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"The Miracle of Palm Sunday"
You could just figure it would happen this way. It happened
on my recent trip to Germany with my father. I had promised
him from the beginning that I would do all the worrying, but
then it turned out it was your’s truly who made him worry instead.
It seemed simple enough. We were to meet in Dallas and fly
together from there on to Germany. It seemed simple enough.
I even planned a decent layover so that we would each have
plenty of time to make our mutual connection. Of course
everything changed when I got to my gate here in Orlando
and heard over the loudspeaker those words dreaded by all
travelers…”we are experiencing a mechanical problem…”
Our ten-minute delay turned into 20, then 30 and on and
on. I paced the floor. They moved me to another flight
and then back to my original one, which finally left just
over an hour late. Now it is important for you to know
that my father believes that retired people need no cell
phones, so there was no way for me to reach him. He would
just have to wait.
And wait he did. He didn’t have much choice. I was the one
with the train tickets and all the plans for what to do
when we arrived in Germany. Flushed and out of breath from
my literal run through DFW, I finally got to him and our
gate just 15 minutes before our flight to Frankfurt began
to board. To say that my dad was anxious for my arrival is
to understate the case a bit. Oh by the way…you frequent
travelers will be glad to hear that my suitcase even made it!
Think of a time when you were waiting for someone, a time
when you were anxious to say the least. Perhaps it was
the arrival of a traveling loved one, a teenager out
after curfew on a stormy night, a phone call from a
doctor with test results, a new colleague whose arrival
should lighten the load.
There are few feelings like this. While we are waiting for
someone, they are on our mind no matter what we are doing.
And there are few feelings like the relief we experience
when that person finally arrives and we know that everything
is okay.
There is just such a long awaited arrival in our Gospel
this morning. It is an arrival that pales the ones we
were thinking about to insignificance. The entry of Jesus
into Jerusalem is was not a mere relief. Palm Sunday is
nothing less than a miracle. It is a simple as that! That
is why we are celebrating a festival today. To appreciate
just what a miracle Palm Sunday really is, we need to
remember how close it came to not happening at all.
The promise of the coming of the Messiah is as old as
Garden of Eden. The story of the Old Testament is nothing
more and nothing less than the story of a people waiting
for Jesus to come. If only I could tell you today that
they waited anxiously, with the coming of the Messiah
always on their minds, patiently doing what God asked
them to do until that glorious day of arrival. But to
tell you that would be to tell a lie.
Instead, it seemed as if what the children of Israel
really wanted to do was to stop his coming, or at least
forget all about it. They did pretty much whatever they
wanted instead. They followed other gods. They satisfied
their own needs and desires, even the carnal ones. They
ignored the messengers along the way and even killed a
few of them for good measure. There were times when the
message of the coming Messiah was all but lost.
Things got so bad that twice in the Old Testament the
line of David, the line of Jesus, was a down to one
person. The situation seemed desperate and to me it
has always been a little unbelievable. Here God the
Father had promised a way out the bondage to sin that
had afflicted the people since Genesis Chapter Three.
It was truly a matter of life and death. God had
promised that the one to come would make everything okay.
You would like that they would have been on the edge
of their seats waiting for the Messiah to come, but
they weren’t. It is a simple as that.
It seems strange to us that they would not wait anxiously
for the one that was to come, waiting for everything to be
ok. But it really shouldn’t seem that strange to us for
we seem to do no better.
The coming of Jesus on Palm Sunday is for you and me
the rock solid evidence that Jesus is coming again.
That is the hope of the church. It is what we are
waiting for. Jesus is coming again and when he gets
here everything will be ok. It is life-changing news,
so why don’t we wait on the edge of our seats?
Why is that we too get wrapped up in our own wants
and desires, even the carnal ones? Why is that we
find things in our lives that we make as important
as gods, thinking they are worthy of all of our
attention and energy? Why is it that we ignore and
set aside the message of the messengers that God has
sent into our lives?
Jesus coming again is for us a matter of life and death.
We should be on waiting, having this on our minds no
matter what else we are doing. But we don’t. And not
being focused on Jesus, on His call to each one of us,
His plan for our lives, His return means that we are
focused instead on things that lead only to death. It
is as simple as that.
Then comes Palm Sunday, on that day all those years ago,
Jesus entered Jerusalem, not one thing in the past was
able to stop him. We celebrate this morning because Jesus
came - it is a simple as that.
He did everything that was necessary for your salvation
and mine. Not the tiniest detail was left out. He even
came into the city on the colt of a donkey because 2000
years before his birth Jacob told us that was how he would
enter and 500 years before the manger the prophet Zechariah
confirmed that same promise.
Jesus came to fulfill everything so that we might have
salvation. He entered a city that he knew would demand
his death. He entered a city whose crosses were waiting
for him. He entered a city where he would be required to
suffer agony and finally to die for you and for me.
The people of that time celebrated with palms and shouts
of “Hosanna” for they knew that the one promised
long ago and finally arrived and everything would be ok.
Of course only Jesus knew what it would take. It would
require his death and resurrection.
Today we celebrate Palm Sunday because we know that Jesus’
entry and saving would offer to us today the forgiveness
of our sins and promise of eternal life in the presence
of the Son of David.
Palm Sunday is not merely a relief, it is a miracle. Jesus
did everything that God the Father asked of him - nothing
could stop him. The same is true today. Jesus is coming
again and nothing will stop that either. And when He comes
everything will be ok, forever.
I would like to place a challenge before you to spend some
time this week waiting anxiously with your thoughts on Jesus
no matter what else you are doing. There are many ways that
you might do this. It might be done by spending some extra
time in prayer, study, or service. But one way that will be
certain to help is by your making plans to travel through the
last week of Jesus’ life in worship this week.
Celebrate the gift of the Lord’s Supper with us on Maundy
Thursday. Go to the cross on Friday. Ponder Jesus’
fulfillment of all and relish anew the moment when he came
to life again at the Easter Vigil on Saturday. And of course,
come to celebrate his resurrection on Easter Morning.
There is no feeling quite like waiting for the arrival of
a loved one. And there is no feeling like the sense that
all will be ok when they finally arrive. We celebrate today
the fact that Jesus has come and he is coming again. And
in him everything will be made whole again!
In Jesus’ Name! Amen.
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