Looking Around

Sermon: Looking Around, Mark 11:7-11 Palm Sunday, March 28, 2021 Truly a joy to gather together on this Palm Sunday. A good day to gather and all the more joyous what we could take time to actually sing. What a joy. Want to remind you that we are beginning holy week here with Palm Sunday. And with that you have an invitation to attend on Thursday, Maundy Thursday Service at 7:00 p.m. and at the same time, 7:00 p.m. on Friday our Good Friday Service and we will be joined with Lakeland Reformed Church. We will do so here at Second Reformed. Both of those services will be on line as well. I just want to call your attention to those and remind you the week we are entering. Today we are on Palm Sunday and we are going to continue the passage that was read at the start of our worship. We are going to pick that up here at the 7th verse. So let us pray that God would open his word to us. Mark is the first of the four gospel writers and he writes the earliest account. So let us listen to the remainder of what he had to say concerning this day. This passage whether it's in Mark or Matthew or Luke or even recorded in John just captures our attention. It captures our imagination. It captures our anticipation. It captures us. In my mind's eye, I have shared with you before in other years, how it just takes me back to my own childhood memory. A memory that is so powerfully engraved on my mind that I share with you, There as a child in church the pastor wanting us to engage and feel this story. This reality of Jesus coming into Jerusalem. Pastor, wanted us to understand so he asked all the gentlemen, and the place was packed and all the pews were filled. He asked all the gentlemen to take off their suit coats. This was back in the day when you as a male wouldn't be caught dead without a suit coat in church. He asked them to take off their coats and to pass them down the pew and then had them laid out in that center aisle. I had a seat very close to the center aisle and I was up on the pew looking out at the run of coats. It was during that time, you remember well, a time when the coats were all different colors. Not just your black or your blue or maybe a certain tan. We had the greens the reds the checkered and everything under the sun. And there they were all strewn covering every inch of that center aisle. They were crumpled and they were laid out in all different ways. And there they were, these coats that were part of everyone's Sunday best were now laid out on the floor. And as I look through as a child I couldn't help but turn my head back and look to see if Jesus would come in even now. Perhaps you have a memory as well. You might have a powerful memory of Palm Sunday. Whether it was a time you came in waving palms with others or you were part of some processional whether choir or otherwise with palms. Times when you were asked as a whole congregation asked to stand up and shout as loud as you could, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" Or maybe you were there when someone actually got a donkey or a colt and brought it in the center aisle. Anything that would capture our imagination to take us back to that day. The day asks something of us. It asks, "Are we ready?" Are we ready for the king to come in that center aisle to march down? Are we ready led to a period of preparation? We have been trying to make ourselves ready. We have been journeying through I Peter to make ourselves ready. To work on different aspects in our life to prepare ourselves. Are we ready to follow this Jesus who comes in all the celebration and in all of the celebration it just really captures us. There is something about Palm Sunday that tells us we are one week away from Easter. We can feel the anticipation. It's full of excitement and celebration. At least that's how it begins. But Palm Sunday is the most disjointed service of all the services we have. The most disjointed service in that it starts with celebration and it moves to sorrow and suffering. It moves to a recognition of where Jesus is going. This one who has come in as a king is going to go offer himself on the cross. The question is, are we ready to follow him to the cross? Are we ready to be a servant as he was a servant? How did we get here? Look at how Mark displays the events to us. The disciples, along with Jesus, were making their way to Jerusalem. They had gone down Jericho and they are now coming from the east and they were coming over the ridge. They were going to Jerusalem for the Passover. The Passover was one of the major festivals in which all people were called upon to make that pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem. To make their way to worship God. Here they were coming for the Passover and you couldn't help but wonder as a disciple if this was the time. You have been with Jesus. He has been teaching, he had been preaching, he had been healing, and he had been preforming miracles. Is this the time when he will finally come and take over Lordship? Is this the time he is going to come into his rule? As they are coming to Jerusalem as they are coming to the capital, is this the time? That anticipation was there within them. Even their path marked notes is of significance. They are coming through the Mt. of Olives. They are coming through that place where the end of the Prophet Zachariah. They are speaking of the one who is to come will come from that direction. Such that even that the valley will be split, the mountains will be split, so is that fulfilling the prophecy? Jesus knows what is going on. He knows what's on the hearts of those