John 12:12-19 (Palm Sunday)                                                     
St. John, Galveston 4/29/26
“The World has gone after Him”
Rev. Alan Taylor
 
+ In Nomine Jesu +
 
Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

    The Gospel reading for today is in two parts, both of which come from John 12. The first part, which was read at the beginning of the service, is Jesus’ triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem, the event that we know today as Palm Sunday. In the second part of the reading, Jesus spoke about His coming crucifixion, saying, “And I, when I am lifted up from the death, will draw all people to myself.” The two readings together form the theme for today, what is known as Palm Sunday / The Sunday of the Passion. This morning though, I’ll be addressing a passage from the first of those readings, the Palm Sunday narrative. Specifically I’d like to draw your attention to the statement of the Pharisees, who, at the very end of the reading said, ”You see that you are gaining nothing. Look,  the world has gone after him.” 
 
“Ride on, ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die.
Bow Thy meek head to mortal pain,
Then take, O God, Thy power and reign.”
                                     In the name of Jesus.  Amen.
 
    About 100 years before Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Cicero, a Roman Statesman and philosopher, coined the phrase “a man of many palms.” Cicero is best known for his support of the Roman Republic and thus for his opposition to Julius Caesar and Mary Antony. He was later put death by order of Antony himself. His quote though had to do with a man who was honored with many victories. He said, he is “a man of many palms.”

    So it was that Jesus made His way through the crowds of people who lined the streets of Jerusalem. As He did, the people waved their palms in celebration of His arrival. They shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The King of Israel!”   
 
    The King of Israel, indeed. The Son of David, the Son of Abraham, had arrived in Jerusalem. It was a festive and joyous day, to say the least. But not for everyone. As the Pharisees watched the spectacle unfolding on the dusty streets of Jerusalem, they knew that their greatest fear had come to pass. “The World was going after Him (they said).” People were listening to Jesus preach and teach and they were following Him. They were welcoming Him and praising Him as their King. On this, the Sunday before His crucifixion, the palms were waving, but for some it was a mockery of that royal rite lauded by Cicero. This King, after-all, was lowly. He was humble. He was riding on a colt, the foal of donkey. The Pharisees watched the spectacle in disgust, wondering, no doubt, how they could turn the tide, how they could sway the fickle crowd from praising Jesus to cursing Him.  
 
    Well, you know the rest of the story. In a week’s time, the Pharisees accomplished their mission.The joyous shouts of “Hosanna,” that filled the streets on Palm Sunday, were turned to the frenzied cry of “Crucify Him, Crucify Him,” on Good Friday. Jesus would be arrested, tried, beaten and crucified. His battered and bruised body, collapsing on the cross, would be an example to others of what would happen were they to try to take power and authority away from the Pharisees and the rest of the religious establishment.      
 
    Not much has changed in 2,000 years in regard to the human quest for power and authority. Ruthless dictators hold onto power as their countrymen are slaughtered in the streets. Politicians broker deals that shore up their base, even though the deals for which they fight and win, may not actually be for the common good. Businessmen climb the ladder of success, hoping one day to reach the top, the pinnacle of their profession, where their word will be gospel and when they say to jump, the only question asked will be “how high?”
 
    To “go after Jesus,” to follow Him, is to give up the quest for power and control. Indeed, it is to give the quest for self. We simply cannot be Jesus’ disciples and the master of our own destinies at the same time. Consequently, some of the most blessed and liberating words in the Christian’s vocabulary are “I cannot.” Luther taught us that those words are a part of how to best understand our confession of the third article of the Apostle’s Creed regarding the Holy Spirit. “I believe that I cannot, by my own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or, come to Him. But, the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel.” “I cannot save my soul from death and hell.” “I cannot keep God’s Law perfectly.” “I cannot love my neighbor as myself and I certainly cannot love God with my whole heart, mind, body and soul.”
 
    The Good News is that God meets all of our admissions of failure on our part, our “I cannot” (if you will) with a resounding “but, I can,  I have, and I will!” I will bring you to Me by the power of My Word and the Gospel.  I will save your soul from death and hell. I have kept the Law perfectly for you. And I have loved you and whole world unto death, even death on a cross.

    Beyond the effect of God’s Word on our own lives, it is also wonderfully comforting and encouraging to see the world, even the world beyond our borders, continue to go after Him. In 1992, for the first time in 74 years, the bells pealed in Red Square in the Kremlin in honor of the holy day of the Orthodox Easter. Muscovites crowded into their candle-lit Orthodox churches to celebrate. At midnight Saturday, April 25, bells rang in Ivan the Great’s belfry in the Kremlin for the first time since the Bolshevik revolution, and the bells in the Orthodox churches across the city chimed in. Billboards declaring, “Christ has risen” abounded in the center of Moscow, whose past leaders had vaunted the city as the world center of communism and atheism.
 
    “Look, the world has gone after Him.” Little children sit in a tiny hut in a remote Cambodian jungle. The little hut was once used by Cambodia's infamous leader, Phol Pot, to house detainees before they were sent off to the killing fields to be slaughtered. It is now a Lutheran church. The children there read from a little book they so proudly hold, called “A child’s garden of Bible stories.” The book , the kids prize possession, was translated into the Khmer language for them by Lutheran Heritage Foundation which our congregation supports with offerings every month.
 
    In northern Sumatra, one of the 18,000 Islands that make up the country of Indonesia, Lutheran Christians gather around the Word and Sacraments, though the majority of their countrymen worship Allah, following the Muslim tradition. When they want to plant a new church they often have to select an alternative site because radical Islamists block their entry into the community. Still, they “go after Jesus” because, they too, have been called by the Gospel and enlightened with the gifts of Christ.
 
    How prophetic those words of the Pharisees were. The Gospel of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection bears fruit around the world. And the world will continue to go after Jesus as the Gospel is preached and God’s hand of grace is extended to hapless souls everywhere. There are about 8 billion people on this planet, and only slightly more than 2 billion of them are Christians.  For sure, some have never heard of God’s grace in Christ and rejected it, but, others have never heard. No doubt there are other little children sitting in huts in the Cambodian jungle who are not reading “A child’s garden of Bible stories” because they don’t have it.  
 
    Cicero was right. The man with many victories is “a man of many palms.” Jesus rode into Jerusalem to the waving of those palms. Jerusalem would be the place of His greatest victory, His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead.                   

And so…
 
“Ride on, ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die.
Bow Thy meek head to mortal pain,
Then take, O God, Thy power and reign.”
 
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.
 
+ Soli Deo Gloria +