Experience Palm Sunday

WELCOME

Pastor Chris Paavola:

Amen. You guys can go ahead and grab a seat. Wonderful to be with you guys. Good morning. Good morning. You got litter all over my stage, palm branches all over the place. My name’s Chris Paavola. I get the joy and honor of being the senior pastor here at St. Mark. It’s wonderful to be with you guys as we celebrate Palm Sunday. This is a big day, man. Palm Sunday leads in and it’s like the first part of this longer week called Holy Week that leads up to this thing called Easter, and it is, it’s such an important time of year that leads up to what I consider to be the most important event in human history. And so you guys being here today, it’s awesome to be celebrating this with you, but full disclosure, I get it. If you are a guest with us today, you’re here because your grandkid or your niece or your nephew we’re singing up here and you haven’t been to church in a while or ever before and you walk in, it’s kind of weird to be handed this non-native plant and then sing with or say words that are non-native tongue like Hosanna.

What is that? I get that. This is all very strange and unsettling. You’re in a church in the first place and then you got all this weird symbolism happening, and so I get it, but there’s a reason for that. Obviously you heard the story and there’s the history of the story, but information and facts are only so much. And at some point, centuries ago, we don’t know when some guy decided, you know what we should do? We should give people palm branches that will help them remember the story a little bit better. Because what is a palm branch? If you’ve ever been a teacher or anything like that, there’s this, it’s a multisensory thing. You’re putting something, letting kids touch it and see it and smell it even and hear the sound of branches and stuff. It’s a multisensory thing and it’s a way of taking this and showing the importance of this event.

It’s beyond just information and facts about here’s historically what happened on this day, and now we’re adding onto it a multisensory thing to try to learn and remember and imprint this on our hearts. And that’s a good thing. But I think there’s more we can do actually, because our mission statement at St. Mark actually is that we lay down our lives, or in other words, we do whatever it takes. We lay down our lives. So as many as possible experience, Jesus, we want you to experience him beyond just facts and information like the multisensory things, but there’s other things that we can do today to help you experience poem Sunday is giving you some of the emotions of this day, and there is a ton of emotion in this story and actually tension that you just read it and you’re like, okay, there’s a story.

BACKSTORY of PALM SUNDAY

You don’t pick up on how incredibly tense this scene is. It’s like if you were at a gas station and you saw a guy pumping gas and smoking a cigarette, you’d be like, oh, this could get exciting at any moment, right? Same thing. Same thing in this story. There’s this tension like, oh, this might pop off any second, and we miss it because we see pictures and movies and people smiling and waving. We miss how absolute tense the scene was. What I’d like to do this morning very briefly is unpack some of the tension that’s kind of lurking in the background of the story that’s in between the lines. And so then we can get into some of the emotions of the story and to give you an emotion so that you can process, well, why does Palm Sunday even matter to me? And so, the first tension is the recent history that predates this event called the Palm Sunday.

So just before this, a few years earlier, about three decades earlier, there was a guy named Simon of Peraea, and there was a census that should be taken of the entire Roman world. You remember that story from the Christmas story? Well, Simon decided, no, I’m not going to take this census because that’s the oppressive Roman regime is this Jewish guy, Simon. He’s like, no, I’m not going to do it. And he actually ends up, he gets a bunch of rebels together with him like Insurrectionists, and they stage a takeover and they attack a Roman garrison and they kill all of the Roman soldiers. And this happens in this city called Phos.

Rome, as you would expect, responds swiftly and in force, and they behead Simon, they kill all two -thousand of his soldiers and crucify them and line the streets leading up to the town, and then they burn the entire town down as an example of this is what we will do to anyone who dares to call themselves the king thing over Caesar. So, it was this thing that just happened right before Jesus. Before that there was another guy named Matthias, and Matthias was this priest in Jerusalem and he refused to sacrifice and allow sacrifices to the Greek gods in Jerusalem as he would expect. That’s what a Jew would like. No, you’re not doing this in my holy city. And he kills the soldiers who are trying to make this happen. And the people of Jerusalem join him and they have this little coop dets, this little rebellion in Jerusalem, and they cast out everybody in the city of Jerusalem. It’s called the Maccabean Revolt. As the people are celebrating the liberation of Jerusalem, they cut down palm branches and wave it at the retreating enemies as they leave the city like, nah, nah, nah, nah. Hey, hey, goodbye. Right? And the Palm Branch becomes a symbol of liberation of the revolution against our oppressors.

