These Illustrations are based on Palm and Passion themes.
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His Triumphal Entry - Luke 19:28-44

Seven days changed the world. These seven days have been the topic of a million of publications, countless debates, and thousands of films. These seven days have inspired the greatest painters, the most skilled architects, and the most gifted musicians. To try and calculate the cultural impact of these seven days is impossible. But harder still would be an attempt to account for the lives of men and women who have been transformed by them. And yet these seven days as they played out in Jerusalem were of little significance to anyone but a few people involved. What happened on those seven days? During the next seven Sundays of Lent and Easter we will look at these seven days in depth but for now let’s summarize:

1. On Sunday the first of the seven days, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to the shouts of Hosanna, fulfilling an old prophecy in Zechariah 9:9.

2. On Monday he walked into the Jerusalem Temple overturning tables where money exchange occurred, Roman drachmas were being exchanged for Jewish shekels. Roman coins were not allowed. The image of Caesar was a violation of the second commandment. But the Temple authorities were using the Commandment as means to cheat the people and making the Temple a place of profit rather than a place of prayer.

3. On Tuesday Jesus taught in parables, warned the people against the Pharisees, and predicted the destruction of the Temple.

4. On Wednesday, the fourth day, we know nothing. The Gospel writers are silent. Perhaps it was a day of rest for him and his weary and worried disciples.

5. On Thursday, in an upper room, Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples. But he gave it a new meaning. No longer would his followers remember the Exodus from Egypt in the breaking of bread. They would remember his broken body and shed blood. Later that evening in the Garden of Gethsemane he agonized in prayer at what lay ahead for him.

6. On Friday, the fifth day, following betrayal, arrest, imprisonment, desertion, false trials, denial, condemnation, beatings and sentencing, Jesus carried his own cross to “The Place of the Skull,” where he was crucified with two other prisoners.

7. On Saturday, Jesus lay dead in a tomb bought by a rich man named Joseph.

8. On Sunday, his Passion was over, the stone had been rolled away. Jesus was alive. He appeared to Mary, to Peter, to two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and to the 11 disciples gathered in a locked room. His resurrection was established as a fact.

Back then these seven days were called Passover, as it is still called today by the Jews. Christians around the world know these seven days as Holy Week, the Passion of the Christ…

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Sermon Opener - When the Cheering Stopped - Luke 19:28-40

Some years ago a book was written by Gene Smith, a noted American historian. The title was "When The Cheering Stopped." It was the story of President Woodrow Wilson and the events leading up to and following WWI. When that war was over Wilson was an international hero. There was a great spirit of optimism abroad, and people actually believed that the last war had been fought and the world had been made safe for democracy.

On his first visit to Paris after the war Wilson was greeted by cheering mobs. He was actually more popular than their own heroes. The same thing was true in England and Italy. In a Vienna hospital a Red Cross worker had to tell the children that there would be no Christmas presents because of the war and the hard times. The children didn’t believe her. They said that President Wilson was coming and they knew that everything would be all right.

The cheering lasted about a year. Then it gradually began to stop. It turned out that the political leaders in Europe were more concerned with their own agendas than they were a lasting peace. At home, Woodrow Wilson ran into opposition in the United States Senate and his League of Nations was not ratified. Under the strain of it all the President’s health began to break. In the next election his party was defeated. So it was that Woodrow Wilson, a man who barely a year or two earlier had been heralded as the new world Messiah, came to the end of his days a broken and defeated man.

It’s a sad story, but one that is not altogether unfamiliar. The ultimate reward for someone who tries to translate ideals into reality is apt to be frustration and defeat. There are some exceptions, of course, but not too many.

It happened that way to Jesus...

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There Is Still Hope

The reality is that, if we figure to survive in this world, we had better have hope. The ancients knew that. Do you remember Pandora? Mythology has her as a lady endowed with every charm...the gift of all the gods. She was sent to earth with a little box which she had been forbidden to open, but curiosity finally got the better of her...she lifted the lid and out from that box escaped every conceivable kind of terror. Pandora made haste to close the box up again, but it was too late. There was only one thing left...HOPE. That was the ancients' way of saying how important hope is. Even when all else is lost, there is still hope.

This was what had sustained the Israelite faithful from generation to generation. This was what energized the crowd along Jesus' parade route that day.

David E. Leininger, Sunday's Coming!

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Creating Turmoil

In his book, The Freedom Revolution and the Churches, Robert Spike recalls an incident from the early years of the turbulent civil rights movement. Flying out of Jackson, Mississippi, Spike overhears the conversation of a Catholic sister, sitting across the aisle from him, with her seat companion. The sister is lamenting all the unrest in Mississippi, and she complains about the “outside agitators,” the students and church leaders who have come to her state in support of civil rights, certain that their presence is provoking violence on the part of white racists. “I do not question their dedication, nor even the rightness of their position,” said the sister. “But surely it is a bad thing to create turmoil by stirring up people who feel differently.” As the sister talks, all the while she is nervously fingering a cross hanging around her neck.

There’s a tragic irony in the sister’s words and actions, not unlike that of the first Holy Week. For the one whose cross the sister holds most dear, Jesus, would never have taken the risk of going to Jerusalem and proclaiming a new way of living, would never have confronted comfortable patterns and ultimately endured the cross, had he followed the sister’s philosophy.

Joel D. Kline, What Did We See in Jesus?

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Life Is Difficult

I remind you of the famous first words in Scott Peck's book, The Road Less Traveled. His first words are, "Life is difficult." Then he goes on to say,

This is a great truth, but most of us can't see it. Instead we moan more or less incessantly, noisily, or subtly, about the enormity of our problem. As if life is supposed to be easy for us, and therefore what has happened to us has never happened to anybody else before, at least not in this excruciatingly painful or insoluble way that it has burdened us.

Peck says that he wrote that not because as a therapist he hears his patients say that, but because he has been tempted to say that himself. You could call it the "Law of Exceptionalism," the idea that this has never happened before, at least not to the degree that it has happened to me. "Exceptionalism."

I like that cartoon I saw a long time ago showing a huge desk, a huge CEO sitting behind the desk, in a huge leather chair. Standing meekly in front of the desk is a man in work clothes, obviously a lowly employee in that corporation. The worker says to the boss, "If it's any comfort, it's lonely at the bottom too."

Life is difficult for everyone. Someone explained to me once why they don't like Lent. They said, "I'm not into suffering." I like that. Like it's optional. Like it's an adopted lifestyle.

Well Jesus was not into suffering either. You remember he prayed, "Let this cup pass from me." But when the time came for him to go on "The Hero's Quest," the text says, "He set his face steadfastly for Jerusalem."

Mark Trotter, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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The Tomb Is Easier than the Cross

In just a matter of days Holy Week takes us from the mountain of festive palms to the mountain of Golgatha’s despair. And that is why we resist it so. I mean, do we really need the emotional rollercoaster of Holy Week? What’s so wrong with just jumping from one parade to the next and skipping all the sacrifice and death stuff? What’s wrong with simply moving on to the joy of Easter, with its white bonnets, Easter eggs, family, friends, big ham dinner, and of course the empty tomb.

Well, I think we know the answer to that. For starters, an empty tomb, at face value, is a lot easier to deal with than a dying, bleeding Savior on a cross. Add to that all the pain and suffering that comes with Holy Week, is it any wonder that the human tendency is to try and ignore the events of the week and simply move on to the Easter celebration? But as much as we’d like to skip Holy Week we know that the only way to Easter is through the cross. We know where the parade of Palm Sunday leads and we also know that we’re part of that parade. That is to say, we know this intellectually. Our hearts are another story. Our hearts may be more in sync with the disciples and the fear and disbelief that led them to run away. It would seem that 2000 years later Jesus’ disciples are still running away.

Jeffrey K. London, And When You Think It's All Over

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The Triumph and the Tragedy

Go with me now to the year 1942. The first American troops are marching into London. We are entering the conflict known as World War II. The people of London are cheering the American soldiers. The friendly reception exhilarates the young soldiers. They sing as they march. Suddenly the troops turn into a main street and a strange hush falls over the scene. The happy songs die on their lips. They are looking for the first time upon an area in London that has been blown to bits. They see the great wounds on the city inflicted by falling bombs. They suddenly realize the city has suffered terribly. In these young soldiers’ hearts, one moment celebration; the next, great sadness.

The triumph and the tragedy. Palm Sunday. Good Friday. Life happens.

King Duncan, Collected Works, www.Sermons.com

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Save Us

When we wave our palms and boldly cry out, "Hosanna," do we dare imagine what we really want God to save us from? Save me from anger. Save me from cancer. Save me from depression. Save me from debt. Save me from the strife in my family. Save me from boredom. Save me from getting sent back to Iraq. Save me from the endless cycle of violence. Save me from humiliation. Save me from staring at the ceiling at three a.m. wondering why I exist. Save me from bitterness. Save me from arrogance. Save me from loneliness. Save me, God, save me from my fears.

In viewing Palm Sunday from that angle, we can begin to see the potential for some real depth in this celebration, for embedded in our quaint pageantry is an appeal to God that originates in the most vulnerable places inside of us; and it bubbles, almost beyond our control, to the surface. "Hosanna." "Save us." Please God take the broken places that will tear us apart and make them whole. We beseech you, God, jump into the water and drag our almost-drowned selves to shore. "Save us." "Hosanna."

Scott Black Johnston, Save Us

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Power through Love

Back in our early seminary years Janice and I visited one of her aunts and uncles in Pennsylvania. The uncle had been a car dealer much of his life, and had always wanted a Lincoln Continental, the height of luxury in a car thirty years ago. We were going out to dinner together, and as we walked to the garage he somewhat sheepishly told us about his recent purchase. And then, rather apologetically he asked, “Did you ever want something so much, and then when you got it, wondered why in the world it had been so important to you?”

Might that not be akin to the reaction of many in the Palm Sunday crowd? They recognized something special, something unique, about Jesus, but Jesus does not fit their preconceived notions of how the Messiah ought to act. They do not know what to make of one who, in spite of a commanding presence, talks not of power through force, but the power that comes through emptying oneself, taking the form of a servant, dying to self in order to find genuine life. The crowd does not know what to make of one who embraces a different kind of peace — the peace that comes from recognition that love, and love alone, can meet and master greed and lust and hatred. The crowd little knows what to make of one who challenges us to embrace a love so potent that, in place of vengeance, we can turn the other cheek and go the extra mile in relationships. Jesus speaks of a love so powerful that it can lead us to face the full fury of hatred and enmity with the prayer, “God, forgive them, for they do not understand what they are doing.” It is a love so transforming that it empowers us to confront life — and death — with a spirit of trust: “Gracious God, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

Joel D. Kline, What Did We See in Jesus?

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Walking the Walk

Christ’s commitment reminds me of a Japanese social worker who lived before and during the Second World War named Toyohiko Kagawa. Kagawa was a devout Christian whose faith caused him to have an extraordinary impact on the working conditions of ordinary citizens in Japan. He was so well thought of in that land that he came on a mission to the U.S. before the beginning of the Second World War to seek to prevent that terrible conflict breaking out. Even though he failed in this effort, he gained international renown for his Christian witness and selfless work.

Years later Kagawa was on a lecture tour to the United States. Two college students were walking across their campus after hearing him speak. One of them confessed that he was disappointed in Kagawa’s simple message.

After some reflection, the other student replied: “I suppose it really doesn’t matter very much what a man says when he has lived as Kagawa has lived.”

That is true. In today’s vernacular, it is more important that Kagawa walked the walk and not just talked the talk. A consecrated life is far more eloquent and convincing than any well thought out argument. The world will not accept the way of Christ because we can out talk our spiritual opponents, but only because we can out live them. Such a demonstration of the superior quality of our faith will verify our witness more readily than any other effort in which we can engage. Kagawa did that superbly. His life, however, was simply a reflection of the life of his Master.

