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 set 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?” And I want to add one more
question to that first one: Why does it what happened to the crowd between
those two dates matter?
We will come back to those questions in a few minutes
Palm Sunday and 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 engage in a battle of 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’s a danger in all
that, by the way. The danger being that the all-so-familiar story becomes
a ho-hum tale of long, long ago. There’s a danger that the story on which salvation
history 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? At the
very least, does it cause us to pause and reflect on such love, such wondrous
loves as this, that God would love a sinner such as I – and you?
Actually, and in a
very real sense, ‘Yes,’ You and I WERE there when they crucified our Lord. I
believe God saw you and me through the lens of eternity when Jesus took His
last breath and shouted, “It is finished!”
Make no mistake.
What was finished was YOUR redemption, and mine. Two thousand years ago. 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.
What happened to those in the crowds on Palm Sunday who also
were part of the crowd on Good Friday? Well, we can’t really know what
happened to them because Scripture is silent about that question. But knowing
human nature as well as we know it – because we here are all human – I think it’s
safe to make some speculative assumptions.
In the 53 years I’ve
followed Jesus, I’ve seen many followers of Christ turn away from Him. And so
have you. 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 three modern and
well-known Christians came to mind because of what they did. I’ve mentioned
them in the past, and I do so again to emphasize the point:
The first is Joshua
Harris. He was a megachurch pastor and author the then-popular Christian book
titled, “I Kissed Dating Goodbye”. Several 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.
And only a month or so
ago, Philip Yancey, author of many well-known Christian books, admitted
to an eight-year-long adulterous betrayal of his wife of fifty years. And
during those eight years he continued to write books and play the part of a
faithful Christian.
Those are only three of
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 turning from Him. Such
betrayal 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 seduce those who once trusted them to walk away from Christ as
they did.
What comes over a
person who once proclaimed Christ as their savior and then turn from 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? I think some also walk away from Christ when He says things that, to us
at the time, don’t make sense – as if, by the way, God is obligated to speak
and to do what we can understand with our finite minds.
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 walked away from Him because they thought: “This
is insane talk.” (verse 60). And I suspect many never returned.
But the
story doesn’t 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 if 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 – well, ‘Where shall we go?’ He alone has the words of
eternal life.
I’ve said this to you before and I am grateful to say it again:
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 still intend with God’s
help to follow 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 role?
You DON’T WANT to go. Surely you know that because of your
sin nature and under the right circumstances 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 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, magnetic, and beguiling liar. And he is not done
with us until we are finally 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, and Yancey – if he can take us down, he will take others with us.
BUT! – And this is a most important ‘But” – on the other hand – because of your
faithfulness to Christ in it all and through it all – because of your
faithfulness to Christ, our God 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 and I
are, as St Paul wrote, ‘co-workers with Christ’ in the building of His Kingdom.
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.
During
this time, the Jews lived under Greek domination. The Athenian king decreed
that all Jews were to turn from 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. In this way he would be saved
from death.”
But Eleazar answered: “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. 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. For the moment I would avoid the punishment of mortals, but alive or dead I shall never escape the hands of the Almighty. Therefore, by bravely forfeiting my life now, 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.” 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 Israel 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 what some in that Palm Sunday crowd did
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment