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Jesus’ ministry began with a journey away from the amazed
crowds at His baptism. He spent forty days, the days that set the tone for
Lent, in the wilderness. Now Jesus marks the beginning of the end of his earthly
ministry with a trip into the crowds on what we call Palm Sunday. John’s
Gospel, not Luke or the other Synoptics, mention the actual palm branches.
These branches become important symbols of Lent, since in liturgical traditions,
it is the ashes from the burnt palm branches waved on the previous Palm Sunday
that become the ashes of repentance spread on the forehead on Ash Wednesday.
How appropriate when one reads this account of Jesus’ triumphal entry
into Jerusalem! Members of this same crowd that welcome and cheer Jesus in
less than a week will be shouting “Crucify Him!”
This whole text is a study in contrasts. The celebrating crowd
will become an angry mob. The Messiah is welcomed not by those who should
have recognized Him (the Pharisees in verse 39), but by the common people
(and even the stones would have recognized Him, according to Jesus). The bustling
city filled with life will soon become a place of devastation, because it
is blind to the reality of the Messiah who now enters into it.
In this moment of such striking contrast, we are called to do
at least what the stones would do, according to Jesus (hence, the title of
my message, “Stones”). We are called to recognize our need to
acknowledge and follow the Messiah: to rise above the hype and distraction
of our pride or of the in crowd. Jesus points out the contrasts happening
that day. We need the season of Lent to help us reflect without distraction
upon the hypocrisy and blind spots in our own walk, making sure that we can
honestly confess: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the
Lord!” (19:38).
Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees and His lamenting during
a time that should be one of great celebration demonstrate God’s heart
of compassion for those of us who “miss it.” This highlights the
need for seasons in the Church year like Lent, where we can allow the Holy
Spirit to check our motives and actions against the truth of who Christ is
and what His purpose is for us. God, through grace, challenges our pre-conceived
notions. He calls us to sincere worship, even if it does not make sense to
the world (or even to some religious leaders, like the Pharisees). He calls
us to let the truth shape us, instead of shaping the truth to our own immediate
whims. God rebukes and corrects us, but always with a tear and not a sneer.
The big question of Palm Sunday becomes: Will we truly accept
the Messiah on His own terms? If so, we will celebrate because of who He is,
and not just because others are. We will not follow Him because we can use
Jesus to further our agenda. Jesus’ sadness for Jerusalem was prompted
by Jerusalem’s blindness (v. 42) concerning what it means to really
follow the Messiah. Jesus’ hyperbolic statement about the stones illustrates
that we are not to be as “cold as stone” or “blind as stones”
in regard to who He is and what it means to follow Him. We are to serve Jesus
in sincerity and in praise.
(For the full manuscript
of this sermon go to www.preachersmagazine.org and click on “Sermons”.)
The preaching of this text will be accented by some sort of
commemoration in the worship time of the triumphal entry of Jesus. This may
be as simple as the reading together of appropriate Psalms or Gospel passages
that reflect the celebration of the coming of the Messiah. Congregations may
want to actually participate in a processional using palm branches featuring
kids, teens and adults celebrating the presence of Christ.
The contrast of this celebratory mood can come in the harder portions of the sermon text, reminding us that Lent concludes with the challenge to be authentic believers, and not just those who go along with the crowd at the moment. In my sermon on this text, I make use of the “stones crying out” phrase that Jesus uses to the Pharisees. I wonder if He were chiding the Pharisees for trying to stop this event, or if He was subtly reminding the crowd that “even the stones” would praise Him. Maybe He was saying both.