Palms and Praises

[Preached March 16, 2008; Based on Matthew 21: 7-11]

 

In lieu of a full message, I want to read Matthew’s rendition of Palm Sunday’s happenings and then merely to share a few thoughts about Palm Sunday:

 

They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Hosanna in the highest!" When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, "Who is this?" The crowds answered, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee." [Matthew 21: 7-11]

 

1.    Palm Sunday is the day we’d like to believe that we would be in that great crowd crying, “Hosanna in the highest!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”  This approaching week is Holy Week.  Holy Week is that week we’d like to believe that we would not be in that terrible crowd crying, “We have no friend but Caesar; crucify him!” 

 

The thing I’ve noticed about Palm Sunday is that the people were excited about Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, when the way was easy.  Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem was from the Mount of Olives was a descent and it’s always easier going down hill. 

 

But later in the week when his road got rough… and particularly when the road’s grade began to climb up toward Mount Calvary… all the followers turned away.  Today we descend with the crowd and shout, “Hosanna!” but this week will bring a climb.  Are we ready to ascend this week? 

 

Will we climb this week? Will we climb to Maundy Thursday (7PM at Wesley) and Good Friday (7PM here)? Are we willing to grow as individuals as we follow Christ? It’s a lot easier to praise going down hill than faithfully follow up hill.

 

  1. I can’t help but think of the contrast between how Jesus faced his conflicts and how many of us do.  The Bible teaches that Jesus “turned his face resolutely toward Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51) when he realized the time had come for his journey to the cross.  He confronted his challenge directly.

 

Many of us are more like the woman who frantically approached an airline ticket counter, placed several hundred dollars on the counter, and said, “Use this, and send me anywhere you can and back in three days. I cannot stand it here another minute.”  We would much rather escape than face our challenges directly.

 

Do you hear God calling to you today?  Is there a challenge you need to face? God longs for you to know that God’s love for you is relentless.  God will never, not love you! God will never leave you!

 

 

 

  1. Are we more willing to cheer for someone else who appears to be changing or conquering the world, when our real challenge is to conquer ourselves?  Edwin Markham (John C. Maxwell, Developing the Leader Within You, page 162) wrote this poem:

 


 

We are blind until we see

            That in the human plan

            Nothing is worth the making

If it does not make the man.

Why build these cities glorious

If man unbuilded goes?

In vain we build the world

Unless the builder also grows.


 

 

            Are you in the building process?

 

4.    God is a God of promises and a God of action.  A.W. Tozer in his great book, The Pursuit of God, asks whether it makes any sense that God “suddenly began to speak in a book and when the book was finished lapsed back into silence again forever. Now we read the book as the record of what God said when He was for a brief time in a speaking mood.” (A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, 81-2)

 

No, God continues to speak through the actions of his Son Jesus Christ and through his word – the actions of Palm Sunday and the actions of Holy Week.  Are we listening? Are we currently “under construction” and do we realize that God is our partner regardless the grade of the pathway we walk?

 

  1. Finally, I read Pastor Aaron’s message for today and it was excellent. He spoke about how the Palm Sunday Praises turned into mockery and conflict. The soldiers demonstrated this by replacing the waving of palm branches with the waving of their own palms as they slapped Jesus around. Then, Jesus responded – not in retaliation, but by opening his palms to be crucified!

 

Today is the day that we raise our palms in praise, but as this week unfolds, may we reject the retaliation response of violence and open our palms and hands to God whatever is most in line with God’s plan. What do you say? Put your palms together and give God a clap offering!!