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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters, on this glorious day of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, where we shouted and sang Hosanna, the text for this morning comes from that Gospel reading.
Whenever, anytime really, but whenever you and I get involved in an organization, we, whether spoken or unspoken, have expectations of that organization. The expectations typically will center, no matter how wholly you and I may think of ourselves, around ourself. What do we get out of it? How will it impact our life? If we get involved with a group of people, it’s the same way. If we get involved with another individual, it is the same way. There are expectations, either spoken or not, that we will have to face. And the expectations that you and I have center around ourself. In this morning’s text, it is the same. The crowd that gathered had expectations of Jesus. And that expectation centered around themself. What would they get out of it? What would he be? How would it impact their life and change it?
There’s another group of people in this morning’s text who also had expectations of Jesus. They… We’re the Pharisees, because Jesus was impacting their life, wasn’t he? It would change their role in their society. So both groups had expectations of Christ, and that’s typical, just like you and me.
Now, in the eyes of the crowd, or really I should say the crowds, there were two; they had their expectations as well. One of the crowds in verse 17, that’s the crowd that followed Jesus from Bethany to Jerusalem. They’re the ones, the text says, that witnessed to the resurrection of Lazarus. That crowd who had seen the resurrection of Lazarus, who knew he was dead and saw him alive, they had expectations and they followed Christ from Bethany—it’s only about a two-mile walk—to Jerusalem. The other crowd mentioned in verse 12 is the crowd that gathered for the feast, that feast being the Passover feast. So they were from all over the region. And they gathered there and they heard about Jesus coming, and so they met Jesus and entered into Jerusalem with him. So the two crowds became one.
And even though the two crowds became one, there were definite and differing expectations from each crowd. Now, the things that set this crowd apart from the Pharisees, you think would be obvious, and it is in some ways. First of all, they strew his way with palm branches, a triumphant way of entering, honoring him. They shouted an Aramaic term, Hosanna. Hosanna literally means save; it’s an imperative, save. The object is obviously yourself if you’re asking Christ, Hosanna. The second phrase that they shouted, they quoted prophecies about Christ, about the Messiah, from the Old Testament scriptures, from the book of Psalms. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The third thing that they said, they referred to him as the King of Israel. Look at the text.
Those three things: Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, and even unto the King of Israel. Now, these expectations that they had, they saw him as an answer to their expectations, or they would not have gathered around him, would they have? Well, it wasn’t just this crowd that had expectations of Jesus. As I mentioned earlier, it was the Pharisees also who had expectations.
Now, there’s a phrase toward the very end of the reading that if you don’t see it in this light, the phrase doesn’t make sense. The phrase is the question that the Pharisees ask themselves. The text says, “Who’s the you?” That’s the point. Within the group of Pharisees, they were not all unified in their own view of Jesus. There were the ones who spoke these words—you see, you’re gaining nothing. They wanted to deal with Jesus now. Let’s take care of him now. Let’s take care of him, crucify him, get him out of the way, because he’s upsetting the apple cart. He is causing strife and contention among our people. The “you” unto whom they’re referring are the Pharisees who didn’t quite take such a strong stance on Jesus. Maybe they were much more, let’s wait and see, let’s not get all bent out of shape, let’s kind of weigh things, find out what’s going to happen.
So even the crowd of Pharisees did not all have the same expectation, no different than that crowd of people that followed him to Jerusalem and met him and came into the city with him.
Now the Pharisees and the crowd. The Pharisees said, “No. The world is going after him.” It’s going to change for you and for me. Our way of living and our thinking is going to change. If we don’t do something about it, and we’ve got to do something about this crazy man who’s coming in with palm branches, and they’re shouting that he’s the king of Israel. The crowd gathered around him, and the crowd was emboldened because they were no longer two separate, smaller crowds. They were one big, great crowd.
The Pharisees looked upon the size of this crowd, which is why they asked or said that statement and even made the second statement: “Look, the world is going after him.” Because they saw this large crowd and in their minds, oh no, if that big of a crowd are gathering around him, then it’s going to be us against them. They really didn’t have much to worry about, did they, the Pharisees? Because in a matter of a few days, most of the people who shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Even to the king of Israel!” from their lips came, “Crucify, crucify him.”
We sang about it just now. Listen again. Sometimes they strew his way and his sweet praises sing, resounding all the day, Hosanna’s to their king. Then, if you were a part of that crowd, the largeness of that crowd would have made you feel validated. You would have said, “Look, look how big we are. This has got to be the right thing.” That’s why the Pharisees got so upset. But that largeness of the crowd didn’t keep the people from a few days later saying, “Crucify him.”
