethsemane if the disciples had spent that hour in prayer? Would they have then had the strength to stick around? No one will ever know. But the important thing is that later they were willing to die for him to spread the news that he rose from the dead. The legends say that all of them died for the cause of Christ.
CONCLUSION
Some of you may have never given Jesus applause – it might be time to start
Some of you may have given him applause in the past but by night you’ve fled
You’re entering Passion week – don’t fall away – endure to the end
“It was a march for the sweet and gruesome
To bring a light to their darkened place,
It was a march for the thirst of freedom
And it was beauty battered and bleeding
When it all comes down to me and you,
Will we walk away or march on
With the one who made the march?”
(Cindy Morgan, “The March”)
“Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Revelation 2:10)
