On this the sixth Sunday of Lent we celebrate Palm Sunday – the day we remember the Lord's entry into Jerusalem to the boisterous cheers of the crowds. St Matthew describes the tumultuous scene this way: “Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!” (Mathew 21:8-9)
But we know the rest of the story, don’t we? It’s only days before who-knows-how-many in that same crowd will clamor for His crucifixion. And despite the crowd’s boisterous acclamation on Palm Sunday, Jesus knew He was headed toward a gruesome death before the end of the week. He knew this was the time planned by the Holy Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – the time to bring salvation’s plan to its culmination. Jesus knew all this as He rode into the city.
The question many of us have often considered – and which I want to spend some time in this message considering again, is “What happened to the crowd between Palm Sunday and Good Friday?”
I want to add one more question to that first one: Does what happened to the crowd between those two dates matter – does it matter to me and you.
We will come back to those questions in a few minutes
Palm Sunday and its subsequent Good Friday did not happen in a vacuum. The sin-drenched history of humanity poured out on the Altars of Self since the Garden of Eden –brought Jesus to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Those sins would shortly lead Him from the donkey to the cross where He would fight a battle of immense and utterly inconceivable proportions – a battle to determine the eternal destinies of every man and woman in Jerusalem on that fateful day – and every man and woman in this building today.
Most of us have heard this story of Jesus entry into Jerusalem dozens and dozens of times. Many of you grew up with the story told and retold in children’s picture books, Sunday School lessons and from pulpits year after year.
There is a danger in all that, by the way. The danger being that the all-so-familiar story becomes an inconsequential ho-hum tale of long, long ago. There is a danger that the story on which salvation history itself hangs becomes diluted of its power to transform us from a “been there-heard it already” attitude to one of life-altering revelation – even if we’ve been walking with Christ for half a century or longer.
Many of you remember the old spiritual, “Where You There?”
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?/Oh, were you there when they crucified my Lord?/(Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble) tremble
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they nailed him to the cross?/Were you there when they
nailed him to the cross?(Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble) tremble./Were
you there when they nailed him to the cross?
Does the story of our redemption at the cost of the Son of God's life cause us to tremble? Does it cause us to at least pause to reflect on such love, such wondrous loves as this, that God would love a sinner such as I – how wonderful is love like this?
Actually, and in a very literal sense, I think, ‘yes.’ You and I WERE there when they crucified our Lord. In the eyes of the eternal God, did our Father not see us through the lens of eternity when Jesus took His last breath and shouted, “It is finished!”?
As we have seen in the last few weeks, what was finished was YOUR redemption, and mine. Two thousand years after Jesus shouted those last words. And hear this again, please, if Jesus had NOT permitted Himself to be nailed to that tree, if He had NOT permitted those men – whose very DNA His hand wound together at their conception – If He had not permitted them to murder Him, then you and I would still be dead in our trespasses and sins and on our way inevitably and inexorably to an eternity in the Lake of Fire.
Only days after the Lord rode that donkey into Jerusalem, He sat with His disciples for His last Passover meal. We know it best, perhaps, as the Last Supper. On the night of His betrayal, Jesus took the bread and the cup and instituted what we know as the celebration of the Eucharist, or Holy Communion. It was during that supper that Jesus said this also to His disciples: “You are those who have stood by me in my trials.” (Luke 22:28)
But to those here who have stuck with Christ through the struggles and disappointments and trials of your own lives – I think Jesus also says to us: “You are those who have stood by me in all YOUR trials.”
What happened to those in the crowds on Palm Sunday who also were part of the crowd on Good Friday? Well, we don’t know what happened to them, because Scripture is silent about that question – and therefore we also should be silent. But knowing human nature as well as we know it – because we here are all human – I think it is safe to make some speculative assumptions.
In the 50 years I’ve followed Jesus, I’ve seen many one-time followers of Christ turn away from Him. And while their reasons for turning back to the world might be varied, I think there is most often only of two fundamental reasons a person leaves Christ: Either they tire of doing what Jesus wants them to do, or they grow angry, or annoyed, or disillusioned when Jesus doesn’t do what they want Him to do.
And I think the shorter the time grows before the Lord Jesus’ return the more urgent Satan grows in his seduction of humanity – and especially of churchgoers.
Why especially churchgoers? Because if he can seduce you and me away from Christ, we don’t usually go away alone. We bring with us those who looked up to us, who trusted us, who thought we have the answers to questions like, “Are the Scriptures TRUE? Are they TRUE about forgiveness and eternal life? Are they TRUE when they tell me that God loves me, despite all that I have done?”
As I prepared today’s message, the names two modern and well-known Christians came to mind because of what they did. The first is Joshua Harris. He was a megachurch pastor and author the then-popular Christian book titled, “I Kissed Dating Goodbye”
A few years ago, Harris told his church that he’d found freedom from Christianity. He divorced his wife and shortly thereafter marched in a Gay Pride parade.
Around the same time Harris fell into apostacy, another big-name Christian also turned away from the One he used to call his Lord. Marty Sampson was a worship leader and song writer for the Hillsong megachurch. Like Harris, Sampson also boasted of having escaped from Christ.
Those are only two of many, many other modern examples of those who at one time shouted like the crowd on Palm Sunday, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ but ended up crucifying to themselves the Son of God and putting Him to open shame.” (see Hebrews 6:6)
Such treason against the King of kings is nothing short of disastrous for them, their families, and for those who looked up to them. Why disastrous? Because Satan can now do a victory dance at their fall.
What comes over a person who once proclaimed Christ as their savior and then denounce Him as some in that same crowd did on Good Friday?
