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 12:12-19 NRSV)

***

(Rev. Neal is standing in the pulpit, just beginning his sermon, and his phone rings. He pulls the phone out and answers it).

Hello? --- Hey, Dad!! How are ya?
Sure ... hey ...
Did you hear?
Jesus is coming to town.
Oh come on, you remember,
the Rabbi that CNN did a special on the other day?
You know--the fellow that raised that dead guy in Bethany last week?
Yeah, him!
He's coming to town for Passover.
Huh?
Who do people say that he is?
Well, CNN wasn't sure,
but they reported that he's been called a great prophet.
He's certainly a healer--
not every Joe-blow can raise somebody from the dead, you know.

Well, I don't know--
but it looks to me like me might be the Messiah.
Yeah, the new King of Israel.

Huh?
Well, I heard on the radio that he's coming into town in just a few minutes.
Scott, Ethel, Mrs. Wallace and myself
we’re all going out to join the crowd in welcoming him to the city.
Why?
Well, you know, it's not every day that you get to see somebody
who can raise a guy from the dead.
What?
Well, if you want to come then cut yourself off a palm branch and join us.
Yeah..... I'll meet you at the edge of town in ten minutes.
Okay . . . bye-bye.

(Rev. Neal pauses, look at the congregation, smiles and gestures to the phone)

Jesus of Nazareth is coming to town.
This looks like it's going to be something special.
You know..... I understand that this Jesus person raised this fellow,
Lazarus,
from the dead last week.
Yeah, I know that it’s hard to believe, but I saw it on CNN,
so it must be true.
And, you know,
I understand that the Bishop and his Cabinet aren't too happy about this guy.
A whole bunch of us are going out to greet him,
and wave palms at him.
I know, it sounds a bit silly, but if he turns out to be the new king of Israel,
I want to get on his good side real quick.
I just hope we don't get in trouble.
Would you pray with me?

Lord God, Almighty, move among us so that we, Thy people, may always feel and sense Thy divine power and presence; for we need to know that we are never alone. And speak to each and every one of us in such a way that we may hear, understand, and remember, give us words by which to mold an shape our living; for we confess to You that we need such words by which to live. For we pray in Thy Holy and Gracious Name. Amen.

“So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying 'Hosanna' Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”

My little fiction,
before the prayer,
was not just for fun.

Oh, sure, they taught me in preaching class
to find novel ways of catching your attention.
And it worked, didn't it?
But did you hear what was being said?
Jesus is coming to town.
He's the guy who raised Lazarus from the dead!
Let's go and greet him, with palms,
so we can be on the new King's good side.

My little conclusion as to their motives for greeting Jesus so joyously
is a little bit suspect, I admit.
I mean,
I have no direct evidence for my characterization of their reasoning.
But based on their activity later in the week,
I would venture to guess that I'm not that far off.

We can certainly say that,
on Palm Sunday,
Jesus was greeted whole heatedly by the people of Jerusalem
as if he were the King of Israel entering the city
to rid it of the occupying Roman Legions.
And by Friday they were shouting “Crucify Him!”

Why would they first pledge their allegiance to Jesus, a wonder worker,
on Sunday,
and then be calling for his death by Friday?

Why would we recognize Jesus as our Lord
Sunday after Sunday,
and then forget our proclamation by . . . Monday?

Is it, perhaps, because we human beings are a sinful, fallen people?
Is it, perhaps, because those people who greeted Jesus on Sunday,
really didn't know who they were proclaiming,
and certainly not why?

These are two questions which we must hear, today, on this last Sunday of Lent.
We can say, for sure,
that the people who had gathered in Jerusalem for the Passover Feast,
were out there to see a great healer, teacher, and wonder worker.

The gospel says that:

“The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb
and raised him from the dead bore witness.The reason why the crowd
went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign.”

They didn't flock to see Jesus because they had heard
that he was the Son of God,
their Almighty Lord and Savior.
They didn't flock to see Jesus because he was God,
the second person of the Trinity.
No, they flocked to see Jesus because they thought he was a powerful magician.
They had heard that he could work great miracles, great signs,
and so they went to greet him,
in hopes that he would free them from their yoke of bondage to the Romans.

