3.16.08 Palm Sunday Two Different Kinds of Power John 12:12-19 Douglas Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church Only a few significant events in Jesus life and ministry are mentioned in all four of the Gospels and Jesus final entry into Jerusalem is recorded in one of them. Each of the four evangelists has some unique details about Jesus coming into the city that relate to their telling of the story of Jesus. In John (12:12-19) which was the last Gospel to be written, the tone is altogether triumphant. The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord the King of Israel! Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written: Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey s colt! His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him. So the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to testify. It was also because they heard that he had performed this sign that the crowd went to meet him. The Pharisees then said to one another, You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him! The significance of Jesus entry into Jerusalem is understood differently in each of the four gospels. This may be in part because events tend to grow grander as time passes, but also because, as John notes (12:16), the disciples only came to recognize how significant some events were with the perspective of time and subsequent events. According to John, it was only looking backward after the experience of the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the giving of the Holy Spirit that the disciples were able to truly comprehend who Jesus was and what he had done. We can understand this, because even in a good novel or movie, if we read it a second time or watch it a second time we will notice all kinds of connections, hints, and allusions that we didn t pick up the first time because we didn t know how the story ended and we didn t know exactly what it was all about. With the benefit of hindsight, we understand
more fully. This is not only true for novels and films which are works of art (or sometimes pieces of junk); it is also true in understanding who Jesus is. Today is the beginning of what Christians call Holy Week. The Gospel of John gives so much importance to Holy Week that almost half of the Gospel, chapters12-21 deals just with the events of this week. The first significant or unique aspect of John s storytelling of Jesus entry into Jerusalem is the context it occurs after his greatest sign raising Lazarus after Lazarus had been dead four days. Needless to say this caused many people to believe (11:45) and since it happened shortly before the celebration of Passover there was a great deal of talk and excitement. Folks wanted to see Lazarus and Jesus (12:9-10) which put Lazarus life in danger as well as Jesus. John s gospel reverses the sequence of the other Gospels, which say that Jesus sent his disciples to get a donkey for him, and after he began riding the crowd met him on the road (see Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-10, Luke 19:28-38) In John, the crowd hails Jesus as king and then Jesus finds a young donkey himself and (12:14) and begins to ride it a way of dramatizing his fulfillment of the scripture in Zechariah 9:9-14. Rejoice greatly daughter of Zion! Shout daughter of Jerusalem! See your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, lowly and riding a donkey, on a colt a foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim, and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea (Zech. 9.9-10). Kings interested in war rode on horses and in chariots; Jesus, the king of peace rode on a donkey s colt. Make no mistake; Jesus was very intentional about how he presented himself on Palm Sunday. He knew riding a young donkey into the political powder keg that was Jerusalem a city occupied by the Romans and teeming with perhaps 600,000 Jewish pilgrims who came for Passover and who longed for liberation from Rome and independence that he was putting his life at risk and that he was offending people who wanted him to lead an armed revolt to oust the enemy. John is the only gospel to mention branches of palm trees, the atmosphere was fraught with excitement, people were shouting Hosanna (see Ps. 118.25) which seems to be a plea in Hebrew meaning Save Now! And they were saying, Blessed is the King of Israel, the expectations were off the chart. The waving of palm branches is significant, because this is what was done when the Maccabees those great war heroes had recaptured Jerusalem in the second century B.C. The people wanted to see Jesus as the conquering hero like Simon Maccabee, but
Jesus choice of ride, and the Scriptural allusion pointed to something else altogether a king of peace, a kingdom of non-violence, a kingdom where self-sacrificial suffering and martyrdom on a cross not killing was the means of salvation and redemption, a kingdom where the swords will be beat into plowshares and we shall study war no more, was what Jesus had in mind. Jesus did not come to meet the people s expectations; he came to meet their needs they didn t even fully understand. The crowds were crying out for a particular kind of political liberation and independence, but Jesus had another idea in mind entirely of what made for peace, what made for pacifying our warring madness, what made for liberation and redemption. The real enemy was not Romans or Greeks, or foreigners in general. The real enemy lurked within the hearts of every fallen person it is called sin. By coming to Jerusalem as he did, Jesus is indicating on the first Palm Sunday that his glory is not found in pleasing people or nationalistic aims - Jesus glorification is accomplished by dying on the cross rather than receiving praise from the crowd. Jesus power didn t come from below, from people, but from God above whose love is shown supremely in Jesus death on the cross. In John s Gospel, we can t fully know who Jesus is except in the light of the crucifixion. A final unique aspect of John s Palm