One Palm Sunday, a mother took her three-year-old nephew to Church. When the ushers walked down the aisle with armloads of palms, the little boy cried out, "Oh boy, corn on the cob!" (1)
At another Palm Sunday service, a woman was holding her 5-year-old niece on her lap while they listened to the pastor's sermon. The preacher described Jesus' approach to Jerusalem and how the crowds cried, "Hosanna, Hosanna!"
At that, the little girl perked up and began to singing, "Oh, Hosanna, now don't you cry for me, I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee!" (2)
I. Triumph to Tragedy
Churches celebrate Palm Sunday in different ways. We have our Palm Parade with the kids. At one church the people meet in a room beneath the sanctuary. When everyone is ready they emerge through a side door to process around the outside of the church. Joining in the procession are people waving palm leaves, others playing musical instruments, including the bagpipes, while others are shouting and singing, "Hosanna." This celebration has become an important tradition in their church.
One year when Dr. Walter Bruggemann was pastor, he and the rest of the procession were outside when a young man living in the apartment house across the street threw up the window and shouted, "What's all that noise? You sound like the Salvation Army!"
Dr. Bruggemann looked up at him and said, "Son, we are the salvation army!" (3)
What better way to sum up the events of the first Palm Sunday than to call it a salvation army parade? Jesus and his ragtag army paraded outside the city gates. The time had come. The day of salvation was at hand.
Palm Sunday IS a day of celebration. Or at least it always starts that way because we try to relive a small portion of that day when Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem. It's a day of victory filled with palm branches and parades. A day when Jesus was EXALTED.
But it's also a day that reminds of another parade. One that was meant to be a parade of shame. And while it certainly was a painful parade, it lead to the ultimate victory and the Cross where Jesus was lifted up and EXALTED for all of creation.
Let's look at the first passage of Scripture: Luke 19:28-40 (NRSV)
[28] After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
[29] When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples,
[30] saying, "Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here.
[31] If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it.' "
[32] So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them.
[33] As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?"
[34] They said, "The Lord needs it."
[35] Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.
[36] As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road.
[37] As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen,
[38] saying, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!"
[39] Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, order your disciples to stop."
[40] He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out."
Jesus was exalted. Jesus was exalted by the crowds. And even though there were objections, nothing could stop this parade. Nothing could stop this joyous celebration of the Jesus as Messiah. And because of this triumphal entry, because of the tension and expectations it caused, TRIUMPH CHANGED TO TRAGEDY.
Luckily, for us, our God is a God of reversal. TRIUMPH WENT TO TRAGEDY as Jesus was arrested, tried and crucified. But God had the last laugh, because God changed TRAGEDY TO TRIUMPH.
II. Tragedy to Triumph
Let's look at the passage of Scripture which describes the TRAGEDY OF THAT FIRST GOOD FRIDAY.
John 19:14-30 (NRSV)
[14] Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon. He said to the Jews, "Here is your King!"
[15] They cried out, "Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!" Pilate asked them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but the emperor."
[16] Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus;
[17] and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha.
[18] There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them.
[19] Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews."
[20] Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek.
[21] Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write, 'The King of the Jews,' but, 'This man said, I am King of the Jews.' "
[22] Pilate answered, "What I have written I have written."
[23] When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top.
[24] So they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it." This was to fulfill what the scripture says, "They divided my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots."
[25] And that is what the soldiers did. Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
[26] When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son."
[27] Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.
[28] After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), "I am thirsty."
[29] A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth.
[30] When Jesus had received the wine, he said, "It is finished." Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Author, speaker, teacher Tony Campolo tells how he was asked to be a counselor in a junior high camp. He says everybody ought to be a counselor at a junior high camp. A junior high kid's concept of a good time, Tony says, is picking on people. "And in this particular case, at this particular camp, there was a little boy who was suffering from cerebral palsy. His name was Billy. And they picked on him."
As Billy walked across the camp with his uncoordinated body the other kids would line up and imitate his grotesque movements. Tony watched him one day as he was asking for direction. "Which . . . way is . . . the . . . craft . . . shop?" he stammered, his mouth contorting. And the boys mimicked in that same awful stammer, "It's . . . over . . . there . . . Billy." And then they laughed at him. Tony was irate. Tony's furor reached its highest pitch on Thursday morning. It was Billy's cabin's turn to give devotions. Tony wondered what would happen, because they had appointed Billy to be the speaker. Tony knew that they just wanted to get Billy up there to make fun of him. As Billy dragged his way to the front, you could hear the giggles rolling over the crowd. It took him almost five minutes to say seven words. These were the words: "Jesus . . . loves . . . me . . . and . . . I . . . love . . . Jesus."
When Billy finished, there was dead silence. Tony looked over his shoulder and saw junior high boys bawling all over the place. A revival broke out in that camp after Billy's short testimony. Tony says that as he travels all over the world, he finds missionaries and preachers who say, "Remember me? I was converted at that junior high camp." The counselors had tried everything to get those kids interested in Jesus, says Tony. They even imported baseball players whose batting averages had gone up since they had started praying. But God didn't use the superstars. He chose to use a kid with cerebral palsy. (5)
Why did I tell that story now? Because the crowds, the Pharisees, the Sadduccees, Herod, Pilate everyone involved, even the disciples believed that the Cross was defeat. Everyone that is except Jesus.
Everyone believed crucifixion was the worst form of punishment ever invented and it was reserved for the worst offenders. There's no way, God could use anyone who'd been crucified, let alone, let their own Son die on the cross. That's ludicrous.
But Jesus knew that our God is a God of reversal who likes to take our beliefs and stand them on their head. Who likes to take the weak and make it strong. Who loves taking the least and making it the most. Who loves taking the small and defeating the mighty.
What God did through Billy at that Junior High camp is exactly what God did for the world through the Cross. God took the most unlikely scenrario possible and stood it on its head to save us from sin and death. God took the TRAGEDY OF THE CROSS and turned it into A TRIUMPH OVER SIN AND DEATH. And in so doing, JESUS WAS EXALTED, AGAIN.
Conclusion
Today we come to a very special memorial service. That's really what the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is. At the Last Supper, Jesus told the disciples to "do this in remembrance of me." They had no idea what he was talking about. They hadn't understood what he meant when He said He was the Bread of life. They hadn't understood His directions when He broke the bread or gave thanks over the cup. This whole talk about His body being the Bread and His blood being the wine just didn't compute.
But now it does. We may not understand it fully but we understand that it represents His sacrifice for us. We understand that His was the last sacrifice. That no more blood sacrifices need to be made. We understand and feel His presence every time we come to His table.
And one of the reasons we remember is because Jesus is once again exalted. Today we celebrate two parades. The Parade of a Palms. A TRIUMPH TO TRAGEDY. But we also celebrate the parade of shame, the parade to the cross which became a TRAGEDY TO TRIUMPH.
Come to the Table this morning and let Christ be EXALTED Through you.
1. Margaret M. Sevigny, Sanford, MN in Redbook, April, 1990
2. Brenda Fossum, Duluth, MN. Today's Christian Woman, "Heart to Heart."
3. FAMILY FAITH STORIES. Ann Weems. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1985, pp. 139-140.
4. Tony Campolo, DISCIPLESHIP JOURNAL, Issue Eighty-Four, p. 66.