I. The Story at the Center of the World 00:02
Lord Jesus, I pray that you would form us by the stories that we enact this Holy Week. I pray that we would be changed as we enact the goodness of God in these stories. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.
So during Holy Week, we enter the story at the center of the world. It’s kind of like this story, and the stories we tell this week, are the sun around which the entire universe rotates. If you think about the force that is exerted on earth by the sun, that gravitational pull that dictates the flow of the heavenly bodies, as they might have said in medieval times: this balance, this unbelievable goodness of the dance of the planets and the stars, all centers around a point of gravity. And the story that we tell in Holy Week is that which it all centers around.
And in fact, in our life, as we’re talking about discipleship, as we’re talking about Palm Sunday, as we’re doing this thing that we do every year where we enter into the story, it’s so that we can reorient ourselves around the story of God, so that we would come into alignment with that gravitational pull. We’re like… what is that planet that we don’t call a planet anymore? Pluto. We keep running off the map. It’s an irregular orbit, right? That’s why it’s not a planet anymore. That’s us. But the practice of Holy Week recenters us. It pulls us back in to the story that should be at the center of our life.
I have one more analogy for you to think about as we’re going through these stories and you’re wondering, “We read these every year. We’re so familiar with them. Why do we do these things?” It’s like a tuning fork. Did you know that once upon a time all music was tuned to various frequencies, until they decided, “We’re going to ground it all now in A440”? Which maybe means nothing to you, and it shouldn’t. But they picked a place to be the center, so that when you played music together you could harmonize. You could be oriented correctly. You could come together and make something beautiful. And so Jesus is our tuning fork. And just like all musical instruments, we fall out of tune throughout our life. We become discordant, not only with our own tune and melody, but with those around us.
And so we tell these stories, we enact these stories, also so that we might come into alignment with the tuning of this story. When you’re going throughout your life, you should be thinking, “Where is my cross in this? Where am I called to wash somebody’s feet? Where am I called to ride in in praise on Palm Sunday?” Maybe that’s your job today, but remember that the crucifixion comes on Friday. These stories are the stories in which we live. They live themselves in us, more properly speaking. So it helps us to be tuned to what we’re doing in our life. And that’s why it’s all about discipleship. Discipleship is coming into alignment gravitationally with Jesus. Discipleship is being tuned to his frequency. Discipleship is all about finding the stories of Jesus lived in our life.
II. The Story Thus Far 03:22
Now, the story thus far is that we’ve got this baby who was born on Christmas, and at some point people started to realize there’s something special about this guy. In fact, so much so that he now has thousands of people who believe he is the new king. He is the Messiah. He is the anointed one. Or maybe he’s just Elijah or something really cool, but maybe not the Messiah. But at least they know there’s something special about him. And it’s driving up to the point where there are times when the crowd is ready to try and make him king, and Jesus has to sidestep: “Nope. That’s not what we’re doing today.”
And so in this moment we enter into Holy Week. There’s a lot of backstory here. The reason why, when he comes in on a donkey, people are waving palm branches and laying down their cloaks and he’s riding over them, is because they believe something about him. They believe he is the Messiah. And more specifically, they believe he’s going to rescue them from their enemies. They have all these prefabricated beliefs.
And so when we enter into Palm Sunday, we have to know what Jesus just did before this happened: he raised Lazarus from the dead. And Lazarus was a part of a family that was well known in the Jewish community. And so when you raised Lazarus from the dead, it’d be like raising… oh, this is really not a great analogy, but imagine Bill Gates got raised from the dead. We would all hear about it. And so when Lazarus is raised from the dead, they’re like, “This is a major person in our community. We know who he is. That makes a difference. If this guy has power over life and death, what else has God called him to do?” So you think about this kind of momentum that’s been built up. And Jesus is now riding that momentum, on a donkey. It’s a little bit absurd, and yet such a beautiful tableau, as he’s riding in on the humble foal of a donkey.
III. Your King Is Coming, Humble 05:37
Let’s go ahead and read through this and see what’s going on in here:
1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, 5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” Matt 21.1–5
We’re going to pause there for a second. I don’t know if you guys have ever toured some major cities that have some history. What do you see in those major cities? You always see a statue of a guy on a horse, looking majestic. It’s tall. It’s grand. The conqueror. That is the symbol of triumph: somebody coming in as a triumphing general. You could not get them to sit on a donkey. You could not get them to sit on a stubborn beast of burden. How lowly can you be?
And so even in the midst of this triumph, Jesus is challenging our expectations and our beliefs. Because, like I said, they all believe he’s coming to rescue them from their enemies. He’s coming to be the new king. They know these things, but they don’t understand what it means. And so this whole story is flipping upside down the expectations of what it means for God to enter the world, for the Messiah to come and rescue us.