They had no idea that Jesus had not come to free Israel
from the yoke of Rome's rule,
but, rather, from the yoke of sin.
Indeed, Jesus had come to free the whole world,
all of creation,
from the oppression of sin and death.
It is not, first and foremost, a gospel of political and social deliverance.
No!
The Gospel message is one which frees us from power of sin and death,
from the evil forces of
spiritual blindness,
and demonic control,
which have gripped the world since the days of Adam and Eve.
The people who went out, waving palms,
failed to see and understand this fact.
Jesus wasn't there to free them from Rome,
Jesus was there to free them from Satan.

Not only did those greeters fail to understand this,
According to Scripture, Jesus’ very disciples failed to understand it too.

“His disciples did not understand this at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that this had been written of him and had been done to him.”

Once Jesus and died, and then had been raised from the dead,
then..... then, the disciples understood.
But, we’re getting ahead of our selves.
It is only Palm Sunday.
It is not yet Easter Morning.
And to get to Easter, my brothers and sisters,
We have to go through Maundy Thursday,
Good Friday,
and Holy Saturday.
And the hard part is Good Friday.

We Protestants don't like to remember Good Friday.
We like to dwell on the empty tomb, and pass quickly over the crucifixion.
And, while it is indeed true that our hope is in the resurrection of our Lord,
We fall far short of comprehending what is going on if we forget the crucifixion.

Why was Christ crucified?
Why did the Son of God have to go through such horrible agony?
Why did the Almighty God, the King of Creation,
go through this horrendous trial and ordeal?
Why did Jesus have to die?

I’m afraid that the answer isn’t nice.
I don’t like it any more than you do, my dear friends,
But it’s all our fault.
We are sinners.
We have fallen short. . .oh, so far short... of the Glory of God.
We are the reason Christ was crucified.
You . . . and me.
This realization must hit home before
Easter morning will have any meaning at all.

We are the reason Christ was crucified.
We are the reason God sent His only Son, to die on a Cross.
This is the meaning of the Lenten season.
This is why we have a penitential season before Easter.
Before we can see and understand the Glory of God in Jesus Christ, our Lord,
and accept His forgiveness which comes through His blood
which was shed on the cross in atonement for our sins,
We must first be driven to understand and accept that we are sinners.

This season, these past six weeks,
have been intended as a time for us to focus on those
things in our lives which need reformation.
We must become aware of the fact that we fall short,
before we can stand and sing “Christ the Lord is Risen Today!”
None of us deserve forgiveness.
None of us deserve the gracious gift of forgiveness
that God offers us through the Cross of Jesus Christ.

We are as useless as a broken Pot--
We need fixing.
We need to be repaired.
Repaired.

Think about that word: Re-Paired.

We need to be brought back to God.
Re-Paired to God, our Father.

And only through our confession of Sin,
and God’s gracious gift of forgiveness,
offered in and through the payment in the blood of Jesus, on the Cross,
can we be re-paired to God.

Today, the world goes out to greet Jesus with Palms and great accolades.
By Friday, he will be crucified on a hill, far away, on an old Rugged Cross.
By next Sunday morning, he will be raised from the dead.
I ask, my brothers and sisters,
that we not forget, or try to rush past, Good Friday this week.
All during the week to come,
all during what we in the Church have come to call “Holy Week”
I ask that you keep reminding yourselves that

You are the reason Christ was crucified.
Not the Jews,
Not the Romans,
No one else entirely.

You.
You are at fault,
I am at fault,
We all are at fault.

On Friday, when we remember his Crucifixion,
Don't rush through the day and ignore the horror, the tragedy of our Sin
that brought Christ to sacrifice himself
for you and me
on that Cross.

Ask for forgiveness.....
Ask for forgiveness now.
You can, right there, where you are. There is the alter rail,
but you don't have to pray there.
Ask for forgiveness, this week, and on Friday don't forget
his crucifixion and death.

Don’t run from him, hanging on the cross,
as did the people who greeted him with Palms.

This is why he came.
If you fail to see this:
if you fail to see your own sin,
and the miraculous gift of God's forgiveness,
On Easter Morning, when we stand to glorify Christ’s name,
You may see nothing at all.

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