Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week. Holy week is the most sacred period in the whole year for Christians. We will read the story of Palm Sunday from the Gospel of John today. Now before we do, I want you to consider something.
The Gospel of John
is 21 chapters long and gives the details of Jesus 3 years of public ministry. Of those 21 chapters, 10 of them tell what happened during Holy Week—the last
week of Jesus’ life. So almost half of
the Gospel of John is about Holy Week. And
it all starts on Palm Sunday.
Parents nostalgically point out the spectacular sights of Jerusalem to their children, recalling the times they came to the Holy City when they were little. The hustle and bustle of the city is electric as every one anticipates the coming of Passover—the most holy holiday of the Jewish people. Added to this are the stories circulating about a possible Messiah who raised a man named Lazarus back to life after he had been buried in a tomb for 4 days.
John 12:12-16
12 The next day, the news that Jesus was on the way to
Jerusalem swept through the city. A large crowd of Passover visitors 13 took palm branches and went down the
road to meet him. They shouted,
Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hail to the King of Israel!”
14 Jesus found a young donkey and rode on it, fulfilling the prophecy that said:
Look, your King is coming,
riding on a donkey’s colt.”
The people were waving palm branches and shouting Hosanna! Palm branches were one of the national symbols of ancient Israel. This was a patriotic parade; for the people in Jerusalem, waving palm branches was like waving an American flag for us.
The crowds were chanting Hosanna! (which literally means
“Save us now!”) This patriotic crowd was joyfully anticipating the coming of a new long-awaited
Jewish king who would win their freedom and independence from the Roman Empire. They wouldn’t have to pay taxes to Rome. They wouldn’t have to endure pagan Roman practices in their city. They wouldn’t have to suffer the humiliation of persecution from a foreign oppressors
anymore.
Have the difficulties of life ever made you feel oppressed? Humiliated?
Under siege?
Have you ever longed for liberation from those things that hold you captive?
Have you ever wanted God to save you from the problems you face?
Jesus is the Savior King. He’s the Special
One God chose to set us all free.
But the Anointed One, the Messiah, is a King like no other rescuer
we’ve ever known. He’s a Savior that saves us in ways deeper than we even know we need. And that’s good, because we need a Savior more than we even know. And we need saving in ways we don’t even realize.
When the crowds in Jerusalem wanted a King riding a warhorse
to destroy their enemies, Jesus came riding a donkey, the ancient Israelite symbol of peace. Donkeys are slow and steady and dependable, but they’re not the swift beast you ride into battle swinging a sword at your
enemies. Kings in Israel made a statement when they entered a city by their mode of
transportation. If they came on a horse, it meant they were coming to attack you. You better get ready, because they had a sword with your name on it! They meant to spill your blood.
But when the king rode on a donkey, everyone in the city
knew: This king comes in peace. John 12:15 says, “Don’t be afraid,
people of Jerusalem. Look, your King is coming, riding on a donkey’s
colt.” But within a week, many of the same people cheering for Jesus as their Savior
King decided Jesus wasn’t the one they wanted. His
idea of salvation wasn’t what they expected. So they changed their chant from “Hosanna!” to “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”
Verse 16 says, “His disciples didn’t understand at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy.” Right there in the thick of everything, they couldn’t see what was really going on. They couldn’t put it all together—the people shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” which is a quote from Psalm 118 that was written 1,000 years before Jesus came. Psalm 118 also shares these prophetic words: “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful to see.”
So, the people rejected Jesus on Good Friday when
they crucified Him, but He rose on Easter Sunday and became the cornerstone of a New Temple—the Church, which is not a building, but a holy and redeemed people. The Disciples couldn’t see what God was doing on Palm Sunday. It wasn’t until later when they looked back that they could see.
I wonder how many times we have that same
experience? We go through something—whether it is a joyful celebration or painful suffering—and all we know is what we see, what we feel, what we know. But God is doing something greater than we can understand in that moment.
We can look back over so many stories of the Bible and think how we would have done things different that God. There is dreamer, Joseph, way back in the Book of Genesis whose brothers sold him into slavery. Later, he was thrown into a dungeon for a crime he didn’t commit. There is David, the little boy who defeated the giant Goliath, who served King Saul faithful, but Saul was jealous and tried to kill David. And, of course, there is Jesus, who the people cheered on Palm Sunday, but then they crucified him on Good Friday.
I read something this week that made a lot of sense to me. It said[i]:
I would have pulled Joseph out of that prison, out of that pain. Bout in doing so, I would have
cheated nations out of the one God would use to deliver them from famine. I would have interrupted the great story of God delivering Israel out of slavery in Egypt and the Passover from which Christians derive the sacrament of Holy Communion.
I would have pulled David out of Saul’s
spear-throwing presence, out of the caves he hid away in, out of the pain of rejection. But in doing so, I would have cheated Israel out of a
God-hearted king.
I would have pulled Jesus off the cross, off the road that led to suffering and pain, off the path that would mean nakedness and
beatings, nails and thorns. And in doing so, I would
have cheated the entire world out of a Savior, cheated us out of salvation, out of an eternity filled with no more
suffering and no more pain.
And oh friend, I want to pull you out of your
suffering, out of your pain, out of whatever problem you are facing. I want to change your path. I want to stop your pain. But right now I know I would be wrong. I would be out of line. I would be cheating you and cheating the world
out of so much good. Because God knows. He has a plan.
He knows the good this challenge will produce. He knows the beauty this hardship will grow. He’s watching over you and keeping you even in
the midst of this. And He’s promising
you that you can trust Him. Even when it
all feels like more than you can bear.
So instead of trying to pull you out, I’m lifting
you up. I’m kneeling before the Father
and I’m asking Him to give you strength. To give you hope. I’m asking Him to protect you and to move you
when the time is right. I'm asking Him
to help you stay prayerful and discerning. I'm asking Him how I can best love you and be
a help to you. And I’m believing He’s
going to use your life in powerful and beautiful ways. Ways that will leave your heart grateful and
humbly thankful for this road you’ve been on.
You see, God has a plan that’s so much bigger than we can see. There are things at work you cannot understand right now. But you can trust God. And that’s really what Jesus asks of you. He says, “Trust me. Believe in me. Have faith.” And maybe you don’t have much faith at all. But Jesus said, “If you can just have the faith of a mustard seed, you can move mountains.”
God saves you, by His grace, when you believe. So believe. Trust Him. Have faith.” It will carry you through the streets when people are shouting praises. It will strengthen you when you need to carry a cross. And faith will make it so one day you can look back on it all and remembered what happened and realized that these things where all part of God’s glorious plan.
[i] Adapted from a blog written by
Kimberly Henderson https://kdhenderson.wordpress.com/i-would-have-pulled-joseph-out/
