Sunday April 5, 2009

Palm Sunday

St. Mark 11: 1-11

Today, we celebrate Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem. I remember as a child thinking why it was that the week before Christ's death He would choose to come to the very place that He should have stayed away from. He had told the apostles many times that a day would come when He would be taken away from them, and suffer at the hands of the Gentiles. Why would the Lord go into the Vipers pit? Maybe we should ask ourselves why He would choose to enter Jerusalem in this fashion, giving easy access to all who wanted Him dead. We know that the Lord Jesus’ life was not a quiet one during His 3 year ministry. The Lord Jesus might even be compared to celebrities today. Everywhere He went people came to see Him.  He performed such miracles as giving the blind sight, the deaf He gave hearing, and the mute He gave a voice; He helped the lame to walk, and healed lepers by the scores. Knowing that His named proceeded him everywhere went, why then would he choose to enter Jerusalem at all? There is only one answer to this question, the Lord Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem the way He did because He was not afraid. He wanted the religious leaders to know that He felt no shame or remorse for His teachings. He was not going to hide, or enter the city quietly like a thief, no; there was no reason for this. The Lord Jesus was ready.

 How many times in Scripture did the Lord Jesus say “my time has not yet come?” But now, knowing that His time was near, and His death only a week away; He knew what had to be done. The fact of the matter is the Lord Jesus came into this world to save us. The disciples and many of his followers did not understand the real meaning of that statement, as I fear many today do not either. There was a time when the Lord Jesus lost most of His followers when they started to realize that He wasn't going to a thing about the Romans. The Jews waited for their Messiah, but the Messiah that they wanted was not the Messiah God sent. They wanted a Messiah that was going to overthrow their Roman oppressors, and was going to put the Jews in their rightful place as rulers of world. All but His 12 apostles and a few of His most loyal followers stayed with Him to the end.

On this day the Lord sent a few of His apostles to retrieve a small donkey. Once that donkey was retrieved the apostles laid their coats on the back of the donkey, and the Lord Jesus entered the city as the people shouted “Hosanna in the highest” as some waived palm branches while others laid them at the donkeys feet. Matthew Henry says the proper meaning the word Hosanna can be found in the book of Revelation Chapter 7 verse 10 “salvation to our God which sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”  It doesn't seem like the Lord Jesus had too much to worry about, did it? It seemed the people understood who He was after all. I personally find this crowd to be a very fickle crowd indeed. Only a week later they would be to demanding His death.

Since we have answered our first question today, maybe the bigger question should be “Did these people really understand who He was?”  I had mentioned earlier that the Lord Jesus lost many followers when they started realizing that He was not going to change their living conditions, at least not at this time. A few weeks ago we read of the Lord Jesus going back to His hometown of Nazareth. While He was there He taught in the temple and read from His Father's Word. But we learned that while the people enjoyed his reading, and thought His wise, they unfortunately did not understand Him and His words fell on their minds, but not on their hearts. When the Lord Jesus told them as much they went to gather Him and throw Him off the mountain, but He slipped away as His time had not yet come. This was probably much the case in our reading today. As I mentioned earlier the Lord’s name preceded Him, and the people were infatuated by His healing and His teachings, but did not truly understand why He was here. And this was proven only a week later as He stood beside pilot listening to the people yell for the release of Barabbas, and the death of the man they had proclaimed as the Lamb of God.

I find this to be the case today as much as it was nearly 2000 years ago. Like the teachings of the Lord Jesus, many of God's true churches today are shunned and ridiculed.  This shunning and ridicule does not necessarily come from the secular world, but from within the church.  The Lord Jesus lost many followers not because his teachings were untrue, but because they held a truth that seared the very heart. Millions of people today will be given palm branches and thousands of churches will re-enact the day the Lord Jesus rode into Jerusalem. The people will wave their palm branches and they will say “Hosanna in the highest” and proclaim their undying love and faith in Jesus Christ. But I tell you today that many will not understand what they are saying. The Lord Jesus knew what had to be done, and He knew that He came into this world for one purpose only, and that purpose was to save mankind. But unfortunately millions will go to church today, and millions more will attend church on Easter Sunday proclaiming that He has risen from the dead, and I am here to tell you today, that their praises will fall upon deaf ears. The Lord Jesus himself said “many will call my name, but I will say I never knew you.”  While today is a wonderful celebration in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we celebrate His triumphant entry into Jerusalem we must remember that it is just a celebration and will not get us any closer to heaven.

Now we can be sure that not everyone in that crowd was in the crowd a week later calling for His death. There were probably many who went home and forgot all about this man. Many were overtaken with the joy of celebration that day, and they probably got caught up in all the fun and fanfare, and when they saw all the fun their fellow citizens were having they themselves grabbed palm branches and yelled with their friends while throwing the palms at His feet. But I ask you, did this mere act save them? Did it bring them any closer to the kingdom of heaven? Did their proclamations that Christ was the Lamb of God save them? The answer to that is a resounding NO! A friend of mine made a joke one Sunday during Easter. On this particular Easter the church was filled to the rafters with people. There were people I had never seen before in my many years in that church. He looked at me and said “Matt look at all the CEOs here today.” At first I had no idea what he meant I knew that there were a few people in the congregation that were CEOs of companies, but I had seen many of them on a regular basis. Upon seeing my confusion he looked at me and said “it's an acronym, meaning “Christmas and Easter only congregants.”  These are the people who come to church twice a year; they feel that this will be enough to secure their salvation they go home forgetting about what Jesus Christ did for them. But I tell you today brothers and sisters unless you understand why it was Lord did what He did, and why He allowed Himself to be so easily taken by the authorities that day and crucified upon a cross, then you have no real understanding of Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday, or the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. So I beg of you today not to shout Hosanna with your mind only, but let us shout out with a heart of understanding as well. Let us today say “praises be to our God who is in the highest heavens over all. Let him be praised by his angels that are in the highest heavens. Let our hosannas be an echo to theirs.

AMEN