But still, in the midst of the jubilation, you could imagine the disciples whispering excitedly to one another, “Remember the passage in Zechariah”:
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. Zech 9.9–10
What is he going to do? He’s going to cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem. You could imagine, especially if you’re thinking about a conquered, oppressed people. They don’t have a vote in what happens to them. They have been conquered by the Romans. They’re thinking, “Our king’s coming, and he’s going to speak peace.” How will he speak peace? Probably by beating the heck out of the nations around us, getting them to give us peace. In fact, what did Rome call the time period that Jesus is born into? The Pax Romana, the peace of Rome. And you know what the peace of Rome meant? Crucifixion. “If you step out of line, we are going to enforce our peace.”
So you can imagine these oppressed and marginalized individuals. You can imagine how excited they are: “We’ve got our guy. You kill us, he’ll just raise us from the dead.” They are getting excited about what God’s going to do through Jesus.
IV. Hosanna to the Son of David 08:29
And yet… let’s continue, in the midst of this exciting moment, as he’s coming in:
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” Matt 21.6–9
So in this moment, in the midst of the excitement, we know how important it was, because in another telling of this story, the Pharisees come up to him, and they go, “Hey, you’ve got to quiet these people down, or the Romans are going to come. You’ve got to get this under control. Don’t let them shout to you. Also, it’s blasphemous that they would hail you this way.” And he said to them, “Hey, if I make them be quiet, the stones you’re standing on are going to start singing my praises” (Luke 19.39–40).
This is a high moment for the disciples; that’s my argument this morning. Imagine hearing that. And they’ve been persecuted by the Pharisees. They know the Pharisees are out to get him. And then Jesus just lays down the law. And not only that: he goes into the temple, the center of Jerusalem’s religious power, and turns over all the tables. He drives out the livestock. And they think they know what’s happening here.
But Palm Sunday, praise the Lord, doesn’t let us stay there. If I was designing the church liturgical calendar, I would not put the story of the crucifixion at the same time we recognize Jesus coming into Jerusalem in triumph. I’d put that right in the center: “Let’s praise our King Jesus. This is a foreshadowing of when he’s going to take over the whole world.” Let’s just rah-rah. Let’s stay in the triumph moment. But people smarter and wiser than me put the Passion reading right in the middle of this service. And we ourselves get drawn into the story of Jesus’ betrayal and his crucifixion.
Because, as you know, Jesus did not come to conquer the way we thought he would. Yes, he was absolutely coming to be made King, not only of Jerusalem but of all creation. But no, he wasn’t going to do it on the back of a horse. He wasn’t going to do it by the sword. In fact, he was going to do it in the complete opposite way from what we would have thought.
V. Challenging Jerusalem 11:35
Over the course of the next few days (we’ve just started Palm Sunday, and we’re going to be doing Holy Week), Jesus every day is showing up in Jerusalem, and he’s challenging our notions. He’s challenging especially the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Jewish religion. He’s saying crazy things. He sees this tree… we don’t really know what seasons are when it comes to fruits and veggies, because we have grocery stores. We’ve forgotten that sometimes you can’t just get the fruit you want, because we’ve manufactured a way to do that. What a miracle. That’s awesome. But he goes up to this tree, and it’s pruning time. It’s not time for the fruit to come out. It’s got to grow the fruit. You’ve got to wait. And he goes, “Hey, there’s no fruit on this.” And the disciples go, “Does he know that it’s not the season for figs?” And then he curses it. He says, “You’re done. You were not fruitful, and so you are cursed” (Matt 21.19). And they all knew, when they saw that withered fig tree the next day, that he was talking about Jerusalem.
He says stuff like that. Or he goes in there and he goes, “You know this big temple you’re so proud of, where you do all your sacrifices, your seat of power? It’s going to be destroyed, and I will raise it up in three days” (John 2.19). They didn’t realize he was talking about himself, the true temple, the true fulfillment of worship. But man, did he know how to get them angry.
It’s hard for us to imagine, because if somebody walked in these doors and started saying things like, “I don’t believe Jesus is God,” or, “You guys are all wrong, and I can’t believe you worship this guy,” we’d be like, “Okay, fine. Move along.” We wouldn’t take it all that seriously. But you don’t understand the level of holy commitment that these people had, especially the Pharisees. Their whole religion centered around making the people, the Jerusalem people, holy enough so that God would rescue them. That’s what they thought they had to do: “If we can worship God perfectly, then he will rescue us from our sins.”
