Palm Sunday Message

Palm Sunday Message

Processional Gospel for Palm Sunday : Matthew 21:1-11

1When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” 4This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,5“Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” 6The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 10When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” 11The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

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Message

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

This Sunday is Palm Sunday and where will we all be? Due to the “stay at home” declaration by the Governor we will be in our homes. How can this be? Palm Sunday is such an important day for Christians. It marks the day we remember Jesus riding on a donkey through Jerusalem where “the crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!’” There was so much excitement in the air. Then days later these same people who were full of excitement were now yelling, “Crucify him!” How quickly they changed. How quickly the excitement turned.

I want to share the following story with you. I do not remember the author so I can not give credit where credit is due. If you have heard this story before it is worth hearing again…… It’s a story about a little boy who lived in a small country town where there had never been a circus. He knew about circuses from his school books, but never had he seen a real, live circus. And then one day there was a poster on the side of a building announcing that a circus was coming to his town. Well, he knew right there and then that he must see that circus. So he began to save up for it, and he started counting the days. On the last night before the great event, he was too excited to sleep. He was up before daylight to get all his chores finished and be down on the main street by nine o’clock. Shortly after nine, the great circus parade came down the street. He saw lions and tigers, beautiful horses, tremendous elephants, jugglers, clowns, acrobats, and the circus band. His eyes were wide with excitement. The boy’s feet couldn’t stop jumping up and down, and he couldn’t stop shouting. When the parade finally ended, the little boy stepped out of the crowd, handed his money to the last man in the parade, and went back home. He thought to himself that the circus was just about the greatest thing he had ever seen. It was not until years later that he discovered that he had still really never seen a circus show. The boy had only watched the parade and gone home……..The boy saw the parade but missed the circus. He missed the best, most important part.

The crowds in Jerusalem saw a king for a day, but they missed what was truly important. They missed the best, most important thing about Jesus…. That he had come to give himself away in love…. that Jesus was the Son of God. He was not the type of Savior the people wanted. And so it was easy for them to nail him to the cross in a few short days.

And what about us?.... Do we just see the parade and miss the circus? Do we see and hear bad news all around us as we listen and read endless stories about the Corona Virus and miss the main event? Are we so worried about ourselves that we forget that Jesus came to give himself away? He didn’t come to worry about himself . He came to save His people. He came to save us.

Ironically the word Hosanna means “save us” and that is the cry of many people right now. When we are crying out for God to save us, and looking out for ourselves we are missing the most important part - the part where Christ gives himself away for the people. That is how he saved us. Are we missing the wonderful things God is doing in the midst of a difficult situation? There are people caring for their neighbors in need, there are people reaching out to one another, calling one another, and checking on one another. There are people who are giving themselves away for the sake of others.. God is able to do good things even in the midst of bad situations. Are we missing it? We can grow in our faith during this time, pause and think about what is important and what is not. We can live simply during this time, slow down, and grow in our relationship with God and with others. We can lower our anxiety and rest in a loving Lord. And we too can give ourselves away for the sake of family members, friends, loves ones, and neighbors.

Do we see the glory of Jesus, but miss that he is the Son of God? Do we see the glory of Jesus and miss that he was nailed to the cross for our sake? Do you see the hands of Christ as special hands that have reached across the years to touch our lives even in the midst of an uncertain time?

Holy Week is here. Yes it will be different this year. But may we all still take the time to reflect upon the wonder of our salvation in Jesus. And because he has come to save us, we are free to give ourselves away for the sake of others.

AMEN

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Dear Friends,

I know many are saddened by the fact that we will not be in the church building on Palm Sunday and that we will not be in the church building on Easter Sunday. We will miss the procession of palms and the shouting of Hosanna. Many of us will miss the Holy Week services including Good Friday Tenebrae. We will miss the excitement of Easter morning and the larger than normal crowd in church. Know this….Easter is still going to come. We are still going to celebrate the resurrection, and when we do it will be glorious. When we return to our building we will have an Easter service even though it will not be on April 12th. It will be on a later Sunday when we are back in our building.

See you in Church,

Pastor Tricia