Sermon:
March 24, 2002
Palm Sunday
Sunday Night Alive! 

Scripture:
Luke 19:29-44

And Monday wouldn’t work. The donkey awakened, his mind still savoring the afterglow of the most exciting day of his life. Never before had he felt such a rush of pleasure and pride.

He walked into town and found a group of people by the well. "I’ll show myself to them," he thought. But they didn’t notice him. They went on drawing their water and paid him no mind.

"Throw your garments down," he said crossly. "Don’t you know who I am?" They just looked at him in amazement. Someone slapped him across the tail and ordered him to move. "Miserable heathens!" he muttered to himself. "I’ll just go to the market where the good people are. They will remember me."

But the same thing happened. No one paid any attention to the donkey as he strutted down the main street in front of the market place. "The palm branches!" he shouted. "Yesterday, you threw palm branches!"

Hurt and confused, the donkey returned home to his mother. "Foolish child," she said gently. "Don’t you realize that without him, you are just an ordinary donkey?"

And Monday wouldn’t work. Just like the donkey that carried Jesus in Jerusalem, I’m afraid we miss the whole point. It’s not about the palm branches. It’s not about the donkey. It’s not about the crowd. It’s about Jesus and his mission. We are most fulfilled when we are in the service and mission of Jesus Christ. Without him, we cannot know peace. Without him, we cannot know freedom. Our best efforts are like ‘filthy rags’ (Isaiah 64:6) and amount to nothing. However, when we lift up Christ, we are no longer ordinary people but key players in God’s plan to redeem the world.

Two of the disciples got the donkey for Jesus to ride. They were probably thinking, "Give us the horse! We’ll even take the mule! But Jesus, why a donkey? The thing’s so slow. Heck, it’s not even four feet tall." This was a donkey: very sure-footed, very stable, but puny. Now I realize the closest most of us have been to donkeys was watching the Brady Bunch’s trip down into the Grand Canyon, but those weren’t donkeys. They were mules (the offspring of crossbreeding a donkey and a horse). Even the donkey ride shows us the humility of Jesus. Donkeys were ridden by rich and poor alike. They were much more affordable than the other animals. But still, the disciples must have wondered. Nevertheless, they got the donkey and brought it back for Jesus.

Jesus had turned his face toward Jerusalem. He knew his mission. Jesus came down from the Mount of Olives, down to the bustling, active city of Jerusalem.

It was the beginning of Passover. People began celebrating. Sunday was the first day of the festival. It was like Wednesday of the Dream Cruise. The excitement, the preparations, the out-of-town guests were arriving.

Passover was the first of the three great festivals of the Hebrew people. It referred to the sacrifice of a lamb in Egypt when the people of Israel were slaves. The Hebrews smeared the blood of the lamb on their door posts as a signal to God that he should "pass over" their houses when he destroyed all the firstborn of Egypt to persuade Pharaoh to let his people go. It was bigger than the Dream Cruise.

And Monday wouldn’t work. According to Exodus 12, the Sunday before Passover was a very special day. Sunday was the day that each Jewish family picked the lamb that was to die on the following Friday. This event had to do with Jesus showing up and going into this city to die, on what day? On Sunday, the day the sacrificial lamb was picked. God almost seems to say, "Here is my lamb, sent for you. This is the Lamb of God I have picked." Do you see the significance of Palm Sunday? Jesus choosing to enter into the city this day was a way of saying, "Have you recognized yet who I am?"

Jesus got on that little donkey, and began the day’s journey into Jerusalem. Down rocky, narrow roads they went. People began spreading their garments on the path for Jesus. Then Jesus comes to the descent on the road into Jerusalem. Listen again to the exact words Luke uses: "The disciples began to praise God." Do you see? The crowd must have started out quiet. Why? The danger of raising too much ruckus was very real. Any incidents meant a run-in with the Romans. It was a dangerous and highly-volatile political time. Every so often someone would take that same road and proclaim themselves to be the messiah, which meant the one to set the Jews free. The Roman soldiers would trash the person and usually kill them for creating a row. The Jews ate it up, though. They were looking. They were hungry. They wanted their freedom so badly they could almost taste it. That’s probably the main reason they were so excited, giving it up for Jesus.