It didn’t keep them from saying that at all. The largeness of the crowd didn’t keep them committed to the Messiah and his role for them to die, to suffer first, to die, and to rise again. Did the largeness of that crowd change the validity of what Jesus had said prior to his entrance into Jerusalem? Did the smallness of the crowd that remained connected to him after his crucifixion change the validity of what Jesus said before he died? Did the largeness of the crowd—did it change the very work that he accomplished for us on the cross? Because the crowd that followed was smaller.
So what do you think? Some or most? Did some of the people in the crowd fall away? Or did most of the crowd that met him at the gate fall away? Yeah.
Now think about the Pharisees. Did some of the Pharisees get emboldened to kill him? Or did most of the Pharisees become emboldened to kill him? Yeah.
Here’s the application. It’s just like us in this world. When we see something big and flamboyant, we try to give it more validity than it necessarily should be given. Rather than weigh truth compared to the truth of Scripture, we’re much more prone to be tempted to judge it by size. And if it’s big, it must be true. And if it’s small, well, you know those radicals.
It’s the same way within the church. If something is big and robust, we say they’re doing something right. And if it’s not, they must be doing something… Hmm, we’re sounding a lot like the people who met him at the gate, aren’t we? That is why it is vital that we continue to remain faithful in hearing what Christ has done for you. It’s imperative that our hearts continue to be engaged—crushed by that law of God and bound back together by that gospel and healed. Because we, like that crowd, are fair weather at times, blowing hither and yon.
Consider the church in general. You’ve got this large crowd before his death, and it shrinks to a very small few. In fact, so few that they hide themselves in an upper room with locked doors for fear. Then, after his resurrection and they realize it, they’re emboldened. And they begin to preach and proclaim. In fact, climactically it happens that ten days after his ascension into heaven on Pentecost, 3,000 are added to his numbers that day.
Oh, but don’t worry. The Romans began to kill the Christians quite frequently and joyously because Christianity was not an accepted religion within the Roman Empire. Not for a few decades, but for two and a half centuries. Then when it was given the stamp of approval by the Roman authorities, it wasn’t as if all of a sudden the entire Roman Empire said, “Yes, let’s embrace Christianity.” It took several hundred years before Christianity became firmly entrenched in the Roman Empire.
Then you just follow history again. It’s accepted for a time and then it’s persecuted. Then it’s accepted for a time and then it’s persecuted. Right? Then it’s accepted for a time and then it’s persecuted. And with each time, does the validity of Jesus’ truths that he’s preaching change? Does the reality of God dying for you on the cross change with whether persecution comes or acceptance? Whether the crowd is large or small? Whether the culture views them as acceptable and rejoices in their presence among them or curses them for their presence among them?
Contrary to possibly your and my idyllic view of our own country, most, not some, most did not come over here for religious reasons. They came over here for land. If they take the stats that they’ve gathered over the last 200 years, there never was ever a time in our nation’s history when the percent of people who attend regularly was different over the last 200 years.
There was a blip post-World War II to about the 60s, but outside of that blip, the percent is static. Static. And yet, how is it perceived? Oh, there was a time when our nation was so Christian, and then there was a time when it wasn’t. Think of the Roman Empire. Think of the Roman Empire. The Christians could have said that too. There was a time when our empire was so Christian and now rationalism and other things have infected it. And these large cathedrals in the heart of the Roman Empire, which is in Europe today, are empty with only a few.
Question. Do the few who gather there validate the truth of Christ, or does it invalidate the truth of Christ because of the number? When they were full, does that validate the truth any more than when they were empty?
For those of you who have a few gray hairs, you’ve seen enough of our country, and you’ve seen positions change on various views of the church and of Christians and of Christianity. You’ve seen Christians change in their view, wanting to be more palatable to the culture and less different. Well, brothers and sisters, Jesus will not allow you and has not allowed you to do that. He thrusts you as salt, as light in this world of darkness, to be that salt and that light in this world.
And you’ve experienced it in your own life. You don’t willingly go in to be persecuted. You don’t joyfully go in to have your world rocked and put upside down. But by virtue of your convictions of truth, you have found that fewer and fewer hold to your convictions, and more and more are becoming more emboldened to speak against your and my view of truth from Scripture.
That is why it is vital that we gather together regularly, because when we leave these walls, we go out among people that don’t see the things that we see as precious and priceless. They see as putrid things. We go out into a world that does not shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” but ridicules and condemns us as being unloving, inflexible, closed-minded.
That’s why we raise our children as we saw this morning, giving witness to this truth that you hold: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” And though we at times have found our lips not necessarily to say the actual vocables “Crucify him,” we have found our lips to say something that dishonors him just as much.
And he comes to you to cleanse your lips, to make clean your heart, to raise you from death, and to give life to you again that the world views inconsequential and unimportant. We will continue to sing and shout and cry aloud as we prepare the final push to that Good Friday. And shout with the world, those who are believers, “He is risen.” In the name of the one who entered in Jerusalem with a large crowd, Jesus. Amen.