Jesus walked the walk more perfectly than anyone who has ever lived. He lived out the ethic which he taught. He was totally committed to doing his Father’s will. He was a man of courage. He was a man of commitment.

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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Passion Sunday: Surprising and Inevitable

At a pre-concert lecture, the conductor of a symphony orchestra was telling the audience about the major work that the orchestra would be performing at that evening's concert. The conductor told the people that if they listened carefully to the music, they would discover that it was both surprising and inevitable. On the one hand, the musical score would take a fair number of rather jarring and unexpected twists. There would be points in the concert when the blare of the trumpet or the sudden rolling of the timpani would seem to come from out of nowhere in a surprising fashion. On the other hand, however, the conductor noted that in the long run, these surprises would themselves become part of a larger coherence. Once listeners heard the entire piece from start to finish, they would find in the music an air of inevitability--how could it ever have been written any differently?

Surprising and inevitable. Palm Sunday and the events of Holy Week are both surprising and inevitable. The truth is that we are not completely sure what to make of Palm Sunday. After forty days of Lenten travel that have often focused on serious and sometimes dark subjects, suddenly we arrive at a day that seems at first blush to be surprisingly cheery. The Palm Sunday parade has color and spectacle, cheering and singing, festive voices and joyful exuberance. This seems like a happy day. Yet it would be completely appropriate if you were to ask, "What in the world is this day doing here given how close we are now to the cross!?" Is Palm Sunday a bright spot in the midst of the otherwise darker hues of Lent? Are we, for just a little while this morning, supposed to forget about all things dreary so that we can cry out some full-throated "Hosannas!"? Or is there also a sadness to this day that we must bear in mind?

Scott Hoezee, Comments and Observations

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You Brought Pavement?

I love the story about a rich man who wanted to take his money with him beyond the grave. When he was nearing death, he prayed fervently about this matter. An angel appeared to him and said, "Sorry, you can’t take all your wealth with you after death, but the Lord will allow you to take one suitcase. Fill it with whatever you wish." Overjoyed the man got the largest suitcase he could find and filled it with pure gold bars. Soon afterward he died and showed up at the gates of heaven. St. Peter, seeing the suitcase, said, "Hold on, you can’t bring that in here with you." The man explained how God had given him special permission." St. Peter checked it out with the angel Gabriel and the story was verified. "Okay," said St. Peter, "You can bring the suitcase in with you, but first I must check its contents." He opened the suitcase to see what worldly items this man had considered too precious to leave behind. "I don’t believe it!" said St. Peter. "You brought pavement??"

Bill Bouknight, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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He Expected Fruit

The disciples come upon a fig tree which is showing a burst of new leaves. But Jesus looks among them, and says that there is no fruit. He expected fruit. It is the condemnation of promise without fulfillment. Charles Lamb told of a certain man in whose life, he said, there were three stages. When he was young, people said of him, "He will do something." As he grew older and did nothing, they said of him, "He could do something if he tried." Towards the end of his life they said of him, "He might have done something, if he had tried." That could be the epitaph of too many Christians...and too many churches.

Donald B. Strobe, Collected Words, www.Sermons.com

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What Is Good For Us Is Hidden

Martin Luther often spoke of this aspect of the theology of the cross, concerning how God works in a hidden way through contrasts. In a series of lectures that Luther gave in 1515 and 1516 on the Book of Romans, he wrote: "For what is good for us is hidden, and that so deeply that it is hidden under its opposite. Thus our life is hidden under death, love for ourselves under hate for ourselves ... salvation under damnation, heaven under hell ... And universally our every assertion of anything good is hidden under the denial of it, so that faith may have its place in God, who is a negative essence and goodness and wisdom and righteousness, who cannot be touched except by the negation of all our affirmations."

Martin Luther had one more observation about why God operates this way - under contrasts and opposites. In another of his sermons, he put it this way: "He thrusts us into death and permits the devil to pounce on us. But it is not his purpose to devour us; he wants to test us, to purify us, and to manifest himself ever more to us, that we may recognize his love. Such trials and strife are to let us experience something that preaching alone is not able to do, namely, how powerful Christ is and how sincerely the Father loves us. So our trust in God and our knowledge of God will increase more and more, together with our praise and thanks for his mercy and blessing.

Otherwise we would bumble along with our early, incipient faith. We would become indolent, unfruitful and inexperienced Christians, and would soon grow rusty."

Mark Ellingsen, Preparation and Manifestation, CSS Publishing

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Lose Yourself

What does a Christ-like mind look like as we live in the world? We can see it clearly in the great saints and martyrs, such as Mother Teresa or Albert Schweitzer. I'm drawn as well to the idea William Placher suggests in his book "Narratives of a Vulnerable God" as he uses an illustration from the world of basketball. Professor Placher writes, "In basketball the players who are always asking, 'How am I doing? Am I getting my share of the shots?' Those are the ones who never reach their full potential. It is the players who lose themselves who find themselves. And it's that kind of self-forgetfulness that makes the best players." And isn't that the case with all of us in whatever we do?

I read about one of the fastest growing churches in the world, with branches in 32 countries already. It is called the Winners Church, and according to its leaders, it lives by a motto that comes from America's religious culture. Here's the motto: "Be happy. Be successful. Join the winners." People flock to that kind of church, I guess. But it all depends, doesn't it, on how we define winning? I wonder what kind of church you would have if your motto were "Whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant." Or about this one for a motto, "Those who want to save their lives will lose them and those who lose their lives for my sake, will find them."

Joanna Adams, A Beautiful Mind

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Humility Rules

One time there was a little Swiss watch that had been made with the finest skill and precision. But, the little watch was dissatisfied with its restricted sphere of influence on a lady’s wrist. The watch envied the lofty position of the great clock on the tower of City Hall. One day the little watch and its owner passed City Hall and the tiny watch exclaimed, “I sure wish I could be way up there. I could serve many people instead of just one.” The watch’s owner looked down and said, “I know someone who has a key to the tower. Little watch, you shall have your opportunity.” The next day the little watch was placed at the very top of tower. At that moment the little watch looked down and said, “Oh my! I am too small for anyone to see me. My elevation has resulted in my annihilation.”

When we aspire for lofty places to achieve greatness we lose sight of those we influence who are within our reach. In other words, humility rules!

Several years ago there was a newspaper cartoon that showed two fields separated by a fence. Each field was the same size and each had plenty of lush green grass. In each field there was a mule whose head stuck through the wire, eating grass from the pasture on the other side, even though it was hard to reach. In the process the mules’ heads became caught in the fence. They panicked and brayed uncontrollably at being unable to free themselves. The cartoonist wisely described the situation with one word: “Discontent.”

Like the mules, when we focus on what we don’t have we become blinded to the blessings that surround us. There is nothing wrong with desiring something, but to think that life is greater in someone else’s pasture may result in our being trapped. We have new life when we live with humility.

Later in the gospel of Matthew Jesus said, “The greatest among you must be a servant. But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Matt. 23:11-12) Once again, humility rules.

Keith Wagner, Humility Rules

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If I Can Be the Donkey…

Corrie Ten Boom was a famous Christian whose testimony of suffering in Nazi concentration camps and God’s grace through it all touched millions of lives. A few years ago, in a press conference following a ceremony in which Corrie Ten Boom was given an honorary degree, one of the reporters asked her if it was difficult remaining humble while hearing so much acclaim. She replied immediately, “Young man, when Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on the back of a donkey, and everyone was waving palm branches and throwing garments in the road and singing praises, do you think that for one moment it ever entered the head of that donkey that any of that was for him?” She continued, “If I can be the donkey on which Jesus Christ rides in his glory, I give him all the praise and all the honor.”

Mike Hamby, The Triumphal Entry

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Palm Sunday: Historical Background

The palm branches and the shouts harked back a century-and-a-half to the triumph of the Maccabees and the overthrow of the brutal Antiochus Epiphanes, the Saddam Hussein of his day. In 167 B.C. Antiochus had precipitated a full-scale revolt when, having already forbidden the practice of Judaism on pain of death, he set up, right smack in the middle of the Jewish temple, an altar to Zeus and sacrificed a pig on it. Hard to imagine a greater slap in the religious face to good Jews. Stinging from this outrage, an old man of priestly stock named Mattathias rounded up his five sons, all the weapons he could find, and a guerrilla war was launched. Old Mattathias soon died, but his son Judas, called Maccabeus (which means "hammer"), kept on and within three years was able to cleanse and to rededicate the desecrated temple.

"Mission Accomplished?" Well, it would be a full 20 years more of fighting, after Judas and a successor brother, Jonathan, had died in battle, that a third brother, Simon, took over, and through his diplomacy achieved Judean independence. That would begin a century of Jewish sovereignty.

Of course, there was great celebration. "On the twenty-third day of the second month, in the one hundred and seventy-first year, the Jews entered Jerusalem with praise and palm branches, and with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments, and with hymns and songs, because a great enemy had been crushed and removed from Israel." So says the account in I Maccabees - a story as well known to the crowd in Jerusalem that day as George Washington and the defeat of the British is known to us.

David E. Leininger, A World in Turmoil

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Humor: What’s the Bad News?

Good news-bad news jokes are somewhat passé. Even so there is one that makes a good point to introduce the sermon this morning. There were two fellows who lived and breathed baseball. They were professional players with the Atlanta Braves and you would think that playing for a living would be enough. But not so – these guys breathed, ate, and slept baseball. More than teammates, they were very close friends. So, they talked with each other about that mattered most in their lives. One of their big concerns was whether there would be baseball in heaven. They loved baseball so much that they were not sure at all they wanted to spend eternity in heaven unless they could play baseball.

They had an agreement that the first one who died would somehow get a message back to earth, letting the other know whether baseball was in heaven or not. Well, it happened. John died, and Jim grieved. He grieved for days - deeply saddened over his friend John’s death. About two weeks went by, and then it happened. Jim was awakened in the middle of the night by the calling of his name, “Jim, Jim, Jim, wake up! This is John.” “John, where are you?”

“I’m in heaven - and I have some good news and bad news. It’s exciting, Jim. We do have baseball in heaven. It’s great. We play every day and there are marvelous teams, and tough, exciting competition.”

“That’s great,” said Jim. “But what’s the bad news?”

“Well,” said John, “You are scheduled to pitch next Tuesday.”

Maxie Dunnam, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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Palm Sunday

What is Palm Sunday? Maybe another way to approach that question is to ask another question: what if the gospel story ended with Palm Sunday? Like the disciples, we maybe would like it if the gospel could conclude right here. After all that the disciples had been through, and with their own secret hope that Jesus would be a political success on whose coattails they would ride to prominence, the disciples looked at the Triumphal Entry and thought, "Now this is more like it!" They probably wanted to capture and bottle that festive atmosphere. It was rather like Peter's reaction to Jesus' transfiguration when Moses and Elijah also appeared with Jesus on the mountaintop. Peter piped up and said, "Let's build some tabernacles right here so we can keep this great thing going forever!" So also on Palm Sunday: if they could have hit the pause button on the remote control of life, this would have been a wonderful image to freeze frame.

The problem is that there is no salvation for anyone on Palm Sunday. The people cried "Hosanna," which means "Save us!" But given the world we are in, there could be no salvation from that kind of happy parade. That festive atmosphere, though in one sense befitting the true, deep-down royalty of Jesus as God's Son, still all that hoopla just doesn't fit our world. It doesn't address the problems that need solving.

And maybe at this time of war and carnage, of terror and multiple threats of violence all around us, maybe we preachers don't need to work very hard to convince anyone of this point. If we look back upon history, we see that human sin has resulted not in one long string of happy parades but rather in a series calamatis, one long and sad parade of calamity and sorrow. Instead of a festive throng, history shows us things like the Trail of Tears on which Native Americans tramped into exile. History shows us boat-loads of black people in chains, taken from their native country and brought to a place called "America," then paraded before potential buyers, not of their services, but of their very lives. History shows us long lines of Jews marching not in some victory parade but shuffling along toward Nazi gas chambers in Auschwitz. History shows us the Killing Fields of Cambodia, the death squads of Rwanda and Sierra Leone. These are the real parades of human history. Carnivals of sorrow, festivals of death.

