What Are We Celebrating?

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, April 9, 2017.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 21:1-11.

            Today is Palm Sunday.  Over the next week, we’ll have Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.  Because of that, we’re taking a break from our sermon series on the life of Jesus and focusing on the events we commemorate at this time every year.

            We usually look at Palm Sunday as a celebration.  We have the kids come up with the palm branches.  Sometimes we have adults waving palm branches, too.  We sing the traditional Palm Sunday hymns, like “Hosanna, Loud Hosanna” and “Tell Me the Stories of Jesus”.  A lot of us look forward to celebrating Palm Sunday in this way.

            And in fact, the first Palm Sunday was a celebration.  You heard the description in the Bible.  Jesus is riding into Jerusalem in triumph.  People are spreading cloaks on the road in front of him.  They’re laying palm branches in front of him, too.  It’s sort of like laying out the red carpet today.  And of course, the crowd is cheering for Jesus at the top of their lungs.  They’re shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

            I always wonder how Jesus felt when all this was going on.  We’re not told.  Maybe he felt really good.  I would, probably.  I mean, it would be so cool if we could all have a day like this just once in our lives.  To be the head of parade, riding in triumph through town.  To have everyone in town cheering you on, singing your praises.  That would be one awesome day.  I’d probably remember it the rest of my life.

            But the thing is, we’re talking about Jesus.  The Messiah.  The divine Son of God who knew the future.  Who knew he was going to be killed and knew how and why he was going to be killed.

            Think about this.  Have you ever had someone in your life who pretended to like you?  Who pretended to be your best friend, who maybe even pretended to love you?  And then, eventually, you found out at some point that it was all meaningless?  That they never really cared about you at all, that none of the things they said or did actually meant anything?

            That’s a pretty lousy feeling, right?  It’s one of the worst feelings ever.  You feel betrayed.  You feel used.  You feel stupid, maybe, for ever having believed that person in the first place.  You feel angry and upset and sad and all kinds of other things all at once.  It’s a terrible feeling.

            Now, come back to Jesus.  Jesus hears the cheering of the crowd.  But Jesus knows that, less than a week later, he’s going to be betrayed.  He’s going to be arrest and beaten.  The Roman governor is going to try to set him free, but the crowd--some of this same crowd that’s cheering him on now--is not going to stand for it.  They’re not going to allow Jesus to be set free.  They’re not even going to allow Jesus to be held in jail.  They want, they demand, they will accept nothing less than to have Jesus be killed, slowly and painfully, on a cross.

            Jesus knows all of this while he’s riding into Jerusalem.  Jesus knows all of this while he’s hearing the cheers of the crowd, while he’s watching them throw cloaks and palm branches in front of him.  Jesus knows that everything he’s hearing and seeing is meaningless.  He knows that it’s all a lie.

            When you think about it that way, what is it that we’re actually celebrating on Palm Sunday?  The people who were waving those palm branches on the first Palm Sunday were a bunch of hypocrites, were they not?  If I was Jesus, seeing and hearing all this, knowing what was going to happen next, I think I’d want to call them out on it.  I’d want to stand up and yell, “You jerks!  You lying jerks!  You don’t care about me.  You don’t mean any of this.  You’re just a bunch of hypocrites.  Why should I die for you, you self-serving, spineless jerks?”

            But of course, Jesus did not say that.  Jesus did not say anything like that at all.  In fact, Jesus did not say anything, or if he did, Matthew does not record it.  And of course, Jesus did go ahead and die for us.  Even after the way he was treated, Jesus went ahead and died for us.

            And that, I think, is what we celebrate on Palm Sunday.  Not the waving of the palm branches.  Not the shouts of “Hosanna!”  Not the meaningless cheers of the crowd.  What we celebrate on Palm Sunday is the fact that, knowing everything that was going to happen, Jesus did not turn on us.  Jesus did not get angry with us.  Jesus went ahead and did what he was sent here to do.  Knowing exactly who we are and what we are, Jesus went through with it anyway.  Despite the way we treated him, Jesus went ahead and allowed himself to be arrested, and tortured, and killed, so that our sins would be forgiven.

            And I’m using that word “we” on purpose.  There’s no real reason to think that, if you or I had been in Jerusalem during the original Holy Week, we would not have acted exactly the way the people who were there did.  We’d like to think we would not have, but we probably would have.

            Because you see, those people in the crowd that day were ordinary people.  They were not people who were poorly thought of.  They were common, everyday people.  Some of them were travelers, in town for the Passover.  Some of them were people who lived in Jerusalem, who had jobs or owned businesses or grew crops or raised animals or did whatever they needed to do to make a living.  The people in the crowd were just people.  People like you and me.  And they behaved, in all likelihood, the way you and I would’ve behaved if we’d been there when Jesus came into Jerusalem.

            What we celebrate is not what the crowd did.  What we celebrate is what Jesus did.  What we celebrate is that Jesus knew these cheers were meaningless, and yet he did not get angry.  Jesus knew this was all a lie, and yet he did not get upset.  Jesus knew he would be betrayed, and yet he did not feel betrayed.  Jesus knew he was being used, and yet he did not feel used.  He may, perhaps, have felt sad, but not sad because of what was going to happen to him.  If Jesus felt sad, it was sadness because all these people simply did not understand.  They did not understand who he was or why he was there.  They did not know what they were doing or what they were going to do.  And Jesus knew he was not going to have time to make them understand.  If Jesus felt sadness, it was not for himself.  It was for us.

            What we celebrate is that, despite everything, Jesus did not feel any of the things you or I would probably have felt if we were in Jesus’ place.  Despite everything, Jesus continued to feel nothing but love for us.  Jesus felt so much love for us that, despite the way he was treated, he was willing to go ahead and die on a cross for us.  For you and for me.

            We’ll be going through the events of Holy Week in our special services this week.  We’ll have our Wednesday Lent service and our Maundy Thursday service in Gettysburg.  We’ll have our Good Friday service.  We’ll have our Easter Sunday service.  We’ll talk about all the events we commemorate during this coming week, events that may have made this the most important and most memorable week in human history.

            But Jesus knew all these events ahead of time.  He knew what was going to happen, how it was going to happen, when it was going to happen, and who was going to make it happen.  Jesus knew all that, and he went through with it anyway.  He did that for the forgiveness of our sins, yours and mine.

            The next time you ask God for forgiveness--and the next time I ask God for forgiveness--let’s think of how we got that forgiveness.  Let’s think of all that Jesus did for the forgiveness of our sins.  Let’s think about all he went through.  Let’s think not just about the physical pain, although it’s important that we think about that, too.  But let’s also think about all the emotional pain.  Let’s think about how Jesus was betrayed, not just by Judas, but by all of us.

            And then, let’s think about how amazing it is that, despite it all, Jesus still loves us.  Let’s think about how, despite it all, the Lord does forgive our sins.  Let’s think about how the Lord loves us so much that nothing we’ve done and nothing we ever will do can keep the Lord for loving us and from forgiving our sins, as long as we sincerely ask for that forgiveness.

            What we celebrate on Palm Sunday is Jesus’ love.  What we celebrate on Palm Sunday is the forgiveness of our sins.  We should never take that forgiveness for granted.  We should always be grateful for what Jesus did for us.

            Have a wonderful and blessed Palm Sunday.