Palm Sunday 2021

This morning, I want to talk about power. Do you realize that we have more power and influence today than we have ever had in the history of humanity? The average person in this country has more influence over more people than anyone could have possibly imagined thirty years ago. With just the touch of a few buttons, you can communicate to hundreds of millions of people through the internet. People you’ve never met and will never meet, and yet you can have influence over them. I mean there is an entire occupation these days called an influencer! I don’t really understand what they do, but I know they look amazing doing it.

We’re asking questions of power and influence today, because our society is finally beginning to understand that the media that we take in has an incredible influence on our behavior and worldview. We’re beginning to understand how much power our technology and our devices have over us. If you don’t think that your phone has an immense amount of influence on you, try leaving it at home for the day.

We’re asking questions about power these days, because in recent years we’ve seen how often the abuse of power has been exposed. Abuses of power in the workplace, in governments, in public institutions, and yes even in the church. In fact, we rarely think about power and influence until it is abused.

But we’re all interested in power. Even children are drawn to power. I heard a story the other day about a father went into the family room one morning and found his youngest son standing over an enormous pile of toys, as if he had collected all the toys in the house. He was standing over the toys and he told his dad, “Today, these are all mine.” Because the thing was, the main way the dad settled disputes over toys was to ask, who had it first. So this kid, smart as he was, had collected all the toys and told his dad that they were his! He had them all first! Even as kids, we’re interested in power.

Well, Palm Sunday is all about power. By entering the city the way that he does, Jesus is making a power play. That fact is undeniable. The message from Jesus was clear, he is the rightful heir to David’s throne. He is the king of God’s people. He has been given authority and power from on high. This story is all about putting God’s power in Jesus on full display. This is the triumphal entry! If we want to learn what it looks like to exercise power and influence in a godly way, this is it.

But what we find, is that godly power looks nothing like worldly power. Godly power looks nothing like worldly power.

It started out exactly like you’d expect. Well, sort of. If you knew your Hebrew Bible, which most in the crowd would have, then you knew what Jesus was doing. After walking over a hundred miles by foot, on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus suddenly stops about a mile outside of the city. Why does he stop? To borrow a donkey. He walked all that way, but one mile out he decides to hitch a ride. What’s he up to, we might wonder?

Well, Jesus was not the first Israelite to ride down this very same stretch of road on a donkey. Israel’s greatest king, King David, traveled the same road on a donkey when we was reinstated as king, after his son Absalom's attempted coup. The great King Solomon, David’s son, also road to his coronation on a donkey. It was what the great kings of Israel did.

And Israel’s prophets would pick up on this theme of king’s riding donkeys to their coronations, and they’d look to the future and say one day God would provide a king for Jerusalem, and this king would be given power from on high to save Israel from her worst enemies. And this king would come, riding on a donkey.

So Jesus was making a very clear statement. He was one of the great kings of Israel. He was the long awaited king who would deliver Israel from her enemies. And evidently, a lot of people believed him! Because as he made this dramatic entrance into Jerusalem, a crowd of people flooded out to cheer him on. They threw down their coats and palm branches, creating this ancient red-carpet, and what were they shouting? Hosanna! Hosanna! Which means, Save us, Save us! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our Father David!” Evidently, this crowd of people was picking up what Jesus was laying down. They saw and were responding to Jesus’ proclamation of power.

But godly power is nothing like worldly power. Because what does Jesus mean by this proclamation of power? What does Jesus mean when he declares himself to be king? Well, what does Jesus intend to do while in Jerusalem? You see, this is why we read two gospel readings on Palm Sunday. The first is the proclamation of Christ’s power as he rides into Jerusalem like a king. But the second reading is the story of how Jesus exercises his power as king. And how does Jesus exercise his power and influence as king? He is whipped, and mocked, and beaten, and stripped naked, and hung on a Roman execution rack where he would suffocate to death to the sound of jeers and curses.

I guarantee, that no one in that Palm Sunday crowd had that in mind when they hailed Jesus as king. The thing is, they weren’t that far off the mark. They got a lot of things right about Jesus. What they saw in Jesus was their long awaited Savior, who would bring the rule and reign of God to earth, who would bring the power and authority of God to bear against the nations that had set themselves against his good world and had ushered in all the violence and suffering and tragedy that the Israelites knew all too well as an oppressed people under the thumb of the big, bad Roman Empire. You can just imagine the swell of their hearts as Jesus rode into town like their mighty kings of their ancestors. You can hear the excitement in their shouts of “Save us!” Jesus was the embodiment of God’s power, and nothing could stand against him.

And they were absolutely right. He is the image of God’s rule and reign on the earth. Jesus is the embodiment of God’s power, but God’s power looks nothing like the world’s power. Because while Jesus had come to once-and-for-all defeat evil in all its forms and to launch the kingdom of God, here on earth, the way he would accomplish that would be through an act of sacrificial love. Jesus shows us how to wield power and influence in a godly way, and it is to lay down our lives for the sake of others. When we lay down our pride, and reach out in love, even to those who do not show love in return, we are manifesting the power of our God.

And this is exactly what Jesus did. On Palm Sunday, he proclaimed his great power as the divinely-appointed king. And on Good Friday, he demonstrated that power when he suffered and died for you and me and this rebellious world, that we might be forgiven of our misuse of our power and influence, and the ways that we bring suffering and tragedy to God’s good world. Jesus shows us what it looks like to wield power in a godly way: lowering ourselves to lift other up.

So family, are you influencing the world that you inhabit in this way? You may not realize it, but everyday you hold power over people in your lives. What you say, what you do, what you post online, how you interact with others. You may be surprised how much power you have over others. How are you using that power?

But the good news is that Jesus did not just show us what godly power looks like. His death on the cross wasn’t just an example to hold up and say, this is how we should live our lives, also emptying ourselves in love for others. No, his death was more than just an example for us to emulate. This demonstration of God’s power on the cross actually does something for us and to us. And what it does is it takes our hearts that long for worldly power, that are darkened and broken by an obsession with using our influence and power for our own benefit, and Jesus takes that darkness and brokenness, what we call sin, and he absorbs it into himself so that it dies with him on that cross, so that our hearts are free to truly love others as we have been created to do. And more than that, Jesus gives us his power in the form of the Holy Spirit so that we can live like him and love like him.

This is what Jesus meant when he proclaimed himself king on Palm Sunday. In his death and resurrection, the rule and reign of God has come to this world. And as his kingdom people, we are called and empowered to use our power and influence for the sake of others.