How many of us believe that? How many of us think, “Man, I’m in this mess. If only I could be a good enough Christian, God could save me from my mess”? And Jesus is coming in there saying, “Actually, there’s nothing you can do. This will all be destroyed, and I’m the answer.” And they are murderously angry. And they stir themselves up, and this back and forth is happening. And finally Judas is the linchpin that allows them to fulfill their schemes, to capture Jesus away from the crowds and crucify him. Because they know if they arrest him on Palm Sunday, when everybody’s singing his praises, the people are going to stop them. So all week they’re scheming, and finally they have this opportunity, because of Judas, to capture him when he’s alone. And they think how smart they are, when earlier that night Jesus is saying, “One of you will betray me. Judas, why don’t you go do what you’re going to do?” (John 13.27).
VI. It Was All Part of the Plan 14:21
It was all planned. It was all a part of the plan. In fact, as this horrendous occurrence happens, where the Love, the God, the center of the universe, is crucified by our murderous rage (we’ll get to talking about that in a minute), in the midst of all of that, as these things unfold, we have to remember (and in fact, the early church loved doing this) that it was all talked about in the Old Testament, every single thing that happened.
In fact, just read Psalm 22 sometime this week and think about what happens at the crucifixion. It’s just step after step. “None of my bones are broken”: they didn’t break Jesus’ bones. “I was pierced for their transgressions”: they didn’t pierce the other guys. They only pierced him, because they didn’t want to have to break his bones. I mean, it’s just amazing. “I was numbered with the sinners”: I was set beside two robbers. It’s truly incredible to know that this was God’s plan all along, and how impressively divine it all was. And we’re sitting here thinking, “When is he going to gather his armies and kick the Romans out?”
VII. The Turn: Give Us Barabbas 15:53
We had a small vision. It’s not that Jesus didn’t do the big thing. It’s that he did the ultimate thing when we thought he was going to do the big thing. The big thing for us was “get rid of the Romans.” The ultimate thing was to transform the entire nature of reality, so that sin and death would be conquered by his own death.
And this is the turn in the story. It happens around the Passover meal, as he continues to try and explain to his disciples how he came to lead and to serve: washing their feet, talking to them about a new covenant based in his body and his blood, trying to reveal to them the plan before the plan. And yet all of Jesus’ followers were ready for a war against Rome. But Jesus was waging a war against sin, death, and the enemy. They were looking for the power that conquers, while Jesus was revealing the power that saves.
In fact, when you go through this, it’s so powerful when we do the Passion narrative. I just remember, even being a kid growing up and hearing this, as you start to understand it, there’s an echo of horror in you, that you’re the one calling out, “Crucify him! Let him be crucified!” And there’s a purpose for that. It’s because truly, Jesus came as the gift of God, and we, humanity, rejected him. This is what happens when God’s love encounters humanity, until God’s love transcends our betrayal and invites us to be like him.
If you think about Cain and Abel, there’s kind of an echo here in the Barabbas trade that’s going on. Do you want the spirit of murder, or do you want to make the proper sacrifice? Jesus embodies the proper sacrifice. And you remember the story of Cain and Abel: [Abel] brings a proper sacrifice and is lauded by God. And then Cain’s sacrifice is rejected by God, and he gets angry, as all of us do (Gen 4.4–5). When we try really hard and then it gets rejected, we’re like, “What went wrong?” And there are two answers to that: “I need to take up my cross,” or, “They need to change”: the world, reality, other people, the enemy. The problem is in me, or the problem’s out there in the world.
Jesus, who had no problems, who was sin-free, said, “I will take all the problems on myself and make the proper sacrifice.” And in that moment, when Pilate says, “Do you want the murderer?” (the spirit of murder that says, “The problem’s out there, and I’m going to kill anybody who says otherwise”: that’s the spirit of antichrist, that’s the spirit of Cain, that’s the thing that says, “I’m going to reject the proper sacrifice and take matters into my own hands”), we all say, “Give us Barabbas.” And we know that that’s in our hearts. It’s in there, that tendency to move away from the call to lay it all down, to take up our cross.
And so you see these echoes of the stories, and they all are finding their center in the self-emptying, sacrificial love of Jesus, as he just pours himself out on the cross for us. And now none of you has to die to be saved. All you have to do is enter into his death, which is a lot like dying, except that life is there. The only difference is all the difference: when you die, you don’t just die; you also enter into life.
