Luke 19:28-40 New Revised Standard Version
(NRSV)
28 After he had said this, he
went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem .
29 When he had come near
Bethphage and Bethany , at the place called the Mount of Olives , he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the
village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that
has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why
are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” 32 So those who were sent
departed and found it as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the
colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 They said, “The Lord needs
it.” 35 Then they brought it to
Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 As he rode along, people
kept spreading their cloaks on the road.37 As he was now approaching
the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples
began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that
they had seen, 38 saying,
“Blessed
is the king
who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven,
and glory in the highest heaven!”
who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven,
and glory in the highest heaven!”
39 Some of the Pharisees in
the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” 40 He answered, “I tell you,
if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”
Do
you remember the words, "hold the pickle, hold the lettuce?"
What’s
the next line?
“Special
orders don’t upset us – all we ask is that you let us have it your way.”
About
25 years ago Burger King came out with their "Have it Your Way"
campaign where if you wanted fast food you didn't have to get it anyway they
made it, you could have a hamburger made especially for you.
And
we liked that.
We
wanted that hamburger made especially for us, our way. That's the kind of
people we are, we love customization. We like things being tailor made, fit
just for us.
The
problem is that we don't stop with material customization, we also want it in
our spiritual lives.
We
like our church customized to fit our needs.
We like
our worship service customized just to our exact taste.
Unfortunately,
we also want a God who is customized to conform to our preferences. We want a
God who does it our way and that's a problem. Because God has a habit of doing
things his way.
Two different
secular publications have written recently about today's view of God and the
church.
The
first comes from Los Angeles
Magazine, it is an article called God
For Sale. The author says, "It is no surprise that when today's
affluent young professionals return to church they want to do it only on their
own terms. But what is amazing is how far the churches are going to oblige
them."
And
a recent article in Newsweek described today's Christians with
these words: "They've developed a pick and choose Christianity in which
individuals take what they want and pass over what does not fit their spiritual
goals, and what many have left behind is a sense of their own sin."
You
see we want spirituality.
We
want God.
We
just want him on our own terms.
We
want a God that does it our way.
But
that's not just true of us, that's been true of every age. Even on the first
Palm Sunday, 2000 years ago, they had that same problem.
In
our New Testament lesson for today, we read Luke’s description of the Triumphal
Entry, which although Luke does not mention anything in his Gospel about the
use of palm branches being spread out on the ground and waved in the air – that
comes from John’s Gospel – it is traditional for us to call this day Palm
Sunday.
It
happened during the time of Passover, actually right before Passover. Passover
was the greatest celebration of the Jewish people.
Jews
would often make it their goal in life to go to Jerusalem at least once for the Passover. So
on this Palm Sunday just a few days before Passover began, the pilgrims were
already flooding into Jerusalem .
They made their way along the dusty roads to Jerusalem , the capital city, the place where
God himself dwelt in his temple. It
was also a time of expectation – when the people would get excited about the
possibility that someday – someday – maybe today -- the Messiah would
come.
The
Messiah! The one sent by
God to free the people.
The
Messiah! The one who would
overthrow Rome
and give freedom to the Jews.
The
Messiah! So expectant were
the people that families would gather to celebrate Passover meals in homes and
they would leave a place at the table for the Messiah.
It
was into that mix of expectation and enthusiasm and emotion that we see Jesus
getting a donkey and riding it from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem (which
by the way was in fulfillment of a prophecy from our Old Testament lesson from
Zechariah: “Behold Jerusalem, your King comes to you riding on a donkey."
So here is Jesus, fulfilling this messianic prophecy as he rides into Jerusalem amidst the
fanfare of the pilgrims all around him. And the pilgrims, they see this and
they think, "could this be the Messiah?" And their hopes get the
better of them and they begin to wave their palm branches, and they sing songs,
and they shout their praises to Jesus as he enters into Jerusalem .
“Blessed is the king
who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven,
and glory in the highest heaven!”
who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven,
and glory in the highest heaven!”