Just before that few years earlier, the people of Israel were enslaved in this country called Egypt underneath a Pharaoh, and there is this festival they celebrate called the Passover when they escaped from Egypt and had an exodus and this miraculous escape that they believe God rescued them from the hand of Pharaoh. It’s called the Passover. And it just so happens that Jesus is riding into Jerusalem to celebrate the festival, remembering their liberation, and as he rides in people dare to call him a king and wave symbols of revolution. It is a tense scene because who’s watching this? Well, there’s the Jewish soldiers of King Herod. King Herod is the puppet king underneath the emperor Caesar. And so there’s Jewish soldiers watching this happen, religious leaders watching this happen, and Roman soldiers watching this happen and they’re like, come again. Who’s coming in the name of the Lord?

That’s what’s going on. And so, understanding then that lets us get a glimpse into the tension that’s in this story, that this thing could pop off at any moment, and then we can get into the emotion that I think we miss and will help us process the importance of Palm Sunday.

MATTHEW

So, let’s look at this.

8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Matthew 21

This is from Matthew 21 verse eight, and it says “a very large”, say that word, “crowd”.

Response: Crowd.

Pastor Chris Paavola: We’re going to come back to that three times. Matthew mentions this thing called crowd. I think he’s trying to make a point, but this “very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road”. So, it’s kind of this idea like chivalry gentlemen take off their jacket, lay it on a puddle so the princess can walk over it without getting her dress wet or dirty. Or we do this for brides when they come in, we throw rose petals, they walk on a carpet of rose petals to their wedding.

It’s this idea of you are the dignitary. You can’t sullen your feet and dirty your feet like us common people. You need to be elevated and celebrated in this moment. And that’s what they’re doing to Jesus. They lake their own coats down and then they cut down palm branches. But you already know what this means. It’s not just to line the road. It’s also a symbol of revolution, and they spread them on the road. John and his accounts sas that they waved them in the air and kind of have these banners, like impromptu banners. And then verse nine, the crowds that went ahead of him and those that follow shouted these phrases and all four of the biographies of Jesus, they all have an account of this important moment. It’s a pretty big deal. And they all kind of mention that the crowd says different things, and that’s not because they’re one’s wrong and one is right, it’s just that it’s a big crowd, thousands of people.

So you might hear something over here that’s different than what someone overhear hears or back there here, right? So, they’re all kind of noticing different things about this event. They’re eyewitnesses of this thing.

“Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Mark 11

And so, Mark mentions that the crowd says “Hosanna”, and it’s this Hebrew word that means save. So here comes this king riding on a donkey. Everyone’s waving these symbols of revolution and they’re saying, save us. Oh, savior, rescue us. Oh, rescuer deliver us. Oh, deliverer. This is not like, oh, he’s come to save us from our sins. Very few people, if any had that in mind. They were thinking, it’s time to kick Rome out. That’s all they’re thinking. So, they’re thinking, save us from these cruel oppressors. And Jesus has something else entirely in mind.

“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord” Luke 19

And then they say, “blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”. This is from God. Our God is greater than all the Roman gods. Our God. This man is on a mission from God like the blues brother. He’s on a mission. You cannot stop him.

Luke in his account says, the crowd dares to yell. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, the king, you guys. If Jesus is king, then Herod is not. This is not a democracy. If Jesus is king, Caesar is not. This is about as discreet as a foghorn. It is so obvious that this is the beginning of some kind of insurrection and everyone knows it. They called him king. And actually in a few days, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor before Jesus’ crucified, has an audience where he questions. Jesus is an audience with Jesus, and he asks him, are you the king of the Jews?

