Sermon: March 16, 2008
"The Beginning of the End...and the Beginning"
(scripture references are clickable)
Well, most of us probably know this story fairly well. We hear it every year on this day, of how Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, receiving the acclaim and the “Hosannas!” of the crowds as they waved their palm branches. We know that this is the beginning of the end. On Palm Sunday, Jesus only had a few more days to live. This is now Holy Week; Good Friday is just around the corner. Soon, those who sang “Hosannas!” will be shouting “Crucify!”
And the amazing thing is that it was all planned. Palm Sunday wasn’t an accident. These things didn’t happen by chance. They weren’t a freak occurrence. No, five chapters earlier, Jesus told His disciples that “From that time on . . . He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life” (Matthew 16:21, NIV). In the previous chapter, Jesus told them “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn Him to death and will turn Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day, He will be raised to life!” (Matthew 20:18-19, NIV). So Jesus knew what would happen after He entered Jerusalem. He knew the Passover feast He was going to celebrate would be His last, that it would end with Him being sacrificed as the true Passover Lamb. He knew all this – and He went anyway! And we see that He carefully planned all that happened, down to the very donkey He rode, which He sent His disciples to collect along the way.
And the reason is clear: with this one act, with His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus says that the time for secrecy is over. Most people are troubled by the theme of secrecy that they find throughout the Gospels. Over and over, Jesus commands people not to tell others about Him. And that seems counter-intuitive to us. Shouldn’t they be shouting this Good News from the rooftops? Shouldn’t they be telling everyone they meet about the coming of the Messiah? Nevertheless, over and over, Jesus commands those He heals and those He teaches to be quiet, that it’s not yet time for everyone to know that He has come, that more preparation is needed. But now, on this first Palm Sunday, we find that the time for secrecy is finally over. Now, Jesus publicly proclaims that He is the promised Messiah. As the prophet Zechariah predicted, He rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, the animal kings rode in times of peace (in wartime, kings rode horses). And in this one act, in fulfilling this prophecy, Jesus says to everyone “I’m the One you’ve been waiting for. I’m the One the prophets told you about. I’m the Messiah”. Finally, it’s time for everyone to see that Jesus is the Christ, the One sent by God to be the Salvation of Humankind. And now, everyone has an opportunity to either receive or to reject their Savior.
And the crowds initially receive Jesus. It’s the time for the Passover feast, and so the population of Jerusalem has swelled from all the pilgrims who have come to keep the feast. About thirty years after this, a count was made of Passover lambs slaughtered, and it was estimated that about a quarter of a million died. Now, the Law stipulates that at least ten people must gather for a lamb to be slaughtered. So that means that when Jesus rode into Jerusalem at the time of the Passover, there were about two and a half million people in the city! (To put this in perspective, it’s estimated that the population of Rome – the largest city in the empire – at this time was about a million to a million and a quarter people!) So, with this many people in the city, Jerusalem was abuzz, full of energy. And from the authors of the day, we know that Messianic fervor was high. There were high expectations for the coming Christ. And so, when Jesus came riding into the city in pomp and majesty, the crowds went wild. They threw their cloaks down as they would for a king. They cut palm branches and waved them as a symbol of victory. They proclaimed Jesus their King and Messiah, quoting from Psalm 118, which we heard as our first Scripture reading for today. This psalm was used in the Passover celebration, and had long been associated with the coming Messiah. They called Jesus the “Son of David”, a Messianic title, and shouted “Hosanna”, which means “Save us now!”, a cry reserved for a king or for God. The crowds gave their joy, their praise, their worship, their enthusiasm; they gave Jesus all that He deserves as our Messiah, our King, our Lord. But alas – the enthusiasm did not last!
For Jesus did not come to be the kind of Messiah the crowds wanted. They wanted a king like David, one who would kick the hated Romans out, one who would give the Jews their independence, one who would give them military strength and political power and earthly riches. They wanted the “good old days” back. But Jesus didn’t come to be a military conqueror. Remember, He came riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, not a horse. He came to save us from our sins. He came to bring His people a heavenly victory. He came to give His people what they need, not necessarily what they want. And for this, the crowds turn on Him. The mob is fickle. Like their forefathers whom we studied in the book of Numbers, these people rebelled against God. By the end of the week, they rejected their God, even as He stood right in front of them. And like people today, who lay down ultimatums before God – “unless you do thus-and-such, unless you heal this or that, unless you keep me safe and secure, I won’t worship or obey you” – when God doesn’t give them everything they want, they turn on Him. People don’t change! And the great tragic irony is, as God stands before His people, offering everything they need, God’s people hand Him over to be crucified, simply because He doesn’t meet their expectations.
And that gives Jesus’ enemies the perfect opportunity to get rid of Him. As Jesus rides into Jerusalem, as He publicly proclaims Himself to be the Messiah, He instantly makes enemies of the religious leaders, who move against Him. For He also is not the kind of Messiah they want. And because they are threatened by Him and the power He has, because they are afraid that He might stir the Romans up against them, and because they are offended by Him as He shows them up and teaches things contrary to what they believe, because of all of this, it’s the beginning of the end for Jesus. With this Palm Sunday display, Jesus’ fate is sealed. It’s only a matter of time. (Now do you see the need for secrecy before? It wasn’t yet time.) For in the eyes of the religious leaders, Jesus has to die – and not only does He have to die, but He has to die a humiliating death, crucified as a criminal, to discredit Him forever. And so, they plot to kill their Savior and Lord. They plot to get rid of the One they need most, the One they should love and respect most. And thus, the divine drama begins.
But . . . while Palm Sunday is indeed the beginning of the end, it’s also ironically the beginning of the beginning. For in all of this, God works an wonderful, astonishing, amazing miracle – He takes what others meant for evil and works it all for good. For it’s no accident that we call this upcoming Friday “Good Friday”. For in this terrible, horrible, unjust act, in the crucifixion and death of our Lord, in this, mysteriously, comes a new beginning. In this comes the Kingdom of God. In this comes healing, blessing and new life for us. God takes this terrible evil – the rejection of the crowds, the conniving of the religious leaders, the betrayal of Judas – and in His grace, He works all this for blessing. Indeed, it’s horrible to think about what was done to our Jesus. But it’s wonderful to think what God did in response! And it all begins here, in Holy Week, as God begins His work of redemption, as Jesus publicly proclaims that He is the Christ, and as His people then reject Him. It’s the beginning of the end . . . and of the beginning!
And so, my friends, in this Holy Week, I hope we will spend a good deal of time in thought and in prayer. I hope that we will all thank God for what He was willing to do, for what He purposely did – for us. I hope we will ask God to soften our hearts and minds, to accept Jesus as He is, as the Christ He came to be, and not as the One we want Him to be. I hope we will ask God to give us constancy, faithfulness, loyalty and courage, to stick with Jesus through hard times and good. I hope we will all humble ourselves, to give ourselves to the Lord this week, to yield our lives to Him and to accept His forgiveness and blessings this week. For He rode on in majesty, and in lowly pomp He rode on to die – for us![1] Hallelujah! To Him alone be the glory!
