Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday 3/24/13

Palm Sunday/ Passion Sunday 3/24/13 Text: John 12:12-19 Title: Jubilation erupted as Jesus rode toward the city along the Old Pilgrims Road over the Mount of Olives. It was spring. The sun was shining, and flowers were starting to peek through between the rocks. The air was full of birds and expectations. Shouts of “Hosanna” resounded so that the echo rolled along the Kidron Valley reverberating off the temple walls on the other side. The people were excited and happy. It was as much a folk festival as a political demonstration. For here was the person who was going to free them from the Romans, and in doing so restore Israel back to its glory days. And mixed up in all of that, at a deeper level that most there that day would not have been able to identify there was a deep yearning and a hope that sought out fellowship with God. The people cried out “Hosanna!” in their distress and joy, and in doing so confessed their faith, for hosanna is a prayer. It means “Help us, Lord. Save us. Intervene and rescue us.” The basis for those shouts of Hosanna was the Word of God that had been handed down for thousand years before them; the Word of God about God the Almighty, who had done remarkable things for their ancestors. God had helped them so many times before. He had saved and rescued them time after time from the jaws of slavery and death. And because they knew what God had done in the past the hosanna their shouting was also a cry of jubilation, much like when we sing the Kyrie “Lord have mercy” after the confession and absolution, for we are not asking for God’s mercy but proclaiming God’s goodness toward us in forgiving our sins. Those welcoming Jesus that day trusted in God to deliver them because he had been delivering their ancestors for ages. We trust in God today to deliver us because Jesus fulfilled God’s promises to them and us when Jesus entered the holy city Jerusalem. So today we join our voices with theirs in singing praises to the true King, the King of all things seen and unseen. We celebrate the King, not as an earthly king who is going to do great things for us, but as a servant king, the suffering servant Isaiah prophesied about in told about in Isaiah 53:3-5, "3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” So we follow Jesus the servant King as he enters Jerusalem. We hear the chatter and voices surrounding him. We feel the excitement along with the people that day, for we know that what is happening is the completion of events in Israel’s history that foreshadowed what was going to happen that week, for Galatians 4 tells us that when Jesus entered the city that the time was fulfilled. God has been preparing for this day, for that week, the week we now know as Passion Week since Adam and Eve sinned. That is why the people then could understand and why you can understand, if just like them you have read the Old Testament prophecies and believed in what they said about the coming Messiah. For without knowing the Old Testament prophecies you cannot truly know the Messiah Jesus There is a profound significance in Jesus being the son of David. He is not just any descendent of King David, but the one we are told in God’s Word who would rule forever, the Savior, not just for Israel, but for the whole world. Jesus riding into the city on a donkey is significant, for King David after a victory would not ride in on a war horse, as was the custom in his time, but on a donkey showing his humility, for the victory was not his, but God’s. King David would then go to the temple to offer sacrifice and praise to God. That is what Jesus did; came into the city as a humble servant, except when he got to the temple he found that the temple had been turned into a house of trade and began to cleanse it. Today is a time of celebration, a time when we desperately try to not think about the coming week of Jesus’ suffering and death on our behalf. For when we think about his death and suffering we are reminded of our sinfulness, our suffering, and our approaching death. I remember when I first came to be your pastor I bought a box of small books titled Preparing for death. I handed them out to different people and I will never forget their, at least most of their reactions when I gave them the book and asked them to read it. It was like I had handed them a snake. I honestly don’t know if any ever read it. The title scared them, for death is something we run from even though we know death is inevitable and we will all face it unless Jesus comes back first. What they did not know was that little book with the strange title was what I would call the Reader’s Digest version of the Bible. The Bible is all about preparing us for our death, but rather than see it for what it is we call it by all types of names. Here are just a few of them. The Road Home, a Bible for long haul truck drivers; My City, My God, for people who live in the inner city; Path to Victory for sports players; Hope for the Future for women in crises; Military Bible for those in the military. Children’s Bibles, prisoners Bibles, fisherman Bibles, all kinds of Bibles, but I have never seen a Bible titled, Preparing for Death, which is what God’s Word is all about. Think about it. Jesus’ birth, life, suffering, death, and resurrection is all about preparing us for our death. For as God’s Word tells us there is death and then judgment. No second chances. I think it is time, no matter what our age to come to grips with the truth that we are going to die; some sooner, some later, some peacefully, some not. But we are all going to die and the week of Jesus’ Passion forces us to look at it straight in the eye. I am sure that is why fewer and fewer Christians each year attend Maundy Thursday and Good Friday worship services, much less read the Passion story on their own. As hard as we work to put off death, and we do, there is one more thing that we work even harder to put off; suffering. We will do whatever it takes to escape suffering. We will drink too much, dope our bodies until we can’t feel the pain, and surround ourselves with whatever we think will keep us from suffering. That is what we do and yet suffering is part of our life and in Jesus case suffering and dying is his purpose in being one of us. His suffering and dying and his rising gives us hope, the sure hope that there is more than suffering and dying in our lives. There is living, eternal living and joy. Just as Jesus’ purpose was suffering and dying there is a purpose in our suffering and dying as Christians. I remember those times I spent with Christians who were dying, some suffering greatly. Many times they would ask, “Why is God allowing me to suffer? Why does he not allow me to die? My answer was always the same. “I don’t know.” But then when the time was right, sometimes then, sometimes later, I would tell them that maybe God was letting them suffer to prepare them for their death, so that they would no longer fear it, but welcome it as the way to entering into the very presence of God. To those who in their suffering were showing the love of God, like Doug and Margie Mesloh who in their suffering and death showed to their children and all those who ministered to them the love and forgiveness of God, I would tell them that their suffering, approaching death, and even their funeral was a testimony of their faith. Come walk with me this coming Thursday and Friday, as we walk together with Jesus, his path of suffering and death, for us. You will learn from his suffering and death, for in his suffering and death he has overcome your suffering and death. Then you will be ready to truly celebrate his resurrection on Easter morning, for his resurrection is your resurrection. Amen. Let us sing they hymn “Jesus, I Will Ponder Now.”