04/05/2020
Good morning Church Family, today is Palm Sunday. Below is Luke's account of that day.
28 After He had said these things, He was going on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 When He approached Bethphage and Bethany, near the mount that is called Olivet, He sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village ahead of you; there, as you enter, you will find a c**t tied on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of it.’” 32 So those who were sent went away and found it just as He had told them. 33 As they were untying the c**t, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the c**t?” 34 They said, “The Lord has need of it.” 35 They brought it to Jesus, and they threw their coats on the c**t and put Jesus on it. 36 As He was going, they were spreading their coats on the road. 37 As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, 38 shouting: “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” 40 But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!” 41 When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, 44 and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation. people were saying that was part of the problem. Matthew tells us that as Jesus entered Jerusalem the people began rejoicing and praising God, shouting,
It was the palm branches that made this day unique, and then again, it wasn’t.
For centuries, the church has memorialized today, the first day of Holy Week, as Palm Sunday because of the palm branches and cloaks that the people spread out before Jesus as he entered Jerusalem.
The Gospel writers tell us a crowd gathered, gushing with excitement, and lined the road in front of Jesus as he slowly rode into the city. As he made his way, one step at a time by the beast of burden on which he sat, a sort of carpet was being sewn together ahead of him. Fresh, green palm branches, presumably picked from nearby trees, and thick, worn clothing, likely from the backs of the crowd, formed a tapestry of endearment toward Israel’s long-awaited Messiah.
And according to the Pharisees, this was a problem.
I don’t believe the palm branches were the only problem that day. I believe what the people were saying was a problem as well.
Luke tells us that as Jesus entered Jerusalem the people began rejoicing and praising God, shouting, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!
Some of the Pharisees tried to get Jesus to make the crowd stop. They asked him to rebuke the people for what they were saying.
The Pharisees got it . This isn’t just any phrase. This is the kind of welcome reserved for Israel’s Savior.
It’s a phrase found in Psalm 118, a psalm that rejoices in the Lord’s triumph. Verse 22 of this Psalm says that the stone that is rejected becomes the chief cornerstone. Verses 23 & 24 speaks of the day of salvation. This day of salvation is the long-anticipated deliverance that Israel thought might never come. But it will, it does, and Psalm 118:25 captures the hope: “Save now I pray, O LORD: O Lord send now prosperity.”
This salvation will come through a person — the Messiah of God — the one sent to rescue his people. So goes the shout, in the psalm, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Psalm 118:26
So the crowd that day was taking its cue from Psalm 118. That’s why the Pharisees tell Jesus to stop the madness. Do you hear what they are saying? They think you’re the Messiah come to save us. Tell them to shut up.
Well Jesus did not stop them. He says, instead, that if the people weren’t saying it then the rocks themselves would cry out. Of course, Jesus is the Messiah. He has come to Jerusalem to save his people.
And according to the crowd, this was a problem.
I think another problem that day was the way Jesus would bring salvation.
The people wanted salvation and success, remember. Which means, they wanted the Messiah to march into the city and overthrow Rome. They wanted to be free from Gentile oppression, even if by force, even if by threats and plagues and a split sea, as they recounted so well in their history. They wanted another exodus, one that expelled the Romans.
Instead, what they got by Friday morning was a bloodied man, a man in Roman custody, rejected by their own leaders, standing next to an infamous criminal called Barabbas. They wanted an incomparable king, but they would see a beaten blasphemer. Or so they thought.
The sounds of the crowd that Sunday — that Palm Sunday — would later be betrayed by the sounds of their stony hearts. “Blessed is he!” would soon become “crucify him!” For this reason, there is something nauseating about today. We read of the response to Jesus, but because we know the story, we know it’s not real. It’s not right.
And as we feel the deep tragedy of their words, of their blindness, we shouldn’t expect that we’d have been any different. The Pharisees and the people had their problems, and so do we. If we know our hearts apart from grace, if we could listen in on this crowd, we’d hear our shouts along with theirs. We’d hear our praise, hollow as it were, and then, by Friday, “ashamed we’d hear our mocking voice call out among the scoffers.”
It is not the righteous, after all, who Jesus came to save, but sinners. Sinners like us.
Blessings
