Last week, we read the story of the raising of Lazarus from the gospel of John – but we didn’t get to the rest of the story.  Because of the miraculous sign Jesus performed through the Spirit of God, John writes that many people believed in him, but others went to the Pharisees to tell them what had happened.

            When the Pharisees heard this, they were horror stricken and called a meeting of the Council – ‘If Jesus keeps performing signs like this’, they exclaim, ‘everyone will believe in him and the Romans will come and destroy us all!’. 

Their fears are well founded.  This is when the high priest Caiphas stands and addresses the crowd, ‘It is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.’  Had we been there, many of us would have agreed with him.  The justice, or rather the peace-keeping forces of Rome were quick to act and slow to show mercy to those who caused an uproar.

            From that day on, they planned to put Jesus to death and put a price on his head giving orders that anyone who knew about Jesus’ whereabouts should let the authorities know so they could arrest him.  From then on Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews.  From then on, his ministry would be as much about politics as it was about mercy and forgiveness.

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            Six days before the Passover, Jesus and the disciples return to Bethany to the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha and this is where we find them as our story opens.  They probably arrive early on a Friday evening, stay there for the Sabbath and enter Jerusalem on Sunday. They make their way along the short journey from Bethany to Jerusalem.  About half way along, they arrive at Bethpage and the Mount of Olives.  It is here that Jesus instructs his disciples to go and find a donkey and a colt tied.  He will ride into Jerusalem on a donkey.

            Although this event is recorded in all four of the gospels, Matthew’s particular take on this event is that this is done to fulfill the scripture in Isaiah 62:11.  But to the religious leaders, the sight of this meddlesome, itinerant preacher who was already a menace to the peace of Israel ascending the mountain to the city of Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, and surrounded by crowds placing palm branched and garments in his path, is – in a word - horrifying. 

For anyone who had studied the law and the history of Israel, the meaning of this procession could not be misunderstood.  But for us to understand it, we will have to go back in time to the reign of Ahab and Jezebel.

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In 2 Kings 9:13, the evil Queen Jezebel still lives although her husband Ahab has died.  In his place are the sons of Ahab who continue to follow after the evil ways of their father.  In a covert action, the prophet Elisha sends a member of the company of prophets who lived with him to secretly anoint Jehu as king of Israel.  The prophet then runs away and Jehu relates to his companions about what has happened – and quickly those companions take off their cloaks and lay them on the ground before him.  Then they blow their trumpets and announce loudly, ‘Jehu is king.’ 

We would hope that a king chosen in this way to rid Israel of these ungodly rulers would worship God fully and would bring the people of Israel back to faithful worship of the living God.  But this would not be the case.  In fact Jehu himself is quoted as saying, ‘Ahab offered Baal small service, but Jehu will offer much more.’

            In fact, each of the four times such a ritual is mentioned in the first testament, those honored in this way were disappointments.  They came into power and swept away all those who came before them and became worse rulers than those whom they deposed.  When the Pharisees saw Jesus approaching the city accompanied thus by the crowds who shouted ‘Hosanna!  Save us son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’  Their worst fears were realized.  Jesus’ intent was obvious:  His new kingdom had no place for them and their world would soon be set upside down.

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            Of course, Jesus would also prove to be a disappointment to the adoring crowds.  They hope for an avenging messiah, a mighty king who would rid them of the hated Romans and depose that hated Edomite King Herod.  They hope for a new King David to bring them a renewed sense of awe and reverence for God.  They long for a new Solomon to bring them peace and wealth and status.

            Palm Sunday is an odd day in the church calendar.  We are still in the middle of our 40 days of Lent.  It is still a week until Easter.  Holy Week is before us with the events of the Last Supper, the Agony in the Garden, the betrayal and the Crucifixion.  In the middle of all this sadness and gloom is a day of celebration.

            When Jesus enters Jerusalem the city is in turmoil.  Everyone is asking ‘Who is this?’  And the people reply, ‘The prophet, Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.’

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            This is Jesus, the Son of the Living God, the second person of the Trinity – and not what anyone expected.

            Jesus approaches the city, surrounded by an adoring throng who laid their cloaks in the road.  They cut palm branches and wave them in the air as he passes by – welcoming him as a hero and a champion.  But they are not interested in who he really is – they want him for who they need him to be.  They are not interested in his message of humble service and forgiving love – they think in terms of power and glory.  They want him to forcefully take power from the powerful and give power to the powerless – to violently upset the status quo.  They don’t want a suffering Messiah - they want Israel’s former glory.

            The scribes, Pharisees and priests also think in terms of power and glory – and peace and safety.  They want power and glory for themselves because they have invested their lives in playing by the rules to get to where they are now – and they have worked too hard to give it up or hand it over.

            They know, too, that if these followers of Jesus continue to grow in number and continue to make a fuss, then the fury of Rome will fall on all of them.  They can’t afford to make waves and they can’t afford to let Jesus do so either.

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            In his book, Comeback Churches, Ed Stetzer writes, ‘Most evangelical churches are filled with people who live very much like the world but look different from it.  It should be just the opposite.’  He writes that many Christians live like non-Christians - they just look different because they associate with the trappings of Christianity

They focus on the self.  They care most about ‘what’s in it for me’.  They rationalize sin telling themselves that ‘God understands’.

If we are really Christians, if we are really relying of Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith, then like Jesus we should be willing to confront the powers of darkness, the powers of politics, the powers of a society gorged with the blood of the innocents.

Like Jesus, our principal aim should not be comfortable lives, healthy families, or long lives – our principal aim should be to do the will of the one who sent Jesus – to do the will of God, to live lives of humble service to others, to seek justice, to care for the poor, the orphan, the widow and the stranger.

If we are truly believers in the Messiah, the lord Jesus Christ, we need to do more than wave palm branches with the fickle crowd in the road to Jerusalem; we need to journey with Jesus to Jerusalem.  We need to journey with Christ to Gethsemane, to Pilot and to Golgotha.

 If we are truly believers in the Messiah, then like Jesus we will lay down our lives for others.  We will lay aside our desires to do the will of the one who sent us.  We will put others first and ourselves last.

As Jesus rode up the hill to Jerusalem, he did just this.

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The good news for us this day is that Jesus did go and Jesus did do.  He looked at the crowds who surrounded him and saw them as they were and loved them anyway.  He lifted his eyes to the city and saw the politics and the corruption and loved them too.

He disappointed the crowds, but he did the will of his father.

And he looked forward to today, to this morning and saw us with all our failings and our doubts and loved us as well.

Let us go out into this week to live in God’s love, to love others as God loves us, to give our own lives in the service of others.  Amen.