"Hosanna" means "save us now." (Psalm 118:25-27: "Save us, we beseech you, O Lord! O Lord, we plead with you, give us success! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, and he has given us light. Tie the festival procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar.") Originally, hosanna was a prayer. But it became a rallying cry. It had a lot of weight behind it. Free us from the Romans! Save us! Everyone had their own ideas for Jesus’ agenda and who they wanted him to be

Remember this was the week-long festival of Passover, celebrating their freedom, celebrating their liberation from the Egyptians. Freedom was on everyone’s minds this time each year. The Jews were looking for the Messiah. The Messiah was one picked by God to deliver the people; basically the king of the Jews. (Remember the sign someone hung on the cross? "This is the King of the Jews.")

So picture the scene. The disciples were anticipating freedom. They began to celebrate that Jesus was the one, and it started to grow. Hosanna was a political statement. "Deliver me! Give me my freedom! We’re sick of the Romans!" It was really gutsy.

No wonder the Pharisees said, "Tell them to be quiet!" You’ll get them after us!

Then there’s the little issue of the palms. The palm branch was the national symbol of the Jewish people at the time. It started during the revolt of the Maccabees, 160 years earlier. It was on their coins. The waving palm branches were like the stars and stripes are to us, especially these days.

Jesus came from the East into Jerusalem. (Another prophecy fulfilled.) The deliverance the people wanted was not the Lamb’s day deliverance. It was for the national deliverance of Israel. They never knew it was their eternal deliverance instead.

Jesus tells those Pharisees that if the people are quiet, then the rocks themselves would cry out in worship, which they did four days later when he died. Absolutely no one was worshiping God then, and Matthew records that the earth shook and the rocks were split, crying out for Jesus when no one else would.

As he came near the city, Jesus wept. The only other time recorded in scripture that Jesus wept was for Mary and Martha and the death of their brother Lazarus. His great heart could feel the hurt of the loss, the fear of these women being left alone in the world. The Greek word used there was for "silently sobbing." Now, Jesus looks down upon the city and weeps openly. Our God is not distant. Our God is not aloof. His heart breaks for every hurt we experience. Luke tells us Jesus is crying aloud now. Imagine what the crowd thought. "Here we are, trying to make this guy king, and he’s a sap!"

Maybe Jesus wept because he saw those who didn’t believe and weren’t saved.

Or perhaps he had a glimpse into the future. He knew what would happen in Jerusalem. He knew what would happen to Jerusalem, to her people and to their children. He knew that people were seeking peace in the wrong way. "If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes." If only you knew what would bring you peace. If only you knew the way to shalom. But in the midst of the nationalistic hype, he knew that the Jews only wanted to do to the Romans what the Romans had done to them. Jesus knows how easily people become enslaved to that way of thinking. It was popular then, and it is very popular right now. True peace and freedom that Jesus shared from God’s kingdom are not what you can achieve in your old way of thinking. Continuing the script the world has handed us is not the way you will find it. Jesus showed us the only way to the millennial kingdom is the way built on the foundation of a spiritual kingdom. Jesus himself said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."

Then why did he weep? With all those people there that day, I believe Jesus cried both for those who didn’t know him and had to face death without him, as well as for those who knew but weren’t going to seek him by following his own example.

Let me ask you today: How does Jesus cry for you? I believe he cries for each of us. If you love him, if he’s your friend, he cries for your hurt. He cries when you lose someone. He cries because he knows what you’re going through. The author of the book of Hebrews writes, "We do not have a high priest (Jesus) who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). I also believe he cries for those of us who don’t know him. He weeps because you don’t know who he is and he doesn’t want you to face death alone.

Now, ask yourself: Why does Jesus cry for me? Because I hurt, or because when he came as the Lamb of God, I missed the point?

Could you accept a Messiah whose kingdom came by being a lamb? Could you accept a king riding on a slow, puny donkey? He came on the donkey (fulfilling another ancient prophecy). He came at Passover with palm branches waving, which is a political thing. People knew that. Even the donkey knew that. But no one seemed to notice that Jesus came on Lamb-selection day. Monday wouldn’t work. It’s almost as if God was saying, "I’m going to bring in the kingdom by being the lamb. I’m going to give my life. I will give it all for them."

If you and I hope to usher in the kingdom of God, we need look no further than Jesus. His kingdom comes into our lives as well as our world. If you haven’t invited him in yet, do so right now. If you have already put your faith in him alone, then take note. If you and I hope to impact the culture around us, we need to study Jesus’ method. If you and I want to experience and share the peace that passes understanding, Jesus has given us the method. And it’s a lot more like being a lamb than any of us may be comfortable with.