Come celebrate the hope of Easter with us at Burke Community Church. Whether Palm Sunday, Good Friday, or Easter Sunday, Holy Week is more than just a date on the calendar…it is a time to remember the greatest work in human history and celebrate the victory Jesus Christ has won over sin and the grave. Hope is Here!!!
What is Palm Sunday all about? In a word: Hope.
On Friday, March 27, 33 A.D., vast crowds of Jews assembled in Jerusalem to observe Passover the following week. According to Joachim Jeremias, the population of Jerusalem in Christ’s day hovered around 30,000.[1] Given the fact that Josephus, the Jewish historian (37-100 A.D.), records that some 1,200,000 Jews were trapped in the holy city during the Roman siege of 70 A.D., one can easily surmise how jam packed the city was when Christ entered the area to observe Passover, and to ultimately become the Passover lamb (John 1:29; 1 Cor. 5:7).
According to John 12:1, Jesus came to the home of Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, some six days before Passover. Since the Jews reckoned a day from sundown to sundown, this was probably Friday. According to John 12:2, Jesus had a sabbath dinner that Friday evening with his close friends, including Lazarus, whom Christ had recently resurrected from the dead. Imagine having dinner with Lazarus, especially if you had attended his funeral and seen his stiff, shrouded body placed in a dark, dank tomb.
Sundown on what is our Saturday, in Roman time reckoning, crowds found out where Jesus the miracle worker and amazing teacher was staying, so they descended on the quaint home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in Bethany, which was only about two miles east of Jerusalem on the eastern side of the Mount of Olives (John 12:9). When Christ arose the next morning and headed toward the Temple area on a donkey, the people went wild. Why? They had hope in the words of the Old Testament prophets concerning how to identify the Messiah. Jesus, of course, fit the prophetic descriptions to a tee: he would be from the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:8-12), the regal clan of David (2 Sam. 7; Psalm 2; 89), born in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:1-2), and a miracle worker (Isa. 35:5-6). No wonder they rhythmically chanted, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel” as Jesus rode into town.
Hope filled the air, and rightly so. But the hope that Jesus’s presence and mission sought to give the Jews that day, and to people of all time, was way beyond what they could comprehend on that day. Looking back at His triumphal entry on Sunday, March 29, 33 A.D., gives us all the hope we need to face our own trials and fears. A cursory analysis of John’s account of this first Palm Sunday helps us understand the magnitude of the hope Jesus’s humble journey to Jerusalem on a donkey provides us.
From my study of John 12:9-19, I identify two answers as to why we can confidently say that hope is here in this ancient event in Christ’s purposeful life:
First, from this historical account, we learn this enduring, inexorable truth:
We Have Hope That Death Is Defeated By Life (John 12:9-10)
In my backyard is a “stone” with my late sister Marla’s name, birthdate, and death date. One of our compassionate parishioners gave it to me after she died at 61 years of age from ovarian cancer. Now, every time I work in my backyard, I can’t help but see this beautiful stone and remember her life lived in service to Christ as a worship pastor’s wife. This stone also gives me hope for it reminds me of the same Lord who gave Lazarus physical and spiritual life, gave her spiritual life. On the day of the great resurrection (John 5:28-29), the same Lord will resurrect her body from the grave and give her a glorified body suited for eternity (1 Thess. 4:13-18). In the meantime, I rest in the hope that she is right now in the Lord of life’s hands, enjoying His presence. This rich, comforting truth is embedded in this story about Christ’s final journey to Jerusalem, which started in His friends’ humble home.
As you can imagine, throngs quickly headed there when word spread through the camping crowds that Jesus resided temporarily in Bethany. Since Jews came from all over the known world to observe Passover, we can safely surmise that Jews from the Galilee region, which was the focus of much of Christ’s excellent teaching and the object of many of His off-the-charts miracles, took their families on a short walk to see Him, again. Why did they do this? John tells us:
9 The great multitude therefore of the Jews learned that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead. (John 12)
First, they came because of Jesus. Why did they come to see Him? They came because they had either heard His life-changing teaching and witnessed His miracles, or they knew someone who had told stories of what they had seen and heard.
