« “Jericho and Bartimaeus” | Main | “See How They Run” »
April 05, 2009
“Hosanna’s, a Donkey, and Lazarus”
John 12: 12-19
Sunday, April 5, 2009
This passage is John’s description of the events that transpired on what we call the first Palm Sunday. As we look at it, we need to remember that none of those involved had planned to be participants in something called Palm Sunday. They were on their way to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover Festival. A celebrity named Jesus was also on his way there. Some of them joined him on the last part of their journey, others greeted him as he arrived in Jerusalem
Earlier this morning we sang a hymn that referred to the children singing loud Hosanna’s to the king. Our text this morning does not mention the children’s participation in the events of the first Palm Sunday. They appear in Matthew’s account, not during the procession into Jerusalem, but after his arrival into Jerusalem and into the Temple. Some children were shouting Hosanna in the Temple. The priests didn’t like it and protested to Jesus.
As I said, John does not mention the children. Nor does he make any reference to the Apostles being sent to fetch the donkey.
John does however give us some important details that are lacking in the other gospels. The other gospel writers tell us that the people who went out to meet Jesus cut branches off of trees and waved them and put them in the road as he rode to Jerusalem. Only John tells us that they were the branches of Palm Trees. Without John’s testimony we might not be able to call today Palm Sunday. Perhaps we would have called it Branch Sunday or Tree Sunday, neither of which sounds as nice as Palm Sunday.
But there is a significance to the Palms that would have also been missed if it were not for John. The waving of Palms and the placing of them on the road in front of a procession was a practice to celebrate the victorious arrival of a king or other ruler.
This procession has other symbols of kingship in it. The people who welcomed him on the way shouted “Hosanna!” which means, Save Us, We Pray! But their shouts of Hosanna does not mean that they understood what it meant.
Several years ago, the Presbytery I belonged to chartered a new congregation on Palm Sunday. I was on the New Church development committee of the Presbytery so I went to the chartering service. The Associate Executive Presbyter was there. His daughter Anna had recently fallen and broken her arm, so when I saw him after the service my first words were “How’s Anna” He looked puzzled for a minute, then he thought I was rejoicing on Palm Sunday and said, “Yes, Hosanna”. I said “No, How is Anna.” Sometimes you might say something that seems significant without realizing the significance.
According to John the crowd on the first Palm Sunday also said “Blessed is the one who comes in the Name of the Lord – the King of Israel.”
The term “one who comes in the name of the Lord” means one who comes with authority from God. One who represents God.
The donkey also has significance. The Prophet Zechariah had prophecied that Jerusalem’s great king would ride into town on a young donkey. In selecting such an animal, Jesus was proclaiming himself to be that king. But Zechariah in making that prophecy was saying something significant. Victorious kings, kings that had won their way to the throne or kept their throne by fighting battles or wars always rode into cities on horses after their victories. Kings rode donkeys or mules during a time of peace. When a king rode into town on a donkey or mule it meant he came to lead gently in peace, he did not come to rule with an iron rod.
Palm Sunday was the day when Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem as its king of peace. All of the symbols involved in the procession tell us this. But there is some doubt that the people who were in that procession really understood what they were doing. We aren’t sure that the people who used those symbols of palm branches and shouted Hosanna understood what they were doing and saying. It was God’s will that Jesus be welcomed as king into Jerusalem, it was not necessary that those involved understood what they were doing.
John tells us that “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”. The disciples and apostles probably did not understand the significance of what they were doing until Jesus rose from the dead on Easter and perhaps not until his ascension into heaven 40 days after that.
In the movie “Back to School” comedian Rodney Dangerfield played a successful businessman who decided to go to college in his late 40s or early 50s. He took his chauffer and limosine with him. He tried to accomplish everything with his check book, so he hired Kurt Vonnegut to write a report on “Slaughterhouse Five”. He got a failing grade because he missed many of the significant symbols that the professor insisted were in the book. Rodney’s character fired Vonnegut because he did not know the symbols in his own book.
The people who rejoiced and welcomed Jesus as a king on Palm Sunday did not fully understand the significance of their acts. And that is the way it sometimes is when we work for God. Sometimes we do not understand the significance of some of the things God wants us to do. Our duty is to be obedient and do what we are told and let God use our behaviors or acts or words for his Glory and to make the things we have done significant.
Another detail that John alone gives us about Palm Sunday is the significance of Lazarus. A few months or weeks before Palm Sunday, Jesus had raised his friend Lazarus from the dead. This had occurred in the village of Bethany which was only 2 miles from Jerusalem. John tells us that those who had witnessed this miracle had continued to tell others about it. It was because of their testimony that many others came to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem. This crowd is a different one than the one that had come out to see Jesus on the road. This crowd came out of Jerusalem and the surrounding villages. The resurrected Lazarus made an impact on the reception Jesus received in Jerusalem.
After he was raised from the dead, all Lazarus had to do to honor Jesus was to show himself alive. For some of us who have been somewhat miraculously delivered from death, all we have to do is give God the credit for our deliverance. Some of us used to be known for walking in the ways that are referred to in the bible as the ways that lead to death. Now we have put away those deadly practices and live lives that come much closer to pleasing God. Live your holy life openly and publicly. The change in your life is cause for others to honor God and the changing, life-giving power of God.
I love the ironic way that John concludes this passage. He tells us that the Pharisees who were planning to have him killed briefly gave up on Palm Sunday. When the saw and heard the crowds, they may have recognized the significance of what was said and done better than the crowds or those who followed Jesus. They said “You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him!” Five days later they would have succeeded in having Jesus put to death.
But in spite of their supposed success, their words eventually turned out to be true. The world had not yet gone after Jesus, but within a few hundred years it would begin to. Not everyone in the world, but a considerable portion of the world would hear about Jesus and many of them would believe.
In some of those places, the numbers of believers has declined in our day, but the world is still going after Jesus. In parts of Africa and in parts of China multitudes of people are going after Jesus. And even in our own neighborhoods there are people who might be willing to go after Jesus if we tell then and show them the way.
On Palm Sunday, the people who were in and around Jerusalem were proclaiming in word and deed that Jesus was the King. Some of them might not have understood what they were doing and saying. When you proclaim that Jesus is your king, do you understand what that means? Do you obey him? Do you honor him? Do you follow him? Do you tell others who he is?
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at April 5, 2009 02:28 PM