Scott Hoezee, Comments and Observations

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Palm Sunday – Who Is That?

Picture Fifth Avenue in Manhattan--the stretch of road where the Macy's parade is held each Thanksgiving Day. Imagine that one spring day a kind of makeshift parade is being staged along upper Fifth Avenue near Central Park. But this is not the Macy's parade, not by a long shot. This is a relatively small affair: no floats, no tickertape, no giant balloon figures floating down the street. It's just a crowd of people waving some tree branches and throwing their coats into the road. At the center of it all is a modest, average looking fellow astride a donkey's colt which actually is too small for him to ride with any kind of dignity.

But the members of the parade entourage are nothing if not jubilantly excited. Especially the kids are making a lot of noise, singing and shouting. The enthusiasm of this little crowd is enough eventually to attract some attention. The people standing on the plushly carpeted steps leading into the Plaza complex swivel their heads. The horses hooked up to Central Park carriages turn a lazy eye toward the parade even as the people in the carriages peer out past the canopy to see what the commotion is all about. Shoppers coming out of Saks Fifth Avenue and the Time Warner Center also start to glance around to discover the source of all the hubbub. And inevitably people begin to ask, "Who is that?" In reply the branch-waving, coat-tossing folks excitedly answer, "Who is this, you ask! Why, it's Joshua Jones, a preacher from North Platte in Nebraska!"

"Oh. So it's not Donald Trump? Not Tom Cruise or Katie Couric, not Bill Clinton? Joshua Jones from Nebraska? Oh. That's nice." But then eyes roll, eyebrows rise, and smirks are repressed as the big city folks go back to their big city business.

Granted that Jerusalem circa 30 A.D. was not New York City. Granted that maybe Jesus' name on that Sunday long ago was a little bit better known than the Joshua Jones in my analogy. Granted, and yet . . . there is something about Matthew 21 which bears resemblance to this allegorical story. "Who is that?" the Jerusalemites ask in verse 10. In verse 11 comes the reply: "Jesus, the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee."

Scott Hoezee, Comments and Observations

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What Kind of Jesus Do You Want?

"Well, I don't care if it rains or freezes,
Long as I have my plastic Jesus
Riding on the dashboard of my car
I could go a hundred miles an hour
Long as I got the Almighty Power
Glued up there with my fuzzy dice."

That's the way an old folk song starts. The chorus continues the theme this way:

"Plastic Jesus, plastic Jesus
Riding on the dashboard of my car
Through all trials and tribulations,
We will travel every nation,
With my plastic Jesus I'll go far."

The following verses say that you can buy Him "phosphorescent, glows in the dark, He's Pink and Pleasant…" The anonymous author says he tries to run down pedestrians using the plastic Jesus' halo as an aiming guide. He complains because his plastic Jesus is turning white because of stains from the smoke of his cigar. When the policeman stops him on suspicion that he is "tight," he'll never find the bottle because his plastic Jesus' is hollow. The head comes off, and he uses Him for a flask, "a holy bar."

That old song came to my mind when I pondered today's passage because at its root is the question, "What kind of Jesus do you want?" Many people don't want the real Jesus; they want a more convenient version.

When we look closely at the dynamics of that Palm Sunday, we are not really surprised at the Friday outcome. On the surface, it seems like the Triumphal Entry was a grand celebration, but underneath we find the seeds of the crucifixion lying among the palms.

But the real meaning of Palm Sunday for us today can be found in that same question I asked about each of the groups, "What kind of Jesus are you looking for?" Do you want a Miracle Jesus or Ritual Jesus? Do you want a Military Jesus or a Messiah Jesus? In more modern terms we might ask, "Do you want a plastic Jesus or a Prozac Jesus? Do you want your Jesus in a bottle or a Mr. Rogers kind of Jesus?"

If you are looking for any of those, you will be disappointed too. But note that the reason we are disappointed is that we are looking for the wrong kind of Jesus. A friend wrote me yesterday with a wonderful quote she heard on the radio. Each time one lady discovers someone claiming to be an atheist, she responds, "Tell me about the God you don't believe in." And when they do, she usually observes, "I don't think I would like that kind of God either." Our disappointments in God usually come from a wrong view of God. As J. B. Phillips said in the title of his wonderful little book, "Your God Is Too Small."

Mickey Anders, What Kind of Jesus Do You Want?

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Lending Talent

One of my pastor-friends in the Memphis Conference is a wonderful preacher. Some years ago she was serving on a church staff in Cincinnati, as a layperson in charge of singles ministry. One day a layman and his wife took her out to dinner. The layman said to her, "I don't know how to lead people to Jesus, but I know how to make money. You know how to lead people to Jesus, so I want to send you to seminary."

After Susan recovered a bit from shock, she asked, "Are you really serious?" He said, "I certainly am. And I want you to pick out the best seminary in the country. I don't believe in doing things half-way and neither does Jesus."

Today she is joyously at work leading people to Jesus. And he is still busy making money to underwrite the work of Christ. Both she and he lent their donkeys to Jesus.

Bill Bouknight, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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A Donkey for the Master

One day an older woman, a bank executive, was walking past one of the offices at the bank. She glanced in and saw a young woman sitting at her desk, crying. The executive went in to see if she could help. "Nothing's that bad," she said. "Tell me about it." The younger woman explained: "My mother died about a month ago. Just this past weekend I became engaged. We have planned a June wedding. But I don't know the first thing to do, and I don't have a mother to help me." "Oh yes you do," said the executive. "I'll be your mother!" As they hugged each other, an incredible friendship was born--all because one person saw two things: a hurting person and a ministry that she could provide.

Five hundred years from now, as we delight in the glory of God's kingdom, we will not even remember how much money we earned on earth or how big our houses were or whether we had much status or popularity. But we will celebrate forever every single donkey we gave to the Master!

Bill Bouknight, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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How a King Enters a City

The Greek author Plutarch describes how kings are supposed to enter a city. He tells about one Roman general, Aemilius Paulus, who won a decisive victory over the Macedonians. When Aemilius returned to Rome, his triumphant procession lasted three days. The first day was dedicated to displaying all the artwork that Aemilius and his army had plundered. The second day was devoted to all the weapons of the Macedonians they had captured. The third day began with the rest of the plunder borne by 250 oxen, whose horns were covered in gold. This included more than 17,000 pounds of gold coins. Then came the captured and humiliated king of Macedonia and his extended family. Finally, Aemilius himself entered Rome, mounted on a magnificent chariot. Aemilius wore a purple robe, interwoven with gold. He carried his laurels in his right hand. He was accompanied by a large choir singing hymns, praising the military accomplishments of the great Aemilius. That, my friends, is how a king enters a city.

But the King of Kings? He entered riding on a lowly donkey. If he had consulted his political advisors, they would have been aghast. What was he up to? Leaders are supposed to project strength and power.

King Duncan, Collected Works, www.Sermons.com

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Palm/Passion Sunday

In the newer church calendars, today is called Palm/Passion Sunday. I must admit I have a hard time remembering that. For me, last Sunday will always be Passion Sunday and this Sunday is Palm Sunday. However, the liturgical experts in the church are trying to remind us that the two Sundays belong together because you cannot divorce the two; the significance of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem is that it was all a misunderstanding of His life and mission which eventually led to His death upon the cross. Jesus committed the unpardonable sin of not being the kind of Messiah everybody was expecting. The word "Passion" may give us pause. We're used to the kind of "passion" that Hollywood puts out. But the first meaning of the word given in Webster's Unabridged is "originally, suffering or agony, as of a martyr," and the second meaning: "the agony and sufferings of Jesus..." How about that? "When he drew near and saw the city he wept over it, saying, "Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace...." (Luke 19:41-42a)

Donald B. Strobe

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On My Account

In a Peanuts cartoon, Charlie Brown and Linus are standing next to each other, staring at a star-filled sky. "Would you like to see a falling star?" Charlie Brown asks Linus.

"Sure..." Linus responds. "Then again, I don't know," he adds, after some thought. "I'd hate to have it fall just on my account."

In the book Parables of Peanuts, Robert Short uses this cartoon to make the point that a star did fall on our account. God came down to us as Jesus: like a lamb led to slaughter, He died on our account. What humility. What love and, oh, what he accomplished there.

Charles Schultz, Peanuts, quoted by Robert Short

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River of Disappointment

Can you imagine the disappointment Jesus felt as he looked into the faces of people around him that first holy week? Can you imagine his disappointment with the crowds who would shout hosanna one moment and crucify him the next? Disappointment with his disciples--one of whom would betray him, his most trusted who would deny him, and the three closest to him who could not even stay awake on the job while he agonized over the cup the Father had set before him. Can you imagine the hurt he felt within?

Sir Alexander Mackenzie is a Canadian hero. An early fur trader and explorer, he accomplished a magnificent feat when he led an expedition across Canada from Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca to the Pacific Ocean. His incredible journey was completed in 1793, 11 years before Lewis and Clark began their famous expedition to the west. Mackenzie's earlier attempt in 1789, however, had been a major disappointment. His explorers had set out in an effort to find a water route to the Pacific. The valiant group followed a mighty river (now named the Mackenzie) with high hopes, paddling furiously amid great danger. Unfortunately, it didn't empty into the Pacific, but into the Arctic Ocean. In his diary, Mackenzie called it the "River of Disappointment."

Jesus was now face-to-face with his River of Disappointment. He knew it would end like this, but still it is hard to stifle the will to believe, the hope that things will turn out better than expected.

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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Cheering for Christ

While Dr. Samuel M. Shoemaker was rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in New York City, he had an old building fixed up and began a mission to the down-and-out men of the Bowery. A famous cartoonist became interested in the Mission and drew for Dr. Shoemaker a moving poster, with a Bowery-type character standing against a wall, the Cross showing from round the corner, and the caption, "There’s a place nearby, where a Carpenter still mends broken men."

That’s cheering for Christ! The need of the world for Christ is so great today that someone must cheer for him. Someone must give voice to the recognition of his greatness and of his power to mend broken lives, to resurrect dead hopes, to set persons on the right path again, to enable them to live with dignity and purpose and wholeness, and to move our world in the direction of peace and brotherhood.

Herchel H. Sheets, When Jesus Exaggerated, CSS Publishing Co.

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What Is Your Colt?

Bill Wilson pastors an inner city church in New York City. His mission field is a very violent place. He himself has been stabbed twice as he ministered to the people of the community surrounding the church. Once a Puerto Rican woman became involved in the church and was led to Christ. After her conversion she came to Pastor Wilson and said, "I want to do something to help with the church's ministry." He asked her what her talents were and she could think of nothing -- she couldn't even speak English -- but she did love children. So he put her on one of the church's buses that went into neighborhoods and transported kids to church. Every week she performed her duties. She would find the worst-looking kid on the bus, put him on her lap and whisper over and over the only words she had learned in English: "I love you. Jesus loves you."

After several months, she became attached to one little boy in particular. The boy didn't speak. He came to Sunday School every week with his sister and sat on the woman's lap, but he never made a sound. Each week she would tell him all the way to Sunday School and all the way home, "I love you and Jesus loves you."

One day, to her amazement, the little boy turned around and stammered, "I---I---I love you too!" Then he put his arms around her and gave her a big hug. That was 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon. At 6:30 that night he was found dead. His own mother had beaten him to death and thrown his body in the trash."I love you and Jesus loves you." Those were some of the last words this little boy heard in his short life -- from the lips of a Puerto Rican woman who could barely speak English. This woman gave her one talent to God and because of that a little boy who never heard the word "love" in his own home, experienced and responded to the love of Christ.