Sunday description is verse 16, His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him. On Palm Sunday Jesus announced that the time had come for him to be glorified, but in the manner of a seed falling to the earth and dying (12:23-24). The Jewish pilgrims in Jerusalem were hoping for a king for their nation, Jesus is presented as king of the nations. As Jesus approached Jerusalem on a donkey with the crowd waving palms around him, the Pharisees lamented, You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him! The evangelist immediately follows that with the statement that among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks (12:19-20). The Greeks represent gentile interest in Jesus and they arrive at precisely the moment when the whole world was going after Jesus. The Greeks didn t actually get to see Jesus. Instead, they approached Philip, the disciple who bore the name of Alexander the Great s father and came from Bethsaida on the boundary between Galilee and the surrounding regions (12:21-22). Philip shared their request with Jesus, who said that the arrival of the Greeks signaled the hour of his glorification when he would be lifted
up in death to draw all people to himself (12:23, 32-33). The sign above the cross proclaimed Jesus kingship in Greek and Latin as well as Hebrew (19:20), affirming the significance of his death for both Jews and Gentiles. Although the Greeks in chapter 12 didn t get to see Jesus before he was lifted up, the Fourth Gospel looks beyond the death and resurrection to the time when Greeks would be drawn to Jesus by the work of disciples like Philip, whom Jesus would send into the world (17:18-21). For John, Jesus crucifixion will reveal the glory of God by displaying the depths of God s love for the world. One observer noted, The people were correct in perceiving that Jesus is a warrior king, but they are wrong in the way they understand the battle he will wage. For Jesus the ruler of the world is not the Roman emperor but Satan, and the weapon Jesus will wield during his passion will not be a sword like the one Peter used but will be of another order (18:10, 36). In Jesus passion, the power of God will cast out the ruler of the world by using divine love as a weapon against demonic hatred, divine truth against the world s falsehood, and the power of life as the force that overcomes death. 1 The pivot or hinge of human history did not come on Palm Sunday. That moment came when Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and then rose again on Easter morning. Jesus dealt with sin and evil not by fighting fire with fire, not by returning violence for violence, for he had warned that those who live by the sword die by the sword. He dealt with the sin and evil by absorbing in himself the punishment for such wickedness, paying the price for our sin, and thus he was able to offer forgiveness for sins. Indeed on the cross Jesus even prayed for his tormentors saying Father forgive them, they know not what they do. Jesus overcame evil with good. Unless Jesus died, atoning for sins, and rose again so he could send his Spirit to transform our hearts, we would receive no benefits from his death. Indeed, it would be a tragedy, not a triumph at all. Jesus was the man who came to Jerusalem to die for each and everyone of us, for all sins, once for all time. But this raises the question - what has been or will be the turning point in your life s battle against sin and wickedness? Surely the beginning of the new era for us is the day when Jesus enters our life pouring his cleansing love into our heart so that we may be a new creature in Christ. This may come in a quiet moment and without fanfare. It may come privately and with no recognition. It may come in the unlikeliest of ways, and at the unlikeliest of times. It will come when you completely surrender to God s will as 1 Craig R. Koester, Symbolism in the Fourth Gospel, p. 126.
Jesus did on that day called Good Friday. Who could have guessed that Jesus death on the cross would forever change the course of human history? The cross tells us that real change in a life, in a world, in a human life only comes through self-sacrificial love, surrender to the will of God. May you be embraced by his arms and take up your crosses, and follow him this week above all weeks. THE BLESSING St. Patrick May the strength of God pilot us, May the power of God preserve us, May the wisdom of God instruct us, May the hand of God protect us, May the way of God direct us, May the shield of God defend us, May the host of God guard us Against snares of evil And the temptations of the world. Questions for reflection or discussion: Have you ever looked closely at the four Gospels accounts of Palm Sunday to notice what is unique in each presentation? The details of each shed light on the perspective of each gospel. If you wish to read all four here are the references: Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-10, Luke 19:28-38, John 12:12-19. Make a list of what they have in common, what is unique to each one, what do you make of that? How hard do you think it was for Jesus to come to Jerusalem knowing there were people who wanted to kill him, yet feeling he needed to in order to be obedient to God s will? How difficult do you think it was for Jesus to disappoint his own people and nation in not fulfilling their hopes of overthrowing the Romans and restoring the kingdom to Israel? Is the path of non-violence more difficult than a violent option? What do you make of the fact that so many people working for peace and reconciliation and committed to non-
violence end up being killed violently (Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., just to name a few of the most famous) Is there a time in your life that you look to when you feel you truly surrendered or gave your life to Jesus? When was that? How has that decision changed your life? If you haven t done so, what is preventing you from doing so? Is there anything that you can do to address your hesitation?