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.