Palm Sunday Essay Research Paper March On

Palm Sunday Essay, Research Paper

.March On! Even after the Parade!.

ILL.

It was Palm Sunday and Jesus was coming into Jerusalem. He was riding on a blazing white stallion and kicking up a cloud of dust as he rode along. He was looking for trouble. The people that he passed on his way were in awe of such a beautiful animal but they were even more awestruck by the man who was riding it. As Jesus passed by, you could hear the people say, “Who was that masked man.”

There were bad guys on the loose and Jesus had a job to do. As he rode into Jerusalem he quickly sized up the situation and formed a plan to capture the ring leader of the trouble makers, his name was Diablo or Satan. There was a short scuffle and Jesus won handily over Diablo. He hog-tied the devil and threw him in jail.

As a large crowd of people gathered to see what the commotion was all about, Jesus mounted his horse and pulled on the reigns. The stallion stood on its hind legs, nayed loudly, and pawed the air with its front legs. When it stood as tall as it could stand, Jesus leaned forward in the saddle. Holding the reigns with one hand while lifting his white hat in the air with the other, He shouted with a loud voice, “Hi ho Stallion, and away!” As Jesus road off into the sunset, you could hear the William Tell Overture in the background. Du du dunt. Du du dunt. Du du dunt dunt dunt.

Of course that is not how it happened, but that is how most of us would have done it if we were Jesus.

Let.s read how Jesus did it.

Matthew 21:1-11

Pray

As your pastor, I.m tempted to preach on hosanna and hallelujah, people singing and shouting for joy and waving palm branches in the grand parade of Palm Sunday.

Instead of talking about the death of Jesus, I could simply pause here at the Palm Sunday procession and talk about how important Christian praise is, maybe even sing some praise choruses.

I could just skip right over Maundy Thursday and Good Friday today, and next Sunday you could come and hear about the triumph of Easter and the Resurrection.

We could just move from one celebration to another.

We could move from Sunday to Sunday in triumph, and never have to deal with all that messy stuff in between, just look the other way, and pretend it never happened.

But, you see, as your pastor, I take my responsibility to nurture your spiritual growth seriously.

And you cannot grow being fed a steady diet of baby food.

So I cannot and will not skip from Palm Sunday to Easter morning and avoid talking about what happened in between.

You cannot get from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday without going through Good Friday.

Before Jesus could be resurrected, he had to die.

So I have to talk about the pain this morning, because the same crowd that shouted “hosanna” to Jesus on Palm Sunday are the same people who, will realize that Jesus is not exactly the kind of Messiah they had wanted.

And before the week is out, they will turn against Jesus and demand his death.

To be involved with Jesus involves talking about death.

Do you remember what Paul said in his first letter to the church at Corinth.

“I decided to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).

The New Testament is filled with talk about the death of Jesus.

Too many people today seem to be looking for a risk-free, cost-free, painless, bloodless faith.

Like the ouch-less bandaid, they want an ouch-less Christianity.

Jesus was crucified. Why.

Many people ask that question about Jesus.

“If God loves us so much, and if God is all-powerful, why couldn.t God just speak, like at the creation when God said, .Let there be light!. and . poof! . there it is, just like that! So why couldn.t God just say, .I forgive you,. and let it go at that. Why did Jesus have to die.”

Let me answer that with an illustration.

ILL.

Suppose a husband has been unfaithful to his wife. He goes to her and tells her what he.s done and how sorry he is and how bad he feels about it and he promises never to do it again if she will just forgive him. And when the confession and apology are finished, what would it mean if all his wife said was, “Oh, that.s okay. Don.t worry about it. Happens all the time. No big deal. Let.s just forget about it.” Is the husband going to feel like he has been forgiven. No, he.s not. What his wife has said to him is, “I really don.t care what you do one way or another. You.re not important enough for it to make any difference to me. I.m not going to lose any sleep over anything you do.” What would it take to convince the unfaithful husband that his wife has forgiven him . just words. “That.s okay. No big deal.”

No, that wouldn.t do it. There.s no forgiveness there. Would it not take some action on the wife.s part . reaching out, taking his hand, and taking him into her arms. And yet how costly that would be! She would have to give up something of herself, wouldn.t she. She would have to give up her anger and resentment at having been betrayed by someone she loved. Can you imagine that happening. Can you imagine engaging in an act of forgiveness like that. I have to confess that I.d have a really tough time with that myself. That could only be des

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