Luke 19:29-40
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
Today begins the week that holds the greatest significance, for the faith, of anyone who looks to Jesus as their Lord and Savior. I gristle, as the church seems to have moved away from Maundy Thursday and Good Friday worship, and turned Palm Sunday into Passion Sunday. Today’s scheduled Gospel reading was scheduled as the Passion story, beginning in the 22 chapter of Luke, verse 14, and concluded at the end of the 23 chapter. This reading, were I to have read it, would have included the story of the Last Supper, Judas’ betrayal and Jesus’ arrest, all of Jesus’ trials and Peter’s denial, Jesus scourging, Jesus’ walk to Golgotha (where he was crucified), his crucifixion and death, and the story around his being taken down, off the cross, and being placed in a tomb by Joseph of Arimathea. Interestingly enough, the events of Palm Sunday, the traditional celebration of this day, are not included, though it is listed to be used at the beginning of the service. The change from Palm Sunday to Passion Sunday was made by the church, pretty much, because businesses ceased closing on Good Friday afternoons and many people stopped attending worship services on Maundy Thursdays and Good Fridays. By this change, the church hopes that those who attend Passion Sunday services will have the full experience of Holy Week, except for Easter; people have continued to attend Easter Sunday services. If you like this concept or if you do not, either way, I encourage all of you to read Luke chapters 19 thru 23 on your own to get a feel for how the events of Holy Week flow together. And, I encourage everyone to attend the Maundy Thursday service at lower church, Thursday evening at 7:30 (when we will celebrate Jesus’ Last Supper) and the Good Friday service, here on Friday evening at 7:30 (when we will remember Jesus crucifixion and death); If you have not yet signed up for the Guarding of the Tomb, I encourage you to do that as well.
Today though, we will celebrate Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem riding on the foal of a donkey, while people waved leafy branches, likely palms, in the air and sang praises to Jesus, today we will celebrate Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday marked a change in Jesus’ approach to life and ministry; in Jesus’ short life of ministry he had provided the people with some wonderful events and messages, but in that time, he refused to allow the people the opportunity for praise and adulation. In fact, we hear Jesus continually charging those, whom he had healed, to tell no one about him or what he had done. On the one occasion when the people wanted to set him up as their king, he had made a quick escape. But not on this day, the day we call Palm Sunday. On this day, unlike all the others, Jesus did not discourage the cheers and praises offered by the crowd, in fact he seems to have set the stage for it. And, when he was confronted by the Pharisees, he even defended it, saying that if the people were all silenced the stones themselves would shout out his praises.
So, what made this day different that Jesus would encourage praises? Why was it, that the people were so excited and so willing, on this day, to offer their praises? The desire to shout praises to Jesus, were in fact there all along, but they were held in check, Jesus would not allow them. Jesus had been healing and feeding people for 3 years; he had proclaimed the word of God, messages of God’s will and love and he had raised people from the dead during those same three years; he had taught the people in the Temple, in synagogues, in people’s home and out in the wilderness. And without cell phones, tv’s and other modern forms of communication, the word about Jesus had spread to the far reaches of God’s people, about all that Jesus had done. Just the mention of Jesus’ name brought excitement and expectations to the crowds. This was the prophet; this was God’s messiah: this was the Son of God. Everywhere that Jesus went he found the people waiting for him, expecting miracles and the wisdom of God. And (there was something else) Jesus was entering Jerusalem, not on a flatbed wagon (or trucks and buses like he Eagles did), but on a foal of a donkey. I know that, that doesn’t mean a whole lot to us today, but to the people there in Jerusalem at that time, they recalled the stories of David, how he entered into Jerusalem, their victorious king, humble and riding on the foal of a donkey. They believed that Jesus was identifying himself with their great king David, and from all that we can tell, Jesus was. So, of course, thee people shouted his praises; of course, they gave Jesus a king’s welcome. They couldn’t help themselves, just as the crowds in Philadelphia couldn’t help cheering for the Superbowl winning Philadelphia Eagles.
The real question might be, why would Jesus have wanted such praise, there and then? Beside the fact that we all like a little praise now and then; remember Jesus was human as well as God’s Son; I’m sure hearing it felt good; But it was these praises, as much as Judas’ betrayal that helped put God’s plan in motion. We see in the story how the Pharisees were not happy about Jesus being praised such. The risk of such a display, and all of the leadership of Israel understood it, was that the Romans would get upset about all the commotion and that they wouldn’t take out their anger not only on Jesus, but would shut down the Temple and take away their rights to worship and remove from them their power to rule the people of Israel (at least from a religious perspective). You could say that Jesus’ Palm Sunday entrance into Jerusalem was the little nudge needed to push the High Priest to arrest Jesus. It could also be said that this triumphant entrance would certainly put the Roman soldiers and their leaders on alert. Everything from this event on, worked together to lead to the events of Good Friday.
Still this is not a sad day; any day that provides us with the opportunity to sing Jesus’ praises is a good day, especially in Lent. Sing to the Lord the praises he deserves: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Praise in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.”