Isaiah, the prophet, prophesied some seven hundred years before Christ’s arrival concerning how to identify the Messiah:
“Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; the recompense of God will come, but He will save you.” 5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. 6 Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness and streams in the Arabah. (Isa. 35)
According to Isaiah, God would come and deal with Israel’s enemies, and Israel would be able to identify Him using His miraculous activity. Jesus, of course, performed all of these miracles that only God could pull off: He gave new eyes to the blind many times (Isa; 35:5; Matt. 9:27-31), hearing to the deaf (Isa. 5:5; Mark 7:31-37), new legs to those who couldn’t walk (Isa. 35:6; John 5:1-9), and the ability to speak to the speechless (Isa. 35:6; Matt. 9:32-33). Beyond this, He had raised the dead twice in the Galilee region. He stopped a funeral procession in the small town of Nain and raised a dead teen being carried in a coffin to a burial site to instant life (Luke 7:11-18). Don’t tell me that word of this didn’t travel far and fast. Later, He raised a synagogue ruler’s deceased daughter. As people gathered to remember her death, He entered her room, took her little cold hand, and immediately she came back to life, slipped out of the bed, and stood on the floor (Matt. 9:18-26). Again, don’t tell me this story didn’t spread like wildfire in the region.
But now Jesus had done it again. This time, it was in the southern region of Bethany. The other two resurrections occurred right after the persons died. The resurrection of Lazarus was qualitatively different insofar as he had been entombed for four long days (John 11:39). Necrosis, no doubt, owned his dead body. Yet, by Jesus merely calling Lazarus’s name outside the tomb, carved in the rock, was all it took for him to pass from death to life. Witnesses of the event to end all events shared the story (John 12:17), and that’s why many of these folks traveled to Bethany to see Jesus and Lazarus.
Lazarus was living proof that Jesus could overcome death with a word. And if He could overcome physical death, then He could undoubtedly overcome spiritual death, granting life to all those who would come to Him, the Savior, in believing faith (John 3:16). Talk about the essence of hope.
At several junctures in John’s gospel, the disciple records the fact that, as God, Jesus promised to give followers a spiritual life of an eternal nature:
40 “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6)
In this one statement, Jesus underscores how He gives His followers eternal spiritual life that will one day merge with a physically resurrected body suited to enjoy all the wonders of heaven (John 14:1-6). Lazarus was just a small taste of what will come for all those who worship Christ as Lord.
Jesus also taught later in John 12 that His power was so great that He could overcome His eventual death. Talking privately with Philip and Andrew He said:
24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12)
His death at Passover would be like a grain of wheat that died, dropped into the earth, and then gave life to more stalks of wheat, or believers. This teaching dovetailed with what He taught back in John 10:
17 For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” (John 10)
As God, Jesus controlled every aspect of His life, death, and resurrection to life again. Again, Lazarus sitting there having dinner with Jesus was a flesh and blood example that death would be, and is, defeated by the willingness of Jesus to be the ultimate Passover Lamb. He bore our sin and then rose from the grave by His power, thereby paving the way for all sinners to have hope that death is not the end of life. No, life begins when a person comes to know Him as Savior. He taught this much in His teaching in John 10, where He identified Himself as the Good Shepherd:
27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. (John 10)
So, I can stop when I’m working in my backyard and reflect on the life and loss of my dear sister, Marla. But in my grief and sadness, I possess a great hope and joy because I know that the Lord of life gave her spiritual life at the moment of her faith in His redemptive work. I now wait to see her face to face. That will probably happen right after I fall at the feet and worship the Lord, of course.
What about you? Do you have hope this Palm Sunday? Do you have hope that the end of this life is merely the beginning of a new life in God’s presence if you know His Son as your Savior? I pray that you will make that personal, life-changing decision by the close of this service. I’m sure Lazarus was glad he did. I know Marla is enjoying life beyond death. What about you? Hope is here for the taking, and that hope has a name: Jesus Christ.
