Embracing Palm Sunday

Scuffy the Tugboat

I suspect most of us are familiar with the ‘Little Golden Books’. There are many enduring classics in this series which I’m sure have been read many times by people here.

One particular book that I remember from my childhood and that we have a copy in our own collection is a book called “Scuffy the Tugboat”.

It’s a beautiful little adventure story of a red-painted tugboat who knew he was meant for bigger things. From the toy store, the man with the polka dot tie places him in a bathtub, but that wasn’t big enough, so he takes him to a stream.

And there he finally felt free. Except, as the story goes, after travelling down the stream, the stream becomes a river, and he gets caught up in a system which was much bigger and scarier then he ever realised. Eventually, just as the river reaches the ocean, the man with the polka dot tie is there to rescue him, and he become content with staying in the bathtub.

Now I’m going to do something this morning which perhaps is a little risky, and that is I’m going to look at this book as an allegory, and possibly not the allegory that was originally intended, assuming there is an allegory was intended at all.

You see, as I was preparing for this message, this image of a stream which we can get caught up in just kept coming to mind.

The stream is a great thing and serves a great purpose, but it can also be wild and scary, particularly when the storms come.

So the allegory I’m going to make from this (and I’ll stress that this is not the original intended meaning), is that this stream represents God’s way.

Now just stay with me a moment while I try to flesh out this idea.

Imagine a dry barren land. But in that dry barren land is a source of water.

This water is life giving. People flock to the water because they need the sustenance.

Now as the stream continues, it grows and becomes a river. As the river expands downstream, you start to get cities built around the river because of what this living water can produce.

Everyone gets a choice, they can embrace the life giving nature of the river, or they can stay in the barren land.

Now, thinking about it in these terms, “Scuffy the Tugboat” provides a beautiful commentary for us. Because not only does it provide a picture of the good that comes from the river, it also gives us a picture of the strength and power of water - and it gets scary. When the floods come, the river is a scary thing.

Road to Jerusalem

Now keep this picture in mind while I now take you to the Bible.

Throughout the bible we can see this idea of God’s way, starting small, but then growing into something big that people flock to.

Jesus used some different pictures for us but to a similar idea. When talking about God’s kingdom, for example, he described it starting as small as a mustard seed, but growing to be one of the biggest trees.

We see that small start when God chooses Abraham.

For a few generations it remains just a small stream. One that already has life giving properties but only making limited impact at this time.

That changes however, and the Old Testament takes us on this great ride (just like Scuffy) as we see more people come, but also the big storms come.

But it’s not that part of the story that we’ll focus on today.

The road in Mark 9-10

Rather I want to take us back to the series of messages that I did earlier in the year when we looked at .

Now throughout that series I pointed out some of the big directions that Mark, the author of this gospel, takes us on.

Now I am making some big generalisations here, but essentially, the first eight chapters of this gospel help us answer the question: who is Jesus?

What becomes really clear in these chapters is that Jesus has come to establish something new. He is bringing life where there was death. He’s bringing health to the unhealthy. He’s bringing order out of chaos.

But once we get to chapter 9 of this gospel, a new direction starts.

And it is actually this new direction that I want to correlate with this idea of the stream I’ve been talking about.

You see, at the start of , we are in the Northern vicinity near Galilee. But then as we go through chapters 9 and 10, we slowly make our way towards Jerusalem.

Now we don’t realise this till quite a few chapters later, but this path towards Jerusalem is actually a journey to go to Jersualem for the passover.

Now this might actually partly explain why as the journey continues, the crowds get bigger.

You see, in the time period of the New Testament, the Passover was a major point on the calendar and the temple in Jerusalem became the focal point of this time. As such, come this time of year you would get great crowds moving in this direction.

I want to liken this movement to this stream.

But this is where it becomes interesting.

You see, take out Jesus for the moment, and we already have this movement, and it is actually a flow that originates with God. But without Jesus it has somewhat become empty.

With Jesus in it however, we start to see this new energy put into it.

So, let me quickly run through chapter 9 and 10 again to see how this energy starts to build.

Mapping out this journey

So, starting in chapter 9, if you look at verse 30, at this stage they are just passing through Galilee. At this point we’re told that Jesus didn’t want anyone to know where they are. (What you’ll notice is how this will shift the closer they get to Jerusalem).

By verse 33 they are in Capernaum, where Jesus has to correct his disciples due to a poor argument they are having.

As we move into chapter 10 and starting at verse 1 the journey really starts to pick up, as they are now into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. And Mark spell out for us that there are crowds, although he says it in a way that suggests this is nothing out of the ordinary.

But then in verse 13, something strange starts to happen. People actually start bringing children to Jesus.

Now the disciples obviously thought this unusual on this jounery by they start to rebuke these people, but what I believe where starting to see is the new life that is happening in this stream now that Jesus is there.

Not only is the crowd going to start becoming bigger, which is a natural consequence of getting closer to the common destination of everyone, but there is getting more and more power.

In verse 17, we see Jesus continuing this journey, but this time we have a man running up, falling on his knees, almost in desperation trying to figure out how he can inherit eternal life.

There’s almost a sense in which this man can see the power growing in this journey and he’s trying to figure out what it’s all about.

From verse 32, we’re getting closer to Jerusalem now and you get the sense that everything is getting hypercharged.

Now I’ll add at this stage that I highly suspect that most people don’t actually really know what’s going on. There’s this sense that something building, but if you were to actually ask them at this point what it is, they would struggle to answer.

In verse 46 they finally come to Jericho, which has some very interesting biblical significance but I won’t get into that now.

At this time however, Mark tells us that they are with a very big crowd.

This stream is no longer just a small stream. It is a flowing river and it’s about to get to the point where it spills out into the ocean.

You see Jericho is the last major town before you get ot Jerusalem.

But before I move on from Jericho, look what happened there. A blind man receives sight!

This is actually really significant. For starters, we could find links with the claim that Jesus is the messiah. But also, we can see these signs of life as things start to become clearer, both literally for the blind man, and also spiritually as Jesus nears the climax of his work.

But while it’s getting clearer, it is still not totally clear yet. As people join this stream towards Jerusalem, though they recognise something is happening, it just doesn’t make complete sense yet.

That observation that things aren’t totally clear might seem to be about to change in this next little episode, the one we will now focus on today, but the reality is, it doesn’t.

You see, we’re about to see many people getting caught up as the excitement of this journey nears the climax, but in many ways, using the allegory of my childrens book, Scuffy, they are like a toy boat floating down a river just going with the flow because that all it’s able to do.

So let’s look at this next part, and then I’ll come back to this idea.

The triumphal entry

Well, this journey that I’ve been highlighting continues into chapter 11 which starts by telling us that they are approaching Jerusalem but come to Bethphage and Bethany.

These twin towns are what you might call satellite towns to Jerusalem, being only a matter of a few kilometers from Jerusalem.

Getting the colt

Now we’ve seen this stream go from a little trickle at the top, to a river, bubbling away with energy at the bottom.

What we’ll see however, is that it is not in some sort of forced way that we might expect, but a natural way. Humble, yet with power. Two attributes that Jesus can pull off like no other.

And so he does it with a colt. Now the colt is significant because in it is both humility (he could have chosen a much more impressive ride, but also links to a kings entrance.

And so verses 2 through to 7 describe for us how Jesus got this colt.

Now it’s worth noting that this next little part is full of Old Testament links, most notably a link with a prophecy in and also . However unlike some of the other gospels who spell out these links, Mark doesn’t do that for us, so I’ll explore those link on another time.

Rather what I want to focus on this morning is just the naturalness of what is happening.

I get the impression from reading Mark’s gospel that this is what he is trying to highlight. You see what you’ll notice is that verses 2 and 3 have the instructions that Jesus gives, and then verses 4 to 7 shows how everything was just as Jesus said it would be.