What can you give? What is your "colt"? You and I each have something in our lives, which, if given back to God, could, like the colt, move Jesus and His message further down the road.

Mark Adams, The Roads He Walked - Palm Avenue

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Our Actions Reveal Who We Are

A little boy by the name Billy visited his grandmother in California one summer and almost wore her out with his vigorous activity. She was accustomed to living a peaceful, orderly life. He was perpetual motion, into everything, and nearly turned the house upside down everyday. One night when they were both sound asleep, there was an earthquake. The grandmother was awakened by the house shaking and in her concern called out, "Billy, Billy!" Billy yelled back, "I didn't do it, grandma!" Well, Billy was a little like an earthquake at times to a grandma who liked her quiet lifestyle.

We reveal who we are by our actions. It is by our interactions with others that we paint, stroke by stroke, the portrait of who we are. We have grown accustom to Palm Sunday as a celebration in honor of Jesus Christ as our heavenly King. But Jesus did not look out among the branches and see the faithful. He looked out among the palms and saw what he had seen for the last three years. A people whose understanding was dim and whose hearts were filled with malice and vengeance toward Rome. Their voices shouted Hosanna but their hearts beat with a bloody desire for war.

Is it any wonder that they crucified him? No. Not with the disappointment they must have felt when he was arrested and his kingdom movement, in their eyes, came to an end.

Brett Blair, www.Sermons.com.

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What is God Like?

Legend has it that during Marco Polo's celebrated trip to Asia, he was taken before the great and fearsome ruler, Genghis Khan. Now what was Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant and adventurer, supposed to do before this mighty pagan conqueror? One false move could cost him his life. He decided to tell the story of Jesus as it is recorded in the gospels. It is said that when Marco Polo related the events of Holy Week, and described Jesus' betrayal, his trial, his scourging and crucifixion, Genghis Khan became more and more agitated, more engrossed in the story, and more tense. When Marco Polo pronounced the words, "Then Jesus bowed his head and yielded up his spirit," Genghis Khan could no longer contain himself. He interrupted, bellowing, "What did the Christian's God do then? Did he send thousands of angels from heaven to smite and destroy those who killed his Son?"

What did the Christian's God do then? He watched his beloved Son die, that's what the Christian's God did then. For that was the way Jesus chose to ascend the throne of his kingdom and to establish his Lordship for all time. Not at all the way we would expect God to demonstrate his might and power, but that's the way it was and that is how we know what our God is like.

John M. Braaten, The Greatest Wonder of All, CSS Publishing Co. Adapted.

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Palm Sunday April Fool’s

I was reading recently about a truck driver named Cornelius. Cornelius specialized in hauling animals, especially cows. He hauled live cows, and he also hauled dead cows that needed to be disposed of. Sometimes, however, he was hired to haul other varieties of animals.

One April Fools’ Day he received a phone call. “I have a dead elephant for you to pick up in Los Angeles,” said the voice on the other end.

“Yeah right,” said Cornelius. “You aren’t going to get me on that one!”

The guy said to him, “No, seriously, I’ve got this dead elephant I need for you to pick up.”

Cornelius again said, “Look, I know what day this is. You aren’t going to fool me today of all days!”

The guy was insistent that this was a serious call, but Cornelius was equally determined that he wasn’t going to be the object of an April Fools’ Day prank. He told the guy that if he drove all the way out to Los Angeles and it was a joke, he would charge the caller double plus a fee for the extra tow truck that Cornelius would require.

The caller agreed and so Cornelius drove to Los Angeles and, indeed, there was a dead elephant waiting on him. He wouldn’t believe it until he saw it with his own eyes. I mean, getting such a phone call on an April Fools’ Day would make you suspicious.

Many who witnessed Jesus riding into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday probably thought they were witnessing an April Fools’ prank. They had come out to see what they thought was the leader of a new religious movement, and quite possibly the long-awaited Messiah. They had heard amazing stories about this man about his feeding thousands of people with two fish and five small loaves, about his ability to heal, and even about his raising of Lazarus from the dead. Could this be, they wondered hopefully, the One they had long been awaiting?

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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Sermon Opener - Roll Out the Green Carpet by Leonard Sweet

Before every “feast day” on the calendar—-Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, etc—-the local newspaper runs a reminder to its readers: Don’t include your pets in your over-indulgence!

For Thanksgiving and Christmas the cautions are against letting Fido chow down on rich turkey skin, ham fat, giblets, gravies, and other greasy goodies. Your vet will tell you that there is always a huge spike in pets needing treatment for painful pancreatitis as a result of gobbling down all those rich human handouts.

The approach of Easter requires another warning be issued: No chocolate for your pets. Chocolate is toxic!

Oh so true . . . when our daughter Soren was five she liberated a package of chocolate chips from the kitchen to secretly munch in her room. She thoughtfully shared her stolen sweets with our small American-Eskimo dog. Soren’s stomachache was no big deal. The dog had to be rushed to the vet and have two (expensive) days of treatment in order to survive. Of course the fact that she threw up most of the chips in the car on the way to the vet’s office helped her out tremendously. Not so much the car.

The point is we seem to have an overwhelming urge to include our animals in our life celebrations. Pampered cats and dogs may get their own Christmas stockings. But even many farm animals get an apple, a carrot, something “extra” thrown in on days that we their human caretakers mark as special.

Astronomers and astrophysicists keep an eye and ear on the cosmos with devices designed to search for some other signs of life in our universe. The rest of us talk to our dog, buy our cat clothes, decorate our horse’s stall with pictures and ribbons, because we don’t want to feel alone in the universe. We need to feel connected to the rest of creation. We don’t want to be alone in the world of emotions, thoughts, dreams. We want to experience life and death with other creatures. We know we human beings are “different,” but we crave a spiritual connection with the universe.

So what do we do on Palm Sunday. We roll out the green carpet. Hollywood rolls out the Red Carpet for its VIPs. We roll out the Green Carpet for our Very Important Persons, Plants and Pets, and bring the animals and plants in before plunging into the events of Passion Week.

For the last time in Jesus’ earthly ministry, he embraces his identity as The Messiah. For this he is cheered and welcomed. He is treated as a king, worshiped and adored. Those who have been with him from the beginning, and those who have just met him on their Passover pilgrimage to Jerusalem, unite and affirm his authority and divinity with shouts of “Hosanna.”

It is a wonderful parade — and you cannot have a parade without animals.

Jesus’ decision to ride into Jerusalem breaks with his usual mode of transportation: walking. Until now Jesus and the disciples have, like most first-century travelers, simply walked to their next destination. Occasionally, when required, they have taken a boat, but even when Jesus was on the water, he walked!

So we must ask the question: Why does Jesus now decide to mount up?

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A Protest March

The relatively modest narrative in Mark is consonant with the secrecy surrounding Jesus throughout this Gospel. The popular description "triumphal entry" better fits Matthew than Mark, and neither Gospel justifies the church’s celebration of the day as though it were an Easter before Easter. As we sometimes have early warm weather called "false spring," so it is possible to observe a "false Easter." Those who keep the last Sunday of Lent as Passion rather than as Palm Sunday avoid the problem.

Whatever may have been in the minds of the crowds, whatever may have been in the minds of the Twelve, the reader knows there is more going on than a parade honoring Jesus. One might describe the event as a protest march. Although there is only a dramatic hint of protest in the passage before us -- he entered the temple, looked around and left -- the larger context justifies the term.

Fred B. Craddock, "Protest March," article in The Christian Century, April 5, 2003, pp. 20.

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No Day like This One – Palm Sunday

William Stringfellow, a distinguished lawyer who became a very distinguished theologian and who died much too soon, was a strong critic of the church. He was particularly feisty about Palm Sunday. He used to say that Christians go to church on Palm Sunday because they love a parade. I used to resent Stringfellow’s saying that. But I now conclude that he was partially right. I love Palm Sunday.

There is no day quite like this one, is there? If there is a better moment in the life of this church than the children’s processional on Palm Sunday, I can’t think what it might be. They come down the aisle in numbers that astonish us. They fill the chancel and the sanctuary. They disturb the normal sedate dignity of worship. Presbyterians like their religion “decently and in order.” And there is nothing very orderly about several hundred children waving palm branches. (Although, truth be told, it is no small accomplishment of logistics to get them all here and lined up and in and out in a manner that lets us get on with the business of the day.) I confess, however, particularly when I have the unique blessing of meeting my own grandchildren in the parade that I sometimes feel that maybe they are the business of the day, they and the spontaneous joy of him coming into the city.

In any event, there is no day quite like it in the life of this congregation. And there is no day quite like it in the church year. Someone noted recently that Palm Sunday has all the elements of a classic drama: great characters — frightened disciples stumbling along behind him, cheering crowds, conspiring politicians — and behind it all the clash of huge civilizations and religions and worldviews. And in the center — in fact towering over it all — the figure of one man, a young man, riding on a donkey, on his way to his own death.

John M. Buchanan, No Day like This One

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Something to Die For

"Even if they try to kill you, you develop the inner conviction that there are some things so precious, some things so eternally true that they are worth dying for. And if a person has not found something to die for, that person isn't fit to live!"

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Crowd Pressure

"Crowd pressures have unconsciously conditioned our minds and feet to move to the rhythmic drumbeat of the status quo. Many voices and forces urge us to choose the path of least resistance, and bid us never to fight for an unpopular cause and never to be found in a minority of two or three."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Must Suffer and Be Rejected

Jesus Christ must suffer and be rejected. This "must" is inherent in the promise of God - the Scriptures must be fulfilled. There is a distinction here between suffering and rejection. Had he only suffered, Jesus might still have been applauded as the Messiah. All the sympathy and admiration of the world might have been focused on his passion. It could have been viewed as a tragedy with its own intrinsic value, dignity and honor. But in the passion, Jesus is a rejected Messiah. His rejection robs the passion of its halo of glory. It must be a passion without honor.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, trans. R.H. Fuller (Great Britain: SCM Press, Ltd., 1959), 76.

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Jesus Comes to the City and the Cross

I sat in the very back row of the sanctuary, in one of the wooden chairs, last Sunday afternoon listening to the Tower Brass play an absolutely exquisite Buxtehude fanfare and chorale. It was cold and windy outside, and in came a man, apparently homeless, dressed in army surplus fatigues, carrying all his worldly belongings in several shopping bags, and he sat down in the last pew. He listened for a moment and then retrieved a container of soup from one of the shopping bags and proceeded to eat and listen. When his soup was gone, he stretched his legs, yawned, arranged his coat as a pillow, leaned on the side of the pew, and fell asleep, safe and warm for the moment at least, with heavenly music surrounding him. And I thought, that’s why we are here. He’s the reason — he and the one who came to the city and bids us be his body here, his very presence.

And Jesus’ coming to the city reveals something of the mystery of God’s relationship with us and God’s summons to live out that relationship with courage and commitment and the blessed assurance that God’s love for us will follow us and will never let us go.

We do love the spontaneous joy of Palm Sunday — the victory. We look on with wonder today as a young man becomes vulnerable, a young man who loves his friends and his nation and his religion and the city, loves the gift of his own life so much that he decides to live it out thoroughly, passionately, and courageously. And with faith deepened over the years of thinking about this story and pondering its meaning, we see in the drama of this day something of the nature of God. God loves like that. God loves us like that. God comes into life where it is lived, into your life and mine, wherever we are, whoever we are — young, middle-aged, old, healthy or sick, happy or sad, confident or scared to death, serene or anxious — God comes and bids us live our lives, following Jesus, with intentionality and the vulnerability of great love, with passion and courage and gratitude.

We know how the drama concludes in five days. And we look on in wonder as, in love, he comes to the city and goes to his cross.

