Sermon: Jesus’ Parade for All
April 14, 2019
Passion/Palm Sunday (Sixth Sunday in Lent)
Luke 19:28-40
RUMC, Pastor SeokCheol Shin
Jesus’ Parade for All
Palm Sunday
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” (v. 38) Today all Christians celebrate Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem and into our lives, which we call “Palm Sunday.” But we don’t just watch. Ever since we accepted Jesus as our Lord, we have wanted to follow him. We want to walk with him. We want to join in his parade.
What kind of parade is it? It’s not of a fun, pretty, or patriotic parade like our July 4th parade with people shouting, laughing and singing, and tossing candies to little children. Jesus’ parade on that day caused a trouble to himself and division to the crowds. Only a few days after this parade, Jesus was arrested, convicted, and executed by the Roman and Jewish authorities. So what kind of parade is it? Are we willing to join in his parade?
Refusing to Take One Side
Riding on a humble donkey, Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and people welcomed him with the joyful shouts of Hosanna! They greeted him as their king. They walked with him. They waved and threw palm branches in his path, expecting Jesus would bring them a new era. They thought that he would be their new leader and sit on the throne of Israel. They thought that this man of God with his great powers was an answer to defeat the Romans and lead them out of their bondages. They thought he was on their side.
But to their great discouragement, that was not why Jesus had come. They wanted Jesus to be on their side, but soon they discovered that he came to be on the side of everyone – even on the side of their enemies! “Jesus, you can’t do that in this world. You have to choose which side you want to support, and we want you to be on our side. We don’t want you to be on their side.” But Jesus refused to be on their side and fight against the Romans. They were very disappointed.
Iscariot Judas believed Jesus would be their military commander to lead the holy war. As a member of the Zealots, Judas wanted to fight against the Romans; he probably had many courageous comrades hiding all over Jerusalem, just waiting for Jesus to command his troops to attack. But apparently Jesus had no intention of leading the Zealots. Later on, Judas betrayed Jesus and handed him over to the Jewish hands for thirty silver coins (Mt. 26:14-16).
Peter, James and John wanted a successful outcome to this movement they had joined. They wanted him to lead them in overthrowing the Roman oppressors and restoring David’s throne. But instead of leading them toward the glorious kingdom of Israel, he led them into a dark garden of Gethsemane only to pray. He was sweating in prayer all the night, but the disciples were so bored and tired that they could hardly keep their eyes open. In the end, they all ran away when Jesus was arrested by their enemies.
There were crowds ready to proclaim Jesus as King, ready to follow his lead, and even ready to fight for his sake, but he did not lead! He just stood there when their enemies came to arrest him with swords and clubs. They were disappointed with him that they shouted when Jesus was tried, “Crucify him, crucify him.”
Even Pontius Pilate was also ready, even eager, to save him out of his trouble. But strangely, Jesus rejected Pilate’s favor and even allowed him to crucify him according to the Jewish leaders’ plot. How could you help someone who wouldn’t help himself?
People might wonder why he didn’t use his great powers. Why would he cast away demons, calm down storms, and bring the dead people back to life if he wasn’t going to use his power to help himself? Was he playing them for suckers? He shouldn’t give us certain hope if he was going to let us down like that. Looking at pathetic Jesus on the cross, the crowds mocked him, “He saved others but he can’t save himself” (Mt. 27:41), and the Roman soldiers also mocked him, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself” (Lk. 23:37). But Jesus was only silent.
What is Jesus’ problem here? Why did he choose to be alone as he rejected his people’s welcome, his disciples’ approval, and even Pilate’s help? Why did he give up a palm-carpeted passageway leading to a royal throne, instead choosing a desolate path to a cross? Why? It is because he refused to be on a side of one or the other but tried to be on the side of everyone.
Jesus knew why God sent him to the world. He knew what mission he had to carry on. He came to break down the walls of hatred that humanity had built against each other, and he came to unite people into a fellowship of love, love with God and love with one another. For this great mission, he had to choose the way where he would lay down his life for all humanity. But people just said, “You can’t get along in this world if you won’t choose sides. If you are for everybody, you end up with nobody.”
The Savior of All
So what kind of parade is it? It is a parade that leads us to serve others; it is a parade that brings people to forgiveness and reconciliation with one another; it is a parade that celebrates the love of God who is the Father of all creation. Still, we may turn away because we want our own success and victory but don’t want to get along with our enemies (or someone who doesn’t follow us or belong with us). But it was, and it is and, it will be the Father’s will that He doesn’t want to lose any one of us.
Where are we in this Palm/Passion story? On this Palm Sunday, we are happy to welcome Jesus into our lives because we believe he is on our side. But throughout this Passion story, we learn that he is not going to remain on our side but move on to look after the lost, serve many others, and bring them to God’s love.
Are we also willing to follow him to wash other’s feet? Are we willing to follow him to Gethsemane to pray, not for our own will, but for God’s will? Are we willing to follow him to lay down our lives and pray for the forgiveness of our enemies? As we enter in Holy Week, let us ponder how much we are willing to join in Jesus’ parade that we can also carry on God’s abundant love for every human being.” Amen.