Sermon - Palm Sunday

Sermon

Palm Sunday

It was Palm Sunday, and the family's 6-year old son had to stay home from church because of a sore throat. When the rest of the family returned home carrying palm branches, the little boy asked what they were for, and his mother explained, "People held them over Jesus' head as he walked by." "Wouldn't you know it," the boy fumed. "The one Sunday I don't go to church, and Jesus turns up!

This is the only joke I could find which related to Palm Sunday, but after reading it, it did make me wonder how often we go to Church really expecting to meet Jesus, and how often we do that in the rest of our lives.

The British press have a bit of a reputation for building people up and then knocking them down – we can think, I’m sure of many sports people, politicians, actors, musicians and so on who have been built up and portrayed as heroes, and then branded as villains. During the Second World War Winston Churchill was branded a heroic leader, he joined in the celebrations, being cheered almost everywhere, but then, just a short time later, he was voted out of office. His work was done, and then came the knocking.

Few people however have suffered the fall from grace that Jesus did – cheered into Jerusalem with the Palm Branches waving and the road decorated before him, he was a hero. This was a man of the people, a man who came to do the job that the people wanted – the overthrow of the Roman rule and the removal of the corrupt Jewish leadership. Maccabeus had done it hundreds of years before, evicting the Greeks from the city – when I speak to children at assemblies this time of year, I usually get them to imagine a great warrior coming down the hill, out of the sun, armed to the teeth with thousands of soldiers, ready to cause havoc and destruction – freeing the people and putting the occupying force to the sword.

Kids love that sort of thing! I am always surprised how blood-thirsty children are – It must be something to do with video games and e- numbers.

That is what the people expected from Jesus – even though they would have heard the stories about His love and patience, the stories he told about the kingdom of God – they seemed to forget all this.

“Here he comes – the long expected messiah – coming on a donkey – to save us? Perhaps he has a secret weapon, a Trojan horse – perhaps God would do another one of those spectacular things we heard about in the Pentateuch – Exodus perhaps, a plague, the angel of death, er anything, we’re not fussy”

But they were fussy - The crowds expected great drama, maybe a peoples’ uprising or maybe just a miraculous transformation, but this was never Jesus’ way. He never commanded people to follow him, he asked them to – he extended his hand, just as he extends his hand to us today.

When he emerged amidst the public and media speculation of the day - he was an overnight sensation. He would try to go off to be alone but the crowds would still follow him. People lined the streets as he came into town. On that first Palm Sunday palm branches were spread before him and there were shouts of Hosanna. Great crowds came to hear him speak and a wave of religious expectation swept the country.

But the cheering didn’t last for long. There came a point when the tide began to turn against him. People still came to see him, but some of the excitement was missing… His critics now began to publicly attack him. That was something new. Earlier they had been afraid to speak out for fear of the masses, but they began to perceive that the inconsistent public was turning on him. Soon the opposition began to snowball.

When they discovered that they could not discredit his moral character, they began to take more desperate measures. Before it was all over a tidal wave welled up that brought Jesus to his knees under the weight of a cross.

So why did these people turn so radically against him? How did the shouts of Hosanna on Sunday transform into the shouts of crucify him on Friday? In five days it all fell apart. Why? That is the issue that I would like to think about this evening - Why did the cheering stop?

I would like to suggest three reasons. Firstly, Jesus began to talk more and more about commitment. Secondly, Jesus dared to suggest that all people are worth loving. Finally, Jesus began to talk more and more about a cross.

Jesus never promised that following him was going to be the easy way – instead he asked people to give up what they had, to take a chance, to show faith. And for that faith they would be rewarded – not with material wealth or even secular power, but with suffering, with hardship, with the threat of death.

And what about love – surely he didn’t actually mean that people should love their enemies - perhaps he’d never had a difficult neighbour, or an awkward work colleague, or perhaps he’d never been to a synagogue where there was division – well, maybe not, but Jesus suffered worse than that – he knew what he was offering of himself, and he knew that what was to be taken was his life – yet he still said ‘love’.

However difficult a command it may be to follow – Jesus left us with no choice but to try.

So, we have a person who asks us to commit to him, someone who offers no material reward, perhaps even quite the opposite, and someone who talks of loving enemies, even those who don’t want to be loved – and I suppose in those things we have the reason for the cheering stopping, because each one of those things are a contradiction of what we would hope for and expect in our lives.

As happened on the first Palm Sunday it is easy to support something that is popular, it is easy to support something that is going well – but the cross reminds us that life is not actually like that.

As members of the Church we are challenged to follow the way of the cross, the often painful journey that life can take us on, and still trust, because in Jesus we have the person we can trust most of all.

The cross was no empty gesture, it was a gesture that spoke (and keeps speaking) of sacrifice, and of the greatest love.

During this week - Holy Week – in the services we will think about and reflect on some of the pain and suffering that Jesus accepted, just because he loves us. So, as we begin our Holy Week journey this year, let us pray that we can follow Christ wherever he leads; assured of the joy of resurrection that Easter Day, our Easter Day, will bring – in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN

Sermon - Passion Sunday

no sermon - week off...from preaching at least!