John 12: 12-19 A Royal Welcome
Not long before this story in scripture began,
Jesus had called to his very dead friend Lazarus,
And Lazarus breathed in the breath of life,
Shook off the stink of death,
And walked right out of his tomb.
And then, the crowds
Went wild
For Jesus.
Imagine --
If Jesus could
Fill up the bellies of the hungry
AND win a victory of life over death,
IF He could raise up the dead,
Just imagine ---
What He could
For Them!!
Such possibilities!
Expectations were high
And getting higher!
So, when Jesus headed out
To take the two mile trip
From Bethany to Jerusalem,
Entering the city
For the 4th time
A whole slew of people
Were there
to meet him,
And greet him --
Big time.
It was a, “pull out all the stops,
Pull down the palm branches,
Wave them high,
And start the shouting (!)”
Kind of greeting.
It was, a greeting
Fit for
A King.
For sure, that’s what
they intended it to be:
A royal welcome,
For someone they thought
Would be THE RULER
Who would restore the “nation”
To its “god-given” destiny,
Its rightful place
of power and glory.
And palm branches in hand,
Clearly, they were expecting
A victory.
And, among their praise that Sunday long ago
Was this ancient cry from scripture:
“Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes
In the name of the LORD,”
The King of Israel.
Most of those words are straight from Psalm 118,
But the part about,
“the KING of ISRAEL,”
Which they also shouted (?)
THAT part -- they added
On their own.
Clearly, the crowd
was ready
To give Jesus
A royal crown.
Step aside. Herod.
Pilate.
Caesar.
The crowd is ready
To Make
Jesus
A KING.
Interestingly enough, in the story,
While the crowd is still singing their song of praise to the King,
While they’re still waving their palm branches and
giving Jesus a royal welcome,
While they’re ready to see him
sitting on some
Glorious, royal
throne,
Jesus,
Suddenly,
Sits himself
Down -
On a
Donkey.
As places to sit go,
A donkey’s back
Wouldn’t exactly
Be as comfy as a cushy throne!
But, in the middle of their songs of praise,
that’s where Jesus sat.
On a donkey.
He was sending the crowd
A message.
A message as old as the prophet Zechariah,
Who promised the people:
“Your king is coming,
[A good king who makes all things right,]
A humble king riding on a donkey …”
That part of the promise was quoted by the gospel of John,
But Zechariah’s promise goes even further:
Here’s what the King will do:
“I've had it with war—no more chariots …
no more war horses in Jerusalem,
no more swords and spears, bows and arrows.
He will offer peace to the nations,
a peaceful rule worldwide,
from the four winds to the seven seas.”
On that Sunday when he entered Jerusalem,
Riding on a donkey,
Jesus was acting
Both to fulfill this ancient promise
And to inform the crowd
The terms of his rule:
He would be a king alright,
But not necessarily the kind of king
They wanted.
He’d be a king who was
humble, meek, and lowly.
He’d be a king who would bring
An end to war horses and chariots,
And Swords and spears.
He’d be the King who’d bring
Peace.
Peace.
Peace.
Of course, Not long after Jesus entered the city,
Jesus, the KING,
Would take up a towel,
And a bowl of water
Kneel before his disciples,
And washed their tired, dirty feet.
Turned out the man they proclaimed King
was more than willing to do the work
of a “no account” slave,
Right in front of them.
Right down their on the floor.
Talk about humble! Meek! Lowly!
And that same night Jesus would command his disciples
To “Love One Another.”
Imagine that!
Jesus the King --
Whose only law, it turns out, is love!!
On that same night
That he took up the towel and water,
Jesus would also stand among the disciples,
And tell them straight out:
“Peace I leave you.
My peace I give you.”
And what Jesus was giving that night,
The peace that he was talking about
was no worldly peace,
The kind you get when you
Overpower someone else
by sheer brute force,
Beat the snot out of them
Till they can’t fight no more,
So you quit fighting.
