Matthew 21 1-9

“The PAth of glory”

Palm Sunday

Matthew 21:1-9

Introduction:  Palm Sunday is a day of celebration and pagentry.  It is also known as the Sunday of Passion because it marks the beginning of Holy Week.  The events of this week, Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection are at the heart and core of the Christian faith.  It is the core of what we believe and what we are.  Today we remember when Jesus, the Lord of life, God in the flesh came to Jerusalem and to His temple.  As we celebrate today, in a way we join the disciples in the glorious procession led by our savior.  We watch Jesus as He marches peaceably towards Jerusalem, humbly riding on a donkey.  The people wave their palm branches to his glory.  They lay their cloaks down on His path in honor and in submission to Him.  Jesus accepts their praise, adoration, and their worship.  What a glorious day!  This day and this path lead to glory.  But first this path to glory must make a dark turn.  It must travel though the valley of the shadow of death.  The vibrant Hosannas heard today will become fickle praise and that will change to sneers of ridicule.  The path of Palm Sunday journeys through the crowd of people with feeble hopes of earthly bounty and security, of political control and self-determination.   The path of Palm Sunday will lead our Lord through denial, rejection, and suffering and to His death on the cross.  The path of Palm Sunday leads to the symbol of sinful mans disgrace -- a dirty dusty grave carved out of earth and stone.  Nevertheless, this is the path of glory and the empty tomb of Jesus.  PAUSE

I.          This Side of Glory -- In Praise of an Earthly King

A.        Hopes for a Bread King -- As Jesus begins His ride to Jerusalem we can feel the excitement build.  We can sense the intensity of the people’s emotions.  Slowly their emotions build like a snowball rolling down a mountain gaining more and more force and more and more passion.  Finally their emotions reach a crescendo pitch.  They cry out -- Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest!   The people wave their palm branches, symbols peace, victory and life itself.  For in the desert wherever the palms grew, wherever palm branches waved there was water.  Where there was water there was life.  How appropriate this is for Jesus, the source of living water that leads to eternal life.  Then the people threw their coats down before Jesus.  It was an honor befitting a king.  The people were, after all, hoping for a king // an earthly king to take care of them.  They wanted a king that could give them freedom from the tyranny of Rome and earthly security.  They wanted a king that would provide for their physical needs -- for health, food and of water, and the good things of life.  They wanted to be taken care of in the now with those things that only satisfies for today.   

B.        Fickle Is -- Their Praise.  As the week unfolds the people hopes and desires of making Jesus their earthly king fade as the dark shadow of the weeks events unfold.  Sure the week started out well, Jesus goes to the temple and there he kicks out the corrupt moneychangers.  Obviously Jesus means business.  Then He takes His place as the teacher in the temple of God.  //  But then the people see Jesus being opposed by priests and Pharisees and the elders of the people, their religious and political leaders.  Things start to go down hill, quickly.  Jesus comes up for trial before Pontius Pilate.  He appears to be under the authority of the Roman ruler.  Then He is sentenced to death.  Obviously Jesus wasn’t going to work out as an earthly king.  Jesus wasn’t doing things the way the crowd wanted Him to or expected Him to.  The vibrant Hosannas changed to chants of crucifixion by the fickle crowd.  Starting as a murmur we begin to hear the words that will rise to another crescendo pitch on Good Friday…crucify Him, crucify him.  PAUSE -PAUSE

C.        As Fickle Does -- Our Praise.  As Jesus comes into our lives, humbly, peaceably, as He did to the crowd on that first Palm Sunday, we need to ask ourselves a question.  What do we want from Jesus?  What do we expect Him to do for us // as we lift up our voices in praise and Hosannas from Sunday to Sunday.  If we are honest with ourselves we would have to say that we want the same things that the crowd wanted that marched with Jesus that day.  We want a king that will take control of our lives // in this life.  PAUSE.  Like the Jews of Jesus day, and like the people of Iraq today, we want freedom from the tyranny of those things that control us.  We want freedom from the tyranny of our aging bodies.  We want freedom from the tyranny of our aches and pains of today.  We want better health better life, and our thirst for material satisfaction quenched.  We just want things to be better // right now.  PAUSE.  When things don’t go well for us we are tempted to think -- what good are you any way Jesus.  I don’t seem to be any better off than the people that don’t believe in you are.  What kind of a king are you?  At times, fickle too is our praise as we are tempted to reject Jesus -- under our breath of course.     

II.        The Other Side of Glory -- In Praise of the King of Kings

A.        So Much More.  Jesus came to give you so much more than you could ever imagine or ask for.  He knows your needs of today just as he knew the needs of the people marching to Jerusalem with Him.  As God incarnate He was taking care of them, just as He is taking care of you right now.  But Jesus knew the needs of all people so well that he gave what was needed most, the thing that wasn’t even asked for.  He came to give you freedom from the tyranny of sin, of death and the Devil.  He came to give eternal healing and the restoration of your bodies in the life to come.  He came to give you eternal bread, His own body to nourish you.  He came to quench your thirst with the water of live, even His own blood..

B.        Not in a Parade of Triumph.  He gave you all these things not by riding in a parade of triumph, but by walking in a march of shame.  He walked through the valley of the shadow of death suffering and dying on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins.  He died so that when you die you would not stay in your graves forever -- as eternal punishment for sin.  The shadow of death fell on Christ but the glory of His resurrection shines on you.

C.        He Still Accepts are Praise.  As Jesus rode among the people He gladly accepted their praise and worship.  He accepted their praise of Him even though it may have been misdirected, even though they didn‘t no what they wanted or needed.  Jesus accepts our praise of also, even though we don’t always know what we want or need.  As sinners our praise is imperfect.  But in Christ we have been forgiven.  Now, though our praise is imperfect, it is made perfect when it is directed toward Jesus Christ, to the glory of His Heavenly Father. 

PAUSE-PAUSE  By the power of the Holy Spirit and the revelation of Holy Scripture we know what Jesus Christ has done for us.  We begin to understand our needs -- especially our need for a Savior.  By God’s power we desire Holy and eternal things while knowing with confidence that what we need for today will be given to us.  We know that Jesus is the King -- the King of Heaven and earth.  He is our Prince of Peace and King of Kings.

Conclusion:  This Holy Week we can simply sit back and just observe.  Or in the Spirit’s power we can daily repent and believe and live anew.  ///  The Hosannas of this day turned into shouts of “Crucify Him” on Good Friday.  And yet the death of Good Friday was overcome with new life on Easter.  This week we worship the God-man whose innocent blood covers our sins so that we can have life with God always.  This week we want to walk with Jesus, to see what He has done for us.  This week we want to walk with Jesus on the path that leads to glory…resurrection glory.  (Hosanna in the highest!  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord) ---- Strasen/Mark