Palm Sunday 2022

Intro

If you know much about little kids, then you know that they are the center of their own world. They are by their very nature, selfish creatures.

This is part, mostly due to they way their brains develop. They don’t necessarily want to be selfish, but they can’t help it either.

But as we age we learn that we aren’t the center of the world and that people do not think like we do and act like we act.

Or at least that is what is supposed to happen, but increasingly we live in a very “me” centered culture.

Don’t like your job, quit

Don’t like your friends, get new ones

Don’t like your marriage, divorce

Don’t like your Church, go somewhere else

If I am not happy then I will go where I have to, to be happy. As long as things go the way I want, I am content, but if things don’t don’t go the way I think they should, then watch out!

But this isn’t how we are supposed to think. As we mature we should lose the egocentric mindset and recognize while we may have certain thoughts and expectations about how the world should work, they may not happen that way, and we can’t throw a temper tantrum when they don’t.

The Triumphal Entry

Today we remember and celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The day he rode into the city, knowing that in a matter of days he would be arrested, tortured, and executed.

In fact let’s read what happened...

John 12:12-19 NLT 12 The next day, the news that Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem swept through the city. A large crowd of Passover visitors 13 took palm branches and went down the road to meet him. They shouted, “Praise God! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hail to the King of Israel!” 14 Jesus found a young donkey and rode on it, fulfilling the prophecy that said: 15 “Don’t be afraid, people of Jerusalem. Look, your King is coming, riding on a donkey’s colt.” 16 His disciples didn’t understand at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy. But after Jesus entered into his glory, they remembered what had happened and realized that these things had been written about him. 17 Many in the crowd had seen Jesus call Lazarus from the tomb, raising him from the dead, and they were telling others about it. 18 That was the reason so many went out to meet him—because they had heard about this miraculous sign. 19 Then the Pharisees said to each other, “There’s nothing we can do. Look, everyone has gone after him!”

We see here that Jesus’ reception into the city of Jerusalem was accompanied by praise and honor. In fact he was literally treated like royalty.

They laid their outer garments and palm branches.

They called him King of Israel.

So when we read this, it becomes hard to understand how many of these same people only a few days later would have had such a dramatic change of heart.

We see it as he stood with Pilate before many of the people who were just previously shouting Jesus’ praise.

Jesus had been arrested and brought before the roman governor of Jerusalem Pontius Pilate. Pilate questioned him and did not really see any reason to punish him. In fact as was customary, Pilate would release a prisoner once a year and he even offered to release Jesus.

The Bible tells us as many of you know that Pilate even stacked the deck in Jesus favor by placing him next to a known criminal. The text even says that Pilate knew that the religious leaders only wanted Jesus arrested because they were envious of him.

Matthew 27:21-26 NIV 21 “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor. “Barabbas,” they answered. 22 “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked. They all answered, “Crucify him!” 23 “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!” 24 When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!” 25 All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!” 26 Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

I think Pilate believed the people would want to see Jesus released, after all many of them shouted his praises only days before. Those who shouted Praise God, and hail to the King of Israel were now shouting crucify him, crucify him!

Pilate gave them what they wanted, and what they said next was prophetic and they didn’t even realize it. Pilate washed his hands indicating that he was giving the people what they wanted but that he was innocent of his blood and the people said in verse 25 All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!”

How does this happen???

How does this happen. How can people who one minute are praising Jesus, turn their back on him so quickly. Well the answer is found in their response to him.

John 12:13 NLT 13 took palm branches and went down the road to meet him. They shouted, “Praise God! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hail to the King of Israel!”

Unfortunately in the NLT, we lose something. The term “praise God” while an accurate translation doesn’t convey the emphasis properly.

The NIV renders it this way...

John 12:13 NIV 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the king of Israel!”

The word that the NLT translates to Praise God was Hosanna. Hosanna was a Hebrew expression that meant save, or save now and later became an exclamation of praise.

You see, the people were making two mistakes that many still make today that opened the door for them to only a few days later turn their backs on Jesus.

They had predetermined what Jesus was going to do for them

The Jewish people were living in a time where they had lost their autonomy and sovereignty as a nation. Israel was no longer self governed, living in their own land.

They were under occupation. They knew of their past and the vast kingdom that their people once had. They were a world power at one time, and now they were the footstool of the Roman empire.

They hailed Jesus as the king of Israel. Treated him as such, as if he was the one who would restore them to their former glory.

They had predetermined who the Messiah would be and what he would do and they were excited at the fact that Jesus might be the one who would rescue them.

But the rescue that Jesus offered, wasn’t what they had envisioned. Rather than destroying the Roman Empire and restoring Israel to her former glory, he came to rescue them from their sin, and from an enemy far more nefarious and evil than Rome, Satan himself.

He came to restore their relationship with God so that they could experience a glory that paled in comparison to what they were seeking.And like egocentric children, they threw a temper tantrum when things didn’t go the way they wanted. But before you judge them too harshly...

How often have we done the same thing?

How often have we prayed for an outcome that didn’t go the way we had hoped? So we stop praying.

We pray for healing that doesn’t come, guidance only to hear silence, an opportunity that we were so sure God was going to provide only to see the door shut in our face.

So, to answer the question of how a person can one day sing God’s praise, and the next day turn their back on him is that too often they are putting their faith in God because of what they might get from him.

As long as God answers my prayers I will pray. I will believe as long as God proves to me he is who he says he is by what he does for me.

Faith like that isn’t faith at all. Or at best it is very weak. It is like building a house on a foundation of sand. It will not be structurally sound. It will collapse under its own weight. Our faith likewise will fail us if it isn’t built on something more solid.

We think we know what is best for our lives but it is God who can see and understand things that we cannot.

Isaiah 55:8 My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts says the Lord. And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.

But this wasn’t the only mistake they made.

They weren’t looking for a person, they were chasing a miracle

John 12:17-18 17 Many in the crowd had seen Jesus call Lazarus from the tomb, raising him from the dead, and they were telling others about it. 18 That was the reason so many went out to meet him—because they had heard about this miraculous sign.

There is something compelling about the miraculous. It is intriguing and mysterious. God himself has confirmed the validity of the Gospel through signs and wonders in the early Church, and we believe that he continues to do so today.

We should expect God to do the miraculous as spirit-filled Christians. Jesus said that the same power that raised him from the dead now resides in his followers through the Holy Spirit.

So, I am in no way diminishing the miraculous. I welcome it, and encourage believers to trust God to do the impossible, but we have to be very careful that we are always pursuing a relationship with Jesus and not a genie who grants wishes.

This is especially problematic in pentecostal/charismatic Churches. I can’t tell you how many times I have gotten emails from our website of people who are interested in the Church.

The most asked question I get is what spiritual gifts are manifested in your services, and how often.

Not, what does your discipleship program look like, or are there opportunities to serve, or how transparent are you with Church finances?

While like you, I love to see the gifts of the Spirit in operation. I love to see God do a miracle, the problem is that when that is what you are chasing, then when it doesn’t happen we move on to where it is. We aren’t really committed to the person of Jesus, we are chasing hype.

Closing

Palm Sunday is a reminder that Jesus does the unexpected. As much as he loves us, his agenda and his will supersede our own.

Unlike many of those followers who were praising him for all the wrong reasons, let us cling to him for who he is, not what he can do for us.

Let us read the words of the prophet Habakkuk.

Habakkuk 3:17-18 NLT 17 Even though the fig trees have no blossoms,and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!

We praise God not only when he does what we want.

Jesus is King whether he rules how we expect or not, let us praise him as King not for what he can do for us, but simply for who he is.