Doctor Luke begins his account of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem – what we call Palm Sunday – with directions for two of His disciples to bring Him a colt that no one had ever ridden. And the owner of the animal promptly surrendered the colt to the disciples.
“Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying: ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!’
“And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, ‘Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.’
“But He answered and said to them, ‘I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out’” (Luke 19:37-40).
And four days later the same people were shouting “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” (Luke 23:21).
When Pilate tried to change their minds, the crowd “were insistent, demanding with loud voices that He be crucified” (Luke 23:23).
Only four days from “Hosanna” to “Crucify Him!”
If we did not know the end of the story, the Hosanna scene would be the most heartbreaking scene before the Crucifixion. The crowd chanting, like a high school basketball game with the cheerleaders leading, “Jesus! Jesus! He’s our man! If He can’t do it no one can!” And then the clamoring for his death, the curses, the spitting, the nails.
Years ago I bought Paul Harvey’s The Rest of the Story, a great book of short vignettes, each with a twist or surprise ending. I had to read with an index card placed over the last paragraph of each story because I was in a hurry to look ahead and get to “the good stuff.” Life can be like that. There will be a happy ending and we want to get to it. There will be the Resurrection, but not before the Crucifixion.
Knowing the difficult times we are facing, with our lives turned upside down, may I suggest that we stop and tarry a while at Palm Sunday. Experience the sheer joy of the crowd as they recognize Jesus, the Messiah. They can’t respond quickly enough. When there aren’t any more palm branches to put on the path, they throw their cloaks and coats, heedless of their value, heedless of whether they’ll be able to retrieve them later. Just the joy. Just the rejoicing.
Listen to what they said. They called Him King. They were expecting armies to follow Him and overthrow the yoke of Rome and set Jerusalem and all of Israel free from the tyranny of the Empire. They missed the whole point. He came to set them free, not from political oppression, but from the oppression of sin whose bondage is stronger and crueler than any earthly government. The joy of that liberation is almost beyond expression. The Apostle Paul will write to the Romans, “For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.” That is the power of sin. I want to do differently, but I don’t. I can’t. The power that holds me is too strong.
And so Matthew, describing the same scene, says the crowd cried out, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (21:6).
Hosanna means literally, “save us.” It becomes a doxology. “Praise God and His Messiah, we are saved!”
Looking for an earthly deliverer, they missed the point. Expecting Jesus to overthrow the local government was just plain wrong. And even though they were totally wrong, they were absolutely correct. Jesus is King. Jesus is Savior. Jesus deserves all of the praise we can raise. And more.
The Pharisees told Jesus to silence His disciples. They were trying to protect their “Us Only” club. But Jesus came to this earth not to swing any doors shut behind him, but to fling the doors to the Kingdom open so widely, that those doors would fly right off their hinges. And if the disciples don’t praise, the stones will raise the hallelujah chorus.
Don’t let the rocks out-praise you. Don’t let the pebbles give more glory to the Son of God than you. Like me with Paul Harvey’s book, we know the rest of the story. We know the crucifixion is not the end. We know the Resurrection is only seven days away. So rock the rocks!
Declare it with all of your heart – “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
** Before you turn to the other things of today, click on this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI6dsMeABpU and enjoy George Frideric Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus.”
TTFN
Nicely said. Thank you.
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