John 12:12-19
Intro
This morning’s passage is exactly what you would expect on Palm Sunday. You have the colt ridden by the man from Nazareth, you have the branches of palm trees, and you have shouts of Hosanna.
And yet, as is almost always the case when it comes to John, these events carry a different hue from the rest of the Gospels. To begin with, Jesus entrance into Jerusalem takes place not long after he raised Lazarus from the dead. This act is referenced in the triumphal entry reading as the reason why the people are waving those branches, and lifting those shouts of praise. Their actions are described in such a way that they are in direct response to the miraculous healing that Jesus was able to perform. According to John, the Pharisees have picked up on this momentum and have articulated it as, "see the world has gone after him".
As I thought about that statement, "the world has gone after him", I couldn’t help but ponder how easily we follow after things. In our story this morning, it was the people following Jesus. But throughout the generations societies have followed after clothing styles, music trends, artistic appreciations, lines of intellectual thought just as easily. We love to be stylish and will follow the fads that society tells us to emulate. We may not like to think that, but it’s true.
In many ways, the people who were lifting those praises during the triumphal entry were also following the wave of public sentiment. The reason that I say this is that it was only a few days later, those same people were nowhere to be found.
The question that I have for you is this, how willing are you going to be to follow the message of Jesus Christ when you’re in a setting that screams out run away? To put it another way, in your life, is Jesus more than just a fad? The scripture reads this way.
John 12:12-19
12
The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting,"Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord—the King of Israel!"
14
Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written:15
"Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!"16
His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him. 17 So the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to testify. 18 It was also because they heard that he had performed this sign that the crowd went to meet him. 19 The Pharisees then said to one another, "You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him!""Not a Fad"
When I started writing this sermon, I couldn’t help but consider all of the fads that I have participated in during my short life. My CD rack is littered with albums that I listened to because they were popular at one time, for about a month, only to ultimately become wonderful carriers for dust bunnies. The movie shelf isn’t much better.
However, the best place where I’m able to see how I have followed societal fads is by looking at pictures. There is a picture of me in my high school yearbook where I am wearing Converse Chuck Taylor high tops, making sure that the top two shoe lace holes were left unused. Was there any practical reason to not tie my sneakers al the way to the top? No, that’s just the way we wore them. The reason that I’m able to describe those shoes so well was because of how I had rolled up the cuffs of my jeans, my loose fit Bugle Boy jeans. This look was complemented by a plaid shirt that I’m pretty sure was purchased at the Gap but was actually trying to emulate the fashion fad that was coming out of Seattle. This led you to my head, or rather the side of my head, where I was proudly displaying long, to the bottom of the earlobe sideburns that were strait out of ‘Beverly Hills 90210’. By today’s standards, I was a fashion mess. However, at that point in time, I was actually some degree of hip. I was a product of my society and looking through pictures, its clear that there were many a well placed marketing dollar that reached, and influenced me.
The only solace that I can take is that I know that I am not alone on this one. Every generation has certain looks, styles, sounds, beliefs that help to identify the period of time that it comes from and make it uniquely its own. Every generations has those fads that it felt like "the whole world was going after".
As we look at our passage for this morning, we have much the same phenomenon. The people who were in and around Jesus were caught up in a wave that carried them to the events that we celebrate on Palm Sunday. We must remember that these events did not happen in a vacuum. For the Gospel of John, the resurrection of Lazarus propelled the person of Jesus forward so that when he climbed upon that donkey’s colt he did not enter through the city gates by himself, but instead with people all around him declaring, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!".
The thing is, much like many of the fads that we have all taken part in, what was vogue one day, is frowned upon almost overnight. In Jesus’ case that is what happened, and that is the other part of what we need to remember this Palm Sunday: the story of the one whom we call Lord is not one happy moment to the next. He doesn’t go directly from Palm Sunday to Easter! Instead his journey takes him through the betrayal of Maundy Thursday on to the pain and death of Good Friday. He goes through those days when he must have felt so alone, when it was anything but cool to say Jesus is Lord.
The message of Jesus Christ this day is that our journey of faith is not something that we should follow and take like the latest fad, assuming that it will lead us to some greater level of popularity. If that’s what your thinking, sorry, you got on the wrong bus.
Instead, the path of Jesus is one that is filled trials and difficulties and the journey of faith, while it certainly has its Palm Sunday moments (those times of celebration), it will also have its fair share of Maundy Thursdays and Good Fridays (when we wonder if the sun is ever going to rise again). Your faith, your willingness to believe and follow the approaching King of Palm Sunday, is not something that you should approach haphazardly, flippantly, or with some an attitude of laize-faire. Not at all.
No, your faith is something that you should head into with your eyes wide open. If it hasn’t been said to you before, then let me be the first to tell you, your faith should not just be about Christmas and Easter when its almost acceptable to show you believe. Our faith is one that yes, leads us to the highest of highs, but also guides us through the valley of the shadow of death. Do not follow Jesus because its in some strange way fashionable.
Instead, follow Jesus because you recognize that the journey that he made during that first Holy Week, through the gates of Jerusalem, to the darkened Garden of Gethsemane, to the Hill of the Skull, before being laid in a tomb was done for you. Faith should never be a fad. Faith is the recognition of what is true and the willingness to follow it wherever it may lead you.
Jesus did that, and while today is absolutely a day when we are able to say, as the bulletin so beautifully declares, "Rejoice, the Lord is King!", at the same time, we must always remember that before he was able to get to the resurrection of Easter, he had so many other steps to take.
Allow your faith to be one that is able to celebrate days like today, but also recognize the reality that is found when popularity is gone, the reality that declares that our God will be with us through every day and help us to find the light in the midst of darkness, the light that can never be extinguished. Rejoice the Lord is King! Now let us begin the journey of the rest of Holy Week.
After Sermon Prayer
Holy God, on days like today it is so easy to say that we believe. Help our faith to be such that even on those dark days, when hope is all but a fading memory, help our faith to remain strong, vital, and, regardless of what society may tell us, unwavering. Lord, let it be so. Amen.