When we look at what happened during Palm Sunday to Good Friday at Jerusalem some two thousand years ago, it was almost like one of those “Good news and Bad news” moments, or even like one of those good news and bad news jokes. It is also very similar to what often happened to us during our life time, good news one moment, bad news another moment.
The good news in what happened during Palm Sunday was that our Lord Jesus Christ reached the very high point of his earthly ministry; the very high point of his popularity during this particular week two thousand years ago. He rode just like a king of peace in a triumphal procession into the holy city of Jerusalem.
There was a very big parade with lots and lots of pomp and circumstance. It seems as though everybody in the city had turned out, the disciples were, naturally very impressed; after all, they were only human beings. The Pharisees and the Sadducees suddenly realized that they had all this time underestimated this simple Galilean teacher and miracle worker.
With all this very high level of public approval, Jesus went to the temple, the very centre of the Jewish faith of the time and began to teach and preach there.
From Sunday all the way to Thursday there was nobody who could stop Jesus from doing what he wanted to do in the holy city of Jerusalem.
As we can read from the Bible, there were several times when opponents of Jesus tried to trick him – but all the time they got nowhere at all. Each time Jesus turned the tables on them and exposed their treachery to the people present at such encounters.
Nobody ever seriously complained about any of Jesus’ activities, and even the Temple guards did nothing when Jesus overturned the tables of the moneychangers as well as let the sacrificial birds loose.
During this very same period of time, as you may remember as recorded in the Gospel of John 13:34: Jesus established the basis of a new commandment to love one another, just as he has loved you, you should also love one another. This is the commandment that forms all the basis of all the commandments, for how can you say that you love God if you do not love your own brothers and sisters in Christ, who are all His children? If you do love one another, will you be hurting them by stealing from them, from killing them or their loved ones, or by committing adultery? You will not, right?
“Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
Love one another, as I have loved you, so you must love one another.
It was also during this week that Jesus began a new ceremony with bread and wine which would later on, become the sacrament of Holy Communion or the Eucharist.
You might just turn around with impatience or puzzlement and ask me, “So, what is the bad news out of all that?”
The bad news is that on Thursday of that particular week some two thousand years ago our Lord Jesus Christ was betrayed and arrested, and on Friday he was hung up on a cross just like a common criminal and died. The death and what happened to him before he was killed was the most humiliating and cruelest method of execution that the Romans could have come up with.
Today we are having the palms – tomorrow we will be having the passion – good news and bad news – unfortunately not a joke at all.
The very sad and grim truth we had from the reading of today is that it was some of the very same people who shouted “Hosanna” on Sunday who shouted “Crucify him,” just a few days later.
The hero of everybody on that Sunday in Jerusalem became a bloody sacrifice, as well as an object of scorn, insult and hatred of some of the people who cheered him.
Is there anything at all we can learn from all this?
Of course there is, otherwise, I will not be standing here wasting your time or my time talking to you about it. It has been the custom of many preachers in looking for that lesson by focusing on the experience of the people around Jesus at the time, and from what they say and do and than come up with a message that goes like this:
“Do not be like those who cheered one day and jeered the next day. Be faithful and see yourself as one of Jesus’ loyal follower every day, every hour, every minute, every second of your life in this world.”
That by itself is already a very good message – and that message lies underneath our prayers and our liturgies of today.
However, I would like to suggest to you, very briefly, that perhaps there is something that we may be able to learn from putting ourselves in the place of Jesus rather than in the shoes of the people surrounding him.
What do you think was Jesus’ experience in the middle of all this up and down? What do you think was Jesus’ feelings on this whole big bundle of events and happenings that took place all the way within the short space of only a few days, from Palm Sunday to Good Friday?
Perhaps it is much easier to get at this by asking the question which no many people dare to ask: “What if Jesus had stayed in Galilee and retired at the end of the day as an old rabbi full of wisdom and compassion?”
Indeed what would have happened? Maybe this question can help to remind all of us of something that some of us find easy to forget – maybe it can help us to remember that Jesus was the one who CHOSE his own path. Maybe it will help us to remember that it was his own choice to leave the relative safety of Galilee and his ministry in the hills and villages, and instead of safety he CHOSE to confront the powers of both politics and religion of his day in the very centre, in the holy city of Jerusalem. What he did was all his own choice. It was his choice to be obedient to the will of the Father. To be obedient all the way to death, and the most humiliating and painful death of all, death on a cross.
This is a reminder to us that all the uphill – downhill, good news – bad news, palms one day – passion the next day, had nothing REALLY to do with what Jesus was all about.
Jesus saw in all this, the entire purpose of his life in this world. A life in terms of proclaiming to all of mankind a new relationship with God, a relationship full of intimate familial love, and nothing could truly intervene in the purpose of his. Not even popularity, or acceptance from the people, or the full knowledge of the kind of fate awaiting him.
When Jesus came to Jerusalem, he was neither excited nor deceived by the applause of the crowds. Nor was he feeling downcast by the treachery, or the desertion of his disciples, and the seemingly complete reversal of fortune that he would have to go through.
As we have been hearing during the last few weeks of Lent – Jesus knew what will be happening to him. He even knew that Peter will be denying him three times, and that his closest disciple and friend would be the one claiming to have no knowledge of him and have absolutely nothing to do with him when Peter was put to the test.
Whether with popular acclaim – or in all the denial and rejection – Jesus made it plain to everyone that he was not ruled by human feelings and events of the minute, but rather he was walking step after step along a path which would eventually lead him to the one and only source of true and lasting meaning for him and ultimately for everyone of us. He was moving towards all the way towards the fulfillment of God’s will, both for him and through him for the whole world. He was walking all the way towards the achieving and fulfilling of God’s plan of Salvation for mankind.
