Palm/Passion Sunday
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:5-11
Luke 22:14-23:56 or Luke 23:1-49
Also Luke 19:28-40
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
In some ways, the next few weeks of the church year are the most difficult to discuss in a devotional or a sermon. How do we explain the heart of God, make sense of His plan, grasp on to the significance of all that Jesus did during Holy Week in just a few minutes on a Sunday?
It seems to me there was a time when Palm Sunday was just that - Palm Sunday. We focused our worship on Christ the King coming into Jerusalem, wondering about the earthly glory that we knew would not be lasting. We had some time to rejoice with the crowd and join in the hallelujahs. While we still do so on Palm Sunday, we now quickly set aside that moment to hear the Passion story.
To me it feels like we are rushing into the Passion too fast. I suppose this is why it is so hard to understand how the crowd could move from joy to anger; we see it happening in just a few moments rather than over a few days.
The reality is that there were days between the triumphant entry and the crucifixion. In that time, the people realized that Jesus was not there to be their king, not in the way they expected. When they threw palm branches down at His feet, they were welcoming salvation from their earthbound foes, a king who would make Israel a free and strong nation once again. They were expecting Him to ride that donkey right up to the palace and do something amazing to grasp what was rightly His - the rule over the people of God.
Instead of fighting the Romans, Jesus attacked the very soul of their worship - the temple and their longstanding practices. He went into the courtyard to drive out those who were selling things, crying out disgust at what had happened to the place dedicated to God. It was supposed to be a place of prayer for the people of the world, but the courtyard had become a marketplace.
I imagine there was a sense of shock when Jesus caused such a ruckus at the Temple. The people were in Jerusalem for the Passover, the highest holy time for the Jews. Many had traveled great distances to be part of the celebration. They needed the moneychangers and merchants to fulfill their own pilgrimage to Jerusalem. They had heard rumors of what might happen. The acts of Jesus were well known and there was an expectation that this Passover would be the one during which the long anticipated Messiah would come. They thought they would be blessed to see the fulfillment of the promise of the Messiah, but they did not expect the Messiah to mess around with the things of God.
The promise was fulfilled before their very eyes, but they missed it because they did not understand God's plan. What good could come from death?
Even today, we question the wisdom of sending a Messiah to die. Would it have not been better to raise up the glory of Christ right from that moment of exaltation when Jesus entered Jerusalem? We would much rather jump right from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday without going through the cross.
I imagine there are far more people aware of the events of Good Friday this year because of the movie "The Passion" but do any of us really understand it. The movie gives us a heart wrenching vision of what Christ suffered, but it does not answer any questions. Why did Jesus have to die? Why do we go from king to criminal in such a short period of time?
One of the tendencies of human thought is that we try to assign blame for everything that happens. There has been some question about whether "The Passion" leads us to a proper villain to blame for the death of Jesus. Was it Pilate? Was it the Jews? Who are the Jews - the crowd or the authorities? Was it you and I?
While each of these answers is true, all played a role in the death of Jesus, we forget to lay it at the feet of the One who had total control of the situation - from the Triumphant entry to His final cry on the cross - Jesus. He had His life in His own hands, as Max Lucado so eloquently says "He chose the nails."
Jesus chose to ride triumphantly into Jerusalem knowing that in just a few days He would die. Remember how a few weeks ago we heard the story of Lazarus? The disciples did not want Jesus to go to heal their friend because it was too dangerous to be there. But from that moment, Jesus set His face toward the cross and did not concern Himself with the plans of men. Nothing they would do could stop Jesus from doing what He was sent to accomplish - to defeat sin and death, to save the world.
It is important that we hear this part of the story. We have to get through the cross before we can go to Easter. The sad fact is that the only time many people do hear the story of the Passion is on Palm Sunday. Our busy schedules leave little time to walk with Jesus through Holy week to the cross. We have to read the story so that it will be heard. Yet, I'd rather not hear it just yet. It is careless to go from Triumph to heartache in such a short period of time.
It isn't that I would want to linger at the parade held in Jesus' honor that day. The people in that crowd were worshipping a false Messiah. They were worshipping their idea of an earthly king not the Messiah Jesus came to be. Yet, to jump from triumph to arrest leaves out so much of the story that is vital to understand how much control Jesus had. He had the authority to preach and teach, to cast out the moneychangers and the merchants. He had the authority to lay down His own life. He even had the authority to forgive sins.
Paul writes, "Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross."
Jesus gave up the glory of heaven to come to live among His people. Though He had every right to glory and honor due the Son of God, He humbled Himself to become like one of us and suffer for our sakes. He died on the cross to grant forgiveness.
He even did so on the cross. His first words in our Gospel passage for this week after being nailed to the cross were "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." He asked forgiveness for them even as they were humiliating Him with their words and with their actions. They were not repentant. They did not seek His grace. He gave it to them, with as much authority as He had to do everything else we have seen Him do.
It is ironic that Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God without blemish or sin, was the one dying for sin while the rest were filled with sin deserving death but acting as if they had the authority to take His life. They didn't know what they were doing. They were blinded to the truth of Christ. They did not recognize Him because they saw only what they wanted to see.
Yet, we think they should have recognized Him. With twenty/twenty vision we can see how clearly the scriptures describe the Messiah as the suffering servant. Jesus could have easily been the singer of today's psalm - persecuted, abandoned by His friends and left to die at the hands of His enemies. The passage from Isaiah is a servant song, describing the teacher as humble even before those who threaten Him. Yet, He stands firm in the promise of God, looking to Him for salvation in the midst of calamity. We see this as prophetic, announcing the character of the servant we see so clearly as Christ our Lord. How easy it is to have foresight after the resurrection.
This is the way it was designed to be. Christ on the cross, humiliated by the hands of men but humble by His own power. He went there - first to Jerusalem in a state of glory and then to the cross in an even greater glory - for our sake. This is not something to take lightly, to rush through so that we can get to the glory of Easter. This is something to ponder for a time, to watch as Jesus walks through the events of holy week - establishing His authority in the Temple and in the hearts of those who believe.
From the last supper and the prayer in the garden, to the trial and journey to Golgotha and then the nailing of His flesh to the cross, even to the very moment of death itself when Jesus commends Himself to the hands of God, He knew what He was doing and He did so for our sake.
It will never be easy to understand why Jesus would do this. We have only our faith and words like those Paul has written. "Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Jesus did all this for the glory of God.
We look at Palm Sunday as being a moment of glory before the journey to the cross. The reality is that the journey itself is where the true glory is found because in it we see the Lamb of God being obedient to the Father for our sake, fulfilling the promises of God not as we expect them to be fulfilled but as God has meant them to be fulfilled. In this way God is truly glorified.
Thanks be to God.
A WORD FOR TODAY
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