Their
expectation for Jesus was that he was coming as a conquering general-king to
free them from oppression.
But
it is only a few pages later in the Gospel of Luke that the people change their
tune.
Within
less than a week, Jesus who enters Jerusalem
with all the fanfare and praise, is betrayed by Judas. Jesus is arrested. At one point, he is taken to one of
the Roman authorities, a man named Pilate. And Luke’s Gospel tells us this is
what took place (Luke 23):
13 Pilate then called together
the chief priests, the leaders, and the people, 14 and said to them, “You
brought me this man as one who was perverting the people; and here I have
examined him in your presence and have not found this man guilty of any of your
charges against him.15 Neither has Herod, for he
sent him back to us. Indeed, he has done nothing to deserve death. 16 I will therefore have him
flogged and release him.”[d]
18 Then they all shouted out
together, “Away with this fellow! Release Barabbas for us!” 19 (This was a man who had
been put in prison for an insurrection that had taken place in the city, and
for murder.) 20 Pilate, wanting to release
Jesus, addressed them again; 21 but they kept shouting,
“Crucify, crucify him!” 22 A third time he said to
them, “Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no ground for the
sentence of death; I will therefore have him flogged and then release him.” 23 But they kept urgently
demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified; and their voices
prevailed. 24 So Pilate gave his verdict
that their demand should be granted. 25 He released the man they
asked for, the one who had been put in prison for insurrection and murder, and
he handed Jesus over as they wished.
But
perhaps we should not be amazed by that at all.
The
people who greeted Jesus were disappointed in him.
He
was not the warrior they expected, but the Prince of Peace.
He
did not come to take away their suffering, but he came to tell us that we must
also take up our cross and suffer for Christ.
I
suspect that we are often disappointed when we discover the true Christ.
We
look for a God who will make life easy and comfortable, but Jesus calls us to
serve a God who is often difficult. He
tells us to take up our own cross if we are to follow him. He tells us to love those who are
difficult to love. He
demands that we forgive when we would rather strike back.
We
look for a Lord who will take away the pain of living, but Jesus warns us,
“don’t think I bring peace, but a sword.”
We
look for a deity who will answer our prayers like some cosmic bell hop. But even Christ would pray to God,
“take this cup of suffering away from me,” but then he yielded to whatever
might be God’s will.
On
the first Palm Sunday, people saw Jesus ride in on a donkey rather than a horse
-- a horse is a symbol of power and war. A donkey was a symbol of peace. But
they didn't really get that.
They
were so consumed with what they wanted the messiah to look like, what they
wanted God to do for them, that it didn't matter who Jesus really was.
You
know, it doesn’t take much to sing happy little songs that make us feel
good. We go home and think
we have worshiped Christ – but it is so shallow.
On
the other hand, it takes a lot to continue to worship a Lord who will not do it
our way – but His divine way. It
takes a lot to worship a Lord who suffers on a cross, and expects us to suffer
for His sake.
It
is easy to worship a Lord and pray that He will give you a new Humvee, or SUV,
or flat screen TV – but can you still worship that Lord when He says “no” to
those things, and then calls you to serve food to homeless folks? Or to help work with children in one
of our summer programs? Or to volunteer to work with the youth? Or
to love your enemy? Or to set aside your
pride for humility?
For
too long, Christians have treated Christ like a fast food restaurant – just
give us faith our way. Our
way.
What
we need to do is to follow Christ HIS way.
It’s
only when we follow Christ HIS way rather than insisting on God doing things
our way, that we can at last praise God with a sincere, “Hallelujah.”
And now unto
God the Father,
God the Son,
And God the
Holy Spirit be ascribed all might, power, dominion and glory, today and
forever, Amen.
Copyright
2016.
Dr.
W. Maynard Pittendreigh
All
rights reserved
Ministers
may feel free to use some or all of this sermon in their own ministries as long
as they do not publish in print or on the Internet without ascribing credit to
the author.