It did not matter to Jesus whether the path seemed to reach a peak from which there was no way to go but down. Jesus knew that his goal in this world was not the top of the mountain, not popularity from the masses, or earthly power or applause from the people.
It also did not matter to him that the path seemed to lead into, and end in the valley of the shadow of death, although he would have willed for himself some other course, if that course could still be true to the will of the Father, the will that he accepted as perfect.
No, regardless of appearance, regardless of the popularity that Jesus found himself to be in with the people, and regardless of the suffering and the humiliation that Jesus knew that he will be going through soon, Jesus chose to be true to his mission, he chose to be obedient to the very end; knowing, hoping, praying that in that, regardless of what might be happening, he will be under girded, surrounded, and encompassed by the presence, the mercy, and the love of God the Father.
It is a very good lesson for all of us to remember.
Indeed it is a good lesson for every one of us to remember.
If we depend upon the events of life to give us reward and satisfaction, then we may never be able to achieve them or we may have them snatched away in the very moment of tasting victory. We are after all, never sufficient to help even ourselves, or to prolong our life in this world by even one day, however, with the help of God, whose powers and grace are all sufficient, we can with certainty achieve victory, if not today, tomorrow.
Many years ago, I was working as marketing manager of the building materials department of a German trading company here in Hong Kong. I managed during the first year of my employment with that company to increase business volume by over 100 per cent; I was winning tenders after tenders, I was the hero of the company and of the suppliers at the time. One of the supplies was so happy with me that they sent a manager from Germany to see me. He was to present me with a bottle of champagne, a gift and to buy me the most expensive dinner that they could buy in Hong Kong. During the second year increased business volume of that particular department by an additional twenty per cent. However, due to the company thinking that the department is now on track can go on being successful without me, and they could save a lot of money by getting rid of me, and promoting one of my junior salesmen to take my place, I was literally thrown out of the company. What a perfect example of being popular and of defeat!
We may be at the peak of our lives, with money, health, security, friends, but – in those terms – there is nowhere for us to go but downhill in the weeks, months, and years ahead of us.
On the other hand, we – like Christ – have the chance and the opportunity to walk our own unique path of obedience towards God, our Father in heaven.
It is a path which may see us surrounded by enjoyment, possessions, and popularity, or it may very well lead us into loneliness, misunderstanding and even poverty. What does wealth and riches means to you and me, even if we are as wealthy and successful as people like Li Kar Shing or Stanley Ho, if we are to die the next moment and ended up at the very gates of hell?
None of these worldly things will finally give life its meaning. They are all pointless. They are all vanity.
Up hill or down hill, it is the final destination which really counts at the end of the day, and nobody’s life can be more well spent than in seeking to find and to do God’s will. If we seek and do God’s will, we can at the end when it is time for us to go home to our Father in heaven, claim that we have run a good race, and fight a good fight.
Because, after all, the journey from Palm Sunday to Good Friday was not just one of those good news – bad news joke.
There was the final good news of the resurrection of Jesus which redeemed all of us, and which reminds us that God can take any situation – no matter how bad or hopeless a situation may seem to be to us human beings, and make it into good news for everyone of us.
Practically everyone has known the taste of Palm Sunday, the sweetness of success and popularity, and nearly all of us have tasted the bitterness of Good Friday, of failure and rejection.
What saves us from an endless round of ups and downs, what frees us from the tyranny of events over which we have absolutely no control is our commitment to press forward in total obedience to God – it is trust in God’s love to bring about Easter morning, - knowing full well that the meaning of life is to be found in the knowledge and love of God, – and in sharing that knowledge and love with those who accompany us on the way.
Before I stop, I would like to share a story with you:
The donkey woke up, even after a good night’s sleep; his mind was still savoring the afterglow of the most exciting day of his life. Never before had he felt such a rush of pleasure and pride. He walked into town and found a group of people by the well. “I’ll show myself to them,” he thought. But they did not notice him. They went on drawing their water from the well and paid him no attention whatsoever.
“Throw your garments down,” he said crossly. “Do you not know who I am?”
They just looked at him in amazement. Someone slapped him across the tail and ordered him to move.
“Miserable heathens!” he kept on muttering to himself. “I will just go to the market where the good people are. They will remember me.”
But the same thing happened there as well. No one paid any attention to the donkey as he strutted down the main street in front of the market place.
“The palm branches! Where are the palm branches!” he shouted. “Yesterday, you threw palm branches!”
Feeling hurt and totally confused, the donkey eventually returned home to his mother.
“Foolish child,” his mother said to him gently. “Do you not realize that without the Lord Jesus, you are just an ordinary donkey?”
Just like the donkey that carried Jesus in Jerusalem, we are most fulfilled when we are in the service of Jesus Christ. Without him, all our best efforts are like “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6) and amount to nothing. When we lift up Christ, however, we are no longer ordinary people, but key players in God’s plan to redeem the word. Nay, not just key players, but ambassadors of God.
It is now time for you to decide as to whether you will be obedient to the Father. All have sin and it is, unfortunately human to keep on sinning, no matter how good we want ourselves to be. Repentance is an act that has to be repeated time and time again. It is time for you to repent of all your past sins, and to decide today as to whether you will be the one to take up the cross and follow Jesus. It is also time for you to acknowledge that without Jesus, without God, we are nothing at all. All our efforts in doing anything are in vain; all we have are from him; we are not sufficient to provide or supply ourselves with our own needs. We can do nothing without God. Make your decision today. Make your decision to repent and to follow Jesus if you had not already done so, for it is not too late to do so now! Make this Lent as your most meaningful Lent in your entire life! If you feel that God is calling you to respond, please do make yourself up to the altar after the sermon during the singing of the hymn and we will pray for you.
May we always remember to rely on God and all His goodness. Amen.
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