Sermon

John 12:12-43

Palm Sunday Confusion

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John 12:12-43

Palm Sunday Confusion

The Rev. James T. Batchelor

Today is a day of great celebration.  Godly Pilgrims from all over the world have made their way to Jerusalem to celebrate.  The population of the city grows larger every day.  The number of people in Jerusalem is so great that many must leave every evening to camp out on the hills that surround the city.  There is the hustle and bustle of the approaching festival.  Soon the people will celebrate the Passover, the great victory of God when He rescued His people from the slavery of Egypt in the days of Moses.

Among all the Passover Pilgrims who enter Jerusalem this day, one has a different reason for fulfilling the ancient law that requires all the men of Israel to present themselves before the Lord.  He came riding on a donkey, a colt that has never been ridden before.  His disciples and many of the Passover Pilgrims honor Him with praise as He enters Jerusalem.

Yet, our Gospels for this day tell us that there was a lot of confusion concerning this pilgrim who rode into Jerusalem that day.  Those who praised Him gave Him Messianic titles such as Son of David, King of Israel, and so forth.  These titles would have been accurate if the people would have understood their true meaning.  Sadly, many thought that Jesus was coming to use His miracle working power to give them earthly wealth … to drive out the Romans … to restore the empire of Solomon … to make Jerusalem the most important city in the world.  These Passover pilgrims were doing exactly the right thing in praising Jesus.  Sadly, they were doing it for the wrong reasons.

The Pharisees were also confused.  We miss out on the symbolism because the symbol of the Palm Branch is different for us than it was for Israel.  We are used to seeing the six pointed Star of David as the national and religious symbol of Israel, but down through the years, the palm branch has also been a symbol of Israeli pride.  We see palm branches and we think peace.  The Pharisees were afraid the Roman soldiers would see the Palm Branches and think Israeli resistance.  They were terrified that the Romans would interpret the noise as some sort of uprising and send troops to shut it down.

Then there were the Greeks who came to see Jesus.  We focus so much on Israel that we sometimes forget that God has His people in other nations as well.  These Greeks were godly men, but they had not entered into the formalities of the Jewish system.  Even though they were not formal members of the Jewish religion, they looked for the coming of the Messiah.  They had heard the talk.  Could this Jesus of Nazareth be the Messiah?  They wanted to meet Jesus, but as Gentiles, they were not free to move about the temple grounds.  They asked Philip to relay their request to Jesus.  Philip found Andrew and the two of them went to Jesus.

Jesus answered them, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” (John 12:23) No doubt there were some who heard these words who said, “Well, it’s about time.  Now we’ll see something really spectacular.”  No doubt there were a few among the disciples who were enticed by the palms and the hosannas of the crowds.  Now Jesus will reveal His true royal nature.  Now Jesus will drive out the Romans and establish His kingdom on earth.

And as quickly as these temptations arose, they were dashed.  Jesus continued, “Most certainly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24)  What did the preacher say?  Did He just say that His glory is to die and be buried like a seed?

For years, Jesus kept saying, “My hour has not yet come.” (John 2:4; 7:31; 8:21) Now here in Jerusalem after this glorious parade up into the temple, Jesus finally states that his hour has come—and “his hour” refers to His death.  How can death be glorious?

It is interesting that Jesus spoke of Himself as a seed.  Thousands of years earlier, before He took on humanity in the womb of the Virgin, He came to visit Adam and Eve in the Garden.  It was a sad journey.  Adam and Eve had just eaten the forbidden fruit.  As He laid out the consequences of sin, He promised that that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head, but at a price.  The serpent would bite the heel of the woman’s seed.

Now Jesus was in Jerusalem to take the poison of the serpent’s bite while He crushed the serpent’s head.  The poison would kill Him and He would rest like a seed in the earth.  Then, just as a seed germinates, so also would the Son of Man leave the ground and bear much fruit.

Jesus regularly, consistently, and clearly proclaimed His suffering, death, and resurrection.  He clearly proclaimed this as His glory.  He clearly proclaimed this as our salvation.  Never the less, His disciples, the crowds who sang His praise, the Greeks, and the Pharisees were consistently confused.  They were unable to understand that the greatest expression of the glory of God lies in Christ on the Cross where He suffered all in order to forgive the sins of the world.

Jesus wants you to have a share in this glory, but in order to share in this glory, you must die.  Jesus said, “He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life.” (John 12:25)  Jesus used the word life in two ways, life here on this earth and eternal life with Him.  Those who love the life of this world will lose their eternal life.  Those who die to the life of this world already have eternal life. That is what Holy Baptism is about as the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write: “Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.  For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection” (Romans 6:3–5).

There was a lot of confusion on that First Palm Sunday.  Few if any people understood the reason Jesus came to Jerusalem on that day.  We have no excuse for such confusion.  The Bible plainly states that Jesus came to Jerusalem on that day because He had an appointment with a cross on the next Friday.

This coming Thursday and Friday evenings, we will meet here to focus on the gifts Jesus gave us with His passion.  We will focus on the sacrament in which Jesus gives His body and blood to us for the forgiveness of sins.  We will focus on His death on the cross in which Jesus earned forgiveness for all our sins.  As we meditate on that death, let us also remember that Christ’s death is my death for my sin.

Next Sunday we will focus in a special way on Christ rising from death to life, let us also remember that that is my resurrection to life.  Let us remember what the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write: “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

This is the life of the baptized believer … continually dying to sin and rising again to new life in Christ.  This is the way it is for the believer until our Lord takes Him out of this valley of sorrows to Himself in heaven.  There we shall wait for the final day when our bodies will rise to immortality and we shall live forever on the new earth where there will be no need for death because there will be no sin.  While we live on this earth, we look forward to that day when there is no death, but only eternal life.  Amen

Scripture quotations from the World English Bible.

Copyright 2014, James T. Batchelor.  Used by permission.