Honoring Jesus

Introduction

Today our theme is Honoring Jesus.

To honor someone is to recognize his or her value and to treat them with respect.

We have read two stories about Jesus this morning.

The triumphal entry.

The passion.

The one tells of celebration, the other of crucifixion.

They both suggest to us reasons to honor Christ and how to do it.

Exegesis 1: The people honor Jesus on Palm Sunday

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem during that First Holy Week, people honored him in many ways.

His disciples honored him by obeying his commands. He had chosen them to be his disciples, they had agreed, and they were committed to obeying him. He said go fetch a donkey and a colt from a stranger. They did not fully understand the command, yet they obeyed him. That was honoring Jesus.

The people honored Jesus by celebrating his arrival to Jersualem with the words, Hosanna in the Highest - salvation in the highest!

recognized Jesus as a prophet, who could speak for God — on many occasions before the crowds had exclaimed, he teaches with such authority, not like our pastors!

They knew him as a miracle worker — he had opened the eyes of the blind, made the lame to walk, even raised the dead!

They hoped upon him as the “son of the great king David” who would help them get out from underneath the thumb of Rome.

For all these reasons, they spread out their cloaks for him and waved palm branches in fanfare: welcome to our city!

It was right for the disciples and people to do these things. Matthew writes, all of this happened to fulfill the words of the Prophet Isaiah, ch. 62: O Jerusalem, Your King is coming to you…humble and riding on a donkey!

The disciples and crowds experienced Jesus’ power, compassion, and authority, and they honored him.

Application 1: We Honor Jesus on Palm Sunday

We are also to honor Jesus for these reasons.

Jesus has called us to be his disciples.

It is right for us to obey him. Sometimes we understand what he tells us to do, sometimes we do not. But we obey him, for Jesus said, John 14:21 “Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me….

Like the crowds, we, his church, have known his healing touch. We have seen his power to set us free from sin, ease our hearts with forgiveness, and to feed our souls.

It is right for us to wave our palm branches in joy, lift our hands in worship, to welcome him into our lives.

Exegesis 2: The Sudden Turn

In the passion story, we see a sudden turn.

Within a week of Jesus’ arrival, within a week of welcoming Jesus, the crowds turn against him. Instigated by their religious leaders, they demand his death.

Give us the criminal Barabbas, rather than Jesus who claims to be a king!

Jesus’ disciples, overcome with fear for their own lives, abandon him. Jesus goes to the cross alone, to be hung between two criminals and to be mocked by his enemies.

The elders admit: He saved others. Yet they jeer: he cannot save himself.

Jesus is treated with the opposite of honor. He is shamed. He is disrespected and treated like he has no value. Stripped of dignity.

The sudden transition from the story of the Triumphal Entry to the Passion of the Christ can cause us to be confounded. How could people be this way?

The gospel story is holding up before our eyes something we know well: the fickleness of the human heart.

Or as the Scripture says, Jeremiah 17:9 ““The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?”

Application 2: We Are Indicted

If we indict the crowd, we must also take a critical look at ourselves.

For, if we are honest, we must admit that we ourselves can flip from honoring Christ to ignoring him, or denying him, or even insulting him with surprising speed.

I for one can honor Christ on Sunday, and then dishonor him by Monday.

Though I invite him into my life on Sunday, I tell him to get out before the week is done.

On Sunday I desire salvation in the highest, but by Friday I say, no, just give me something else.

Palm Sunday asks us to reckon with the fact that our hearts are inconstant. We should honor Christ. But we don’t. We want to honor Christ. But sometimes we do the opposite.

We are left confused and shamed by our own propensity to turn against Christ. As St. Paul would later write — O, who will deliver me from this predicament!

It is this unsettling fact of our nature that invites us to appreciate what Jesus really does for us during the Holy Week ahead.

Exegesis 3: The Plan of God

Jesus went to the cross for the sake of the very crowd who turned on him. For the sake of his disciples, who abandoned him.

Jesus went to the cross, not because the the treachery of the human heart was invincible, but so that the love of God could accomplish what was impossible for us.

Scripture says, God put forward Christ, who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf. To be the atoning sacrifice for our sins and the sins of the whole world.

Jesus died so that the fickle human heart could be saved by the faithfulness of God.

Jesus experienced the utter abandonment by God the Father, when God placed upon him the curse due upon us:

Jesus cried: My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? So that no one else would ever have to.

In short, Jesus died on the cross as an intentional self-sacrifice for others.

Appreciating this action trusting this action by Christ is deepest form of honor we can give to Christ.

A number of years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Washington D.C. At the Arlington National Cemetery, I visited a very special tomb. It is called the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The tomb was built as a memorial for all the unidentified service members who have given their lives for their country. A ceremonial guard is on duty around the clock in full dress attire. The sentry paces back and forth on watch as people come to pay their respects and read the inscription: “Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known only to God.”

Similar monuments exist in countries around the world because we recognize that those who give their lives for others deserve to be honored.

The best way we can honor Jesus is to reverence the fact that he died for our sins to give us eternal life.

When God raised Jesus from the dead, God honored him with a name above every other name, so that in his name, sinners could be saved.

This week is a week for us to put this honor into practice.

We honor Jesus now with a watch. We will pace to and fro before his cross. We will pray and wait.

We read the inscription of his tomb, his very own words.

No greater love can be shown than to lay down one’s life for another.

Conclusion

This week we begin our honor guard for the one who gave his life for us.