And then later the Roman soldiers, they beat and slap and spit on Jesus, and they make a faux crown of thorns and put it on his head and mock him saying, hail king of the Jews. And then they lead him to a cross, and his lifeless body hangs on a cross. They put a sign over his head that’s written in Latin, Aramaic and Hebrew. This is the king of the Jews, and it is a message. This is what happens to anyone who dares to declare themselves king over Caesar. His fate is just like Simon of Peraea, King.

10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” 11 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” Matthew 21                                                     

And the Matthew continues. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city whispered, I love, love, love that line. The whole city was stirred and they asked, who is this? So Jesus is riding outside of Jerusalem. He’s coming down this hill and crossing over the valley, and he enters into the city gates, and it’s to fulfill this prophecy that the Messiah will come to us riding on the colt, the full of a donkey, and that he will ride through the city gates. And we read that Psalm together a little earlier in our service. Lift up your head’s, Oye gates, that the king of glory may come in. There is no mistaking what Jesus is claiming in this moment. And the crowds answered, this is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. And as I was getting ready for this sermon and I was thinking through everything, just trying to take it in, God, what are you trying to say to the people this morning? And that line, who is this jumped out at me? It just kind of was like, huh?

It’s a good question. And I think because it is interesting. If you get to Jesus’s motives, why did Jesus do this? And I think the answer is right there in verse 10. Why would Jesus go through this impromptu parade?

WILLIE NELSON

When I was my early twenties, I lived in Austin, Texas. It’s a great city, the live music capital of the world. It is. It’s a fantastic, there’s music happening all the time. And one Saturday afternoon, I went to a record store called Waterloo Records, and I’m standing there and I’m looking through bins of records and kids, they have these things called CDs that they used to sell, and we had to spend money to listen to music. It was crazy and it was wild. And I’m looking at, I don’t know, like Dave Matthews or something. I am looking through these albums and CDs and stuff, and right next to this aisle, the store is everything you imagine. The floor is kind of sticky and it has black painted walls and concert posters everywhere and stuff.

But there’s the stage right next to the aisle of records and CDs. This stage that’s five by 10 maybe, not big at all. And it has these speakers on the floor in front of it, and then it has behind it, these tall speakers behind it on stands. And this employee comes up and he starts putting down a drum set that’s just like a simple drum set, kick drum snare symbol, like high hat symbol, right? Just very simple setup. And I am sitting there and I go, oh, hey, are you having music today? And he’s like, yeah, we’re going to have a band. I was like, who’s the band? He’s like, I don’t know. They don’t tell us. They just told me to go get set up. I’m like, oh, cool. Well, I’ll stick around. So, I kind of slide down and look at Pearl Jam or something, right?

So I’m looking at different albums and stuff, and then another guy walks in and he puts down a bass guitar, and then he puts down two guitars. And one of those guitars I recognized, not like the make and model recognized like, no, no, no, no. That guitar specifically is very special. It is this really worn guitar. It’s a classical guitar with nylon strings, and it’s been so worn out, it’s starting to make grooves and holes through the rest of the guitar. And I’m like, I know this guitar. And I look at the front door and there’s a glass front window to the whole store and the sun’s shining, and I’m not kidding. There’s the door opens and there’s this silhouette of a man coming with a halo glowing around him, and he’s got two long pigtails. I can see it through the silhouette. And I’m like, oh my gosh, who was it?

