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Who We Are - Sermon, Palm Sunday, April 13th, 2003
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Mark 11:1-10 as follows --
As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, `Why are you doing this?' tell him, `The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.'" They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people standing there asked, "What are you doing, untying that colt?" They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, "Hosanna! " "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!" "Hosanna in the highest!"
Dear Friends in Christ Jesus,
I have a friend who drives a Cadillac STS, a very nice luxury car. He bought it a few years ago to keep a promise he'ad made to himself in his younger days. I'm sure that he wanted that Cadillac for its comfort and its quality. But I also think that he wanted to own a Cadillac as a way of making a statement about himself. For him, that car tells people that he has arrived, that he has been a success in life. Not everybody looks at his car like that. Maybe the kind of vehicle you own may be transportation, plain and simple. You own it because it is reliable or safe or practical or fits your budget. But some of you may, like many folks, want your car or truck to make a statement about who or what you are. It has something to do with how you want people to perceive you.
There are lots of ways that we can make statements about ourselves, either deliberately or unintentionally. The way you decorate your home or keep up your yard might tell people something about what kind of person you are. How about the way you look? If I showed up next Sunday with a nose ring and some tattoos and a shaved head, that would make a statement, wouldn't it? And certainly, how we conduct ourselves makes a statement! How you act when you're are work or at school or out on the town or even at home . . . the sum total of how you live your life . . . your words and actions, your values and prioritie, the choices you make each day. . . it all adds up to quite a statement about who you really are, doesn't it?
That's what happened on that day that we sometimes call the first Palm Sunday. By his actions, by the way he chose to arrive at Jerusalem for the last time, our Lord Jesus Christ made a public statement about himself. We can better understand the events of that day if we revisit them with this in mind, that what we're seeing is Jesus making a statement about himself -- about who he really is and about what he really came to do.
THE SAVIOR MAKES A STATEMENT
Picture a bright, sunny, early spring morning. After a quiet Sabbath at the home of his friends in Bethany, Jesus is now ready for his last visit to Jerusalem. As they head up the dusty road, he and his disciples are not alone. Throngs of people are coming to celebrate the Passover and now they're on the home stretch, just two miles to go. They can't see Jerusalem yet, but they know that it lies just over the Mt. of Olives. But almost as soon as they start out from Bethany, there's a pause in the action. Jesus stops and says to two of his disciples: "Go into the village and you'll find a donkey's colt tied up. Untie it and bring it to me. And, he adds, if anyone objects just say: ÔThe Lord needs it,' and he'll let you go." Two things stand out. First, Jesus knows the animal is there and displays his divine knowledge to his disciples. Secondly, he requisitions that animal that belongs to someone else for his personal use (like some kind of king or something!).
Although his disciples apparently don't realize it, Jesus is deliberately fulfilling Zechariah's prophecy (Ze 9:9-10). He intends to make a strong statement about who he really is. Remember, up till this point, Jesus has always shushed people. He has not wanted anybody to go around saying he's the promised Messiah, the Christ. But now he does it himself, by his deliberate actions, by the most unusual way he comes to Jerusalem this time, by his choice of transportation on this remarkable day.
Through Zechariah, the Lord had told his people: "Rejoice, your King comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on the foal of a donkey." On this spring day, God's plan is reaching its fulfillment. God's Son is coming to Jerusalem to complete his mission. The King is here and he intends to make himself known. Jesus has his disciples fetch him his transportation for the day and he sits on that puny little colt to fulfill the Word of God. By his actions, he makes a deliberate, powerful statement about who he really is.
Today we sang: "Ride on, ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die. O Christ, your triumphs now begin O'er captive death and conquered sin." We can sing that because we know what happened later that week and on the following Sunday. We have to realize, though, that most, if not all, of those who are welcoming him on this day do not have a clue. In fact, many of them are expecting a different kind of king, a different kind of conqueror. What Jesus does is designed to help people see the truth, not only about who he really is but also about what he really came to do. That was already quite plain in Zechariah's prophecy, who indicated that this King does not behave at all like earthly kings. When this King comes, he's not riding a war horse, waving a bloody sword and leading an army. He comes "gentle and riding on a colt, the foal of a donkey."
Well, of course! He's not coming to conquer the Romans and establish an earthly kingdom for himself. He's coming, the prophet wrote, "righteous and having salvation." Jesus is coming as the righteous One, and he's bringing salvation for the unrighteous ones. He's coming not to obliterate Roman rule but to conquer Satan, sin and death. He's coming to open a heavenly kingdom for sinners, coming not to spill the blood of his enemies but to pour out his blood for the sake of his enemies, not to kill but to be killed. On this amazing Sunday, Jesus accepts the praises of those who welcome him as the One "who comes in the name of the LORD" -- even though they simply do not understand what that really means!
But there are those who do understand, as the hymnwriter says: "The angel armies of the sky Look down with sad and wondering eyes To see the approaching sacrifice." Those armies of heaven, which Jesus could have summoned with a snap of his fingers to defend him, can only watch as the Lord of life continues on his course to the cross. The crowds welcome him, praise him, spread palm branches on the road, but they do not understand. The angels who serve him, and the Father who sends him, and we who look back in time, do understand.
We understand the statement that Jesus makes about himself on this remarkable day. It's a statement about who he really is: the Son of God, the promised Messiah and King, and the Savior of sinners. It's a statement about what he really came to do, as Paul put it in today's Epistle: "he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross." He came to offer up his sinless life as the sacrifice for the sins of all. To usher in an eternal kingdom of peace, as Zechariah wrote, a relationship of peace between us and God through the forgiveness of our sins. Yes, the Savior made a statement on that day we call Palm Sunday. He does it again today, wherever people gather to watch him and welcome him and worship him.
What statement will you and I make in response? What statement will we make this "Holy Week" -- on Maundy Thursday and on Good Friday and next Sunday? More importantly, what statement will we make the week after Easter and the week after that, and all the days and weeks after that? What will our actions and what will our words say about who we really are? Will they make it clear that we are redeemed, reborn, renewed and righteous people? And more than that, what statement will we make about our Lord Jesus Christ by our attitudes, by our values and our priorities, by how we spend our time and our energy and our money? What will the choices we make each day say about Christ? What statement will the sum total of our lives say about Jesus Christ, and about us?
This week, dear friends in Christ, we have the opportunity to revisit Gethsemane and Golgotha and the grave of God's Son, our Savior. One week from today we will revisit his empty tomb, and every Sunday after that we will celebrate the victory that Christ won for us. But how could we celebrate a victory like this in only one hour a week? That's impossible! Shouldn't our victory celebration spill over into our day-to-day life in such a way that it truly makes a statement about who we really are? Shouldn't my daily life in every way reveal that I am, in Christ, a redeemed, reborn, renewed child of God? When it does, of course, it will also make a powerful statement about who Jesus really is, and about what he really came to do!