There Goes the King

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

Have you ever had a moment when you didn’t quite see the full picture? Maybe you didn’t quite able to read through the lines - of the conversation with your friend and you missed out the intended punch line. Maybe you were watching a movie with your friend and you get to the end of the movie - and your confused, so you begin to ask - what just happened, you missed out on some important but small details - so you were unable to connect the dots. Maybe you see a deal offered on a commercial and the deal seems too good to be true, but on this advertisement - you fail to see the fine print, where you have to spend a certain amount of money, you have make use of this deal at a certain time of year, or you have to sign up for a certain subscription in order for you to cash in on this deal. There can be moments where for lack of paying attention, lack of picking up on the little details, where we fail to see the full picture of what’s happening.

Today in our text, we have a crowd a people who fail to see the full picture. In our text we have the great Palm Sunday entrance of Jesus into Jersualem for the last time before His death and resurrection. The whole crowd gathered there, to Jesus; they lined the street almost like a parade. Think of the last time you were at a parade. There are many different faces in the crowd. There are people at a parade who really enjoy it. They had it circled on their calendar, they are looking forward for a certain float to come by, they are want to see a particular person or group. There are some people at parades who want something. For them anything that is free is good. They want the candy, or the plastic frisbees, or the pens that some floats hand out at a parade. Then, in a crowd at parades there are people there who are drug by other people. They don’t want to be there, they don’t really like crowds, but they are brought by other people. After the parade ends, there people who complain because the parade didn’t match up to expectations; they thought they were going to get more or see more. But on the other hand there are people who attend parades, who are completely content and can’t wait for next year. I imagine that in this parade on the first Palm Sunday that were multiple faces in the crowd with many different reasons for being there. There may have been some of those people who there who truly believed Jesus to be the Messiah and truly wanted to praise Him. There may have been those people there at this parade - who simply wanted to see something. They heard that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, and they wanted to see something of their own. They wanted to see another sign. But then, there may have been people there who were brought by others, and just wanted to be apart of something that everyone else was invovled in. And just like a parade after it ended there may have been people who complained (like the Pharisees) because they didn’t get exactly what they wanted. But there also may have been people who couldn’t wait to see Jesus again because they were convinced that He was there King. There were many different faces in the crowd that day. But no matter who is the crowd that day; they didn’t see the full picture. They said the write words, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” but they didn’t truly understand what kind of a King Jesus was for they; what kind of mission that Jesus was sent to accomplish.

However, Jesus in this triumphant processional, this grand parade He shows His mercy and grace on full display. Jesus is there He hears the praise of the people. It could have been really easy for Jesus to stay there and hear their praises. It could have been so easy for Jesus to hear the multitudes of people praise His name. But Jesus keeps on riding. It could have been easy for Jesus to stay and receive a crown from the multitude as the claimed Him as King, but Jesus keeps on riding. There could have been a moment for Jesus to stay and dwell in the praise of the people, but Jesus keeps on riding. Jesus rides on to leave crowds beside, He goes on to ride past the praise and glory of men, He sets aside the praises of the crowd, to ride on to pick up a cross of shame and suffering. And what a stark contrast from this glorious parade to the scene on Good Friday. Here at Palm Sunday Jesus finds Himself surrounded by all these people proclaiming Him as King, but on Good Friday, He finds Himself all alone - as He carries the sin of the whole world. In fact, He even cries out “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”. Jesus keeps on riding that humble donkey to carry sins for this crowd that will betray Him, that will be nowhere to be seen, that doesn’t understand what is really taking place or what He came to do.

The people in crowd, I think our first reaction as we read this text - is people how could you not get it? How could you not understand? There is the King of the world riding in your midst. But there are times when we are no better than the crowd. They were there praising Him - crying “Hosanna!” - which means save us now, or please save us. The crowd was there and recognized their need for a King. They recognized their need for Jesus - but they had limited understanding. A question for us to think through on this Palm Sunday - Do we live like we need a King? I think there are times when we are perfectly content being our Kings or Queens. We love doing what we want to do. We love controlling and living how we want. There are moments when place ourselves on the thrones of our lives rather than crying -”Hosanna!”. We maybe know that Jesus is the Lord of the world. We maybe have heard the stories of His power over the grave for us. Maybe we even are like a person in the crowd at Palm Sunday - when we say all the right things, but often live as our own Kings or Queens.

I am always fascinated by the all the coverage, for the royal family in England. Every time there is a wedding in the royal family, every time there is a funeral - am I impressed how many people follow it so closely in the United States. It’s all over the news. But although there is so much coverage - no matter how much you read about them - we don’t truly know them. A lot of what hear is speculation. There is almost this degree of separation for the royal family and the rest of the world. There is this barrier separating you from them; where you can’t really get close to them. Well, Jesus is for you a different kind of King! He doesn’t stay distant from you, but in fact He comes to near to you. Jesus for you isn’t like the royal family separated from the rest of the world, but in fact He has come to pick ip the cross that you may be in His presence forever. Jesus as King takes the form of servant to serve you and me, to bear our sin and shame in order that He may have you! He calls you from the crowd - that you may be with Him!

Jesus on this Palm Sunday rides in on the donkey in the humble way to serve selfish, sinful people like you and me. He has come to save us even in those moments - when we act like we don’t need a King. And Jesus is your King. He has come to this world, not that you would just know more about Him - but He has come to this world that you may follow Him. Typically, when a parade is over people, beginning to pack up the lawn chairs and make the slow walk back to the cars. They look through all of the candy that they have received. And they maybe even offer to trade the little knick - knack things for something better. But after the parade is over - typically you go back to your normal life, to do the normal stuff. Here on this Palm Sunday as we celebrate the work of Jesus and kick off this Holy Week. May we not just pack up our things and go back to our normal lives, but may we begin to follow our King - the One who has come conquer the grave. The One who truly has saved us from our greatest enemies.

Now may the grace of God, the peace of God which surpasses all understanding may it guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.