John M. Buchanan, "No Day like This One"

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Running into Jesus

In the years that I've been a minister, I have known some winning churches and lots of winners in them. One who comes to mind is a young man in my first congregation, an advertising executive on the rise in his profession. Every Tuesday night he volunteered at the foot clinic for the homeless people who made their home in our church gymnasium. Robert was his name. He was the nattiest dresser I had ever seen. I can picture him now in my mind's eye, wearing a crisp shirt, red suspenders. I see him sitting on a stool before the chair on which one of our homeless guests is sitting. He takes the guest's feet and places them in a basin of warm water. He takes a towel and dries the feet. He applies ointment to their sores. The ritual ends with the gift of a clean, white pair of socks. I see the man in the chair, as he slips his socks on, brush a tear from his own cheek-a tough guy whom no one has touched with tenderness in a very long time. I once asked Robert, the advertising executive on the move, why he came to the foot clinic every week. He brushed me aside, saying, "I figure I have a better chance of running into Jesus here than most places. That's all." I watched him week after week. I realized as I watched him that I was developing my own sort of double vision. I was seeing Christ in the stranger that he served. I was also seeing Christ in the one who was finding deep meaning in his life through serving others.

Joanna Adams, A Beautiful Mind

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A Shoe Clerk Named Moody

A 19th century Sunday School teacher named Kimball led a shoe clerk named Moody to Jesus Christ. Dwight L. Moody became a famous evangelist who influenced Frederick B. Meyer to preach on college campuses. Meyer led J. Wilbur Chapman to the Lord. Chapman while working with the YMCA arranged for Billy Sunday to come to Charlotte, North Carolina to attend revival meetings. Community leaders in Charlotte scheduled another revival with Mordecai Hamm. Under Hamm's preaching Billy Graham gave his heart to Jesus Christ. Billy Graham has preached to more people than any man in history. I am sure this Sunday School teacher in Boston had no idea what would happen from leading a shoe clerk to Christ.

As we examine this passage of Scripture, I encourage you to look at the owner of the donkey and his response to the king who entered into Jerusalem that day.

John G. Davis, On the Backs of Donkeys

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Mob Mentality

I’ve always thought that Jesus got himself crucified because he refused to be the kind of Messiah the people expected him to be. They wanted a revolutionary, didn’t they? Someone who would come in and free the Jews from Roman occupation. Someone who could be a grand king in the line of David, their favorite king of history. I thought that they just didn’t get what kind of Messiah Jesus was saying he was. I thought it was a case of mistaken identity. Jesus is not who they, or who we, thought he was. But if this were the case – if they wanted Jesus to be a certain kind of Messiah – if they were trying to force his hand – wouldn’t they realize sooner than his crucifixion that Jesus was not responding in the way they had hoped? If Jesus wasn’t the Messiah they were looking for, couldn’t they just ignore him? Couldn’t they just let him fade out of focus? Why did they act with such violence? Why was there no voice – no voice – standing up as an advocate for Jesus – no one who tried to save him from this death?

The more I think about it, the more I mull over the events of Jesus’ life in my mind, the more convinced I become that the reason we go so quickly from the crowds welcoming Jesus to the crowds yelling for his death is because they knew, and we know, exactly who Jesus is. For once, it seems everyone in the story is united in their actions towards Jesus. All of them, all of them, are united in their abandonment and rejection of Jesus. It is not just the Jews who act against him, but also the Romans. Not just the religious leaders, but also the common ‘regular’ people. Not just Judas, who we can readily write off as corrupted and evil, but also Peter, the faithful disciple, and the others, who never even get mentioned during all of Jesus’ trial, beatings, and crucifixion. Not one who Jesus healed, not one who Jesus forgave, not one who Jesus broke bread with speaks for him, acts on his behalf.

Beth Quick, Mob Mentality

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That's My Wife For You!

The story is told of an American soldier who had drawn remote duty and had written home to his wife, telling her of his seven new friends with whom he had developed a close friendship. "I am so grateful," he said, "because in this isolated and barren land a person could easily be driven to despair." When his next birthday rolled around, there was a large package in the mail from the States. When he opened it, he discovered not one gift, but eight gifts. One for him and one for each of his seven friends. The soldier looked at the eight presents and, with tears rolling down his cheeks, exclaimed, "That's my wife for you! Yes sir, that's my wife!"

The wife was revealed by her actions. That was the kind of thing she would do. That was her nature. That's what she was like. Today, as we pause at the doorway of Holy Week, we look at the cross and we recall the whole story of pain, suffering, darkness and death. And as we gaze upon our King, arms spread wide in forgiving love, we proclaim, "That's our God for you! Yes, that's what our God is like!

John Braaten, The Greatest Wonder of All, CSS Publishing Co.

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Great Men Are Often Broken by Their High Ideals

Some years ago a book was written by a noted American historian entitled “When The Cheering Stopped.” It was the story of President Woodrow Wilson and the events leading up to and following WWI. When that war was over Wilson was an international hero, There was a great spirit of optimism abroad, and people actually believed that the last war had been fought and the world had been made safe for democracy.

On his first visit to Paris after the war Wilson was greeted by cheering mobs. He was actually more popular than their own heroes. The same thing was true in England and Italy. In a Vienna hospital a Red Cross worker had to tell the children that there would be no Christmas presents because of the war and the hard times. The children didn’t believe her. They said that President Wilson was coming and they knew that everything would be alright.

The cheering lasted about a year. Then it gradually began to stop. It turned out that after the war the political leaders in Europe were more concerned with their own agendas than they were a lasting peace. At home Woodrow Wilson ran into opposition in the United States Senate and his League of Nations was not ratified. Under the strain of it all the President’s health began to break. He suffered a stroke and in the next election his party was defeated. So it was that Woodrow Wilson, a man who barely a year earlier had been heralded as the new world Messiah, came to the end of his days a broken and defeated man.

It’s a sad story, but one that is not altogether unfamiliar. The ultimate reward for someone who tries to translate ideals into reality is apt to be frustration and defeat. There are some exceptions, of course, but not too many.

Brett Blair, www.Sermons.com.

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First They Laugh At You

Mahatma Gandhi led the people of India through a passive resistance that ended in their liberation from British domination. Gandhi based his methods on the person and activities of Jesus. Of this method he said, "First they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

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The Origins of the Palm Branches

The palm branches and the shouts harked back a century-and-a-half to the triumph of the Maccabees and the overthrow of the brutal Antiochus Epiphanes, the Saddam Hussein of his day. In 167 B.C. Antiochus had precipitated a full-scale revolt when, having already forbidden the practice of Judaism on pain of death, he set up, right smack in the middle of the Jewish temple, an altar to Zeus and sacrificed a pig on it. Hard to imagine a greater slap in the religious face to good Jews. Stinging from this outrage, an old man of priestly stock named Mattathias rounded up his five sons, all the weapons he could find, and a guerrilla war was launched. Old Mattathias soon died, but his son Judas, called Maccabeus (which means "hammer"), kept on and within three years was able to cleanse and to rededicate the desecrated temple.

"Mission Accomplished?" Well, it would be a full 20 years more of fighting, after Judas and a successor brother, Jonathan, had died in battle, that a third brother, Simon, took over, and through his diplomacy achieved Judean independence. That would begin a century of Jewish sovereignty.

Of course, there was great celebration. "On the twenty-third day of the second month, in the one hundred and seventy-first year, the Jews entered Jerusalem with praise and palm branches, and with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments, and with hymns and songs, because a great enemy had been crushed and removed from Israel.” So says the account in I Maccabees - a story as well known to the crowd in Jerusalem that day as George Washington and the defeat of the British is known to us.

David E. Leininger, Collected Sermons, ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc.

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A Turning Point for Nixon

A number of years ago, Newsweek magazine carried the story of the memorial service held for Hubert Humphrey, former vice-president of the United States. Hundreds of people came from all over the world to say good-bye to their old friend and colleague. But one person who came was shunned and ignored by virtually everyone there. Nobody would look at him much less speak to him. That person was former president Richard Nixon. Not long before, he had gone through the shame and infamy of Watergate. He was back in Washington for the first time since his resignation from the presidency.

Then a very special thing happened, perhaps the only thing that could have made a difference and broken the ice. President Jimmy Carter, who was in the White House at that time, came into the room. Before he was seated, he saw Nixon over against the wall, all by himself. He went over to [him] as though he were greeting a family member, stuck out his hand to the former president, and smiled broadly. To the surprise of everyone there, the two of them embraced each other, and Carter said, "Welcome home, Mr. President! Welcome home!" One president to another, from different parties, they understood what they had in common, what burdens they had born in common, they were elected presidents.

Commenting on that, Newsweek magazine asserted, "If there was a turning point in Nixon's long ordeal in the wilderness, it was that moment and that gesture of love and compassion."

The turning point for us is Palm Sunday. It is our moment of triumph. It was a triumph because God Jesus decided to ignore our miserable state and act on our behalf. He chose to ignore the crowds version of Palm Sunday and go with His.

Brett Blair, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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Making a Virtue Out of Openness

There are always those voices who would like to eliminate this matter of decision from Christianity. There is something in human nature that hates to decide "Yes" or "No." Recently there was a radio announcement that next week was National Procrastinators' Week. "Actually," said the announcer, "they were going to hold the celebration this week, but the organizers decided to put it off until next week!" Our modern society has made such a virtue of openness and neutrality that we forget it is the fundamental choices we make that shape all of life, and for that matter, the life to come. I heard about a woman who said she would not become a Christian because there were too many obstacles in the path of belief. "I'm not an atheist, but I'm just not convinced that God exists, or that Christianity is the right religion. I'm going to withhold judgment, and consider the matter impartially." That's fine, except that I hope this woman decides pretty soon. She is 87 years old, and her so-called "neutrality" is fast becoming academic!

The simple fact is no one can remain neutral on the issue of Jesus Christ. We must decide for or against him.

Robert A. Beringer, Turning Points, CSS Publishing Company

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Still a Threat

Lest we be too critical of Jerusalem, ask yourself this question: What city even today would not be shaken by Jesus' entry into it? Imagine Jesus entering New York, Belgrade, Washington, or even Memphis. Oh, I'm sure we'd welcome him with our hosannas - at first, anyway. We'd line the streets and strike up the band and have a grand parade right down Main Street. But I'm equally sure that, by the end of the week, we'd have him nailed to a cross, too. Why? Because the Kingdom Jesus came to establish still threatens the kingdoms of this world -- your kingdom and mine -- the kingdoms where greed, power, and lust rule instead of grace, mercy, and peace. And who among us really wants to surrender our lives to that Kingdom and that King?

Staff, www.Sermons.com

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About the Donkey

People often speak of donkeys in belittling terms. You may have heard the expression, "I'm just someone who has to do all the donkey work." Or "So-and-so is as stubborn as a mule" (a mule is part donkey).

These sayings overlook the contributions of a truly valuable animal. Donkeys have served the human race for thousands of years. They were once prized as symbols of humility, gentleness, and peace.

In Bible days, donkeys that had never been ridden were regarded as especially suitable for religious purposes. So it was most fitting that Jesus sent for a colt to perform the royal task of carrying Him into Jerusalem. How enviable was that donkey's mission! How like our mission as Jesus' followers!

A missionary in China calls herself "the Lord's donkey." She's a humble believer, "carrying" her Lord faithfully into town after town and training others to do likewise. The Lord has need of many such "donkeys" in today's world, humble people who will carry Him into their Jerusalem and make Him known.

The donkey had to be untied before Jesus could use it. We too must be released from worldly attachments if we are to serve Christ. Are we willing to be the Lord's donkey?