Willie walked into the store, I’m not kidding. And I’m like, this is amazing. And he comes walking up and I’m like, hello, Mr. Nelson. And he nods at me, stands right here, and he just picks up the guitar and they start playing a concert and there’s maybe 10 people in the store. It is not full at all. And I’m looking around, I’m like, this is, you’re Willie Nelson, and this is crazy. So I’m standing there, I feel like I’m really too close to him, but everyone, so we’re grabbing our phones and we’re calling and we’re like, you got to come to Waterloo Records. Willie Nelson is giving a free concert. And so, we’re standing there, and in the next hour, hour and a half, I kid you not, by the end of it, it was standing room only hundreds of people breaking a fire code packed out the place. It was so loud and raucous. It was one of the core memory of my life. And I’m standing there watching Willie Nelson. I could touch him the whole time. I’m like, this is unbelievable. And it was kind of socially awkward, but it was okay. And then the concert got done and he just walked off. And why did Willie Nelson do that?

Why did Willie Nelson give a free concert at a record store in Austin? You said it. He wanted to make new fans. I wouldn’t have bought a ticket to a Willie Nelson concert, but now I’m a fan. Jesus has this like original OG flash mob, the impromptu parade.

10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked “Who is this?” 11 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” Matthew 21

So, “the whole city was stirred everybody and” the crowds will “ask, who is this?” Who is this that’s coming? And I realized something as I was looking at that question this week that someone just like you was in the crowds that day because it wasn’t just fans, it was people surprised by the moment in the crowds. It was young and old, rich and poor, male and female, black, white, Asian, European, African believers, doubters, people not sure, religious people, irreligious people, prostitutes, tax collectors, fishermen and carpenters.

And someone just like you was in the crowds that day asking, who is this? Why does this matter? What’s going on? And today is an important day, not because a parade happened. Millions of parades have happened in history, and if this is just a parade, this is just no different than Macy’s Thanksgiving parade or something like that. But the reason today matters is because what happens later on, and we know now this isn’t a parade. This is a procession of a king to a throne shaped like a cross and an empty tomb where we believe he rose from the dead. And unless Easter Sunday happens, none of this matters. But because Easter Sunday happens, all of it does.

And whoever you are this morning, as you sit here thinking about and considering Jesus, whether you’re like, yep, it’s the son of God, or nope, conman, he’s a fraud. He’s just another guy in a long line who’s sincere, but he’s not God in the flesh. Wherever you are in the crowds that follow Jesus, you can’t draw that conclusion yet. You got to keep following him in the crowds because the crowds are everywhere in this story.

EXPERIENCE

After Palm Sunday, there’s Monday, Thursday, I am inviting you to come back. If you are here today, if you can hear the sound of my voice or wherever, come on back and experience Jesus through the history and the multisensory elements and the emotions of Monday, Thursday when he takes the Passover and he says, no, no, no, this is my meal. This is my feast, my coronation.

Then come back again on Friday for good Friday when we remember his death, he walks through the crowds carrying across, and people ask, who is this? And he is crucified on Golgotha, and we’re going to have our services at six 30 on Friday. Come on back and experience the information, the multisensory elements and the emotion of his death. That’s not all. Come on back on Easter Sunday. We have services at seven. That’s a traditional service, kind of a sunrise service. No, we have three different services at 8 15, 9 30, and 10 45. Listen to me, 11 o’clock, what time on Sunday? 10 45. Listen, we’ll know, we’ll know, we’ll have, have everyone turn around at 11 and be welcome, our guests. Anyway, we won’t do that. We won’t do that. But the point is, on Easter, we’re going to experience his resurrection with the crowds because we’re going to read kind of an account that’s not necessarily one that’s commonly read, where it talks about how the whole city is stirred and asks the question, who is this? What happened?

And after that, after you experience Easter with the information and the emotion and the multisensory elements of Easter, then I think whoever you are in the crowds that follow Jesus can answer that question. You might just kind of shrug your shoulders, or you might join saints from centuries gone by and saying, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, and you say for yourself the first time, Hosanna, let me pray for us.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, I pray right now, wherever we are in our faith journey, that you would make our hearts ready to celebrate Easter like never before, deeper and more meaningful than ever note, and that we just experienced Jesus and all of the elements leading up to that triumphant day.

Thank you, God, for sending your son to be our king of glory to save us. We pray. Now, the prayer he taught us to pray, saying together, our Father who arts in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. Just a couple.