“Our palm branches and HosanNas”
Sermon Title: Our palm branches and Hosannas
Scripture: Mark 11: 1-10 ESV
Introduction
The core message of Palm Sunday is about our inability to solve our problems. We consistently have to face the reality of our powerlessness and our inability to change our situations that bring us harm, suffering and pain. Our powerlessness becomes even more evident when it comes to global issues such as wars or cultural and political agendas that attempt to sexualize and indoctrinate our children. In our powerlessness, our only response is anger and grief and despair. Another thing Palm Sunday does is to help us recognize our tendency to seek control of the world around us.
Background – Setting the Scene
Up until the week before the Passover, Jesus had been preaching about the kingdom of God, while healing many people, and many who had heard or witnessed Jesus’ demonstration of the kingdom of God were in high anticipation of their own vision of the Messianic fulfillment (liberation from political power). Mark 11 records the event known as the “triumphal entry”, however, contrary to the anticipation of the masses, Jesus’ coronation would be inaugurated with a crucifixion. Passover celebrates God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery under Egypt, and the people now gathered in hopes of deliverance from a new “Pharaoh” called Caesar and the Roman Empire. Passover would be the perfect day to declare rebellion against Rome and Rome, well aware, was on high alert. In response, Pontius Pilate would lead a military procession during Passover to display Rome’s might and as a warning against rebels. While Pilate’s procession was taking place on one side of Jerusalem, Jesus’ procession (the Triumphal Entry) was happening on the other side.
Significance of the palm branches and Hosanna
A king’s triumphal entry would have the king riding on a war horse with his procession following as a demonstration of power, but Jesus came riding on a donkey, slow and unimpressive. This was Jesus’ message to the people that he was a different kind of king with a different agenda than the kind they expect from him. One theologian (Jean Vanier) believes that Jesus was already dying from this point as he was dying to the world system. He was already dying to the recognition, admiration, and power that is due to the Son of God.
· The waving of palm branches was a symbolic recreation of the Maccabean Revolt which occurred 160 years before Jesus was born when the Judas “the Hammer” Maccabeus led the Jewish people to victory over their foreigner rulers, the Seleucid Dynasty. The people waved palm branches as Judas Maccabeus entered the city triumphantly. The waving of branches today demonstrated the people’s anticipation towards another Maccabean king.
· The shouts of Hosanna are commonly understood as saying “Save us!” However, a better understanding of the word would be “Save us right now!”
The palm branches and Hosanna demonstrate: 1) our desire for liberation; 2) our human tendency to control.
Our Desire for Liberation:
· Jesus is met by people who are tired, exhausted, and suffering under Roman oppression. For a long time, they have been hoping for deliverance from God’s messiah because they were powerless and helpless. The palm branches were their cry for help and deliverance and a genuine awareness and confession that they needed saving. Today, in contrast, we have a hard time admitting that we need saving and to cry out to God for help.
· The truth is that deep down we all need saving. We often hide our palm branches. We don’t want to show others our weakness and try to fix our problems by ourselves.
· The language of salvation in the Bible is more than a one-time event but an ongoing process where you are BEING saved and WILL be saved. We are constantly being saved while living our lives moment to moment and we will fully be saved when we enter the Kingdom of God. At any given moment, we will need to be saved from the troubles, uncertainties, and instability of life. The sooner we recognize this, the sooner we can experience God’s power working in our life.
· We were created to commune with God and each other and to experience support and help. For this reason, God created Eve for Adam as a helper. Helper does not signify just marriage but human community. We cannot function on our own. Yet many of us refuse to ask for help because that is to confess that we are weak.
· Our world is orientated to the concealing of our weaknesses. Sharing your weakness means to potentially place yourself in risky situations. Others may perceive you negatively or be disappointed in you. We may also feel shame and have a need to save face and keep up your reputation. Therefore, we operate according to our own ways and our own strength or we direct the direction of our cries of Hosanna and wave our palm branches in the wrong direction – a better job, a relationship, bigger wealth, a bigger house, recognition, and authority – rather than the God who can truly save us. Our lives should be a constant cry of Hosanna and waving of palm branches that confess and call upon the Lord to save us!
Our Human Tendency to Take Control
· Our refusal to ask for help is one of the subtle ways, out of pride, of how we try to be God. Rather than submitting our lives to God, we desire to be the god of our own lives.
· The cries of Hosanna and the palm branches were in a way signalling to Jesus about how he should save them. In other words, they were trying to tell God what to do. The palm branches spoke of the method, while the cries of Hosanna spoke of the timing, and the message was clear, “Save us in this way, right now!”
· Jesus response to the Jewish people was refusing to get off the donkey for a war horse. He refuses to be coerced and to be controlled by us. He simply continues on his way to the cross quietly and humbling. For he is the King, and he knows a different and better way (Cf. Isaiah 55:8-9).
· The people wanted saving from the Romans, but Christ says there’s a bigger and more dangerous enemy oppressing you which is sin and death. Jesus went to the cross to disarm our greatest enemy, the very source of evil. Through his blood and the forgiveness through God’s grace we are liberated and freed from sin and death.
· Palm Sunday invites us to trust in the mysterious, paradoxical, countercultural ways of Jesus. It is to trust in God knowing that things might not happen in your timing and it might not happen in your method. It’s about submitting your life to the kingship of Christ and trusting that he is ACTIVE and ALIVE!
Reflection and Response
Upon our faith in Jesus Christ, we have been saved – but as we live our lives in this world in our flesh, we still need His help to be saved and rescued from our sinfulness. We still need His help to live our lives in purity and sanctity. On this Palm Sunday, may the Lord enter into our broken lives to save us, restore us, and renew us once again.
· What are the reasons, other than pride, have stopped you from asking for help (don’t want to be a burden, prove your worth, fear of rejection, shame or disrespect, etc)?
· What are the things in your life that you still need saving from but have tried to deal with on your own?
· Has the direction of your cries of Hosanna and the waving of the palm branches been towards other things other than God?
· Have you ever tried to tell God how and when He should help you rather than submit to His method and timing?