Our Daily Bread, March 24, 2001

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Expressions of True Gratitude

Bishop Hanns Lilje writes with compassion of the men who were his guards while he was a prisoner of the Nazis during World War II. He tells of one pitiable old man whose job it was, among other things, to fasten his fetters before he went to sleep at night. One evening after he finished this task, the prisoner found himself unable to resist saying to him in a very polite and courteous voice, "Thank you very much." The old man stood still and stared at him for a moment, and then went on out of the cell. In a moment or two he came back again and said in an awkward rough voice, "No need to thank me for a thing like that!" Bishop Lilje replied with an expression which he knew was dear to the heart of any good German official, "Well, you have only done your duty!" He wrote later that if the man had not lost the power of expressing emotion and tenderness, he would have done so then. But this was beyond him, and so he strode out of the room shaking his head and murmuring to himself.

There is something within most of us which responds to expressions of genuine appreciation, and something happens to us, too, when we are truly grateful for something another is or has done. We do not need, then, to wait for stones to do our cheering for us; we need to do it ourselves.

When Jesus Exaggerated, Herchel H. Sheets, CSS Publishing Co.

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Hi ho Silver, Away!

It was Palm Sunday and Jesus was coming into Jerusalem. He was riding on a blazing white stallion and kicking up a cloud of dust as he rode along. He was looking for trouble. The people that he passed on his way were in awe of such a beautiful animal but they were even more awestruck by the man who was riding it. As Jesus passed by, you could hear the people say, "Who was that masked man?"

There were bad guys on the loose and Jesus had a job to do. As he rode into Jerusalem he quickly sized up the situation and formed a plan to capture the ringleader of the troublemakers. His name was Diablo or Satan. There was a short scuffle and Jesus won handily over Diablo. He hog-tied the devil and threw him in jail.

As a large crowd of people gathered to see what the commotion was all about, Jesus mounted his horse and pulled on the reigns. The stallion stood on its hind legs, neighed loudly, and pawed the air with its front legs. When it stood as tall as it could stand, Jesus leaned forward in the saddle. Holding the reigns with one hand while lifting his white hat in the air with the other, He shouted with a loud voice, "As Jesus road off into the sunset, you could hear the William Tell Overture in the background.

Isn't that how you would have done it if you were Jesus? It's how I would have.

Adapted from "Not the Lone Ranger, But the Lone Savior," by Roger Griffith

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Guess Who?

Wanted By:

the FDA for turning water into wine without a license,
he EPA for killing fig trees,
the AMA for practicing medicine without a license,
the Dept. of Health for asking people to open graves, for raising the dead and for feeding 5,000 people in the wilderness,
the NEA for teaching without a certificate,
OSHA for walking on water without a lifejacket and for flying without an airplane,
the SPCA for driving hogs into the sea,
the NATIONAL BOARD of PSYCHIATRISTS for giving advice on how to live a guilt-free life,
the NOW for not choosing a woman apostle,
the ABORTION RIGHTS LEAGUE for saying that whoever harms children, it is better that they had never been born,
the INTERFAITH MOVEMENT for condemning all other religions, and by the ZONING DEPT for building mansions without a permit. Guess Who?

Peter T. Forsythe was right when he said, “The first duty of every soul is to find not its freedom but its Master.”

Warren W. Wiersbe, THE INTEGRITY CRISIS (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991), p. 22.

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Celebrity Jesus

Can you imagine if Jesus had been treated like a 20th-century celebrity as he rode into Jerusalem?

• Wolf Blitzer might have reported on rumors that Jesus planned to disrupt Temple business.

• Pundits would have argued about who he "really" was.

• Gail Sheehy would undoubtedly have written a psychological profile for Vanity Fair.

• Some tabloid would investigate Jesus' relationship with "the woman at the well."

• There would be in-depth analysis by cult specialists and modern-day Pharisees on MSNBC.

• A council of church officials would be in place to study the authenticity of Jesus' feeding the multitudes and walking on water.

• As he entered the dusty city, hundreds if not thousands would have snapped their throwaway Kodaks, and pointed their videocams while Katie Couric, along with Willard Scott, making a special appearance, would stand by to offer color commentary.

John Maroni, The Celebrity Christ

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We Are Responsible for a Dead Church

Some years ago, a new pastor was called to a spiritually dead church in a small Oklahoma town. The pastor spent the first week calling on as many members as possible, inviting them to the first Sunday service. But the effort failed. In spite of many calls, not a single member showed up for worship! So the pastor placed a notice in the local paper stating that since the church was dead, the pastor was going to give it a decent, Christian burial. The funeral for the church would be held at 2 p.m. on the following Sunday.

Morbidly curious, the whole town turned out for the "funeral." In front of the pulpit, there was a large casket, smothered in flowers. After the eulogy was given, the pastor invited the congregation to come forward and pay their respects to the dead church. The long line of mourners filed by. Each one peered curiously into the open casket, and then quickly turned away with a guilty, sheepish look. For inside the casket, tilted at just the right angle was a large mirror. Each one saw his own reflection in the mirror as perhaps never before!

That is still what happens when human beings allow the living Christ to confront them in their sinful brokenness. This special day calls us to make a choice to receive God's Christ, and to let our lives be made whole again by the power of God. As you begin this Holy Week, can you truly say in your heart, "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!" The choice is up to you!

Robert A. Beringer, Turning Points, CSS Publishing Company.

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Only a Compromising Man Can Be King

Perhaps some of you saw Mel Gibson's movie called Braveheart. In the movie William Wallace (a Scottish commoner) attempts to unite the feuding clans of Scotland in their fight against England in the 13th century. He attempts to elicit the help of Robert the Bruce, the leader of the most powerful clan. Bruce refuses to help and in soliloquy he says: "Wallace is an uncompromising man. Uncompromising men are admirable. But only a compromising man can be king."

We can affirm that on Palm Sunday an uncompromising man became King of all history. Of course, there are many things that we do have to bend on. On strategies we can compromise, but not in principles. There must come a time when we ask: Is this the way it is--Yes or No? Palm Sunday challenges the notion that all of life is but a part of the compromising process.

Brett Blair, www.Sermons.com

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Acceptance and Awareness on Palm Sunday

Father Henri Nouwen found a sculpture of Jesus on a donkey in the Augustiner Museum in Frieburg. He calls it one of the most moving Christ figures he knows. The fourteenth-century sculpture originally came from a small town close to Breisach on the Rhine. It was made to be pulled on a cart for the Palm Sunday procession.

Nouwen found himself drawn to this sculpture. He sent postcards of it to his friends and keeps one in his prayer book. Looking at the face of Jesus he reflects, "There is melancholy, but also peaceful acceptance. There is insight into the fickleness of the human heart, but also immense compassion. There is a deep awareness of the unspeakable pain to be suffered, but also a strong determination to do God’s will. Above all, there is love, an endless, deep and far-reaching love born from an unbreakable intimacy with God and reaching out to all people, wherever they are, were, or will be. There is nothing that he does not fully know. There is nobody whom he does not fully love."

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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Did You See, I Waved?

Whenever I read the account of Palm Sunday, I remember how the event is depicted in one of my favorite movies, "Jesus Christ, Superstar." Have you seen it? In the movie, the Palm Sunday crowd sings, "Christ, you know I love you. Did you see, I waved?"

But, you see, as your pastor, I take my responsibility to nurture your spiritual growth seriously. And you cannot grow being fed a steady diet of baby food. So I cannot and will not skip from Palm Sunday to Easter morning and avoid talking about what happened in between. You cannot get from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday without going through Good Friday. Before Jesus could be resurrected, he had to die. So I have to talk about the pain this morning, because the same crowd that shouted "hosannah" to Jesus on Palm Sunday, the same crowd that sang, "Christ, you know I love you. Did you see, I waved?" are the same people who, before one week will have passed, will realize that Jesus is not exactly the kind of Messiah they had wanted. And before the week is out, they will turn against Jesus and demand his death.

Johnny Dean

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The Road from Palm Sunday to Easter

It’s not Easter yet, but it won’t be long now, just seven short days. And what joy we will feel when we get there! But we have a big problem. To get from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday we have to walk through a graveyard in the dark. The only road from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday runs right through the middle of Good Friday. That road is not an easy road to walk. Those who don’t have the stomach for the journey, those who seek that ouch-less faith we talked about, will stay home from today until next Sunday, showing up just in time for the trumpets and the lilies and the hallelujah chorus.

The rest of us better hang onto one another as tightly as we can as we tiptoe past the tombstones and stand together at the foot of the cross. And we must not look the other way as we stand there. It’s going to hurt to see him hanging there, knowing the agony he’s going through and knowing further that the only reason he’s putting himself through all that is his love for you and me. Another shout will ring out on Good Friday, but it won’t be "Hosannah!" It won’t be, "Christ, you know I love you. Did you see, I waved?" It will be "Tetelestai!" – it is finished. And the Son of God will die.

Johnny Dean

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No Formal Greeting

When you think about the way a formal state visit is conducted at the White House, it probably conjures up images of a military band and an honor guard flanking the driveway. As the row of black limousines arrive, trumpets blare and flags flutter and everything is formally festive. The President greets his distinguished guests and grandly escorts them down the plush red carpet into the executive mansion.

Now, compared to all that "pomp and circumstance," our Lord's "grand entrance" would seem to appear more comical than triumphal. Even in those days a king would at least make his entrance to the capitol city astride a white stallion - and not on some undersized donkey with the rider's toes dragging in the dust. Common people's cloaks and some branches cut from the fields were the best substitute they could come up with for a red carpet. There was no formal greeting by any dignitaries, just a crowd of nobodies shouting the lyrics of Psalm 118. And instead of receiving a royal welcome, Mark says that Jesus simply went directly to the temple, looked around, and then without a word, he left the city to spend the night in the nearby village of Bethany.

Alan Jackson, The Morning After

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A Victory Parade

Some of you experienced the victory of World War II. Others of us have at least seen on television old newsreel footage of the celebration of victory in Europe. Then came victory over Japan and other victory parades. There were no such celebrations after the wars in Korea and Vietnam. But after the Allied victory in the Persian Gulf we attempted to make up for all of that with tremendous celebrations and victory parades. The attention of the entire nation was fixed on General Norman Schwarzkopf, who was the man of the hour.

It is an ancient custom dating back in history to other times and other places, where kings and warriors were welcomed home with victory celebrations and parades through city gates.

It happened in Jerusalem whenever a new king ascended the throne. The people turned out and lined the streets. They spread their garments on the ground and waved palm branches in the air shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."

Thomas A. Pilgrim, The Man From Galilee, CSS Publishing Company, Inc

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Aw Shucks!

A little boy was sick on Palm Sunday and stayed home from church with his mother. His father returned from church holding a palm branch. The little boy was curious and asked, "Why do you have that palm branch, dad?" "You see, when Jesus came into town, everyone waved Palm Branches to honor him, so we got Palm Branches today." The little boy replied, "Aw Shucks! The one Sunday I miss is the Sunday that Jesus shows up!"

Traditional Humor

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The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Hosanna!

Some stories leave us spellbound. There is something about some stories that no matter how many times we hear them, they manage to catch us up in their wonderful spell. For instance, I'm 40 years old and still get a kick out of that scene in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and Toto and the Tin Man and the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion emerge from the forest and catch sight of the Emerald City. Then they join arms and begin to skip across the meadow. Or, the beginning of The Sound of Music with Julie Andrews doing a pirouette with her arms outstretched, the mountains in the background, then the music swells and the hills are alive with sound of music… Some scenes make a lasting impression on us.

Palm Sunday has that power. The donkey, the Lord, the crowds waving those palm branches, a sea of thin green flags fluttering in the wind-- and then that memorable chorus: "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!"

David A. Shirey

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The Burden

Unaccustomed to her burden, she knows not
That never beast bore such a Man as this,
Who meekly rides to His appointed lot,
A crown of thorns and a betrayer's kiss.

And never man will carry such a weight
As He bears now in this, His day of power,
Ascending toward a strait and narrow gate,
His agonizing last and finest hour.

She bravely struggles on, despite her fear
Of cheering men, whom He as gravely views
As an admiral watching distant storms draw near
To lash bright waves to dark and deadly hues;

He knows the death decreed in ancient psalms,
The Tree that looms beyond these scattered palms.

