Joy and Sadness
A Sermon preached Sunday, March 16, 2008
by Pastor Terry Davis
First Presbyterian Church, Hartford, CT
Perhaps on first glance you might have thought that the title of the sermon in the bulletin was a misprint, a typographical error. Shouldn’t the title be Joy and Gladness? Wasn’t Palm Sunday a time of Joy and Gladness in the midst of a hard and difficult time? It seemed to be all rejoicing as Jesus entered the city on a donkey, as people shouted Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Jesus was making a messianic claim by fulfilling the prophesy of Zechariah 9:9 about the king coming mounted on a donkey. That is a pretty humble way to enter the city; kings and warriors would come riding horses. A donkey was not a riding animal; no it was a beast of burden that carried your belongings. Not all of he people may have caught the meaning of this strange way of coming into the city because when the people of the city asked the pilgrims who this was, they didn’t say, this is the messiah but they said "this is Jesus the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee." However the symbolism and the Messianic claim were not lost on the religious officials. Their power was very precarious, the Romans were in charge of the city and their headquarters was almost adjacent to the temple. The priests were allowed to go about their business and to control the temple on the condition that they keep peace in the city. If there was any rebellion in the city, any demonstrations or riots in the temple area the Romans could be depended on to put it down, to put them out of their office and their power, and occupy and desecrate of destroy the temple itself just as the Greek Rulers had done before them. This parade and the commotion in the temple with the money changers and animal sellers was a very dangerous event. From the point of view of the religious leaders the trouble maker had to be dealt with, but dealt with carefully so as not to stir up further trouble with the Galileans with whom Jesus was so popular.
Jesus was not so much interested in making the claim of being Messiah for the sake of the crowds, but to push the religious and government officials to take action against him. He had after all come to the city to suffer and die. He was convinced that this was God’s will for his life, the culmination of him ministry, to bring salvation to the world by giving himself as a sacrifice for the sins on the world. He wanted to be arrested and tried. In his ideal scenario he would be slain at the end of the week just as the Passover lambs were being slaughtered. He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, he was the Passover of God and it would be his greatest failure to not be sacrificed that week during the feast, or on the eve of the feast. So for him, and for the disciples, in so far as they were in tune with what he was doing, this was not so much a time of great gladness, but a time of grief.
Perhaps they lost themselves in the excitement of the moment, their teacher, their leader was being given the royal treatment, hailed as the one who comes in the name of the Lord, even the son of David. Every one loves a parade, and what a parade this was with people waving palm branches and throwing them on the road, along with the many who laid their own coats on the road to keep down the dust and created the equivalent of a red carpet for this man from Galilee. The celebration went on as Jesus went straight to the temple and there declared himself Lord of the temple by creating havoc in the outer courts, overturning the money changer's tables and sending the animals scattering saying that all this commerce in the temple had turned God’s house of prayer into a den of thieves. Right there in the temple he healed the lame and the blind and all the children cried out again, “Hosanna to the son of David.” When the priests challenged Jesus and told him to put an end to the racket he quoted the 8th Psalm and said out of the mouths of babies you have brought forth perfect praise.
Then as evening came Jesus and his followers left the city of Jerusalem and went to Bethany, not just to enjoy the hospitality of Martha and Mary, but more importantly to get away from the religious leaders. Jesus wanted to be executed publicly during the feast. He did not want to be shanked by one of the priests’ henchmen in the middle of the night before the feast had begun.
I can only imagine that when they got there and the excitement had calmed down, the food brought out and wine began to flow that some of the disciples must have said one to another, what in the world have we done. We have set events into motion that are not going to be turned back and before the week is over the master will be dead, and probably the rest of us with him, and then what will happen to the movement that we started.
You have to understand that they didn’t really grasp Jesus’ plan. Although he kept telling them that he was going to suffer and die they were in denial about half of the time, and they never got the part about rising again on the third day. Maybe he never told them that part. Maybe his predictions of his resurrection got written into the story after the fact, or maybe that was an idea that was just beyond their imagining. I mean they didn’t act like they were expecting a resurrection. After he was put to death they were hiding in the upper room, none of them was at the tomb for a sunrise service to witness a resurrection. The women didn’t go out to see a resurrection, but to wash and dress the body that had been wrapped up and put quickly in a tomb as the sun was setting without the ointments and spices that should have been part of a decent burial.
We really can’t know what Jesus told them, and what they understood, but the mood of the week grows increasingly grim from Palm Sunday until his arrest the following Thursday. Every day there were challenges in the temple, murmured threats. Something was wrong with Judas; he had some secret or something going on and was missing on several occasions. Did he have a mistress in the city, or was Jesus sending him on some errands that the others didn’t know about. They wondered what they were going to do about the Passover meal itself, where would they gather, who would prepare the food. Perhaps Judas was making these arrangements; after all he had the money bag.
Isn’t this the way it is in our lives, sometimes the greatest most exciting moment of our lives is followed by disaster. We have all read those awful stories about the groom who dies in an auto crash on the way to the wedding. It seems hard to pick up the paper without reading about someone in the prime of life either being killed or injured in an auto accident or by violence on the streets of our city. We live lives of uncertainty and there are a lot of people here this morning that have had tragedy enter their lives unexpectedly. Who would have thought that Kristen Harvey, a 25 year old, a rugby player would be stricken with one of the most serious kinds of Leukemia?
But as surely as triumph can be followed by disaster, so also disaster will be followed by hope and resurrection. That is the message of Easter. Friends believe this glad good news, not just for Jesus, but for us as well, weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes in the morning.
Matthew 21:1 - 11 1When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” 4This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, 5 “Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” 6The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 10When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” 11The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Matthew 27:32 - 42 32As they went out, they came upon a man from Cyrene named Simon; they compelled this man to carry his cross. 33And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), 34they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall; but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. 35And when they had crucified him, they divided his clothes among themselves by casting lots; 36then they sat down there and kept watch over him. 37Over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” 38Then two bandits were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. 39Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads 40and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” 41In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him, saying, 42“He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him.