back to Sermons Archive

March 16, 2008
Scripture: Matthew 21: 1-11
Title: "WELCOME - Missions"

There is just something about Palm Sunday that gets me excited, that makes me really want to come to church. I don’t know if it is the excitement that comes with the beginning of Holy Week. I don’t know if it is kids waving the palms in the air or waiting for the unexpected to happen on this Sunday, wondering if the palms will actually make it down the aisle, wondering who is going to be poked or slapped with the palms. There is just something about Palm Sunday, that gets me excited about going to church. Maybe it is the Scripture. Every time I read about Jesus’ procession into Jerusalem, I kind of get caught up in the crowd!! You know: the celebration, the laughter. I start to visualize what it would have been like to have been there that day!!

Watching this procession: seeing the King of Kings: Shouting Hosanna: know that something Big is going to happen!! Sure there was not the big hoopla that usually comes with a royal procession. There were no trumpets blowing. There were no fireworks going off. There were no regal garments or flashy displays of wealth. No Red carpets or paparazzi. No one shouting: Jesus, What are you wearing? No Hollywood glitz and glamour.

But this procession didn’t need that to make it special. In this procession, there was simply a man, named Jesus, riding in on a donkey. People throwing their cloaks down. People waving palm branches. People shouting: Hosanna. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”
Just regular folk like you and me, using whatever was handy to welcome this King of Kings!! And they all knew that something Big was going to happen! Just imagine!! Can’t you just feel the excitement! Can’t you just feel the energy filling the crowd, spurring the crowd on? Doesn’t it just want to make you join it?

There is just something about Palm Sunday that gets me excited about being at church, about being a part of church, about being a person of faith. There is just something about Palm Sunday.

Here comes Jesus, riding into Jerusalem, the center of power, THE place for salvation for God’s people. Ohhh. Can’t wait!! The crowd is going before him, shouting Hosanna, Blessed be the one who comes in the name of the Lord. This is so exciting!! And when he enters the city, the whole city according to Matthew is shaken and in turmoil. The leaders and the authorities have heard the commotion. They have heard the shouts coming from the distance and finally the procession comes through the gates. And it is a man on a donkey. And the city asks: “Who is this?”

Who is this man that inspires hope in the hearts of the people? Who is this man that causes the people to cry out “Save us”? Who is this man that the people call him the Son of David? Who is this?

Can’t wait! This is so exciting!! We anxiously await the answer. Any moment now, the crowd will tell the leaders who this man really is. Any moment now, the crowd will tell the authorities that the true Messiah is here. Any moment now…. This is so exciting!!

And the answer is: “Oh who him? Heads bowed down, shuffling their feet…Well, This is just the prophet, Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee. You don’t need to worry about him.” What! What a let down! What happened? Five minutes ago, the crowd was proclaiming him Son of David and now he is just a prophet? What a let down!

Now I fully admit that it is easy for me to judge the crowd that day, some two thousand years later. I know the end of the story… I know what happens. I know that this crowd is a fickle crowd and that in just a few days, they will be shouting… “Crucify Him”.

But here was their big moment! They could have proclaimed him their Messiah. They could have said to Jerusalem, to Rome, to the world that this man is the Son of the Living God. This was their big moment and they blew it!!
The crowd blew it. They had their chance and they blew it…

If I had been there that day, I would have…

Jesus, what’s that you say? You want me to heal the sick, to welcome the stranger, to feed the hungry, to grow in relationship with you and with my brothers and sisters…

Well, Jesus, look I would really like to help…but… Heads bowed down, shuffling our feet: “Oh who him? He is just a prophet. You don’t need to worry about him.”

Looking back two thousand years, it is easy to judge the crowd until we find ourselves in a similar situation.

In our Scripture, the crowd comes to a moment of choice, to that moment where the rubber meets the road for their faith. They have been proclaiming Jesus the Son of David. They have been waving palms and shouting Hosanna! And the moment arrives: Who is this? The moment of truth and the crowd stops short. They give the easy answer. They give the safe answer. It is not that their answer is not true. It just isn’t the whole truth. It is only part of the truth. It is only part of the story.

And after their partial answer, the crowd goes about their business, leaving a path behind them filled with broken palm branches and broken dreams and hopes for the coming Messiah while Jesus continues his ride through Jerusalem alone, no more Hosanna, no more the King of Kings. He continues his ride to the hillside, to the cross, all alone, abandoned by his followers.

Today is our moment of choice. Today is our moment of truth. Today, is the moment where the rubber meets the road for our faith as Christians. We come celebrating the King of Kings. We come singing Hosanna. We come singing praises. We come today to celebrate the coming Messiah. We come waving our palm branches and we come throwing our cloaks on the road to prepare the way for the Lord of Lords.

We are causing a great commotion. Our voices carry across the hills and the valleys. Our joy cannot be contained. And the powers that be are shaken. They are in turmoil. And they turn to us and ask: Who is this?

Who is this man that comes and teaches the way of peace? Who is this man that calls all of his children Beloved? Who is this man that sees past the labels and the barriers and truly sees us as created in the image of God? Who is this man?

A world that is hurting and broken awaits our answer. People who are hungry and dying await our answer. People who are lost and lonely await our answer. People who oppressed by the powers that be await our answer.

How will we respond?

We are called to live our lives as people of faith, to recognize and proclaim that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, and to speak out against the powers that oppress, that divided, that separate, and that destroy.

Jesus brought himself and his message to Jerusalem that day, that Palm Sunday, to be an expression of hope for God’s people, to be an expression of change. He came to show the world that there is something more. That God was still working in the world, that God was still saving God’s people, that God had the last word.

And we are called to do the same, to follow Jesus through the gates of the city, to continue shouting and singing Hosanna, to cause a great commotion. We are called to follow Jesus through Jerusalem proclaiming that he is the Messiah, joined in the Spirit of God as the body of Christ.

Our task today as we wave the palms and celebrate our king is to be agents of his reconciling love for all of God’s people. Our task today as we shout Hosanna is to say that this world does not have the last word, God does. Our task today as we follow Jesus through the gates of Jerusalem is to journey with Jesus, challenging the powers that oppress and hold sway in our world. That is our mission as followers of Christ. That is our answer as people of faith. That is our call as Christians.

When we are asked: “Who is this man” we are called to respond that this is the Son of the Living God! We are called to show the world that there is something more. We are called “to see what the world cannot see and then do something about it.”

That is why we get so excited about Palm Sunday because we realize that it is our moment of truth and that we cannot wait to respond by saying I am follower of Jesus Christ. It is that moment of choice when we respond by actively working toward the Kingdom of God here on earth. Palm Sunday is that moment for us as Christians where the rubber meets the road for our faith.
As followers of Jesus Christ, Palm Sunday is not a once a year celebration. “Palm Sunday happens [for us each and every time]…we discover and hear that God has not entered our lives to help us do our work, but that God has come to call us back to do [God’s] work”.

There is just something about Palm Sunday.

May we always welcome all of God’s children through our mission as people of faith. Amen.

iRev. Heather McColl
Midway Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

back to Sermons Archive