By Philip Rosenbaum

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A Borrowed Donkey

A Roman leader would have ridden in a chariot pulled by magnificent white stallions...Jesus entered the city on a donkey, and a borrowed one!

A political leader would have been surrounded by security guards who would have kept crowds from close physical contact to prevent any personal harm to him...Jesus was surrounded by his disciples representing many walks of life and rode into the midst of the people, almost at their height.

A military leader would have galloped along the road, passing the crowds with perhaps a wave of the hand or a nod of the head if there were any recognition at all...Jesus on a donkey moved slowly with the people, accompanying the people, as well as accompanied by the people.

A religious leader in traditional, appropriate priestly robes would have moved sedately through the crowds surrounded by an orderly contingency of other religious leaders who would've prevented anyone who was unclean from touching him...Jesus, dressed in his usual attire, moved humbly through the crowds, surrounded by his diverse band of disciples, not shrinking from the touch of anyone.

Ruth Daugherty, Issues Of Leadership Into The 21st Century, Viewpoint, Summer 1991, p. 2.

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Everybody Loves a Parade

Everybody loves a parade. I spent 10 of my growing up years in Savannah, Georgia, where my father was the pastor of a church. On March 17th of each year Savannah has the second largest St. Patrick's Day parade in the country. The whole city turns out for the parade. They dye the river green. Everybody wears green. They eat green grits. Some drink green - well, beverages. For several years I went to that parade and enjoyed watching it. But then when I was in the 10th grade I was in R.O.T.C., military training, and I marched in that parade. No longer was I a parade watcher, a bystander. I became a participant. Everyone loves a parade. Anyone can be a bystander. It takes a little something extra to be a participant. They gave Jesus a parade in Jerusalem a city filled with bystanders. There were not many who were willing to participate in Jerusalem. That parade they gave Jesus was an insult.

The Roads Jesus Traveled, Thomas A Pilgrim, CSS Publishing Company

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We Don't Have To Do Anything About It, Do We?

In his classic novel, "The Robe," Lloyd C. Douglas has a character called Marcellus, who had become enamored of Jesus. He wrote letters to his fiance Diana in Rome. He told her about Jesus' teachings, about his miracles, then about his crucifixion, and then about his resurrection. Finally he informed her that he had decided to become a disciple of Jesus. In her letter of response, Diana said, "What I feared was that it might affect you. It is a beautiful story. Let it remain so. We don't have to do anything about it, do we?"

Oh yes, we do, Diana.

Bill Bouknight, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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Sermon Ender

Finally, I would suggest to you that the cheering stopped because Jesus began to talk more and more about a cross. In the early part of his ministry Jesus talked about the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of God. This they wanted to hear about, especially since they misunderstood this kingdom to be a restoration of Israel to the days of King David’s glory. But increasingly Jesus began to talk about sacrifice—even giving up your life.

The story is told of the pee-wee baseball game. When the young boy got up to the plate he looked over to the coach, and he saw him give the signal to sacrifice bunt. He then promptly proceeded to take three big swings and strike out. The coach ran up to him and said: Didn’t you see me give you the signal to sacrifice. Yes, the boy replied. But I didn’t really think that you meant it.

Isn’t that what we so often say to God. Yes, lord, I heard that talk about sacrifice but I didn’t really think that you meant it. The cross says emphatically that he did mean it.

I began this sermon with the question, "Why did the cheering stop?" It stopped because Jesus more and more began to talk about commitment; it stopped because Jesus opened up the doors of the church and invited people to come in. But most importantly of all, it stopped because Jesus began to talk about a cross.

www.SermonIllustrations.com

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Nine Winners

Here is an example of a different kind of power: Jesus, a young carpenter, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. His disciples vie for the best seats and he takes a towel and basin to wash their feet. On the cross he meets their evil with a prayer of forgiveness.

The one time Methodist Bishop of Mississippi Jack Meadors tells a wonderful story of an incident that occurred during the Special Olympics. Nine children lined up for the 100 yard dash. The gun sounded and the race was off. But only a few yards into the race, one of the children fell and began to cry. For some reason these challenged children did not understand the world's concept of competition and getting ahead and taking advantage when a competitor was down. The other eight children stopped running and came back to their fallen comrade. A young girl with Down's Syndrome kissed him and brushed him off. The children lifted him up together, arm in arm, they ran over the finish line. The audience rose to their feet in applause. There was not one winner, there were nine winners.

For a fleeting moment these children showed us what the Kingdom of God is like. They challenged the world's concept that first place is everything.

The world says defeating, even destroying, one's competitor is the way to go. The world says that competition and success is an indisputable law. Competition is touted. On Palm Sunday, and then again in the upper room, and then again on the cross, Jesus challenged the world's concept of power.

Staff, www.Sermons.com

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A Strange Man on a Cross Won’t Let Me

In one of our great cities a minister served in a ghetto community. Once while talking with a friend he told him about his work, all the human suffering he saw, and how hard it was for him to face it every day. His friend said to him, "Why don't you just run away from it all?" He replied, "I would do just that, but a strange man on a cross won't let me."

Maybe there are times when some of us are tempted to take the easy way and live only for ourselves, with no concern about the hurts of the world, the challenge of Christ, the call of the church, the demands of the kingdom. But that strange man on a cross who went to face Jerusalem will not let us get away, or get off so easily, or disappear into some safe harbor of escapism. Always He calls us to meet Him in the road and go with Him.

Thomas A. Pilgrim, The Man From Galilee, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.

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VARIOUS ILLUSTRATIONS FOR LITURGY OF THE PASSION, HOLY WEEK, MAUNDY THURSDAY, & GOOD FRIDAY

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A Rush to Easter

Philip Yancey, an editor at Christianity Today magazine, grew up in a fundamentalist church which didn't observe the major events of Holy Week. He never attended a Good Friday service and shied away from crucifixes because they were "too Catholic." He writes, "The church I grew up in skipped past the events of Holy Week in a rush to hear the cymbal sounds of Easter."

We can understand this desire to skip through Holy Week. Jesus on the cross is death, Jesus risen is life! A sanctuary stripped bare for Good Friday is depressing, a lily bedecked sanctuary is glorious! Who doesn't want to skip through Holy Week? Yet, the adult Philip Yancey has learned that the Bible "slows down rather than speeds up when it gets to Holy Week." What the church wants to get through quickly, the Bible takes slowly. One early Christian commentator went so far as to say that the gospels are actually the record of Jesus' final week . . . with extended introductions.

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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Eight Days

Eight days changed the world. These eight days have been the topic of a million of publications, countless debates, and thousands of films. These eight days have inspired the greatest painters, the most skilled architects, and the most gifted musicians. To try and calculate the cultural impact of these eight days is impossible. But harder still would be an attempt to account for the lives of men and women who have been transformed by them. And yet these eight days as they played out in Jerusalem were of little significance to anyone but a few people involved. What happened on those eight days? During the next eight Sundays of Lent and Easter we will look at these eight days in depth but for now let’s summarize:

1. On Sunday the first of the eight days, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to the shouts of Hosanna, fulfilling an old prophecy in Zechariah 9:9.

2. On Monday he walked into the Jerusalem Temple overturning tables where money exchange occurred, Roman drachmas were being exchanged for Jewish shekels. Roman coins were not allowed. The image of Caesar was a violation of the second commandment. But the Temple authorities were using the Commandment as means to cheat the people and making the Temple a place of profit rather than a place of prayer.

3. On Tuesday Jesus taught in parables, warned the people against the Pharisees, and predicted the destruction of the Temple.

4. On Wednesday, the fourth day, we know nothing. The Gospel writers are silent. Perhaps it was a day of rest for him and his weary and worried disciples.

5. On Thursday, in an upper room, Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples. But he gave it a new meaning. No longer would his followers remember the Exodus from Egypt in the breaking of bread. They would remember his broken body and shed blood. Later that evening in the Garden of Gethsemane he agonized in prayer at what lay ahead for him.

6. On Friday, the fifth day, following betrayal, arrest, imprisonment, desertion, false trials, denial, condemnation, beatings and sentencing, Jesus carried his own cross to “The Place of the Skull,” where he was crucified with two other prisoners.

7. On Saturday, Jesus lay dead in a tomb bought by a rich man named Joseph.

8. On Sunday, his Passion was over, the stone had been rolled away. Jesus was alive. He appeared to Mary, to Peter, to two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and to the 11 disciples gathered in a locked room. His resurrection was established as a fact.

Brett Blair and Staff, www.Sermons.com

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MAUNDY THURSDAY & GOOD FRIDAY

When we view the cross I think that somehow we must learn to see our complicity in it. We cannot dismiss this as an act by self-righteous Jews and brutal Romans. We must somehow understand the horrible fact that Satan sometimes uses religious people to accomplish his means. We distort things and before long we call evil good and good evil. Every time we allow sin to seduce us with its distortions, we nail Jesus on the cross once again.

There is an old episode of MASH, in which a rather cocky young pilot comes to the MASH unit because his plane has been shot down, but he is not seriously injured. He tells everyone in a rather boasting voice that flying really gives him a high. If I could not fly this war would really by a drag, he says. He brags that every time he flies a couple of missions they send him back to Japan for several weeks of R & R. The war to him was really quite a lark.

Then one day a Korean child is brought to the MASH unit and her arm has been horribly mangled in an air attack. The young pilot is taken back. Even though it was not his plane that did it, for the first time he must face his own complicity in the brutality of war. For the first time he sees things not from the perspective of 10,000 feet, but in the eyes of a child.

There is a danger in romanticizing the cross. I love the old hymns about the cross just as much as anyone. But the cross is not meant to lull us, it is meant to jolt us.

www.SermonIllustrations.com

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Closed for Good Friday

The bank meltdowns in 2008 reminded me of a true story that I ran across somewhere about a man who was standing in line at a bank last spring when there was a commotion at the counter. A woman was distressed, exclaiming, “Where will I put my money? I have all my money and my mortgage here!! What will happen to my mortgage?!”

It turned out that she had misunderstood a small sign on the counter. The sign read, "WE WILL BE CLOSED FOR GOOD FRIDAY.” I guess she wasn’t familiar with the events of Holy Week, because she thought that the bank was going to be closed “for good” that coming Friday. “WE WILL BE CLOSED FOR GOOD . . . FRIDAY.”

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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The Cross

The government of Polish Prime Minister Jaruzelski had ordered crucifixes removed from classroom walls, just as they had been banned in factories, hospitals, and other public institutions. Catholic bishops attacked the ban that had stirred waves of anger and resentment all across Poland. Ultimately the government relented, insisting that the law remain on the books, but agreeing not to press for removal of the crucifixes, particularly in the schoolrooms.

But one zealous Communist school administrator in Garwolin decided that the law was the law. So one evening he had seven large crucifixes removed from lecture halls where they had hung since the school's founding in the twenties. Days later, a group of parents entered the school and hung more crosses. The administrator promptly had these taken down as well.

The next day two-thirds of the school's six hundred students staged a sit-in. When heavily armed riot police arrived, the students were forced into the streets. Then they marched, crucifixes held high, to a nearby church where they were joined by twenty-five hundred other students from nearby schools for a morning of prayer in support of the protest.

Soldiers surrounded the church. But the pictures from inside of students holding crosses high above their heads flashed around the world. So did the words of the priest who delivered the message to the weeping congregation that morning. "There is no Poland without a cross."

Chuck Colson, Kingdoms in Conflict, pp. 202-203

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Crucifixion

When Lincoln's body was brought from Washington to Illinois, it passed through Albany and it was carried through the street. They say a black woman stood upon the curb and lifted her little son as far as she could reach above the heads of the crowd and was heard to say to him, "Take a long look, honey. He died for you". So, if I could, I would lift up your spirit to see Calvary. Take a long look; He died for you.

