Present on the Path / Based on John 12:12-16 / Delivered on March 25, 2018 to CCH

Present on the Path / Based on John 12:12-16 / Delivered on March 25, 2018 to CCH

Hymns:

All Glory, Laud, and Honor; I Love to Tell the Story; Joy to the World

John 12:12-16

12:12 The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

12:13 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!"

12:14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written:

12:15 "Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!"

12:16 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.

Good morning and welcome to Palm Sunday!  My name is Darci Strutt McQuiston and I am one of the Lay Servants of the United Methodist Church up on the hill.  It’s my privilege to be with you this morning.   This Sunday is also known as “Passion Sunday” because it begins the final week of Jesus life.  

Palm Sunday is the final Sunday before Easter.  In the next week we will have the retelling unfold completely beginning today with his entrance into Jerusalem on the back of a colt and continuing to his final time as a free man on Maundy Thursday, his death on the cross, and his resurrection from death.

I decided to approach this time together focused on Palm Sunday in the following ways:

Looking forward from the past

Looking backward from the future

Being present on the path

Looking forward from the past

Here are a couple of the prophetic scriptures from the past that pointed to this moment as Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem.

Psalm 118 was a popular psalm, so most of the Jewish community would have been able to quote it.  Verses 25 through 27 read.

118:25 Save us, we beseech you, O LORD! O LORD, we beseech you, give us success!

118:26 Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD. We bless you from the house of the LORD.

118:27 The LORD is God, and he has given us light. Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar.

I used to think “Hosanna” was a word of praise.  It has a different twist.  The literal definition of Hosanna is: 1) save us, we pray or 2) help us, we pray.  This makes the Psalm language “Hosanna O LORD! O LORD Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD.” 

The people recognized Jesus as the one the Psalm spoke of and repeated these words in John.

John 12:13 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!"

Zechariah spoke of the returning king of Israel in 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

A normal champion king would have selected a fine war horse to ride triumphantly into the city.  Jesus wasn’t that type of king.  He was the king spoken of by Zechariah.

John 12:14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written:

12:15 "Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!"

The promises of the old scriptures were in the minds of the people that day.  They described a savior king, the blessed one coming in the name of the Lord.  The people identified Jesus as that person, and so do we when we look at them from after the event.

Looking backward from the future

The people who cried Hosanna were looking for Jesus to be the King to save them from their current situation with the Romans.  We can look backward from our place and see the fulfilling of the cry of “Hosanna” to be saving us from sin and death.  They recognized him as a savior and we recognize him as THE Savior.  They identified Him as the new hoped-for king of Israel, and on the top of the cross put a sign that said, “King of the Jews”.  We know him as King and King and Lord of Lords over all the earth. 

The verses from the Psalm 118;

118:21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.

118:22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

Become our words of praise as we look backward from the future.  Jesus has become our salvation.  He was rejected by the religious leaders of his time but now has become the head of God’s church.

I enjoy looking at the Old Testament through the lenses of the New Testament and see many prophesies that match up with the coming of Jesus.  I’m betting someone has mapped them all out.  We can feel strengthened in our faith to see evidence like this. 

John 12:16 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.

I can imagine the disciples felt their faith strengthen when they saw the prophecy being fulfilled with Jesus entry into the city.  The event they witnessed on that day had met the description of the words of the prophets.  As they looked back on it that were probably also amazed at how similar they were.

Yet this isn’t the only way I want us to experience this scripture.  Our retelling of Jesus journey into Jerusalem is to help us be there with him.

Being present on the path

Our liturgy, in its wisdom, causes us to walk in a detailed way through Jesus birth and Jesus death each year.  Certainly, there is some part that is education.  We need to know the history.  Our faith is strengthened by seeing the ties between Jesus and the words of the prophets.  Children need to learn the story of Jesus, so they understand enough to decide to follow him.  It is important to teach, but I believe another gift of this repetition is to strengthen our relationship with Jesus.

We are told Jesus walks beside us in our life.  I believe this Holy Week gives us the opportunity to walk beside Jesus on His path.  It feels important to me not to skip ahead to Easter and celebrating the victory.  Our tradition gives us the opportunity to walk slowly beside Jesus through these last days and pay attention to these final moments while Jesus walked on the earth.

As Jesus entered Jerusalem his followers were scared yet brave.  Their enemies were everywhere.  They felt Jesus was walking into a trap.  Jesus entered Jerusalem knowing exactly how it would end.  He wasn’t trapped or fooled by his enemies.  He chose his path willingly. 

The crowd’s cheers must have been encouraging and maybe gave him strength for the days ahead.  Of course, he knew he wasn’t there to save them from the Romans, but their praise was not misplaced.  He asked for the colt to ride knowing it would act as a sign to them.  It wasn’t the usual steed for a king but was for a servant king that was humble and lowly as well as righteous and victorious.

Maybe we can see ourselves in the crowd.  We, like that crowd, know we need a savior.  We know we need help and guidance in our life.  Let yourself feel the excitement they felt as they hoped Jesus would be the answer to their cry of Hosanna.  Jesus did come to respond to the plea of “save us”.  Jesus is our savior.  This is the gift of Palm Sunday to feel in our hearts.  Our King has come.

I don’t know if CCH will offer services on Thursday and Friday.  Even if they don’t offer a formal service I hope you can take some personal time to be present on the path beside Jesus then as well.  Thursday marks his final teaching moments as a free man with his disciples.  Maundy Thursday is very meaningful for me because I see it as the moment of no return when he fully committed to the cross.  He cried as he prayed, but always with a “not my will but yours”.  Friday afternoon take some time to be present with Jesus as he suffered willingly at the hands of humans that didn’t realize who he was.  Feel his love poured out and know that love is for you.

Easter Sunday you will have the opportunity to gather together to celebrate that He Is Risen!

Today is a day for promises fulfilled.  It was a day of hope.  Hope that a savior had come.  Hope that a king from God would lead God’s people again.  People laid down their coats and palm branches, so the colt didn’t walk in the mud.  They cried out Hosanna “save us” Hosanna “help us”.  In a different scripture Jesus said if the crowd was silent the stones themselves would cry out.  All the earth was receiving it’s king.

As we stand in that crowd we know those hopes are realized.  Jesus wasn’t what they expected in their limited dreams.  He is much more.  He responded to their cry of Hosanna and responds to our cry today as our Savior and King of Kings.  Feel the joy the crowd felt as he entered the city and know their hope and ours is true.

My final hymn for this Sunday is one that is more often sung at Christmas time.  When we get to that hymn I want you to see the words through the path of Palm Sunday.  It will give it a different meaning to the hymn and I hope will bring us closer to the experience of this special day.

Blessed Palm Sunday to you each.  Amen