You see, Jesus sent two disciples to the next village. Told them where they would find a colt that had never been ridden. And even gave instruction for anyone who will ask why they are untying it. In Matthew’s gospel, it simply says that the disciples did as Jesus instructed, whereas Mark labours the point of each step happening just as Jesus described.

Now various commentators have speculated whether Jesus must have made prior arrangements with the owner or not. To be honest, I think such speculation misses the point.

The point seems to be that this stream is flowing and nothing is about to stop it happening in the way that God has set for it to happen.

The praises

Now what happens next I’ve always found really intriguing.

You see, as Jesus gets on the colt and moves towards Jerusalem, this great crowd of people (remember this stream of people has been building for some time now), start laying down their cloaks on the road and spread branches they had cut in the fields. This was a clear sign of honour and respect for Jesus.

Not only do they lay the cloaks and branches down, they also shout out words that are so fitting.

They cry out “Hosanna”, which is a word that has the literal meaning of “save!”

How fitting that is for Jesus who will truly be the one that will save them in the way they so desperately need saving.

They then cry words which are taken from .

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”

The truly is such a fitting way for Jesus to get to the destination where everything is about to take place.

Why it is intriguing

But here things get intriguing. You see, you’ve probably heard observations made about the contrast between the crowd on this day, compared with the crowd we will see in just five days time.

This crowd yells “hosanna”, the next they yell “crucify him!”

The difference couldn’t be more stark.

So, what’s the go?

We could argue that it is just a different set of people, and maybe there is some truth to that. But I think there is more to the story than just that.

You see, I think there is an element to which these people near Jesus have been struck by the spirit that is around Jesus.

This is where I think the water analogy becomes helpful. You see, when the water is flowing strongly, if you are near it, you will be moved by it.

It is just natural.

In Luke’s gospel, this comes out perhaps even clearer. In , we’re told that some Pharisee’s tried to get Jesus to rebuke his disciples for such behaviour. But Jesus responds: “I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out”.

In other words Jesus is saying that what is happening is so natural, that if nothing else, nature itself would make it happen.

Our choice

So here is where I want to bring in my main application for this message.

You see, it is really easy to get caught up in the excitement of what God is doing. If you spend time in Christian circles, I can guarantee that you will hear amazing stories of deliverance, of miracles and of other great things happening.

You can rejoice and sing God’s praises.

But here’s the thing, that’s going to happen because God’s going to move whether you like it or not.

If you are place in the stream, you will see this happen.

But, it’s not enough!

Surely if I come to church, say the right things and even feel the energy of God, surely that’s enough isn’t it?

Well no. You see, many will come to the water, but not many will accept it.

Just think about this crowd as they walk into Jerusalem. The majority of them are most likely going there because of the upcoming Passover festival. They come alongside Jesus and are struck by his spirit.

They call out praises because this is just what naturally comes to them.

But then they have a choice.

They can embrace that new spirit, or they can move on.

It might be that they really enjoyed it while it lasted, kind of like Scuffy on the big wide water, but when it comes to it, would rather be back in the bathtub.

Do we want to be in the bathtub, or the river?

For each of the people in the crowd, we don’t know where they individually ended up. I suspect a good number of them did end up as fully committed disciples of Jesus. I also suspect a number of them also where part of the crowd yelling for Jesus’ crucifixion.

The challenge for us is to avoid our Christianity being compartmentalised into just a small part of our lives.

You can’t be a part-Christian. You are either fully Christian, or not.

Having a few experiences, or being able to say the right words does not make you a Christian.

Being a Christian means allowing Christ into your life to transform your entire being.

Conclusion

We can dip our toe into the river, or we can fully immerse ourselves.

When God’s spirit comes on you, don’t just be happy for what it was, because he wants you to embrace him. Hold him close, because in him you will find true life.

It won’t be an easy journey. In fact, as we follow the story through to Good Friday, we’ll see that there would be good reason to want to let go.

But as we hold close to God, we see that God will never let go of us, even when things get really tough.

Let’s pray...