Second, we can safely say that hope is here because the rest of this familiar historical narrative teaches us this much:
We Have Hope That The King Came And Will Come Again (John 12:11-17)
We pick up John’s account of Christ’s journey to Jerusalem in verse 12:
12 On the next day the great multitude who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 took the branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and began to cry out, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” 14 And Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, 15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” (John 12)
Why did the throngs do this? They did this because the prophet Zechariah stated that the messianic king would come riding into town on a donkey:
Earthly kings come with pride, power, and parades of soldiers and bodyguards. Not so with the true King of Kings. His entrance into His regal rulership on earth over the throne of David would start with His arrival in a humble fashion while riding a humble little donkey, not a mighty, muscular, ominous war horse. And for all intents and purposes, it looked like Zechariah said that the Messiah would defeat all worldly powers right after His arrival and establish His kingdom of total peace. Chapter fourteen goes so far as to say that after this time, the nations would observe the Feast of Tabernacles, which consisted of using palm branches to construct booths for the people to live in during this final religious feast mandated by God (Zech. 14:16).
What the people of Christ’s day failed to realize was that between verses 9 and 10 of Zechariah 9, there would be a time chasm of over 2,000 years. This is similar to Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the Messiah’s coming in chapter 61, verses 1 through 2:
1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, and freedom to prisoners; 2 To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, . . . (Isa. 61)
Jesus began His ministry in His hometown synagogue in Nazareth by reading this text and saying that verses 1 through 2a were fulfilled in Him.
16 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. 17 And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book, and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, 19 to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” 20 And He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4)
His hometown folks reacted with rage to His bold statement because they knew He had just claimed He was the divine Messiah foretold by Isaiah (Isa. 7:14; 9:6). Their anger motivated them to haul Him out to a local cliff, most likely, overlooking the Valley of Armageddon, to stone Him for blasphemy. But He wasn’t blaspheming. He was fulfilling the word of the prophets to the letter.
A physical, Davidic empire that would bring peace to the entire world was coming. Daniel prophesied it some five hundred years before Christ’s birth:
13 “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. 14 “And to Him was given dominion, Glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. (Dan. 7)
Two hundred years before Daniel, Isaiah said the same thing by way of divine inspiration:
6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this. (Isa. 9)
Worldwide peace was coming from the Messiah mounted on the donkey. Still, it could not come until He first died as the Passover lamb to secure spiritual peace and a spiritual kingdom for sinners who desired to become saints by way of belief in His redemptive work on the cross.
Paul talks about this in Romans chapter 5:
1 Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God . . . 6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (Rom. 5)
So, Christ first rode into town as a humble King on a humble donkey so He could, at the end of that fateful week, humbly bear our sin on His holy body so we could have the prospect of forgiveness and spiritual life as members of His spiritual kingdom. The next time He rides, according to Revelation 19, He returns with the saints and armies of heaven on a mighty war horse at the end of the seven-year Tribulation to establish His long-awaited kingdom of worldwide peace.
The rich nature of all of this prophetic theology escaped the disciples cognitive abilities on that first Palm Sunday:
16 These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him. (John 12)
The disciples connected the eschatological dots later. Don’t you know that was an exciting moment, especially considering all they had seen? Can’t you hear them say, “Ah, now I get it. Now, I understand why He rode through the Beautiful Gate of the Temple on that donkey. Now, I understand why He came to town at Passover. Now, I understand how the kingdom of peace plays out in God’s timetable. First, it is a spiritual kingdom, and then a physical kingdom.”
Believe me, both of those kingdoms drip with hope. Hope there is a solution for sin. Hope there is more to come after this life in God’s presence if we know His Son by faith. Hope that all the problems we see in the current world political systems merely point to the need for the arrival of the One who will destroy all inferior, sin-ridden political systems, after which He will be THE King of Kings over a worldwide kingdom of total peace and prosperity. The question today is clear: Will you be there?
