Sermon
Like a roller coaster ride, today is the
beginning of a week that takes us up and down and leaves us changed. This Holy week requires
and deserves our full attention and commitment. The week at times will be very
difficult we will arrive back differently than when we started. It is a week of
very personal inner searching.
We enter Jerusalem today with Jesus; and I
wish to share with you a little of what Michael
K. Marsh. Shared in a
sermon he wrote for Palm Sunday
“Jesus’
entry into Jerusalem is then, in reality, his entry into the depths of our life
and being. This is never more clear or challenging than it is in Holy Week. It
is not about choosing between life or death, palms or passion; but about
choosing life and death, palms and passion. That’s the tension of this day. The
challenge is to remain fully embodied and present to that tension, not as
spectators but as participants, not just this week but every week. Jesus was
not quick to resolve the tension, nor should we be. It is out of that tension
that new life will ultimately be birthed. There is, however, no birth without
pain.
To
stand in the tension means we must choose to empty ourselves of anything that
might keep us from fully embracing the events of this week and the life of God.
That’s what Jesus did. He did not use his status as God’s son as an escape or
something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself and chose obedience to
the point of death. In so doing he fully embodied God’s life and, consequently,
human life.”
As you study the life of Jesus on the
pages of the four Gospels, you discover that much of the material about the
life of Jesus focuses on the last week of his life. The writers who told the stories of Jesus were saying that the
most important part of the revelation of who he was, and who he is, is revealed
in the last week of his life. In fact the last six chapters of Mark’s gospel
describe the final week in the life of our Lord. In other words, these seven
days are so important for humankind that a third of this gospel is devoted to
them.
The words that describe the experiences of
the week include a series of emotions that signify the roller coaster week of
ups and downs. We know them: hosanna, confrontation, betrayal, denial,
trial, scourging, crucifixion, tomb. Then the most electrifying sentence
ever uttered—"He is not here! He is risen!"
Palm Sunday is at best, says Wallace
Viets, "a day of temporary triumph." At worst, it is an illustration
of the "fickle nature of the voice of the people." “Not only the
fickleness of people, but as Jerusalem is one of the most troubled places in
the world; a place of division, struggle, conflict, and confrontation.
Jerusalem, however, is not located only in Israel, but within every human heart
there is a Jerusalem a place of struggle, conflict, confrontation.’ (Fr.
Mike and Interrupting the Silence.)
Holy week starts very uplifting with
shouts of praise, followed by an abyss of denial and betrayal, the duplicity of
Judas, and the unfaithfulness of Peter. We see betrayal and the weakness of all
of the disciples who flee the city, the ambivalence of Pilate, the agony of
death between two thieves nailed to their crosses—one who curses Jesus, the
other who asks for His forgiveness. The bleakness of the "final
things" at a borrowed tomb; 3days later, the glory of Easter and Jesus
resurrection.
Many scholars
believe, that Jesus planned his own
parade. Until this day He had specifically avoided public acclaim and
publicity. It was Passover time. The city was jammed with pilgrims from all
over the world. He entered Jerusalem in a way that would focus the whole city
on his arrival.
Ever wonder why Jesus chose to ride a colt
into Jerusalem? The gospels tell us numerous times that Jesus walked wherever
he went. Why would he suddenly decide to ride? We may miss the point, but you
can bet that the first century faithful knew exactly what Jesus was doing. They
were well acquainted with the words of the prophet, Zechariah, who centuries
before had said, “Shout aloud, O
daughters of Jerusalem! Your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is
he, humble and riding on a colt, the foal of an ass.” (Zechariah 9:9)
Jesus secured a beast of burden; in a most
mysterious way. There would have been
donkeys and colts near- by as they were a very common animal. But Jesus offers
specific instructions to His disciples to retrieve a colt, never before ridden,
at a certain place, outside of the path Jesus is about to take. As the nervous
disciples retrieve the colt, neighbours did not question their actions or
accuse them of stealing it. This is an example of God planning knowledge ahead
to the future in the most detailed of ways through the Holy Spirit; God is
active in this event. God directs everything & it occurs as Jesus has
announced beforehand.
An unbroken beast of
burden was regarded as sacred, and so that made it appropriate for a king;
Everything is ordered and purposed by Christ alone. The timing of everything is
planned so that he will enter the city on the first day of the week and be
crucified on the Friday when the Passover lambs were being slain.
Clip, clop, clip, clop,
The crowds respond as Jesus rode along,
some may truly believed, that this man was their King, to save them from their
oppression, to release them from the bonds of their political chains. To others
Jesus represented a new face, a temporary focus to forget about their Roman
oppression; the majority of the crowd saw Jesus joining them for the Passover
feast in their wonderful temple. He was with them on pilgrimage. They didn’t
see His entry as that of the Messianic king. For the children it was like a
parade, they could climb the trees and snatch off branches and wave them in the
air. Whoever the guy was on the donkey it didn’t matter, He waved, they waved
back, it was fun; people seemed happy… that was all that mattered.
