Sermon Text: Mark 11: 1-11
1 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples;
2 and He said to them, “Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it.
3 And if anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it,’ and immediately he will send it here.”
4 So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it.
5 But some of those who stood there said to them, “What are you doing, loosing the colt?”
6 And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. So they let them go.
7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it.
8 And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
9 Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’
10 Blessed is the kingdom of our father David That comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
11 And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.
Morning Message:
Today we remember what should have been a wonderful event for the people of Israel. They had waited hundreds of years for this day, for this celebration. Finally, their king had arrived, and he would save them from the terrible Roman Empire. This was an event that had been forecast for hundreds of years. Scripture, all the way back in Genesis connected the Messiah coming to His people, riding on the colt of a donkey. Jesus had fulfilled prophecy in every phase of his life, and now he was coming exactly the way that it was foretold. I have this question ringing in my mind. Why were there not thousands of people lined up to greet their king? The scripture says, many people, which suggests to me that it wasn’t thousands. Many times, in scripture we are told when there are thousands present. We have the feeding of the 3000 and the feeding of the 5000, they could have said the many, but it was more than that. I have a reason why I think there were so few. I believe, that just like today, there were many people who did not know scripture. I believe, that just like a lot of church people today, their attitude was, if this is our king then why is he riding a lowly donkey? And he could not even afford a grown donkey, he had to settle for a colt. They were thinking, Jesus comes to Jerusalem as king?
So, we gather on Palm Sunday and we wave palm branches. Why do we do this? What’s the significance of this? In today’s scripture we hear that they laid their cloaks on the ground and cut down branches and laid them on the ground. This sounds strange to us because we don’t understand the history of Israel or the time in which this took place. By riding a colt, Jesus both fulfilled an important messianic prophecy and reenacted the coronation of Solomon, the son of King David. Laying cloaks and branches on the road publicly signified the arrival of a person of royalty. What do we do with these palm branches? I like to at least get you to wave them in church and say the words, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” I do not know what you do with your palm branches when you leave here. I know that for years we have kept ours, maybe put them on the wall behind a picture. I’m not quite sure why we do that; I hope that it is simply a way of remembering. The palm branches, like anything else connected to our faith, can become a superstitious item for us. People sometimes go to church on Palm Sunday because they need to get their palms. In a way the palms have become a safety net, a way of assuring well-being from year to year. We are called to worship God and to give praise to Jesus, not to things that perish.
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” We say the words, but do we really mean them? In calling Jesus, the one who comes in this context, the crowd essentially calls him the Messiah. Unfortunately, they meant it on their own terms. I’m afraid that many times we do the same thing. I think that at times I do the same thing. We want Jesus on our own terms. We give him our lives so that he can make them into what we want, what we expect. That is not giving your life to Jesus; that is giving him your problems and asking him to fix them in a way that is acceptable to you. Be my king Jesus and do what I want you to do. Take my life Jesus, except for the parts that I would like to keep. Take the wheel Jesus, but do not take me anywhere that I don’t want to go. When we say Hosanna, what do we mean? Originally the word Hosanna meant save now, but over the years it came to be used as a simple expression of praise—much like the word Hallelujah has changed from meaning Praise God to something much more generic, such as, how wonderful. When we say it on Palm Sunday, is it simple praise, or do we truly want to be saved now? Let our Hosannas be true Hosannas and our Hallelujahs be true praise to God. You know there is a place where there will be true worship of God and His Son Jesus. One day, when we are in heaven, we will celebrate and worship all the time, as we should. Scripture tells us that we will be rewarded with crowns in heaven. Do you know what we will do with those crowns? We will toss them at the feet of Jesus in true worship. Maybe that is exactly what we should do with these palms.
In Christ’s Love and Peace
Pastor Bob
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