When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.

The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord— the King of Israel!" Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written: "Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!" His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him. So the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to testify. It was also because they heard that he had performed this sign that the crowd went to meet him. The Pharisees then said to one another, "You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him!" (John 12:9-19 NRSV)

Palm Sunday.
We are about as far removed in the Church year as one can be from Palm Sunday.

It’s a month until Christmas
It’s several more months until Ash Wednesday and Lent.

What in the world am I doing reading a Palm Sunday passage of Scripture
When Thanksgiving is in the forefront of everybody’s mind?

We’re so used to hearing this passage of Scripture
that we get caught-up with the pageantry of the Palms
the excitement of the people
that we miss the important parts.

"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord--
The King of Israel."

Today is the last Sunday after Pentecost
Today is the last Sunday of the Church Year.
And the Church has,
down through the centuries
closed the Church year
with the proclamation that Jesus Christ is her King.
Is he yours?

Would you pray with me?

Gracious God, move among us this day so that we may always know that we are never alone; and speak to us so that we may always hear, understand, and remember -- give us your word by which you mold and shape our living; in Jesus Name we pray. Amen.

In the opening scene of the musical Camelot, we see King Authur--
played by Richard Harris --
standing in a field, dressed in the clothing of a common peasant.

To look at him you would have no idea that he was a King.
In fact, when Guinevere -- played by Vanessa Redgrave--
first met Authur, she didn’t have a clue that he was really the King of the Britons.

Arthur was, in fact, King.
But his outward appearance
his words
his actions
gave no evidence of this fact.

Christ is, in fact, our King
But on Earth --
dressed in Human vesture --
Jesus appeared to be just a man,
just another Jew.

That is ...
until he raised Lazarus from the Dead.

In the story as it is found in John’s Gospel,
we read that the people were following Jesus and proclaiming him their King
not because of who he was
but because of what he did for Lazarus.

And that is our temptation too.

The modern Church is caught up in the trap
of focusing on what we like to call the “Historical Jesus.”
We are so interested in what our own brains
can determine about the “Historical Jesus”--
a Jesus of our own intellectual creation--
that we ignore the Biblical Jesus ...
the only Jesus whose Real Presence dwells within us
and walks with us from day to day.

And, I am as guilty of this sin as the next New Testament Scholar.

Christian academic liberalism wants us to focus
on the deeds of the Historical Jesus--
On what we can reconstruct concerning how he treated:
the Poor
Women
Romans
the Religious Leaders of his day, and
the evil Rich.

The Liberal academic approach would have us remember
that Jesus was a Good and Wise Teacher
a social worker
a medical man
a political and social radical
rather than Christ the King,
Ruler of the Universe,
who is also really present with us today.

And this is quite a lot like the trap
that the Jews fell into on that original Palm Sunday.

The crowd was proclaiming Jesus to be their King,
the King of Israel,
not because he was the Son of God,
but because of his miraculous deeds
because he had the ability to rid Israel
of the Roman Occupation.

While these benefits are,
indeed,
by-products of Christ’s Kingship,
they do not make him Lord.

Christ is truly King,
but in a way far beyond what either the Jews
or the disciples
could have possibly known.

Christ is King --
he is head of the Church--
King and creator of all creation
because,
as Paul put in his letter to the Colossians:
Christ is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation....”

This truth as to the Kingship of Christ
was made known to the disciples
only after Jesus, himself, had been raised from the dead,
and after the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

To look at Jesus,
the Man,
during his earthly ministry,
there wasn’t much to indicate that he was anything more than a Good Rabbi.
The miracles he performed were not especially remarkable--
until Lazarus was raised.
Some of the things he said would have been shocking,
disturbing,
and questionable,
but otherwise there wasn’t much to distinguish him during his life.

Based upon what they could see and hear,
he was a religious leader and,
just perhaps,
a political figure who could muster support
from among the Jews
to cast the Romans out of Jerusalem.

It took his death and resurrection,
his assention and the coming of the Holy Spirit
to reveal to us the full truth.

And, so, as we end the season after Pentecost,
we remember --
yet again,
and now for the right reasons --
that we do, indeed, have a King.
We do, indeed, have a Lord and Master.

Let us give thanks untio the Heavenly Father,
that he has sent his Son to be our God and our King.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
-- Amen