Sermon: Palm Sunday - "I Will Follow You"

"I Will Follow You"
Palm Sunday
Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29; Luke 19: 28-40, by Rev. Carson Overstreet
Van Wyck Presbyterian Church
March 20, 2016

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his steadfast love endures forever!
Let Israel say,
‘His steadfast love endures forever.’
Open to me the gates of righteousness,
that I may enter through them
and give thanks to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord;
the righteous shall enter through it.
I thank you that you have answered me
and have become my salvation.
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s doing;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Save us, we beseech you, O Lord!
O Lord, we beseech you, give us success!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
We bless you from the house of the Lord.
The Lord is God,
and he has given us light.
Bind the festal procession with branches,
up to the horns of the altar.
You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
you are my God, I will extol you.
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever. - Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29


After he had said this [parable], he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, “Why are you untying it?” just say this: “The Lord needs it.” ’

So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, ‘Why are you untying the colt?’ They said, ‘The Lord needs it.’

Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying,

‘Blessed is the king
who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven,
and glory in the highest heaven!’

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’ - Luke 19: 29-40


Tradition held the people’s expectations of Cesar’s kingdom. The people were to expect their king to parade into Jerusalem riding high and mighty on a war horse. This horse would have been so big that your neck would strain to look up into the eyes of its rider. When one sits in a position that high, that person can only look down. And that was the way authority was viewed back in the first century. Authority was held in such a way that it instilled fear and intimidation. People today still crave this type of power where authority is something to wield around and make others submissive and afraid.

And right after Jesus tells the parable of a nobleman who sought power for himself in ruthless ways, Jesus then prepares to parade into his own coronation in a very different way. As he approached Jerusalem, the city which would hail him king, he passed near Bethany.

You remember Bethany – the village of Jesus' dear friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Bethany literally means “House of Pain.” Jesus is passing through the place where he brought significant healing and new life out of pain and death. We remember it was in Bethany that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Jesus looks beyond this house of pain to what lies ahead in God’s plan for salvation. He tells his disciples to go into the village and untie the colt because the Lord needs it.

The disciples follow Jesus’ directions to a “t” and lay their cloaks onto the colt. Then they set their Lord on it. And as this very different picture of royalty processed into Jerusalem, something powerful happened. The people began to throw down their cloaks onto the road like rolling out the red carpet.

These cloaks, however, are not anything like royal fabric or silky robes. They are tattered outer garments. They looked like old burlap. They were stained with sweat from long days of labor and tears of personal struggle. They were the humble garments of a humble people who were celebrating the entrance of their humble king.

This king, who sat on a beast of burden, did not look down upon the people. In fact he sat low and as he rode the colt along the road he could look straight into the people’s faces. This king reached out to touch the hands of the people that he knew through growing relationships. This was the king who was not born in a palace but in a threadbare feeding trough because there was no room in the inn. And before his birth this king caused his mother Mary to sing the most magnificent song of prophetic praise. Luke’s story begs us to remember:

My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…
This Mighty One has done great things for me and for God’s people and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of God’s mercy,
according to the promise God made to our ancestors (Luke 1: 46-47, 49-50, 52-55).

Surely Mary and Joseph were standing in the crowds watching their son proudly. “Yeah, that’s my son – the Son of God! My son can do the God thing. What can your son do?”

This king lived in solidarity with the people and in doing so he touched their lives. Jesus Christ had brought healing to lepers and paralytics; he forgave women and men with painful pasts; he showed love to the outcasts; he calmed the storms of the seas and he calmed the chaos in people’s hearts; he fed thousands with 2 fish and 5 loaves; he taught the disciples how to fish for people. Over the course of Jesus’ 33 years of life and ministry he showed the people how a little child would grow up to lead us all into a different kind of kingdom - the kingdom of God. That child who was born in a manger grew into the redeeming revelation that God is with us every step of the way.

They threw down their cloaks in praise for what this king would certainly do next for them. The people and the disciples threw down their tattered garments in an effort to say, “I will follow you.”

The people thought this coronation would certainly lead to greater things. Jesus Christ – the King of Israel – was about the same age as when King David was crowned. As King David would lead the people of God to success, so Jesus Christ the King would certainly lead Israel back to world renown and respect. The people were expecting a political Messiah.

Throughout the years on this side of the cross many have wondered if the crowd truly knew what was at stake to follow Jesus. There was something very different about this king who could look you in the eyes and reach out to touch your heart and your hurts. We hear the Word come to life as the crowd cheered for the king’s arrival. But just as Jesus crests the hill of Jerusalem, he sat on the colt and looked at the expanse of the city. And he wept over Jerusalem, saying:

If you [you all], even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes…because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God. (Luke 19: 41-42, 44).

We too stand here today in the story of Scripture. We too are cheering as Jesus makes his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The long days of Lent are closing and Holy Week begins. Certainly Easter is just around the corner! Today is the first day of Spring. We can feel the climax building. We too are throwing down our cloaks – the symbols of our tattered lives where Christ has drawn near to our brokenness. And as we throw down our cloaks and wave our palm branches we too are saying, “I will follow you!”

But will we miss it like the crowd in Luke’s story? Luke’s Gospel begs us to ask the question: Why are you following the procession? Are you following the crowd in the secular traditions of all the Easter festivities of this culture’s kingdom? Or are you following the King – Immanuel – God’s coming kingdom - and expecting a visitation from God? Because God is drawing near to us in the flesh to look into our lives and reveal the greatest gift of grace... and that is God’s salvation.

Will we follow Christ from Palm Sunday and immediately skip to Easter to solely experience the hype our culture pushes or will we be brave enough to follow the path that lead Jesus from Jerusalem to the Valley of the Shadow of Death? Will we follow Jesus into the Passion story all the way to the cross? That is the hard part my friends. The cheers move quite quickly from today’s procession “Hosanna! Save Us! I will follow you” to the jeers of another procession on Good Friday “Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him!”

Those words did not just fall from the lips of those standing in the first century crowds. Those cheers and jeers both fall from your lips and mine today.

Let us stand in the story of Scripture and follow our Lord to where our faith is challenged this week. May your words and mine be “I will follow you. I will follow you. I will follow my Lord and Savior, to the cross.”

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sources:
The New Interpreter's Bible Commentary, "Luke: Volume 8" (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2015), pp. 307-312.