The Sunday morning message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on March 24, 2024. The Bible verses used are Mark 11:1-11.
It’s Palm Sunday. As we do every year, we commemorate
the triumphant entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem. Jesus riding on a donkey
to the cheering of the crowds. The crowds shouting “Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
It was not just a coincidence that Jesus was riding on a
donkey. As you heard, he specifically told the disciples to get it for
him. He told them where it would be and what to say if someone questioned
them about it. Some people think Jesus had arranged this with the
donkey’s owner ahead of time, others think it was simply Jesus using his divine
power. Either way, though, Jesus specifically fixed things so that he
would enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey.
That was deliberate. It was to fulfill an Old
Testament prophecy. In Zechariah Chapter Nine, Verse nine, we read, “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.”
When Jesus arranged things this way, he
knew exactly what he was doing. Everyone in Jerusalem, and especially the
Jewish leaders, knew it, too. Jesus was entering Jerusalem in a way that
was specifically designed to claim the title of king.
And on
that day, the common people appeared to be quite willing to give Jesus that
title. You heard how they spread their cloaks on the road in front of
him. You heard how they spread the palm branches in front of him,
too. You heard how they were shouting his praises as he rode past.
We sometimes focus on how some of this same crowd would betray Jesus later in the
week, and of course we’ll have time to talk about that in our Holy Week
services. But there’s no reason to think that, at this moment, the crowds
were not entirely sincere. They truly believed that Jesus had come to
save them. After all, that’s what the word “Hosanna” means. It
means “save”.
The people knew they needed to be
saved. They had been waiting for someone to save them. They’d had
others they thought might be the one to save them. Sometimes it looked
like it was going to happen, but it did not. Now, they hoped Jesus would
be the one. They wanted Jesus to be the one. They convinced
themselves that Jesus would be the one. And so, when Jesus came in riding
on a donkey, making a claim to be the one, they were overjoyed. They
thought their dream had come true. And it had. But then again, it
hadn’t.
Have you ever had a time when you really
wanted something? You worked for it, you hoped for it, you prayed for
it. You did everything you could to make that thing you wanted come
true. And then it did! And you were overjoyed!
But then--well, pretty soon you were not
quite so overjoyed any more. This thing you thought you wanted was not
quite what you thought it would be. In fact, it was a lot different than
you thought it would be. You felt disappointed. You felt let
down. You felt like you’d been fooled. You’d wanted this thing for
so long, but now that you had it, it was not anything like the thing you
thought you wanted.
That’s how the crowd felt, as the week
went on. The Savior turned out to not be what they thought he would
be. The Savior turned out to not be what they wanted him to be.
They’d waited for the Savior for so long and now, when he came, he turned out
to be not anything like what the Savior they’d been waiting for.
It’s sad, really. You see, they
thought the Savior was going to be an earthly king. They thought the
Savior was going to be a mighty warrior. They thought the Savior was
going to defeat the Roman government, give Israel independence, and restore
Israel to its former glory. That was the Savior the crowd thought they
were getting. That was the Savior they thought they were cheering for.
It was not Jesus’ fault. Jesus
explained many times how things were going to go. He said repeatedly that
he would be killed. But the crowd did not want to hear it. Even his
closest friends, the twelve disciples, did not want to hear it. They were
trying to make Jesus into who they wanted him to be. And when he turned
out not to be what they wanted him to be, they felt disappointed. They
felt let down. They felt like they’d been fooled. And some of them
turned on Jesus because of that.
But I cannot be too hard on the people in
the crowd. Because I’ve had times when I’ve done the same thing.
I’ve tried to make Jesus who I wanted him to be. And I don’t like it when
it turns out that he’s not. Maybe you’ve done the same thing.
And it’s not because we’re trying to be
selfish or anything like that. The crowd was not trying to be selfish
when they wanted Jesus to be an earthly king. They thought that was what
he was supposed to be. They thought that was what was right. They
thought Jesus being the earthly king, the mighty warrior, was what was the best
thing. In other words, they thought that what they wanted was, in fact,
what God wanted. And they could not understand what had gone wrong when
it did not work out that way.
I think that’s what we fall into a lot of
the time. We think we know what’s right. We think we know what’s
best. We think that what we want is, in fact, what God wants. And
when it turns out that it’s not, well, we cannot understand what’s gone wrong.
The thing is that God has plans and
purposes that we know nothing about. And when we become convinced that we
do know them, a lot of times we head down the wrong path. Not
intentionally. We do it because we convince ourselves that what we want
is what God wants, and that’s not how it works.
One of the greatest verses in the Bible is
Proverbs Chapter Three, Verse Five: “Trust in the Lord with all your
heart and lean not on your own understanding.” That’s what the crowd was
missing. They were trusting in their own understanding rather than
trusting in the Lord. That happens to us, too. With the best of
intentions, sometimes, we trust in our own understanding rather than trusting
in the Lord. And just like the crowd on that first Palm Sunday, when it
turns out that our own understanding is wrong, we’re confused. We don’t
know what happened.
God had a plan for salvation. But it
was not the plan the crowd wanted. It was not the plan the crowd
expected. Because of that, some of them turned away from God. But
there were some who continued to trust God’s even though they did not
understand it. They stayed faithful. And they saw God’s plan for
salvation come true. It did not come the way they expected it. But
it came the way God wanted it to--through the life, death, and resurrection of
Jesus Christ. And eventually, people realized that God’s plan was so much
better than their plan that there was no comparison.
God has a plan for this church. It’s
not always the plan I want. It may not always be the plan you want, either.
But God still has a plan. And we need to trust God. We need to keep
trusting God even though we don’t understand. We need to stay
faithful. If we do, we’ll see God’s plan for this church come true.
It may not come the way we expect it. But it will come the way God wants
it to. And eventually, we’ll realize that God’s plan is so much better
than our plan that there’s no comparison.
God has a
plan for you, too. And God has a plan for me. It’s not always the
plan I want. It may not always be the plan you want, either. But
God still has a plan. And we need to trust God. We need to keep
trusting God even though we don’t understand. We need to stay
faithful. If we do, we’ll see God’s plan for our lives come true.
It may not come the way we expect it. But it will come the way God wants
it to. And eventually, again, you and I will realize that God’s plan is
so much better than our plan that there’s no comparison.
The people in the crowd cheering Jesus thought
they knew what was supposed to happen. But God had a different
idea. When the people trusted their own understanding, rather than
trusting God’s plan, they missed out. Let’s not miss out. Let’s
trust God’s plan, even when it’s different from our understanding. If we
do, we’re going to see some amazing things, both for the church and for our own
lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment