Palm Sunday

Ponies, Palms, and Murder Plots

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A photograph of palm branches
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Ponies, Palms, and Murder Plots

(Palm Sunday)

April 10, 2022*

By Pastor John Partridge

Luke 19:28-40

Today we begin the final week of our preparations for Easter.  We remember the time that, as the church, we refer to as “Holy Week.”  This is that time of remembrance that begins with the joy of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem that we remember today as Palm Sunday but continues with Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, his arrest, illegal trial, crucifixion, death, burial, and his resurrection on Easter morning.  I hope that you will join us, not just for the bookends of Palm Sunday and Easter, but for the entire journey through Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil on Saturday, and then, after we have walked through that season of frustration, anger, despair, and darkness, to arrive together and celebrate the joy of Easter morning.

But this morning, we remember the story of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem for the celebration of the Passover as recorded in Luke 19:28-40.

28 After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 30“Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here.  31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”

32 Those who were sent ahead, went, and found it just as he had told them.  33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”

34 They replied, “The Lord needs it.”

35 They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it.  36 As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:

38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”

40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

For such a short passage, there is a lot going on.  First, Jesus knew what the disciples would find when they went into the village ahead of them.  He knew that they would find a colt that had been tied out, he knew that it was such a green colt that it had never been ridden, and although this last one is hardly surprising, Jesus also knew that the owner of the colt would want to know why they were taking it.  Just as Jesus had seen Nathaniel sitting under a fig tree before Philip called him to follow Jesus in John 1:48, Jesus knew what the disciples would find when they went into the village.  But what is even more surprising, and to my skeptical and sometimes a little cynical mind, even more miraculous, was that the owner of the colt allowed the disciples to borrow it.  Think about that for a minute.  We take it for granted because it was Jesus, because we are reading the Bible, and because we’ve heard the story dozens of times. 

But seriously?  The disciples meet a random stranger, whose horse or donkey has only recently had a baby.  That baby hasn’t been ridden, it wasn’t old enough to take to the trainer, or to start working at its training, two total strangers off the street start untying it, and the only explanation they offer is that their boss needs it.  Seriously?  If you owned a new car, that the dealer just delivered to your house on a flatbed trailer, and you hadn’t even had time to drive it yet, how likely are you to loan it to a total stranger?  Think about that.  If your dog had puppies and they had barely started eating solid food, what the chances that you’d let a stranger “borrow” one?  This wasn’t just a baby, horses and donkeys were valuable and they typically only have one baby every 12 to 18 months.  So, as I think about this story, and think about what we all know about human nature, I think that although there might be more to the story than Luke chose to tell us, I also think that this might just be one of the greatest miracles in the Easter story next to the resurrection itself.

In any case, the owner allows the disciples to borrow the colt, they bring it to Jesus, throw their outer garments over it’s back, and Jesus rides it.  And that, if you know anything about horses, may also be a significant miracle.  Ask your friends who know horses, what’s likely to happen if you just jump on the back of a horse that’s never been ridden.  The odds are good that, outside of that rider being Jesus, that such a story isn’t going to end well.

And as Jesus came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives toward the gates of the city of Jerusalem, the crowd that was with Jesus began to praise God, in loud voices, for all the miracles that they had seen.  They pulled palm branches from the trees and laid them in the road in front of Jesus, and if Palm branches weren’t handy, they laid down their own shirts so that even the animal upon which Jesus rode would, symbolically, not get its feet dirty.  And more than that, they began to shout an historic welcome found in scripture, notably in Psalm 118, that the people of Israel had used as kings entered the city of Jerusalem.  They shouted, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” and they said, “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 

And the Pharisees who saw what they were doing, and who heard what they were shouting were displeased.  They recognized that the disciples were offering Jesus a king’s welcome.  They understood that these symbols were used, and were reserved for, the recognition of kings.  And they knew that not far away, inside of the city, sharing a wall with the temple itself, was the Fortress Antonia and a detachment of Roman soldiers.  They knew that those soldiers were there to keep the peace, they knew that the only king that could ever be accepted was Caesar, and they knew that blood had been spilled the last time someone claimed to be the king of Israel.  The arrival of Jesus, and his disciples’ cries proclaiming him to be king, was threatening to upset the status quo.  And the people who had the most to lose from a change in the status quo were the Pharisees.

They insist that Jesus tell his disciples to stop before too many people hear, or at least before the wrong people, the powerful people, the people with swords, could hear them.  But Jesus stares them down and declares that if the disciples keep quiet, the stones along the sides of the road would cry out instead.

And so, the actions of the disciples, and Jesus’ refusal to stop them, combined with all the previous interactions that Jesus had with the Pharisees, had reached a climax.  The Pharisees could no longer look the other way, there was no longer any doubt, they absolutely knew that Jesus was going to upset the status quo.  If Jesus lived, more people were going to follow him.  And if those people were going to label Jesus as a king, it was going to stir up the worst kind of trouble.  The deal that the Pharisees and the other leaders of Israel had made with Rome was that they could remain in power if they helped Rome to rule over Israel and if they helped them to keep the peace.  If the disciples proclaimed that Jesus was a king, then this contract would be broken, and the Romans would blame the Pharisees.  It was their necks, their jobs, their careers, their lives, that were on the line.  It was no longer an intellectual argument.  In this moment, the Pharisees had to choose between themselves, and Jesus.  And they knew what had to happen.

Jesus.  Must.   Die.

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*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page.  Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601.  These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org.  These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.com .  All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

The Wrong Kind of Savior

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The Wrong Kind of Savior

April 05, 2020*

(Palm Sunday)

By Pastor John Partridge

 

Matthew 21:1-11

 

Before we begin, I want you to shout “Hosanna!” as if we were together in our sanctuary and waving Palm branches together.  Ready?  1-2-3 – now – “Hosanna!” 

 

Okay, maybe that felt a little silly but, just as we would have done if we’d been together, I want you to be ready.  Because when we get to that part of today’s scripture reading, I want you to do that again and shout “Hosanna” along with the crowd.

 

 

A year or two after Patti and I were married, we bought a house near the Summit/Stark County line with seven acres, a barn, and two fenced pastures.  In short order we had a pony, a couple of cows, some rabbits and, of course, various dogs and cats.  But even though this was the kind of a home that Patti and I had both dreamed of owning, since both of us grew up in town, there were a few things that required that we learn a few things.  We learned a lot about raising all those animals, I learned how to turn wrenches and maintain our lawn tractors and small antique farm tractor, how to improve and maintain a fence line, and many other things.  But one of the things that I didn’t really expect, was our war on poison ivy. 

 

There was a spot, at the end of our garden and not too far from our kids’ swing set, that regularly grew a patch of poison ivy.  It took a little while but, with the help of the guys at Copley feed, we finally found an herbicide that worked.  As long as we put in the effort to put on long sleeves and gloves, pull the big stuff by hand, bag it, and throw it in the trash before we sprayed the little stuff, we got that spot under control and kept our kids safe.

 

But none of that was really much help when we discovered that one entire fence line, between our property and the neighbor’s property was absolutely full of a well-established patch of poison ivy.  While there wasn’t any danger that the kids would get in it, that tangle of ivy had thick vines, was in an almost inaccessible thicket, and there was no way that Patti and I could pull it, nor could we afford enough herbicide to spray the entire fence line.  We were stuck for a solution, and all the while, that tangle of poison ivy grew taller, and thicker, and was taking over that entire side of the pasture fence. 

 

But, as it turned out, we were looking for a solution in the wrong place.  You see, once our calves grew larger, we had to alternate them between our two pastures in order to give the grass a chance to grow back on one side while they ate down the grass in the other.  And that is when the cows gave us the solution that we didn’t even realize we needed.  As it turns out, cows really like poison ivy.  They like it more than grass, or almost anything else.  They worked hard at eating our poison ivy and stretched over and through the fence anyway they could, in order to get every leaf they could possibly reach.  They didn’t kill it, but they controlled it so well that we never needed to worry about poison ivy around the pastures ever again.

 

The solution was there all along, but we were looking for it in all the wrong places.

 

That isn’t uncommon.

 

Human beings do things like that all the time.  We look to government to solve our problems when the answer lies in changing our own behavior, or in simply asking our neighbors for a little help.  And the same is often true in our spiritual lives as well.  We want God to wave some sort of magic wand and give us things that we had in our hands the entire time.

 

And that realization helps us to understand what was happening as Jesus entered Jerusalem on the day that we call Palm Sunday.  We read that story in Matthew 21:1-11 where we hear these words:

 

21:1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

5 “Say to Daughter Zion,
    ‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
    and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

 

[Right NOW! Say it with me… “Hosanna!”]

 

10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

11 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

 

From the beginning, it is obvious that Jesus knows what lies ahead.  Jesus has been telling his disciples that he would be arrested, crucified, and rise from the dead, and he’s been telling them that for weeks.  Now we see that Jesus not only knows what will happen to him, but that he knows the details of the lives of people and animals that he’s never even met.  Jesus knows that there will be a donkey tied up in the village ahead of them.  He knows that, with the right words, his disciple can borrow them, and he knows that by arriving in Jerusalem in that way, Jesus will fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 which describes the arrival of the messiah.

 

But although Jesus knows that he is fulfilling the prophecies about God’s messiah, it is just as obvious that the expectations that the crowd, and the disciples, have for the messiah, rescuer, and savior of Israel are misguided.

 

Jesus is not what they are expecting.

 

The crowd wants the wrong kind of savior.

 

The people call Jesus the “Son of David!” and, in so doing, use a title of earthly kingship.  They shout, “Hosanna” which means “Save us” because they believe that Jesus is an earthly messiah, a military and political rescuer that will unite their nation, raise an army, and overthrow the Roman occupation.

 

But Jesus isn’t that kinds of savior.

 

Jesus didn’t come to earth to rescue God’s people from Rome.

 

Jesus came to rescue them from something far more sinister, addictive, and deeply personal.  Jesus came to rescue God’s people from themselves, from their unwholesome and unhealthy desires, from their rebellion to God, and from their sin.

 

But it was the people’s dissatisfaction with Jesus, because of their misplaced, misunderstanding of Jesus’ mission, that ultimately led to his betrayal, abandonment, trial, and crucifixion just a few days later.  And even though we live two thousand years later, and even though we are able to read the entire story, and even though the meaning has been explained to us, and even though we understand the events in a different way than the disciples and the people of Jerusalem did that day, we still run the risk of casting Jesus in the role of the wrong kind of savior.

 

Jesus is not the savior who can be called upon like a genie in a bottle to grant all our wishes and make our lives painless and perfect.

 

Jesus wasn’t then, and still is not a nationalistic savior that came to rescue his, or anybody’s nation.  Jesus didn’t come to save the United States of America or to make America great, or to transform the United States into the New Jerusalem.

 

Jesus is not the savior that came to make his followers rich, or even healthy.  In fact, one of the few things that Jesus promised, was that life would be painful and difficult.

 

But the best news is still the Good News as long as we remember what kind of a savior Jesus is.

 

Jesus is our savior, our redeemer, and our rescuer.

 

Jesus came to rescue us from our sins, to redeem us in the eyes of God, to restore us to God’s family, and to call us to a life of purity, holiness, service, love, and outreach.

 

Jesus is that kind of savior.

 

And thankfully, that’s the kind of a savior that we need the most.

 

I hope that each of you know Jesus in that way.  I hope that you have already answered his call to follow him.  But if you haven’t, I hope that you will talk to me, or email me, so that we can talk about how you can belong to God’s awesome family too.

 

 

Have a great week everybody.

 

 

 

You can find the livestream of this message here: https://youtu.be/VXrvfleMohI

A longer version with music can be found here: https://youtu.be/aU0ofTV9c6Y

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Click here if you would like to subscribe to Pastor John’s weekly messages.

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*You have been reading a message presented at Christ United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page.  Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Christ UMC in Alliance, Ohio.  Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you.  Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Christ United Methodist Church, 470 East Broadway Street, Alliance, Ohio 44601. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership.  You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at secretary@CUMCAlliance.org.  If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online).  These messages can also be found online at https://pastorpartridge.wordpress.com/. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.