Easter 4 The Real Palm Sunday

The Real Palm Sunday!

Fourth S. of Easter

Rev. 7:9-18

† In Jesus Name †

Grace and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ!

When you came in to church today, something happened for the second time this month.  You were given a cross, made out of a Palm Branch.  You weren’t told why, except that Pastor wanted you to have it, and that in his crazy way, he would probably explain it during the sermon.

Some of you, arriving early, may have looked o the sermon title – and thought – the Real Palm Sunday?  I thought that was the week before Easter, not the fourth Sunday of Easter!  If you had done that, and carefully listened to the reading of the Epistle lesson, you might have noticed there, that here are similarities between the scene in Revelation, and the scene we saw on the other Palm Sunday. 

The kind of obvious one, is of course that people are waving Palm Branches in both scenes. 

But there is more in common, enough that I believe I can make a case, that we can call today Palm Sunday; and that we should celebrate the Palm Sunday to come even more than we celebrate the one that happened two thousand years ago…

IN order to show this, I want to look at the two contending Palm Sundays, and ask five very simple and basic questions, and compare the answers. So take out your sermon notes page, and you will see the gospel account of the older Palm Sunday, and keep your bulletin open to page ____, where the Palm Sunday to come is described in Rev. 7. 

In the decision to see which is the real Palm Sunday, we ask five simple questions, who, what, where, when and why…

Who

In both scenes, there are multitudes of disciples, but the multitudes are very different, and that shall help us decide, which is the better Palm Sunday!  Let’s look first, at the Palm Sunday of the past,

There we find these words, “the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen,”

The multitude, in this case, consists of those that are Jesus’ disciples, those who come to him, and are taught by Him.  A rather undependable bunch really, for in just seven days, they will not defend Him from the Pharisees, but some will hide in fear, and others join the disciples of the Sanhedrin, and cry for his death… a death they ironically will need, to join the other multitude.  But this day, they praise God for the signs and wonders, for healings, and for food, and for trumping those who make religion a burden, rather than a relationship. 

The multitude from Palm Sunday Future, is a much different group, Listen again, to how Revelation describes them, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, and it later defines them more clearly by saying, are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb!

These, the ones waiving palms in the future, are all those who have come to heaven, from the great tribulation. What great tribulation you ask?  In Matthew 24, we find such a phrase used, defining a time from the destruction of God’s temple – until the second coming of Christ.  In the same passage, the temple to be destroyed is identified, as the very one there, then!  The tribulation, the great struggle, the great persecution, is that which the church has been through, for the last two thousand years, and will be in, until He comes again! 

This explains then, the incredible multitude, all those whose robes have been washed and made white by the blood of the Lamb!  Those who have been cleansed by Christ’s blood, washed clean by the Holy Spirit!

What

Having looked at the who, prior to making up our minds just yet, let’s look at the “what”?  In this case, what did they say!

The Palm Sunday past folk, praise the Jesus, who comes in the name of the Lord.  They praise God, for what He will do, though it is sure, they have no idea – yet, that this Jesus will be praised for dying, for them, for us.  They simply know the hope, that He is coming in God’s name, and in that, they rejoice.  DO they understand yet, that He comes to the Holy City, to die, because they need Him to die for their sin, instead of the animals they have bought to sacrifice?  Do they understand He has come to bring salvation to them, and for us?   No, not yet, and should you mention it, the stares would be no different, than telling that to a unbeliever today. 

But the future palm Sunday folk, wave their branches, and rejoice and praise God, because their song proclaims God’s salvation – of us!  It has occurred! Sinners have been justified, saved, and delivered in there scene, whereas that wasn’t even a possibility to those that waved their branches in the past.  They had hoped for a lesser Messiah, not the one praised by the multitude in the future…

Where

The next question is where the multitudes are to be found.  Both, found in cities call the city of God, Jerusalem!  Yet one Jerusalem is that under captivity, the one in the past.  And the other is where the King of King reigns.

The Jerusalem of the past, is occupied by Romans, and governed by a despot named Herod.  It’s people know no peace, and most live captive to the priests and other temple officials who feast on them like jackals.  The temple there has more in common with a modern day mall, as animals for the sacrifice are sold, with trinkets, and money is exchanged for temple coinage, at rates that would make credit card companies jealous!

Yet all that oppression, all that tribulation, is but a shadow of the bondage and suffering caused by the true enemies which enslave and destroy them, the trio of Satan, Death and Sin.  Satan, who would thrust temptation, and doubt, death – without Christ’s blood and forgiveness - which would mean a horrors upon horrors, because of the sin which had dominated us.  That is what the old Jerusalem represents, and though the people sought freedom from those that assailed them, it was the lesser assailants, the Romans, and merchant priests rather than their worst enemies.

The new Jerusalem, where our Revelation reading describes, has the multitude in the New Jerusalem, the place where their tears are wiped away, where there is no hunger or thirst, or lack of shelter, or lack of light.  Where April never is too cold, nor August too hot!  For sin has been washed away, where Satan is no longer a threat, and where death, rendered meaningless for an eternity.

When

All of the differences, between the multitudes, the praises they sing, and where they gather to wave their palm leaves, can be linked to our next question – when?  When do the multitudes wave their palms, when do the sing their songs of praise?  When are they gathered around Jesus in the two cities of Jerusalem, the one from the past, and the new Jerusalem>

To compare these two “palm Sundays”, we need a center point of time, a point from which a difference can be made.  A before, and an after, if you will.  A point in time, that is of utmost significance, where the difference can been seen, simply by identifying the time with two words:  The Crucifixion.

Prior to that, how could they have know how appropriate the praise, the worship, would be?  How could they realize the change, how could we, until we understood life from the view at the foot of the cross? But the saints, gather at the throne, the worship will be so incredible!  Because we too, view the cross as accomplished, and not the difference it makes.   We see some of that now, for indeed, we can realize what God has saved us from! But even more, shall it be so glorious, when we see what we have been saved to –the full abundant life, lived in the presence of the Triune God!

Why

The last question, is why?  And there we see one of the keys to our faith – the truth of God’s “Now, and not yet”.  The truth that the people that day nearly 2000 years ago, lived in the presence of God, He was there for them, as He has been for His people forever, loving them, saving them, disciplining them.

Yet that day, looks forward to God truly in the presence of His people, not in a fallen, sinful world, but in the new creation, where everything will be, as it was before sin.  When man walked with God, in the garden, and everything was very good.

We too live in a time of now and not yet, of understanding God’s love, shown to us in the forgiveness granted to us in Christ, to the promises guaranteed in the Holy Spirit baptizing us, giving us a new life, yet promises not quite yet fully realized, or understood. 

The why can be understood in one more comparison – that shortly after the two palm Sundays, there was, and there will be – a meal of such importance, that they can only be called divine.  The meal we shall celebrate this day….

Now we call it the Eucharist – which means the “Thanksgiving”, or the Lord’s Supper, or simply communion.  The intimate meal of fellowship, where the Lord gives us His body and blood, and for those in faith, the promise of a seat at the meal following the palm Sunday to come…

That meal is called the Wedding Supper of the Lamb.  The great celebration of the presentation of the Bride of Christ, the church, to Jesus the Christ.  The bride, whom Ephesians 5 tells us, He cleansed, so that He could present her to Himself, undefiled.  So He could present us, His church, pure and holy… to an eternal relationship!

Rejoice my friends, for we can celebrate both Palm Sundays – knowing the old, and realizing its road to the cross – to open up, for those who believe, the ability to waive palm leaves, and praise and worship, and live in the peaceful fellowship of heaven.  With our God, and our God with us, His people.

AMEN!!!!!