The World Has Need of Him

Something Worth Celebrating

Have you ever stopped and thought about the enormity of the reality of the Gospel? All of the questions that people argue about all the time, all of the questions that people have been pondering for all of human history, all of the questions that ‘have no answers’ - questions like “what is the meaning of life” and “what is our purpose” and “is there a higher power” - we have the answer to all of them. What’s more, we know that the higher power actually cares about each of us personally. We know the truth about what is right and what is wrong. And if that wasn’t enough, we have the secret to eternal life!

So why don’t we ever look like that? We have this incredible news but do we ever really act like it? Sunday morning is supposed to be a celebration of all that, but how often is our attitude one of obligation? We have to be there, we drag ourselves into church, we don’t really engage with the worship. How often is extra church stuff an obligation or a burden instead of an opportunity to celebrate everything God has done for us? To use some imagery from our text, how many of us would drop everything to line the road for Jesus?

Maybe we’d celebrate if . . .

Now, in the interest of fairness, the people there on Palm Sunday might’ve been celebrating because they were expecting Jesus to be something else. They might’ve been celebrating because they thought He was going to heal them or do miracles for them or take Israel back from the Romans. Maybe they were celebrating because they thought the incredible things Jesus was bringing were right around the corner.

Maybe we would celebrate if we thought that Jesus was going to heal us from all of our aches, pains, and illnesses tomorrow. Maybe we would celebrate if we thought that Jesus was going to take over the world and put Christians on top tomorrow. Maybe we would celebrate if we thought Jesus was going to make us all wealthy tomorrow or bring back everyone we’ve lost or fix everything that’s wrong with the world on Monday April 3rd.

You know, because eternal life and everything else is great, but we don’t know when we’re going to get to experience that, so is it really worth celebrating and getting excited about right now? Maybe we would celebrate if we were expecting some more short-term gratification from Jesus, maybe we would celebrate if there weren’t so many things we had to take care of in the here and now.

Worshiping “Right”

The Pharisees thought all the celebration on Palm Sunday was overblown, they didn’t see a reason to celebrate, they had other things they thought people should be doing. So they tell Jesus to rebuke His disciples, to tell them to calm down and go home. And Jesus says “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

Now I don’t know what that would’ve looked like. I don’t know if Jesus meant that the stones would literally start singing and celebrating or if it was some sort of poetic language - the people keep rejoicing so we don’t get to see what He meant specifically. But it tells us something about how Jesus looks at the joy of things He has created. The people there were celebrating Jesus and His mission, even if they didn’t quite get it. The stones wouldn’t understand what Jesus was doing either, but creation rejoices at what Jesus would accomplish on the cross. I think one of the lessons here is that our worship doesn’t have to be perfect, doesn’t have to look a certain way. For those of you who have gotten to know me personally over the past couple years, you might’ve picked up on the fact that I’m not a super expressive person - even when I’m really excited about something I don’t really get performative over it. Maybe your excitement isn’t visible, maybe your joy isn’t verbal, maybe you’re not quite sure what God is doing in your life - we still celebrate and rejoice together.

It’s Not Up to You

And the incredible thing is this, Jesus is still there for it. All those people, way back when Jesus came into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday, they totally misunderstood the assignment. They didn’t know Jesus was coming there to die, they didn’t know that He was coming to give them eternal life and establish His kingdom forever, they didn’t know that He was going to rise from the dead - but Jesus did it all for them any way. And if you asked Him why, I have to imagine He would shrug and say “the world has need of me.”

If you’re sitting there with some uncertainty about “I don’t feel enough joy” or “I’m not excited enough” or “I don’t know enough” - Jesus’ love for you, Jesus’ sacrifice for you, Jesus’ forgiveness for you, Jesus’ promises for you doesn’t rely on your understanding or your feelings. He loved you, died for you, forgives you, promises you life anyway. Our joy and excitement and praise and gratitude is a response.

The Lord Has Need of It

But we are called to respond. We have the answers we need to all the biggest questions in the world. That doesn’t mean we understand everything, we still have questions about why God has done things the way that He has, but He has told us what we need to know. And what He has told us is incredible, it is the best news we could possibly receive.

We are called to worship, looking at our Sunday mornings and saying “the Lord has need of it.”

We are called to rejoice, to look forward to being with this community changing our attitudes because “the Lord has need of it.”

We are called to give, to sacrifice our time and our money, looking at our calendars and our finances and saying “the Lord has need of it.”

We are called to put everything else aside, looking at our lives and saying “the Lord has need of it” because He looked at the task set before Him and said “the world has need of me.”