Queen Valley Community Lutheran Church
Queen Valley AZ
April 1st 2012
Palm Sunday

Texts:
OT Zechariah 9:9-12
PS 118:19-29
EP Philippians 2:5-11
John 12:20-43

After the Parade

We’re all familiar with the major event of Palm Sunday. Jesus found a donkey and sat on it; the crowds of His followers went ahead of Him, cut branches from trees and made a sort of archway to receive Him as He came in to Jerusalem. They hailed Him as royalty, proclaiming Him as the promised King, the descendant of David, the Messiah, the Savior.

A modern politician would call this a giant PR event, a photo op, or a Rally on the Mall. That’s not what it was for Jesus, as we’ll see - He didn’t play those games - but that’s how the world saw it, and probably still sees it to this day.

We usually don’t pay much attention to what happened later that same Sunday, after the parade, but it’s important, too - or it wouldn’t be in the Bible!

Each of the Gospels adds a little more information from four different points of view, until we get the full picture by putting them all together. John, in the passage we just read in chapter 12, tells us something that isn’t mentioned in the other Gospels.

It seems that some Greeks had come to Jerusalem for the Passover. These were either ethnic Greeks who had accepted the Jewish religion, or Greek-speaking Jews who were born and raised outside of the Holy Land. Coming to Jerusalem for the Passover was probably a once-in-a-lifetime event for them. They had heard of Jesus, and now they wanted to meet Him.

For a politician or somebody else who was out to start a worldwide movement, this would seem like the realization of their dreams; the moment they had been waiting for. It would mean that they had finally reached beyond the status of “locally famous” and were ready to start their “first world tour”. With these contacts, they would be able to branch out and really make their movement go international, like the Beatles’ first trip to the United States to sing on the Ed Sullivan show and become instantly famous.

But Jesus wasn’t a politician, and He wasn’t trying to start a worldwide movement. He had come for two purposes: to bring the Kingdom of God to the Earth and to offer Himself as our Savior.

When the Greeks came and went through all the protocol steps that Greeks would do to meet the “great teacher” from Israel, Jesus knew that His moment had come; but He didn’t mean His moment to become rich and famous. This was His moment to be the atoning sacrifice. The opportunity for earthly glory was the point at which He would be called to give up all earthly aspirations and offer Himself for our sins instead.

Jesus, as King of the Kingdom of God, had come to lead; not from behind, like a politician, but from the front, like a true King. He showed us by example the way in which we are to follow Him.

And so when He heard about these visiting Greeks who wanted to meet Him, He said, “the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.” And then He followed that with these words: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also.”

Jesus shows us the way by which the Kingdom of God is brought to earth. Not by conquest; not by political organization and lobbying; not by getting control of the press or the universities and using them as a forum to present our point of view and convince people to be Christians; but by giving our lives in following Jesus and living in His Kingdom.

Jesus’ next words were, “If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.”

God will honor those who follow Jesus. The world won’t honor you, at least not sincerely. The press will ridicule you. Politicians will avoid you. Hollywood will portray you as a nut case, a closet axe murderer, not to be trusted. Your own family will probably have their doubts.

They all want the world’s approval. They all want to be honored by the world. When the world does apparently honor you, don’t trust it. Just like in Jesus’ life, it won’t last. Less than a week after this ticker-tape parade as He came into Jerusalem, they were calling for His crucifixion.

But God promises that He will honor those who follow Jesus and serve Him. And that will last forever!

Sometimes doing what we are called to do, following Jesus and being like Him, isn’t easy. Sometimes it’s really hard to be crucified one more time, to give up what you want in favor of what you know God wants. “Now my soul is troubled,” Jesus said. He knew what was coming next. “And what shall I say? Father, deliver me from this hour? But for this purpose I came to this hour! Father, glorify Your Name!”

Is that how you approach the hard times that come when you’re following Jesus? “Lord, get me out of here? Find me a way out, so I don’t have to go through this?” Jesus, when He saw what was coming and knew that it was necessary for our salvation, asked instead that God would be glorified in whatever happened to Him.

So our response should also be: “Lord Jesus, whatever happens, be glorified in me, in my words, in everything I do. Let me bring the people who see me go through this, closer to you.”

And after the Father spoke from heaven in reply to His words, Jesus turned to the disciples and said, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself.” John explains in the next verse that what Jesus meant by being “lifted up” was the way He would die, being literally hoisted up on a cross.

All of this Jesus, the King of the Universe, the Lord of Lords, did for you and me. He set the example for those who will live in His Kingdom.

But instead of being a matter of grim, patient suffering, the way of the cross becomes the most joyful and peaceful kind of life possible; not only in eternity but even in the here and now!

In Luther’s Small Catechism, explaining the second article of the Apostle’s Creed, Luther put it this way: “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true Man, born of the virgin Mary, is my Lord; Who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, bought me and freed me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with silver and gold, but with His holy and precious blood, and with His innocent sufferings and death; in order that I might be His own, live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness; even as He is risen from the dead, and lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.”

The character of a Kingdom is based on the character of the King. Life in the Kingdom of God looks like Jesus’ life. Those who follow Jesus, the King, are those who live in His Kingdom. And the everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness of life in that Kingdom goes on for ever, but it starts here and now, as we follow Jesus.