I. Living the Story 00:04
Welcome to Holy Week. Holy Week is about living the story. All of these services, written with care and wisdom and Holy Spirit insight, are meant to draw you into the reality that we still live today. It’s not just a play. For instance, you may have heard of a little musical called Hamilton. I guess it was a big deal for some people. And it’s a retelling and a recreation of the founding fathers. But that’s all it is. It’s an imagination, or a recreation of something, but it’s not entering into communion with, or the reality of, Alexander Hamilton. It’s just a play. Unlike that, what you’re invited to in Holy Week is an actual participation in the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.
The events of Holy Week resonate throughout eternity in us. And we do this today not as a pantomime, not just to try and illustrate, but actually to enter into the death and resurrection of our Lord. And so there’s an invitation today, and Palm Sunday is one of the best of all the services of the year. We have all of these elements that are meant to draw us into that reality.
And so when we do this, I just want to start by inviting all of you, this entire week: when you go to work tomorrow, remember it’s Holy Week. When you get home from work, remember it’s Holy Week. When that person cuts you off on the freeway, remember it’s Holy Week. All these things that happen in our life that capture our attention: let’s just try this week to return our attention in a special way to Jesus. Because there’s a grace on the liturgical year, on the things that have been set up, where God is near in these moments. Now, of course, God is always with you. He never forsakes you. But there’s this rhythm to how God leads us and guides us that is built into the fabric of time. You know, God’s the one who created it. And this is a close time, an important time, a time to enter into what God’s doing in all of eternity and in your life today. So when Jesus gives that invitation to his disciples, “Take up your cross and follow me,” there’s a special grace on this week to take up your cross and follow him.
II. Bringing Our Bodies Into the Story 02:48
This is an invitation. Yes, to participate in the suffering of Christ, but also, we know that all of this week is only important because we know Easter is coming. And so when you enter in this week, and you bear the burden of what is going on, and you act out the passion narrative as we did this morning, and you feel the weight of the events on you, hold on to hope. This is so that you may be rebirthed, reborn, renewed, restored, resurrected, continually.
So last night we had a pre-entry to Holy Week, I’ll call it. Kendra and Donnie in our home group invited some of us to come over and participate in a seder dinner in honor of the Passover. They have a really great tradition that’s been passed down to them from a close loved one. It has the elements of the Passover symbolism, but it also has commentary on how Jesus is the fullest fulfillment of the Passover. And it was the first moment of liturgical worship; my Holy Week began last night, as we did these simple acts that had been practiced for thousands of years by the Israelites, looking forward to the day when they would experience the coming of their Messiah.
And in the midst of that, it became so real to me. You could have told me the story again and again, but doing those little things, sharing the meal, drinking from the cup, dipping the bitter herbs in the salt water, all of these actions that are built into that celebration (or lifting the palms, throwing them at the feet of the celebrant, who represents Jesus): all of these things are meant to invite us in a deeper way. The practices actually matter. The physical actions matter, because we’re not just intellectual beings.
How many times have you been arguing with, let me say, your wife, but also your friends, anybody else, if you’re not married? It happens all the time. And you know intellectually that you should just let it go. You know this is not worth having an argument about. But your embodied nature cannot let it go. Your heart is racing. You feel your blood pumping. You’re like, “I just… I know I’m right.” Something in your body is rejecting the rational mind. What we do when we participate in these liturgies is bring our body into the reality, into sync, into harmony with what is happening in the spiritual reality. We’re spirit, soul, and body. We’re all of these things. And I love that about our church: we participate in all of this.
III. Jesus Knew He Was in a Bigger Story 05:33
So when you look at this, and you look at the history, “his story,” that we are reading and enacting, remember that all of the things Jesus was doing, he did with this understanding. He picked a donkey to ride into Jerusalem. That tells a story. Jesus was aware that he was in a bigger story, and he chose prophetically to illustrate the reality of what was going on, by doing things that nobody else would have ever done. And so he rode a donkey to say, “I’m not like those kings and conquerors who come with a sword and enslave you. I am a humble servant, riding in on the foal of a donkey.” He flipped everything upside down.