John closes out his version of the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem with these observations about three responses that are possible concerning the person and work of Jesus, the Messiah and Savior:
17 And so the multitude who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb, and raised him from the dead, were bearing Him witness. 18 For this cause also the multitude went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign. 19 The Pharisees therefore said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him.” (John 12)
I’ll call the first group THE CONVINCED. They considered the incontrovertible evidence of Christ’s deity through His resurrection of Lazarus from the dead and bowed in adoration of Him as Lord and Savior. Allan Sandage, one of the fathers of modern astronomy and the discoverer of quasars and the winner of the Crafoorrd Prize, which is astronomy’s equivalent ot the Nobel Peace Prize, looks at the evidence of a divine designer for the cosmos and concludes: “I find it quite improbabl that such order came out of chaos. There has to be some organizing principle. God to me is a mystery but is the explanation for the miracle of existence- why there’s something rather than nothing.”[2] Wise, smart, and logical people look at hard evidence, especially concerning the person, work, and prophetic fulfillment of and by Jesus, and conclude they, as sinners, are convinced He is who He said He was. At that precise moment, they move from being sinners to being saints, saints who have hope in life to come after death, and hope in the coming kingdom to end all kingdoms. Are you part of this group?
The second group I’ll call THE CURIOUS. They are the folks who heard about the rising of Lazarus from the witnesses and traveled to Bethany to check the story out. As I said earlier, many of those probably had firsthand knowledge of Christ’s divine power because they had seen it in the Galilee region of northern Israel. They, however, remained unconvinced. We read about this sad truth down in verse 37 of John 12:
37 But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him; (John 12)
Hearing about divine power and seeing it for themselves still didn’t sway this massive group. They were forever just curious and inquisitive, but never desirous of embracing Jesus as Savior. In fact, they would be the folks who would go from shouting “Hosanna” toward Him on Palm Sunday, only to scream “Crucify Him” by the following Friday simply because He wasn’t the Messiah they wanted.
Is this a picture of your life? Are you just bouncing from church to church and Bible study to Bible study, gathering information about Jesus, but never coming to terms with the evidence? If this is you, one thing is sure: you don’t have hope in your life. Inner despair probably drives you forward in your quest to discover if there is anything to Christianity; however, your pride keeps you from bowing your knees in faith before the blood-stained cross of Jesus. If this is you, I challenge you that this is the perfect day to move from being curious to being convinced. The moment you do this, Jesus will flood your life with eternal hope: hope that life follows death and that a kingdom of peace is coming in which you will have a part.
The third group I will label as THE CONNIVING. They were the religious leaders who should have known better, but they didn’t because they saw Jesus as a threat to their power, wealth, and control over people through the vehicle called religion. He also threatened their heretical teaching, too. The Sadducees, for example, did not believe in the concept of resurrection; therefore, the presence of Lazarus completely challenged their theological stance. Out of desperation, they did everything they could to silence Jesus, the one who resurrected people, and the object of His resurrected power, Lazarus.
10 But the chief priests took counsel that they might put Lazarus to death also; 11 because on account of him many of the Jews were going away, and were believing in Jesus. (John 12)
It is sad the lengths some will go to to keep Jesus out of their lives . . . and the lives of others.
Sadly, we know these evil, selfish men went so far as to arrest Jesus on trumped-up charges just a few days after His triumphal entry, and to cunningly work to get the Romans to execute Him, even though they knew He was innocent. Sadly, hell will be full of religious folks like this, people who hold to a form of religion but who deny the incontrovertible evidence that Jesus is the only true Savior and the King of Kings because of His sacrificial death and His glorious resurrection, both of which are embedded in biblical and extra-biblical history.
If you are a card-carrying member of this last group, know that I pray for your soul. I pray that this Palm Sunday, God would awaken you to the precarious, untenable nature of your position and move your heart and mind to the cross of His dear Son, where you can, and will, be saved.
[1] Joachim Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969), 84.
[2] John C. Lennox, God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? (Oxford: Lion Hudson, 2007), 65-66.
