The Reality Of Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday

Mark 11:1-11

"Reality of Palm Sunday"

11:1 ¶ And when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples,

2 and said to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat; untie it and bring it.

3 If any one says to you, ’Why are you doing this?’ say, ’The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’"

4 And they went away, and found a colt tied at the door out in the open street; and they untied it.

5 And those who stood there said to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?"

6 And they told them what Jesus had said; and they let them go.

7 And they brought the colt to Jesus, and threw their garments on it; and he sat upon it.

8 And many spread their garments on the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields.

9 And those who went before and those who followed cried out, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

10 Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!"

11 And he entered Jerusalem, and went into the temple; and when he had looked round at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.RSV

Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen

It was something new and exciting. A parade was forming. Everyone started to run to see what was happening. The people started to stretch necks to see over the person in front of them. The young children crawled between the legs of the adults to see if they could gaze upon what was happening.

Then everyone saw it! A man riding upon a donkey, and there were people racing in front of the man on the donkey throwing palm leaves and clothes in the path of the man and the donkey. People started to shout "Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" The crowd that gathered along the way started to catch the excitement, and they began to shout and run along side of the parade.

As they were running, some in the crowd turned to another and asked, "Who is the man? Why are we shouting our Hosannas? Is he a king?" And the other turned and said, "Yes, we think he is a king, the King of the Jews, see he is riding on a donkey as it says in scripture that the Messiah would come."

And the two of them ran off with the crowd caught up in the excitement of the moment.

And we can be like that too, caught up in the excitement of the moment as seen in the following:

"A young man walked up the sidewalk toward his home late one Friday afternoon and was greeted by his two children. They laughed and bounced with more than the usual amount of excitement.

"Daddy, Daddy, " the three-year-old started to say, "There’s a. . . " Whumpf! The five-year-old stuffed his palm vigorously across the three-year-old’s mouth. The three-year-old wrenched free, eyes still sparkling. "Daddy, Mommy and Jason and me have got a. . . " Whumpf! The hand closed across the mouth again, followed by these firm words from the five-year-old. "Sarah, if you don’t keep quiet, Daddy’s going to know there’s a surprise party inside for him!"

After a moment of awesome silence, the five-year-old flushed. Dad artfully pretended not to have heard a word. He hugged both children and, laughing together, all three raced into the house. "

The young children could hardly contain themselves with the excitement of the moment. They knew something exciting was going to happen and they could not hold it inside.

When the people in Jesus day saw him riding into Jerusalem that day, they knew that something exciting was happening. They knew that Jesus was riding as the Messiah would, and they thought they knew what that meant. They thought it meant they would be free from the Romans, they thought it meant that Jesus was going to be their King. So they got caught up in the excitement of the moment and celebrated, rejoiced at the picture which was forming in their mind’s eye. A picture of a king who would save them. A picture of a nation reborn. A picture of a people who would be free to be a mighty nation again. So they celebrated, they danced down the street, they shouted Hosannas!!

And then just a few short days later, that same crowd cried, crucify him, crucify him. They learned that the picture which was developing in their mind’s eye what not the picture that Jesus was painting for himself.