Clip, clop, clip, clop
“For the last stretch of the journey, as
the road sweeps down to the valley of the Kidron, the crowds were vast. There
was probably not a house in Jerusalem in which his entry was not known and
talked of that evening. “The Lord Jesus had come to Jerusalem to die, and he
desired that all Jerusalem should know it . . . He drew the attention of the
rulers, and priests, and elders, and Scribes, and Greeks, and Romans to himself. The eternal Son of God was about to suffer in
the place of the fallen humankind; the great sacrifice for sin was about to be
offered up; the great atonement for a world’s sin about to be made. He
overruled things in such a way that the eyes of all Jerusalem were fixed on
him, and when he died, he died before many witnesses” (J.C.Ryle, “Expository
Thoughts on the Gospel of Mark,” p. 227).
He who had spoken and the storm and sea
had obeyed him, spoke not a sound to tone down their cheers. In fact he said,
“If these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.”
As we travel along I share with you now,
some words & thoughts of Pastor Bob Deffinbaugh –
that I find to be very challenging and insightful. As Jesus continues to wind
His way through the city streets of Jerusalem, clip, clop, clip, clop, have a
look at the faces of the people. Anyone you recognize?
Pastor Bob writes “writes “As I have
considered this passage, from Mark 11 several distressing conclusions have
occurred to me. It was not pagan Rome (ultimately) that rejected and put the
Savior to death, but the pious religion of Jesus’ day. Without any hesitation,
I will agree that Rome had a hand in the death of the Savior, but it did not
instigate His death; it only apathetically went along with it (cf. John 19:12) From then on,
Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you
let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a
king opposes Caesar.”.
He goes on to say “All too often we
concern ourselves with loudmouth atheists who boldly refute the truths of
Christianity. These people are a problem, but the most dangerous of all is the
religious deceiver. Religion is the opiate of the people—the kind of religion
displayed at the triumphal entry. Christianity and religion are diametrically
opposed to each other.
While true religion (Christianity) must
express itself in social concerns, that is not its essence. Today, even as
2,000 years ago, religious leaders are deceiving countless religious people
into supposing that religion is to focus upon revolution and reform, upon
political activism, rather than upon repentance and renewal.
My friend, may I ask you this question
with all sincerity? Are you a Christian, or are you just religious? A Christian
recognizes that God has shown every man (and me, in particular) to be a sinner.
A Christian trust not in his own religious activity or good deeds, but in the
death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was bruised for our
iniquities; He bore the penalty of our sins. His righteousness makes us
acceptable to God. May God spare us from religion.
I am now convinced that Jesus was not put
to death only by the religious leaders of His day. It has finally occurred to
me that it was not just the religious leaders of Israel, but the multitudes who
were responsible for the death of Messiah. Over and over we have seen in the gospels
that the religious leaders desired to put Jesus to death but were helpless
because of the popular support of the masses. That support appears to be
greater than ever in the ‘triumphal entry,’ but in fact, it is shown to be
ill-founded, temporary, and illusory. As the real character of the King and His
Kingdom become clear in this last week of the Savior’s life and public ministry
the support of the crowd begins to diminish and disappear. Their support was
based upon their own pre-conceived conceptions of the Kingdom. They wanted
nothing to do with His Kingdom.
When it becomes apparent that He will not rise up against Rome; when it is
evident that Jesus is angered more at their religion than with Rome, they will
stand aside and let the religious leaders have their way with Him.
I am convinced that this is also
characteristic of our own time. Yes, there are many false prophets with false
messages, but the sad reality is that people are attracted to them because they
proclaim what the masses want to hear:
“For the time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they
will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and
will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths”
(2 Timothy 4:3-4).
(3) Finally, be on guard to any religion
that receives the acclaim of the masses. The multitudes heralded Jesus as
Messiah, but they did not receive Him as God’s Messiah in the final analysis.
My friend, there are many today who have nice words for Jesus, a good man, a
great teacher, a wonderful example, a social reformer, but the masses do not
regard themselves as sinners, nor the Lord Jesus as the suffering Savior. Here
is what separates the men from the boys, the sheep from the goats, the saints
from the synthetic: our response
to the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ.
22nd August 2004 GEOFF THOMAS Copyright ©
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Intro to Sermon a Palm Sunday by W.
Frank Harrington “A Day of Applause” Luke 19:28-43
Emptying
and Embodying from Mark l11:1-11 A
Sermon for Palm Sunday; Mark Fr. Mike (Michael K. Marsh).and
Interrupting the Silence. AN EPISCOPAL
PRIEST'S SERMONS,
O
Bible.Org Bob Deffinbaugh - Robert L. (Bob)Deffinbaugh 27. The Triumphal
Tragedy Mark 11:1-25
(J.C.Ryle, “Expository Thoughts on the Gospel
of Mark,” p. 227).
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