Scripture gives us some insight – of course. Listen to what Jesus said in that third chapter of John’s gospel: “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” (John 3:19-20)
What happens to some people between Palm Sunday and Good Friday? Well, some, as we have seen briefly, go back to their old ways. I think now of the Lord’s comments in that sixth chapter of John’s gospel when the Lord told the crowds:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me . . . .” (John 6:53-57)
At that point, many of His followers said, essentially, “This is insane talk.” (verse 60). And they walked away from Him (verse 66), I suspect many never returned.
By the way, the story does not end there. We pick it up at verse 67: “So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.” (John 6:53-68)
I asked at the beginning of this message is what happened to those in the crowds between Palm Sunday and Good Friday – does it have any meaning for us today? Was it – IS it – important?
The answer to both questions is an unqualified, ‘Yes.’ Those who today want to stay with Jesus – EVEN WHEN THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND everything He says, or does, or does not say, or does not do – those who want to stay with Jesus do so because – where shall we go? He alone has the words of eternal life.
Just look at yourselves. How many heartaches have YOU experienced in your Christian life? How many shattered dreams? How many disappointments? How many unanswered questions – especially the questions beginning with, ‘Why?’
How many of you suffer physical or emotional trials, and you know you might not get better in this life? And yet, here you sit. Week after week. Around the calendar. Year after year. And you plan to be following Jesus until you take your last breath.
Why? Your answers will all be individualized; And of course, the Holy Spirit continues to hold onto you. But you also have an important role to play in that ‘holding-on.’ What is that?
You do not WANT to go. Surely you know that because of your sin nature and under the right circumstance, you COULD make that disastrous decision to go your own way, to leave the love of your life. But you ALSO know, after all these years and all of your life-experiences, you know there’s nowhere else to go. Jesus alone has the words of eternal life, and Jesus alone can take you to eternal life.
And so, my point to all that I’ve said this far? Keep at it! The Palm Sunday crowd didn’t know Good Friday was around the corner. And no one on Good Friday knew that Sunday was a’coming.
Keep at it. The devil is a most seductive, flirtatious, magnetic, and beguiling liar. And he is not done with us until we are actually with the Lord Jesus in our new bodies after our death.
He’s not done with you or me because he hates us with a most
malicious hatred – and if he can take us down, as he did with Harris and
Sampson, he can often take others with us.
BUT! – And this is a most important ‘But” – Because of your faithfulness to
Christ in it all and through it all – because of your faithfulness to Christ,
our God and Father uses your faithfulness to bring others also along with you
to that Celestial city.
You NEED to know that in your heart of hearts. You Must believe that because the whole of Scripture tells us that is true.
As I bring this message to a close, I want to cite only one example of what I mean about how God WILL use our faithfulness to draw others to Himself. This story comes from the 6th chapter of the historical book of 2 Maccabees, written a few hundred years before Jesus was born. While not considered part of the canon of Scripture by many Christians, the book contains a record of Israel’s history in the few centuries before Jesus was born. I refer to that history because of how it helps illustrate the point about how God uses our faithfulness.
During this time, the Jews lived under Greek domination. The Athenian king decreed that all Jews were to forsake their faith, make sacrifice to the Greek gods, and eat pork – something God forbade all Jews to eat. To refuse meant a torturous death. We pick up the story at verse 21, after 90-year-old Eleazar refused the non-kosher meat:
“The officials in charge of this sacrilegious meal took [Eleazar] aside privately because of their long acquaintance with him and urged him to bring meat of his own . . . and to pretend that he was eating the sacrificial meat that had been commanded by the king. 22 In this way he would be saved from death.”
But Eleazar answered: 24 “At this stage of my life it would be terribly wrong to be a party to such a pretense,” he said, “for many young people would be led to believe that at the age of ninety Eleazar had conformed to a foreign practice. 25 If I should engage in deceit for the sake of living a brief moment longer, they would be led astray by me, while I would bring defilement and disgrace on my old age. 26 For the moment I would avoid the punishment of mortals, but alive or dead I shall never escape the hands of the Almighty. 27 Therefore, by bravely forfeiting my life now, I shall prove myself worthy of my old age, 28 and I shall leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for our revered and holy laws.” With these words he went immediately to the torture rack . . [and] in this way he died, and by his death he left an example of courage and a model of virtue not only for the young but for the entire nation. (2 Maccabees 6:21-31)
Did you catch that? “I shall prove myself worthy of my old age, and I shall leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for our revered and holy laws.”
What happened to Eleazar between his initial commitment to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the threat of death in his old age unless he gave in to such treason to save his life?
What happened? He WANTED to be faithful to His God. And the Holy Spirit enabled him to do so, even on the rack of torture.
What about us? Do we WANT to remain faithful to our God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, we do. But we should never be ignorant of Satan’s tricks and lies and sweet temptations. That is why we every day put on that armor of God St Paul spoke of in his letter to the Christians at Ephesus. You can find it in chapter six of that letter.
We WANT to remain faithful because – well – how could we commit such grievous spiritual adultery against the one who loves us so, so very much. How could we devastate Him? How could we break His heart by doing such a thing as some in that crowd on Palm Sunday did only days later on Good Friday?
Please, my brothers and sister, hear this one more time today: It is ONLY, ONLY, ONLY the Holy Spirit’s power that keeps you and me faithful. That is why we seek Him in prayer again and again to keep us humble, penitent, and obedient. Where else can we go? Jesus alone has the words of eternal life.
Keep at it. Keep walking with Christ. And know this: Sunday is coming!
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