Palm Sunday4.17.11

Palm Sunday

4/17/11

“Friends, Foes, and Fickle Fans”

John 12: 12-13

As a teenager I can remember first becoming aware of Jesus when I heard a piece of the rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar.

The lyrics went like this:

“Hey sanna, ho sanna, sanna, sanna, hey sanna, ho sanna…

Hey, hey JC, JC won’t you smile at me.

Jesus Christ, if you’re divine, turn my water into wine. Prove to me that you’re no fool. Walk across my swimming pool. Hey sanna, ho sanna…

Those words kind of describe the mentality surrounding this first Palm Sunday parade.

It was like a circus in Jerusalem that day, crowded like Mardi Gras.

Hundreds of thousands of Jews were jammed into the holy city.

The crowds were there for the annual Passover celebration and it was pandemonium.

The salesmen could be heard hocking their wares: “Lambs for sale. Lambs for sale!”

In our day they would have been selling T-shirts that said something like, “I survived the Passover.”

I want us to look today at 3 kinds of people that were in that teeming crowd, for the same types of people are still around today:

The first were the CURIOUS CROWD

Jesus’ reputation had been spreading far and wide for 3 years.

He was famous or infamous depending on who you talked to.

On top of that, just days before the Passover, Jesus had performed the greatest miracle possible when he raised Lazarus from the dead.

The Bible tells us that many of the Jews tried to see Jesus that day, not for His sake only, “but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.”

On top of that, while on His way into Jerusalem, He had also healed two blind men, and they had been busy testifying to the crowds of their healing.

When Jesus came riding a donkey into town, the CURIOUS CROWD wanted to see him pull off another miracle.

Their sentiments were echoed by Herod who had said that “he hoped to see Jesus perform some miracle.”

The CURIOUS CROWD wanted Jesus to perform for them. He had become the circus ringmaster, what one writer called the “Holy Land Houdini.”

To this group Jesus was a novelty, a source of curiosity. He was their very own David Copperfield.

They surrounded Him with Palm leaves, their version of rolling out the red carpet, and cried “Hosanna!”

To the CURIOUS CROWD, Jesus was nothing more than the center ring in the Big Top.

“Hey, hey JC, JC, won’t you smile at me. Jesus Christ, if you’re divine, turn my water into wine. Prove to me that you’re no fool. Walk across my swimming pool.”

C’mon J.C., make a deaf person hear for me, give another blind man sight, alright!

This CURIOUS CROWD had high anticipation of witnessing a show.

If the Houdini of the Holy Land could pull another trick out of his bag, they might just believe.

The world is full of people like that today. They will only believe if they see a sign.

These are the curious, the thrill seekers, not the true seekers in search of a Savior.

Jesus had already addressed the CURIOUS CROWD earlier in His ministry when He said,

Matt 12:39-40 “Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights” (speaking of His soon coming death, burial and resurrection).

Then there was a second group of people that day. They were…

The Angry crowd

The ANGRY CROWD didn’t want a circus; they weren’t looking for one more magic trick.

These people were all about something very different. They were looking for a political revolution.

For them the first Palm Sunday was a huge political rally, charged with a desire to overthrow the oppressive Roman Gov’t.

To understand the first Palm Sunday, it helps to know that it took place during a rising surge of angry political unrest.

It had all started years before with 4 major events. First:

63 years before Jesus came on the scene, a Roman General named Pompeii had conquered Israel. Now the Israelites found themselves in slavery again after three hundred years of freedom.

Their subjection to the Roman Gov’t was miserable to the Jews for several reasons.

The Romans made them eat pork, which a Jew would never do.

And the Romans were forcing them to worship Caesar, a revolting idea to the Jew.

The Romans were also seducing them out of their religion, and the Jews hated them for it. Revolution began to simmer behind closed doors.

Second, at the same time Jesus was born, King Herod, who had rebuilt the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, turned from being Herod the Builder to Herod the killer when he ordered all boys two and under to be murdered after the wise men from the east walked into town asking about the birth of a Messiah.

The killer king didn’t want any baby messiah being born who would grow up to threaten his position.

Just imagine the hatred and bitterness at Rome over this heinous act!

Third, about 12 years later when Jesus was just a boy, a Jewish man name Zaduk led a revolution in Jerusalem and 2,000 of his followers were killed.

Adding insult to injury, the Romans strung them up on crosses for miles.

Just imagine I-30 from Fort Worth to Dallas, around 30 miles of highway, lined with men hanging dead on crosses!

This was the Romans’ message to the Jews on what would happen to political revolutionaries. And the hatred grew.

And finally, on this first Passover day when Jesus came riding into town, there had already been 32 political riots in the last 5 years.

Thing about that! Six major riots per year for five years had gone down preceding Jesus entering Jerusalem that day.

The town of Jerusalem on the day Jesus arrived on a donkey was a powder keg waiting to explode into full blown revolution.

And the ANGRY CROWD had hoped that Jesus would be the One to lead a successful revolt.

One commentator said they wanted a warrior on a warhorse and instead got a carpenter on a donkey.

So there was a CURIOUS CROWD that day. And there was an ANGRY CROWD.

One of them saying, “Use your power to entertain me.” The other saying “Use your power to liberate me.”

Both groups chanted, “Hosanna to the Son of David.”

And both groups would soon turn on Him.

But there was a third group that day that weren’t looking for a circus, and weren’t angry revolutionaries. They were:

Genuine seekers

The Bible says that a handful of Gentiles who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration paid a visit to one of Jesus’ followers and said,

“Sir, we want to meet Jesus” (John 12:20-21).

They didn’t want Him for what He could do. They wanted Him for Who He was.

They weren’t looking for David Copperfield; they were looking for the Son of David.

They weren’t looking for a magician; they were looking for a Messiah.

Somehow these men had caught a glimpse of the real Jesus.

They’d seen beyond the miracles, beyond His huge following.

They’d seen something that tugged at the deepest level of their souls—a love that oozed from Him, the grace that worked through Him, the light that shined from Him.

A hunger had been awakened deep inside their spirits—“We want to meet Jesus.”

Jesus had not come at that time to rule kingdoms or nations like an earthly king—that would come later.

His domain was far nobler, much loftier.

He came first as the King of hearts, the Lord of love, the Potentate of peace, the Ruler of men’s affections, the Passion of our desires, the Lover of our souls, the Answer to our dreams…

That is what moved these men to say, “Sir, we want to meet Jesus.”

The CURIOUS CROWD and the ANGRY CROWD were soon sorely disappointed and helped to crucify Him just a few days later.

But the ones that wanted to meet Him found Him.

What about you?

What group are you in?

Let’s pray…