Or when he went to the temple. What do you do when you’re announced as Messiah? “Hosanna, Son of David!” They’re announcing him as Messiah. Everybody’s celebrating him. And he goes and makes a whip of cords, and he walks into the temple, not to receive their acclaim, as he rightly could have, but to cast out the den of robbers, to cast out those who would use God’s worship to take advantage of the least, the lost, and the lonely: those who were prostituting the worship of God in the temple by selling the sacrifice at a usurious rate, all the things they were doing that were rejecting the worship, and the exclusion. They had zones where, if you weren’t holy enough, you couldn’t go past this part. There were all these things, and he goes, “No, my house shall be a house of prayer for all people” (Mark 11.17). And he just threw it all away.
No, all of that was intentional. Jesus didn’t lose his temper at the temple. He didn’t see it and get so angry that he just couldn’t handle it. No, he made a whip of cords and went to act out the story, because they needed to know that the temple sacrificial system was going to be replaced, that it was gone. It had not borne fruit. That’s why he cursed the fig tree. Everything he’s doing is to illustrate something.
So what I’m trying to say is, let’s open our eyes this Holy Week to these stories and see that there’s more going on. There’s an infinite amount. We do this every year. You can learn something new every year, because there’s no end to the depth of this story. And the good news is, it’s our story. Everything that you participate in this week is what you have been invited to. That’s what he means when he says, “Take up your cross and follow me.” He means, “You get to be a part of my story.” Paul illustrated this extremely well when he said we complete in our suffering what was lacking in Jesus Christ’s suffering on the cross (Col 1.24). Isn’t that incredible? That when you feel pain, you are with Jesus on the cross, completing the sacrifice that saves the world. That even your suffering participates in the regeneration, renewal, and resurrection of God’s good creation. How amazing is that?
So these little things, where you wave a palm frond around, mean so much. They’re real. They’re not just a pageant. It’s not just a play. We are reentering those events.
IV. My Times Are in Your Hand 08:32
And so we’re keeping it short in the sermon area this morning, because there’s so much depth and riches in everything we do in the liturgy. And so we’re going to wrap up with this idea that came out of the Psalms. Our last verse we read in the Psalms today started with the line, “My times are in your hand” (Ps 31.15). This is the promise that we have been given.
When Jesus started Holy Week, he knew where he was going. But it was not as though he then said, “Okay, I’m going to take this on, and then I’ll slough it off at the end.” Let me explain a little more. When you have an actor in a film, you can talk about how an actor acts against type. That’s common language. When you have somebody who’s generally the hero, and they play the villain (and maybe they’re even a really good guy, and people kind of know they’re a good guy), but then they’re in this part and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, I don’t even recognize them. They’ve transmuted themselves into something new and different.” That’s not what Jesus did in Holy Week. He revealed who God is. He didn’t take on something that wasn’t him. When he washed the disciples’ feet, he wasn’t pretending to be a servant. He was revealing that God is servant.
Isn’t that incredible? That the God of the universe, who created everything that is, who has all the glory, is the God who dies humiliated on a cross. And that when Jesus is crowned the King, he doesn’t say, “Thank God I got that out of the way. Now I can go about and rule as a tyrant.” No, he was crucified before the foundation of the world. That moment resonates in eternity. He is still that God.
So when you come to him with your brokenness, your pain, your suffering, your doubts, he doesn’t say, “Well, don’t you see me seated on the throne? Let me whack you over the head with my scepter; maybe you’ll get it.” No, he stretches out his arms on the hardwood of the cross, that all might come within the reach of his saving embrace. That’s the God we serve. That’s the God we enact. When it says, “My times are in your hand,” it’s in that God’s hands. So you have nothing to fear. If God is for me, who can be against me (Rom 8.31)?
V. The Master Storyteller 10:56
So this week, I just invite you to open your eyes, pay attention, participate in this beautiful story, and remember: the enemy’s job is to try and pull you into a different story. The story where you’re the aggrieved person who’s been hurt and needs to take revenge. Or the story where you just have too much work to do and nobody appreciates you. Or the story where you’re not loved because you’re not good enough. Those are all lies. Those aren’t your story. Your story is his story. So as you open your eyes and you pay attention, let God bring you into the bigger story. Don’t get distracted by the smaller story.
And as we look at this, we know that we are in the hands of the master storyteller, and time is the medium in which he writes. Because I know there are many of you who are feeling that pull of “How long, O Lord, how long?” And in this week you might resonate with Jesus as he tells God, “Please, if you could take this cup away, take it away. But nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done” (Luke 22.42). That’s all about “How long, O Lord, how long?” So trust that your times are in his hands, and know that Easter is coming. Amen.