Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday has been a day of excitement as long as I can
remember. As a boy, it was the great sword fights when the palm fronds and the
eager anticipation of next week’s egg hunt and candy. Today’s gospel tells us
about this unexpected and triumphal entry of Jesus entering the Jerusalem.
People thronging along the roads, placing their cloaks on the roads, waving
palms, singing hymns, there was a festival feeling in the air. Their excitement
was only matched by their expectations for this new Messiah or prophet. It’s
easy for us to underestimate the emotion that was in the air.
I’ve been through a Palm Sunday much like the one Matthew
describes. We were in Kajo Keji on our annual inspection trip about 9 years ago.
The parallels between that first Palm Sunday and that Sunday were remarkable. Their
new bishop had been elected but had yet been enthroned. The entire diocese was
at a fever pitch. The country was voting on independence that month, New Hope
had completed three buildings at the college and our first two primary schools.
Samaritan’s Purse had committed to building 80 churches in the diocese. In fact,
the new bishop was making a visit that Sunday to consecrate and open the first
of these new churches. For the first time in over 50 years it appeared that God
was bringing his full blessings on His people and they were rejoicing.
From five miles, out people were walking along the road to
the village. About two miles out they were lining the road, waving entire palm
branches, covering the road with palm fronds, jumping up and down, carrying
banners, playing guitars and drums, singing hymns and shouting. A half mile
from town the road was completely packed with celebrating people. We got out of
the car, and walking behind a tall cross, drummers and hundreds of singing
people paraded to the new church began.
Wherever Jesus went the kingdom of God was at hand. And that
steamy Sunday morning in Kajo Keji I tell you the kingdom was at hand. I felt
it stronger and closer than ever before or since. The spirit was palpable, it
was oozing. The Kingdom is the place we
aspire to; it is the place where we want to be. It is indescribably right, so
different than what I dreamed for or expected. It is a place of pure joy, peace
knowing you are in the presence of God. The Kingdom was at hand on that Palm
Sunday.
Like the people thronging on the roads to Jerusalem, the
people in Kajo Keji had a different set of expectations for Jesus and the
Kingdom than Jesus held for himself. James, John and their mother had a set of
expectations for Jesus. Their expectations were about place and power. The
people want their new Messiah to be a great military leader. One like Judas
Maccabees who will have military victories and cast out the Romans, Herod, the
chief priests. But the meaning Jesus attaches to this triumphal entry is quite
different from the meaning the crowd has for their messiah.
People turn to God when things get bad. Give us peace now,
heal my diabetes, protect my pension, don’t let it rain on our vacation. Give
me a job tomorrow. Jesus intends to answer these and all our prayers. He
doesn’t wait for us to become pure and able to look him in the eye. He has come
to rescue the sick and poor and the lost. It’s not the healthy who need the
doctor but the sick.
Jesus answers the people dreams in his own way. The people
are asking for a messiah but a messiah on their terms. Jesus will tell them
that Jerusalem is under God’s judgement. They want an enthroned messiah but
this one will be enthroned on the cross. They want to be rescued from evil and
oppression but Jesus will rescue them in full measure not by merely rolling
back the Romans and Herod. Jesus will say yes to their prayers at the deepest
level. But it will look completely different from what they imagined.
When you invite Jesus to help he will do so much more
thoroughly than what we imagined, more deeply than perhaps what we wanted. We
may not recognize at the answer to our prayers at first. The story of Palm
Sunday is the story of Jesus surprising triumphal entry is a lesson in the
mismatch between our expectations and God’s answer. While the people will be
disappointed at a surface level the moment Jesus arrives is the moment that
salvation is at hand. To learn that lesson is a growth in faith. Let’s relish
the feeling of God’s Kingdom entering Jerusalem that Sunday. It is a taste of
what heaven will be!
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