No!
What Jesus offered was a whole ’nother
kind of peace.
It was, the peace
Of God.
A peace
Where all is at rest,
Where joy is known,
And a life of well-being is embraced and celebrated.
A peace
That is complete,
Whole,
And holy.
A Peace
With
God.
And one day soon,
Jesus would appear behind locked doors
And give his very frightened disciples
That gift of peace,
As he breathed into them the Holy Spirit,
And their lives would be changed
Forever
Because of it.
Jesus, oh yes,
He was a King, definitely,
But a king whose gospel
was
peace.
A king whose followers
Would know His peace
Within them
And proclaim
That peace
To everyone.
The followers of King Jesus --
Wouldn’t need swords.
But, palm branches?
That’s another story.
Those they can hold
Throughout eternity
As they sing their praise
To Jesus.
Their humble King
Their king of Peace.
OK -- that day Jesus entered Jerusalem,
When Palm branches were waving
And the people were shouting,
the disciples
And the crowd along with them -
Seeing Jesus bouncing up and down
On the back of a donkey, --
They didn’t get it.
As to the prophecy of Zechariah,
They missed it
Entirely.
Didn’t see it.
Not at all. Not at the time.
[Went right over their heads.]
Not till later did they realize
What Jesus was trying to do,
What he was trying to say.
The night Jesus would be arrested,
They’d gladly trade
Palm leaves
For swords.
They really knew nothing of His peace,
Until later.
And some of those
who saw Jesus entering the city
On the back of that donkey,
Not only didn’t know his peace (!)
They wanted
Him
Dead.
A new king
In their nation? In Jerusalem?
Somebody who
Could raise the dead?
Somebody who
Commanded
LOVE?
Or even peace?
That was too
Risky.
Too Uncertain.
Too Uncontrollable.
That was
Too much!
Jesus, they KNEW it,
Jesus
Must die.
They would give
No praise to Jesus.
Not that day. Not Ever.
But today (?)
WE DO.
Today, it’s Palm Sunday,
Once again,
And today, we take our turn
And join the crowd
In Praising
Jesus.
Today it’s our turn -- to put aside our fear,
And tell the world:
Jesus is the King of Kings
The Lord of Lords.
Who gives us life and peace.
A disciple
By the name of Nathaniel,
Was actually the first
To see and to name
Jesus as “King.”
So, it’s only right
That we modern day disciples
Join Nathaniel in recognizing
Just who Jesus was and is.
And so today, we take a palm branch in hand
And give a royal welcome, shouting out our best:
Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD --
Jesus, Our KING.***
But let us do so
As people who know
Exactly what Kind of King,
King Jesus IS:
Let us praise
Jesus the King,
Who will indeed
Win the victory
Of life over death,
Not only for Lazarus,
But for all of us!
But he’s the King
Who will win that victory,
Not by wearing a crown of gold,
Or a crown of laurel leaves,
But a crown of sharp and terrible thorns.
He’s the King, alright,
But not a king who will wear
A royal robe and wave a scepter of power.
Who will command his royal armies
To march in war.
He’s the King
Whose purple robe will be scornfully, painfully placed
Upon his beaten, bloodied back
Then stripped from him again.
He’s the king
whose only scepter
Will be a reed drawn from the water
Soldiers, who won’t obey him at all,
Mockingly placed in his hand.
He’s the King
Whose throne
Will not be a seat of royal power and authority,
But a cross of suffering and pain.
So, Let us praise Jesus.
Let us praise this day
Because he’s our king,
The humble King
Whose power is love, who commands us to love,
And whose gospel is peace.
Whose peace
Is also ours.
And whose death on the cross
and whose resurrection
Will bring us eternal and abundant life
Let us this day,
This Palm Sunday
And throughout eternity,
Lift up our palm branches,
And shout our praise to KING Jesus,
A king of peace,
Who gave his life
For us.
Let us shout
Hosanna! Hosanna in the Highest!
