John 12:12-19 (Palm Sunday)
St. John, Galveston 3/24/2024
Rev. Alan Taylor

+ In Nomine Jesu +

Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday was akin to a Roman military parade called a Triumph. Well, almost. The Roman Triumph was established to give honor to a General who had distinguished himself in battle. No expense was spared to lavish the General with his just rewards. For the festivities, the one being honored wore a crown of laurel and an all-purple, gold-embroidered triumphal painted toga, regalia that identified him as near-divine or kingly like. In some accounts, his face was painted red, perhaps in imitation of Rome's highest and most powerful god, Jupiter. The General rode into Rome on a chariot pulled by four-horses in unarmed procession with his army, his captives, and the spoils of war. The people shouted and cheered as the procession went past them. All the while, they threw flowers along the parade route to honor Rome’s supremacy in war and specifically to honor the  leader of Rome’s great might.

I suspect that all of you have a certain picture in your mind of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Unlike the Roman General, He is a true King and true God. His mount isn’t a chariot, but a colt, the foal of a donkey. Various articles of clothing have been laid on the road ahead of Him by revelers. And the people along the route are waving Palm branches and shouting, “Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.”

Again, the scene is much like the Roman Triumph, except it’s decidedly different. Unlike the Triumph, Jesus’ Kingly procession was marked with lowliness and humility. In fact, many people who witnessed Jesus riding into Jerusalem that day rejected Him because it didn’t seem right for them to honor a King who appeared so lowly and meek. Nonetheless, Jesus Palm Sunday procession is a scene that we have etched in our minds. It’s also a scene we’re so familiar with, that we may well forget what it actually meant for the world and for us personally.

I’m sure you’re aware, but apart from God’s revelation of Himself in Jesus, people have many different ways in which they think of God. For some, he’s loving and kind. For others, he’s exacting and even vengeful. Some see him as impersonal. For sure, he is almighty and magnificent, but in the view of some, he’s too immense, too great to care about every little thing in our lives. After all, he’s got a universe to run. Some see him as rather cruel, allowing, as he does, all sorts of tragedies and calamities in the world.

Again, there are a lot of different ways that people picture, or conceive of God apart from Jesus. One thing though seems to be a common belief about God among those who do not know Him in Christ Jesus. God, many people believe, is mysterious, even hidden from the pursuit of men. As such, He must be sought out. He must be found. A common question among people is, “have you found God in your life?”

It’s a laborious, and even fruitless, sort of thing, really. That is, the quest to find god. I read an article the other day in the Huffington Post, that bastion of theological wisdom and insight, where the author, a disgruntled former fundamentalist, says there are actually five ways to find god. I won’t burden you with all five of the authors suggestions. A few of them though were quite interesting. First, he says, you should regard every thought about god as god. That’s an interesting perspective on god. It isn’t Biblical, but it is a perspective. At best though, it seems to reduce god to a figment of our imagination. Second, the author says, you should practice believing that god dwells in you already. Any sort of an encounter with god that takes practice, seems to me to be a bit contrived. Finally, the writer says, you should remember that god dwells in all people and all things too. As to his last point, he says, but that’s pantheism, you might say. To which he responds, and your point?

The fact is, we can all devise simple ways to find god, especially if the god we’re looking for is the god of our own imagination, the god we’ve created, as it were, in our own image. But the true God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, doesn’t actually reside where we insist that He must be, nor does He expect us to find Him, as if the quest for god were akin to a cosmic version of “Where’s Waldo.” In fact, left to our own devices and our own ways, God makes it clear in His word that we can’t find Him. He says,

    “We have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 
    as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no     one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become 
    worthless; no one does good, not even one.” Their throat is an open 
    grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under 
    their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are 
    swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of 
    peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their 
    eyes.”

The good news though, is that, even though we can’t find God, He finds US! Even more, He finds YOU! Indeed, the laborious quest to find God ends when God takes the quest out of our hands, when He comes to US as one of US. Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem makes a remarkable statement regarding the world, and you personally.

God has come into the world, not so much to be loved, or to be honored, but to save you, to bear in His body the sins of the whole world, including your sins and mine. As you well know, the shouts of acclamation that welcomed Jesus on Palm Sunday, soon turned to shouts of anger and hatred. In but a few days from Palm Sunday, Jesus, the King of Israel, walked the Via Delarosa, the Way of Sorrows, as He carried the burden of the cross upon His shoulders. Crucify Him, the people shouted. Gone now were the garments and the Palm branches. Pilate asked, do you want me to crucify your King? To which the people brazenly said, “we have no King but Caesar.”    

“Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem makes a remarkable statement regarding the world, and you and me personally. It isn’t by accident that this same reading, that is, the account of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, also begins the season of Advent. With it, especially in our hymnody, comes all of the beautiful and rich theology of that season, God coming to us, to you.

“O Morning Star, O radiant Sun,
When will our hearts behold Your dawn?
O Sun, arise; without Your light
We grope in gloom and dark of night.”

“O Savior, rend the heavens wide;
Come down, come down with mighty stride;
Unlock the gates, the doors break down;
Unbar the way to heavens crown.”

Your King comes to YOU, my friends, righteous and having salvation. But He comes to YOU in lowliness and in meekness. He comes to reveal the heart and the will of God toward you. He comes to take away the gloom and the darkness of sin and death and to give you the light of salvation. He comes to you with words of forgiveness and of grace. 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 pow’r 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 +