Craig Glickman, 7 Words From The Cross, p. 89.

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Were You There?

A Pastor in the Pacific Northwest tells of the dramatization of Christ's trial and crucifixion by the youth group at his church. The youth director played the role of Christ, the youth the jeering mob.

"Crucify him! Crucify him!" they shouted, and then they dragged the youth director into the back yard of the church and hung him up on a improvised cross.

The pastor stood to the side of the assembly, to "see how the drama was going." The youth were hushed now, as "Christ" hung there and spoke these words to the youth group: "Even though you are doing this to me, I still love you." And then, the pastor noticed an eight-year-old girl standing in the front of the group, transfixed by the scene. He looked at her and saw tears streaming down her face.

"And," the pastor states, "I was envious of her." For us "professionals" it was a "performance." For her, it was the real thing. She was there. So often you and I come to a Good Friday service and merely observe what is happening to Christ. We are uninvolved spectators. And yet the savior of the world is hanging there, suffering and dying for your and my sins on the cross.

Donald Deffner, Seasonal Illustrations, Resource, 1992, 46.

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Crucifixion - Medical Description

What is crucifixion? A medical doctor provides a physical description: The cross is placed on the ground and the exhausted man is quickly thrown backwards with his shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flex and movement. The cross is then lifted into place.

The left foot is pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees flexed. The victim is now crucified. As he slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain--the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves. As he pushes himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, he places the full weight on the nail through his feet. Again he feels the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the bones of his feet. As the arms fatigue, cramps sweep through the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push himself upward to breathe. Air can be drawn into the lungs but not exhaled. He fights to raise himself in order to get even one small breath. Finally carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream, and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically he is able to push himself upward to exhale and bring in life-giving oxygen.

Hours of this limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from his lacerated back as he moves up and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins: a deep, crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart. It is now almost over--the loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level—the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues--the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. He can feel the chill of death creeping through his tissues. . .Finally he can allow his body to die.

All this the Bible records with the simple words, "And they crucified Him." (Mark 15:24). What wondrous love is this?

Adapted from C. Truman Davis, M.D. in The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Vol. 8

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Crucifixion

Harry Emerson Fosdick tells this story: Some years ago a little church on the coast of England was ruined in a hurricane. The congregation thought themselves unable to rebuild. Then one day a representative of the British Admiralty came to the clergyman to ask if they intended to reconstruct the church. The clergyman explained why they could not do it. "Well," said the representative of the British navy, "if you do not rebuild the church we will. That spire is on all our charts and maps. It is the landmark by which the ships of the seven seas steer their course." A true parable, that! Never more than now, when the souls of men need divine help, stable and secure, strong, sustaining, and empowering, is the church's message needed.

Though the hurricane of hell brought the sins of the world down upon the body of Christ, crushing the life from its limbs, that body was rebuilt on Easter. And the spire of the cross stands to this day as our chart and map. It is the landmark by which the church and our lives steer their course. The Cross and the empty Tomb: Stable and secure, guiding, strong, sustaining, and empowering help!

Brett Blair, www.Sermons.com

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Crucifixion

At one point early in Julius Caesar's political career, feelings ran so high against him that he thought it best to leave Rome. He sailed for the Aegean island of Rhodes, but en route the ship was attacked by pirates and Caesar was captured. The pirates demanded a ransom of 12,000 gold pieces, and Caesar's staff was sent away to arrange the payment.

Caesar spent almost 40 days with his captors, jokingly telling the pirates on several occasions that he would someday capture and crucify them to a man. The kidnappers were greatly amused, but when the ransom was paid and Caesar was freed, the first thing he did was gather a fleet and pursue the pirates. They were captured and crucified ... to a man! Such was the Romans' attitude toward crucifixion. It was to be reserved for the worst of criminals, a means of showing extreme contempt for the condemned. The suffering and humiliation of a Roman crucifixion were unequaled.

Today in the Word, November 23, 1992

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Crucifixion

If you were to look at Rembrandt's painting of The Three Crosses, your attention would be drawn first to the center cross on which Jesus died. Then as you would look at the crowd gathered around the foot of that cross, you'd be impressed by the various facial expressions and actions of the people involved in the awful crime of crucifying the Son of God. Finally, your eyes would drift to the edge of the painting and catch sight of another figure, almost hidden in the shadows. Art critics say this is a representation of Rembrandt himself, for he recognized that by his sins he helped nail Jesus to the cross.

Unknown

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Order of the Events of the Crucifixion:

Arrival at Golgotha (Calvary), Mt 27:33; Mk 15:22; Lk 23:33; Jn 19:17

Offer of a benumbing drink, Mt 27:34

The crucifixion, Mt 27:35

Cry, "Father, forgive...," Lk 23:34

The parting of Christ's garments, Mt 27:35

Jesus mocked, Mt 27:39-44; Mk 15:29

The thieves rail on Him, but one believes, Mt 27:44

Second cry, "Today you will be with me...," Lk 23:43

Third cry, "Dear woman, here is your son," Jn 19:26-27

The darkness, Mt 27:45; Mk 15:33

The fourth cry, "My God, my God...," Mt 27:46-47; Mk 15:34-36

Fifth cry, "I am thirsty," Jn 19:28

Sixth cry, "It is finished," Jn 19:30

Seventh cry, "Father, into thy hands...," Lk 23:46

Jesus dismisses His spirit, Mt 27:50; Mk 15:37

The New Unger's Bible Handbook, Merrill F. Unger, Revised by Gary N. Larson,

Moody Press, Chicago, 1984, Page 397-398

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POETRY

In Evil Long I Took Delight
In evil long I took delight,
Unawed by shame or fear,
Till a new object struck my sight,
And stopp'd my wild career:

I saw One hanging on a Tree
In agonies and blood,
Who fix'd His languid eyes on me.
As near His Cross I stood.

Sure never till my latest breath,
Can I forget that look:
It seem'd to charge me with His death,

Though not a word He spoke:
My conscience felt and own'd the guilt,
And plunged me in despair:
I saw my sins His Blood had spilt,
And help'd to nail Him there.

Alas! I knew not what I did!
But now my tears are vain:
Where shall my trembling soul be hid?
For I the Lord have slain!

A second look He gave, which said,
"I freely all forgive;
This blood is for thy ransom paid;
I die that thou may'st live."

Thus, while His death my sin displays
In all its blackest hue,
Such is the mystery of grace,
It seals my pardon too.

With pleasing grief, and mournful joy,
My spirit now if fill'd,
That I should such a life destroy,
Yet live by Him I kill'd!

John Newton, 1725-1807

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MAUNDY THRUSDAY
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Wash One Another's Feet

Sociologist Robert Wuthnow of Princeton University has explored how it is that people make everyday ethical decisions. Many people, he found, perform deeds of compassion, service, and mercy because at some point in their past someone acted with compassion toward them. He wrote, "The caring we receive may touch us so deeply that we feel especially gratified when we are able to pass it on to someone else."

He tells the story of Jack Casey, who was employed as an emergency worker on an ambulance rescue squad. When Jack was a child, he had oral surgery. Five teeth were to be pulled under general anesthetic, and Jack was fearful. What he remembers most, though, was the operating room nurse who, sensing the boy's terror, said, "Don't worry, I'll be right here beside you no matter what happens." When Jack woke up after the surgery, she was true to her word, standing right there with him.

Nearly 20 years later, Jack's ambulance team is called to the scene of a highway accident. A truck has overturned, the driver is pinned in the cab and power tools are necessary to get him out. However, gasoline is dripping onto the driver's clothes, and one spark from the tools could have spelled disaster. The driver is terrified, crying out that he is scared of dying. So, Jack crawls into the cab next to him and says, "Look, don't worry, I'm right here with you; I'm not going anywhere." And Jack was true to his word; he stayed with the man until he was safely removed from the wreckage.

Later the truck driver told Jack, "You were an idiot; you know that the whole thing could have exploded, and we'd have both been burned up!" Jack told him that he felt that he just couldn't leave him.

Many years before, Jack had been treated compassionately by the nurse, and because of that experience, he could now show that same compassion to another. Receiving grace enabled him to give grace. Jesus said, "Now that I, your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you should wash one another's feet."

Lee Griess, Taking The Risk Out Of Dying, CSS Publishing Company.

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Two Small Upper Rooms

In his book Life Looks Up, Charles Templeton remarks how ironic it is that the course of human history has been affected so positively and negatively by events that have occurred in two small upper rooms. One of them is a drab flat in London's Westside, dirty, curtainless, with stacks of articles on the table and worn manuscripts, aborted attempts wadded up in the trash can. Seated at the table a man labors over a writing, a writing that would overthrow governments, enslave millions of people, and negatively affect the course of history for a generation to come. The man: Karl Marx; his writing: Das Kapital, the handbook for the Communist revolution.

But there's another upper room that also figures in the course of human history: this one located in one of the oldest cities of the world, Jerusalem, and here also there was a table. Thirteen gather at this table to share a meal and to hear the words of a man whose love and sacrifice would make a lasting impact on human history. His message -- that faith in God, love for one another, and his personal sacrifice would revolutionize governments and change the lives of countless generations of people to come.

How strange it is that some 1800 years later, Karl Marx would proclaim that strife among people, rigid control of possessions, strict limitation of personal freedom and a move toward a godless society would bring about the perfect world that humanity was seeking. Karl Marx could not see that the kind of life that you and I desire had already been given us. Given to us there in the words of Jesus in that upper room.

Lee Griess, Taking The Risk Out Of Dying, CSS Publishing Company. Adapted.

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It’s Not a Snuggie Love – Mark 15:1-39 (40-47) by Leonard Sweet

Now that “March Madness” is over it is time to reclaim our particularities. Part of the “madness” the basketball championships generate is our love for, our longing to be, part of a crowd.

In a crowd we can become a totally different person.

*Shy, reserved people scream until hoarse.

*Non-violent, peace-activists holler for their team to “kill’em!”

*Guys who don’t like to take their shirts off at the beach, paint their bellies blue or green or orange, and hope to get their hairy paunch on national television.

*A stadium full of strangers will energetically work together to create “the Wave.”

In a crowd your own behavior doesn’t have to make sense. What you do doesn’t have to be well thought-out. Before you do what you do you don’t have to draw up any long-range plans.

Crowds have personalities.

*There are joyful crowds — think of Billy Graham stadium revivals, or the Pope’s outdoor Masses, or round-the-world “rock concerts for a cause.”

*There are violent crowds — mobs ransacking Paris, Palestinian youths surging towards Israeli soldiers, British soccer fans rioting out of the stands.

*There are terrified crowds — Manhattan on 9/11; the crush of pilgrims caught in a stampede towards Mecca; wanna-be “Next Super Models” stomping on each other on a city sidewalk.

Whether a crowd’s behavior is “good” or “bad,” constructive or destructive, it can never really be trusted. The crowd-creature will eventually disband and dissipate the emotional energy it had generated. The level of excitement, joy, anger, or fear we feel in a crowd cannot be maintained by a “crowd of one.”

When Jesus approached Jerusalem the atmosphere of excitement that hung in the air suddenly electrified the crowd. Joy was palpable. Hopes were heightened. The crowd began to celebrate Jesus as he rode into the city on that colt, with an exuberance beyond any individual understanding. The cloaks and branches lain down before Jesus honored a King the crowd could not even begin to comprehend.

The crowd’s “Hosannas” praise one who “comes in the name of the Lord,” without the crowd ever knowing that the name of the Lord is Jesus. The crowds bless the “coming of the kingdom,” never realizing they are already standing in the kingdom’s midst.

The crowd’s words are not necessarily hollow or false. But the crowd’s words are uttered only because it “feels good” to celebrate together, not because they have faith. In fact, you might call the love the crowd pours out at Jesus’ feet a 1st century version of “Snuggie love”…