that are with him. He knows their anticipation. The next item that is given to us truly is astounding. When he goes and tells two of his disciples to go and find a colt that had never been ridden. The colt of a donkey that had never been ridden and untie it and if asked any questions about it to bring it back and that they will let it go. We often wonder about that. Scholars wonder in particular. It this something that shows Jesus' divinity that he is able to know what is going to happen and how people will respond? Or is it something unbeknown to us has already been set up that Jesus already made plans for. Either way we come back to the reality that Jesus is preparing himself to ride on a colt, this donkey, into Jerusalem from the Mt of Olives. And again, in the prophet Zechariah 9:9 a messianic, a promise of the Messiah, the anointed one, the Christ. The Messiah is the Hebrew word for the anointed one, the Christ is the Greek word. That anointed one, the one who God had rubbed into. Has immersed God's self into. This one who is now come to rub with us. To rub shoulders with us. To be with us, Immanuel, God with us. This one that was promised so long ago. Zachariah said he will ride in on a colt of a donkey. Jesus is well aware of what he is doing. We can't surmise that he doesn't know that this passage is a strong messianic passage that is on the heart and mind of any Jewish follower. They know it backwards and forwards. And so when he says to them go get a colt of a donkey, you can imagine their anticipation is just building. And when they bring it back there is this amazing feeling. Because they know that when King David, when he transferred his kingship to next in line, with all the family squabbles that had gone on in King David's household with all the infighting of brothers - who would be king and how that would happen? He chooses Solomon, even as another son is trying to become king, and he chooses Solomon. And how does he designate that Solomon is the one? He says, go and put him on my donkey. Let it symbolize he is the one to be king. Zachariah in the vision of what will be sees that donkey and sees the one coming and now Jesus says, go and prepare the donkey. So the anticipation among his disciples is just growing. Truly this is the time, isn't it? This is what is about to happen. The Messiah, the anointed one is coming. And so when they bring that donkey back. When they bring that colt back they throw their cloaks on it for him to sit on. They throw their cloaks off in front of the path. Let me tell you where that comes from. It flips back to the scriptures to the Old Testament to the northern kingdom. A kingdom that is often walked far from God. There is a line of kings from Ahab. It's known as the house of Ahab. That house is even recorded in the Assyrians history. It is a vile house. It is a ruthless rule and it leads the people far away from God. Ahab's wife is Jezebel. That's why you get those phrases, oh that Jezebel. Hermon Melville uses the name Ahab for his antagonists in Moby Dick. And in that long line of Ahab king after king of vileness God finally intervenes and says to his prophet Elisha to be done with that house. Elisha sends a prophet and that prophet goes to one of the king's generals. The prophet runs into this council of general and askes for Jahoa. That general Jahoa gets up from another general and goes off in private because the prophet will only speak to him in private. And the prophet there in private, anoints him as King of Israel and says to him that his job now is to overthrow and get rid of everyone in the house of Ahab. And then that prophet that unnamed prophet runs out of there as fast as he can because he has just begun an insurrection. He has just taken a very dangerous act and he gets as far away from it as possible. General Jahoa comes out of the independent council with that prophet. And the other generals are curious. What was that all about? And Jahoa's response is, "Oh you know those babblers" and tries to dismiss it. But the other generals press on him until Jahoa finally reveals, he anointed me with oil and says I am king and I am to overthrow the house of Ahab. And with that all the other generals threw off their cloaks and threw them down at his feet on the steps. And with that became the imagery of a tremendous overthrow. When those 2 disciples came back with that colt all the others immediately threw off their cloaks draping that colt and draping that path. They were symbolically saying we are ready, we will die with you, let's go. The symbolism was immense. Now all the pilgrims were already journeying there to Jerusalem. Everybody was going to Jerusalem. It was common when you were journeying to Jerusalem for one of these festivals for a number of songs to be on your heart and maybe even sung in groups and picking up. Much like we might sing some of our national anthems and different points along the way or at the ball park or otherwise. It would start somewhere and every one would join in. And among those things one might say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." (From Psalm 118). And what it would be was a self-reference, blessed am I who gets to come in the house of the Lord. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the one, me, who's coming in God's name to worship God in the temple. It was self-reflected. It was among the hymns of praise that had to do with their delivery out of Egypt. And what is the Passover but a reminder of God's deliverance of the people from those 400 years of bondage. God's deliverance. So they sing blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. To one another it's this great, we are all going to the temple. But now the disciples start shouting at the top of their lungs using the Aramaic interpretation throwing in that King of David is well from Aramaic interruption and now they are saying entirely different, blessed is HE, this one, the Messiah who comes in the name of the Lord and the swell builds. They go off and cut branches. John is the only gospel writer that records for us that they were actually palms from which we get Palm Sunday. The palm was the national symbol of Israel. It was a symbol of nationalism, waving your flag. Now they are waving their flag saying blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. You might say, why didn't the Romans get tripped by this. Why didn't the Romans respond? Because this is what the pilgrims always did but now they are doing it with an entirely different purpose. It is building, it is growing and there is one more piece for you to know. If you look in your Bible at home or where ever you look, it's likely that there is a little title there. It's not part of the scripture but the editors like to give us titles to help us understand where we are. And you will see a title like the triumphal entry. Scholars have looked back and recognized that there were many occasions, significant occasions where someone of significant dignitary would enter into Jerusalem as well as other places and a whole festival would begin. A festival and celebration and it had certain modes of operation of what one does and what is expected in these triumphal entries. One such was when Judas Maccabeus threw off the Greeks some 200 years earlier from which the Jews get their holy season of Hanukkah. Another more recent occasion was one of King Herod's sons came in the same way with this festival, celebration and this triumphal entry had certain patterns certain things you check off to make it be what it is. Like we would say, that's not a parade, that a parade. How do you know it's a parade? Because it has to have this, and this and this. Every one of the boxes is being checked off and Jesus is now coming in as an amazing celebrity as a dignitary. The triumph is there. And in the triumphal entry upon entering Jerusalem, the triumphal entry would often go to the temple. The priest would greet and sacrifices would be made in celebration. Did you catch what Mark recorded? In all the celebration in all that we like to celebrate and get excited about, Mark records the end of this triumphal entry with this, "And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple and when he had looked around at everything as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the 12." In other words, he went into the temple, no priest greeted him. No sacrifices were made. No great celebration the final culmination of the triumphal entry. Nothing. Nothing. He looked around, not to marvel the enormous structure. Probably in absolute amazement, nothing. Even if you didn't know any of this background. Even if you knew nothing of what I just shared with you. Even if you had not heard any part of this before. Even more if you knew nothing and read this you would ask the question with all this celebration why in verse 11, how odd it is that he enters Jerusalem goes to the temple, looks around and just goes home. It's odd. Mark knows the readers and the listeners of this time would hear the insult. Would hear the lack of energy. If Jesus would walk down that (SRC aisle) aisle today, turned around and faced us all, look around what would he see? Would he see hearts that are ready to follow him? Not as king who would overthrow our enemies and get rid of all our pain but would we see him as the one who calls us to follow his path of servanthood, suffering, to share the love of God. On Palm Sunday we do everything we can symbolically to help us realize the incredible transition that is taking place. We change our colors from purple, which is the season of Lent and preparation, to a color of red which is the season of passion and his suffering. Maybe you have seen the minister or somebody else take that nice palm branch and slowly rearrange it and turn it into a cross. This service begins with celebration that takes us to the journey to the cross. And Jesus is looking around at us and is asking are you ready? Are you ready to take this journey with me? The disciples thought they were ready. Peter says I'll go with you anywhere and denies him 3 times before the rooster crows. Are we ready to give of ourselves? We love the accolade we love the praise but are we ready to empty ourselves. As Paul writes the letter to the Philippians, empty ourselves as Christ did so that others may experience the incredible love that God has for them as well. I love the celebration. I'm all excited about the celebration. I don't want to be the one who delivers the downer. But the truth of the matter is Jesus came to call followers of him. Not ones to re-write and say I like this part and not that part but to truly follow him. If you have any last remaining doubt is he really asking that? Consider that message that we will encounter again on Maundy Thursday. Where with his disciples at that last supper, after partaking in that supper he gets up to make the point. He disrobes and he kneels down and washes their feet. He gives them a new commandment and he tells them to love one another. Today we begin the journey of holy week. Keep in mind, Sunday is coming. The celebration of the resurrection is coming. But let us remember the cost. Will you pray with me.