{"id":230,"date":"2019-04-14T14:26:32","date_gmt":"2019-04-14T14:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=230"},"modified":"2019-04-15T14:28:43","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T14:28:43","slug":"palm-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2019\/04\/14\/palm-sunday\/","title":{"rendered":"Palm Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Luke 19:29-40<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace to you and peace\nfrom God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\nbegins the week that holds the greatest significance, for the faith, of anyone\nwho looks to Jesus as their Lord and Savior. I gristle, as the church seems to\nhave moved away from Maundy Thursday and Good Friday worship, and turned Palm\nSunday into Passion Sunday. Today\u2019s scheduled Gospel reading was scheduled as\nthe Passion story, beginning in the 22 chapter of Luke, verse 14, and concluded\nat the end of the 23 chapter. This reading, were I to have read it, would have\nincluded the story of the Last Supper, Judas\u2019 betrayal and Jesus\u2019 arrest, all\nof Jesus\u2019 trials and Peter\u2019s denial, Jesus scourging, Jesus\u2019 walk to Golgotha\n(where he was crucified), his crucifixion and death, and the story around his\nbeing taken down, off the cross, and being placed in a tomb by Joseph of\nArimathea. Interestingly enough, the events of Palm Sunday, the traditional\ncelebration of this day, are not included, though it is listed to be used at\nthe beginning of the service. The change from Palm Sunday to Passion Sunday was\nmade by the church, pretty much, because businesses ceased closing on Good\nFriday afternoons and many people stopped attending worship services on Maundy\nThursdays and Good Fridays. By this change, the church hopes that those who\nattend Passion Sunday services will have the full experience of Holy Week,\nexcept for Easter; people have continued to attend Easter Sunday services. If\nyou like this concept or if you do not, either way, I encourage all of you to\nread Luke chapters 19 thru 23 on your own to get a feel for how the events of\nHoly Week flow together. And, I encourage everyone to attend the Maundy\nThursday service at lower church, Thursday evening at 7:30 (when we will\ncelebrate Jesus\u2019 Last Supper) and the Good Friday service, here on Friday\nevening at 7:30 (when we will remember Jesus crucifixion and death); If you\nhave not yet signed up for the Guarding of the Tomb, I encourage you to do that\nas well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\nthough, we will celebrate Jesus\u2019 triumphant entrance into Jerusalem riding on the\nfoal of a donkey, while people waved leafy branches, likely palms, in the air\nand sang praises to Jesus, today we will celebrate Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday\nmarked a change in Jesus\u2019 approach to life and ministry; in Jesus\u2019 short life\nof ministry he had provided the people with some wonderful events and messages,\nbut in that time, he refused to allow the people the opportunity for praise and\nadulation. In fact, we hear Jesus continually charging those, whom he had\nhealed, to tell no one about him or what he had done. On the one occasion when\nthe people wanted to set him up as their king, he had made a quick escape. But\nnot on this day, the day we call Palm Sunday. On this day, unlike all the\nothers, Jesus did not discourage the cheers and praises offered by the crowd,\nin fact he seems to have set the stage for it. And, when he was confronted by\nthe Pharisees, he even defended it, saying that if the people were all silenced\nthe stones themselves would shout out his praises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So,\nwhat made this day different that Jesus would encourage praises? Why was it,\nthat the people were so excited and so willing, on this day, to offer their\npraises? The desire to shout praises to Jesus, were in fact there all along,\nbut they were held in check, Jesus would not allow them. Jesus had been healing\nand feeding people for 3 years; he had proclaimed the word of God, messages of\nGod\u2019s will and love and he had raised people from the dead during those same\nthree years; he had taught the people in the Temple, in synagogues, in people\u2019s\nhome and out in the wilderness. And without cell phones, tv\u2019s and other modern\nforms of communication, the word about Jesus had spread to the far reaches of\nGod\u2019s people, about all that Jesus had done. Just the mention of Jesus\u2019 name\nbrought excitement and expectations to the crowds. This was the prophet; this\nwas God\u2019s messiah: this was the Son of God. Everywhere that Jesus went he found\nthe people waiting for him, expecting miracles and the wisdom of God. And\n(there was something else) Jesus was entering Jerusalem, not on a flatbed wagon\n(or trucks and buses like he Eagles did), but on a foal of a donkey. I know\nthat, that doesn\u2019t mean a whole lot to us today, but to the people there in\nJerusalem at that time, they recalled the stories of David, how he entered into\nJerusalem, their victorious king, humble and riding on the foal of a donkey. They\nbelieved that Jesus was identifying himself with their great king David, and\nfrom all that we can tell, Jesus was. So, of course, thee people shouted his\npraises; of course, they gave Jesus a king\u2019s welcome. They couldn\u2019t help themselves,\njust as the crowds in Philadelphia couldn\u2019t help cheering for the Superbowl\nwinning Philadelphia Eagles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nreal question might be, why would Jesus have wanted such praise, there and\nthen? Beside the fact that we all like a little praise now and then; remember\nJesus was human as well as God\u2019s Son; I\u2019m sure hearing it felt good; But it was\nthese praises, as much as Judas\u2019 betrayal that helped put God\u2019s plan in motion.\nWe see in the story how the Pharisees were not happy about Jesus being praised\nsuch. The risk of such a display, and all of the leadership of Israel\nunderstood it, was that the Romans would get upset about all the commotion and\nthat they wouldn\u2019t take out their anger not only on Jesus, but would shut down\nthe Temple and take away their rights to worship and remove from them their\npower to rule the people of Israel (at least from a religious perspective). You\ncould say that Jesus\u2019 Palm Sunday entrance into Jerusalem was the little nudge\nneeded to push the High Priest to arrest Jesus. It could also be said that this\ntriumphant entrance would certainly put the Roman soldiers and their leaders on\nalert. Everything from this event on, worked together to lead to the events of\nGood Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still\nthis is not a sad day; any day that provides us with the opportunity to sing\nJesus\u2019 praises is a good day, especially in Lent. Sing to the Lord the praises\nhe deserves: \u201cBlessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Praise in\nheaven, and glory in the highest heaven!\u201d \u201cBlessed is the one who comes in the\nname of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions\/231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}