VIII. Was It Not Necessary? 19:45
And so, in this complete turnabout of all the things we know, in this story that changes everything, we realize it was the plan all along. In fact, we have a great resurrection story that we’ll talk about in a few weeks, but I’m going to cite it here. The resurrected Jesus (all this bad stuff has happened) is walking along the road to Emmaus. There are a couple of his disciples, and they are devastated, because what they saw was not a church full of people singing hymns about the resurrection. All they saw was that: the cross. Imagine if all you knew was the cross. And yeah, they heard a rumor that maybe he was risen, but they didn’t believe it. Some delusional women… I’ve never met a delusional woman. I just want to be politically correct here. No. Some delusional women claimed that he rose from the dead, but they’re completely depressed. They’ve given up hope, and they’re going home. They came for the palms. They left after the crucifixion. They don’t know what’s coming.
And Jesus is walking along with them, and he goes, “Wait, hold on, hold on.” They share with him what they’re upset about. And Jesus replies to them:
25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Luke 24.25
First of all, they had no idea who Jesus was at the moment, we’re told. Imagine you’re walking along and you share that story, and he goes, “You fools, don’t you know what the Old Testament says?” And they’re like, “Who is this?” And he says:
26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Luke 24.26–27
You see, Jesus was always called to conquer death by death, to heal our suffering by his stripes, to take our iniquity and bear our pain (Isa 53.5). The cross is a cosmic victory over sin and death. And now there is no death that has not been swallowed up in Christ’s death. There is no sin that has not been borne in his sacrifice on the cross. In fact, Paul goes so far as to say, “What shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom 8.35). Look what he did. He took it all. There’s nothing more between us and the love of God. It’s right there.
IX. The Line Between Good and Evil 21:58
Yet we still play our games of power. We still jockey for position. We still try and solve our problems by our own strength, when the path of discipleship is: take up your cross. Or maybe, more poignantly: join him on the cross, in Christ.
Today we’re faced with a choice. The world is full of financial, cultural, physical, political power being wielded in opposition to the purposes of God. Sometimes by people who claim to be Christians, but they’ve taken up the sword instead of the cross. Instead, we’re called to just start where we’re at, taking up our own cross.
It’s not that we’re not called to name evil, evil. The Bible is full of prophetic traditions. We’re supposed to combat evil in the world. But the path to combating evil is the cross. It’s not the path of power. In fact, Solzhenitsyn has this great quote. He says, “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts.” Where is the enemy? Right here. They knew Jesus was called to conquer an enemy. They didn’t like it when it had to do with their own hearts.
Jesus came that you might take up your cross, become a resurrected people, and be saved from the true enemies in our own hearts and minds. That line between good and evil: Jesus came to obliterate it and make you the righteousness of God. The transformation comes when we do not seek to conquer; we seek to love. Which sounds really hippie-dippy, I know. Okay. But when it’s understood in the light of a torturous death and a powerful resurrection, that love has teeth, as you might say. It’s not love like “Peace, man.” That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about “I will die for you, because I trust my Savior, who died for me.” That’s a different kind of love.
The journey from Palm Sunday to the cross is one from political overthrow to spiritual transformation. And people are like, “Spiritual? What is spirit? We’re hungry. We’re hurting. We’re oppressed. We’re being beaten and betrayed. What does it matter if my spirit is transformed?” And the answer is, everything is transformed in the light of the spiritual transformation. Because Jesus, yes, was physically murdered on the cross, but he was also spiritually crowned as the King of all that exists. The true reality underneath it all is that Jesus began, on the cross, to take his seat as the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
And for two thousand years, the entire world has been changed by that story, to the point now where everyone knows Jesus’ name. Everyone has at least heard his name. This little failed messiah, as they might have called him, this crucified backwater preacher, is now the most significant person in all of human history, even without attributing any spiritual significance. But how can you not? You look at the course of the cross, and it conquers the world, person by person, culture by culture. They get completely turned upside down by the cross. Yes, he came to conquer the world. It just didn’t look the way we thought it would.
X. What Part of the Story Are You In? 25:41
So the question every day is: what part of this story are you in? The part where you’re being celebrated for what you do? But instead of getting a nice horse and dressing up in good armor and making yourself look good, you take it humbly and say, “Hey, not unto me, but unto God be the glory.” Are you in the part where you’re surrounded by people that you’re in charge of, that you should be leading? They’re pretty rebellious and stubborn, as we see throughout all the gospels, but God is telling you you need to wash their feet. A really uncomfortable act, I might add. How humble are you called to be in your life right now? Or are you just on the cross, waiting for that moment of resurrection?
All of that can live itself out in you. And we in Christ will change the world if we live the way of the cross, if we live the way of Holy Week. So as we continue to study these stories this week, and as we engage them, try and go to every service you can. It is so powerful. And when you go, please don’t go to check a box. Go to encounter Jesus, because he lives and breathes in these services, in these stories, in our worship, and in the word and in the sacrament. And he has something for you today and this week. Amen.