Palm Sunday - From the Donkey to the Cross

On this the sixth Sunday of Lent we celebrate Palm Sunday – the day we remember the Lord's entry into Jerusalem to the boisterous cheers of the crowds. St Matthew describes the tumultuous scene this way: “Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!” (Mathew 21:8-9)

But we know the rest of the story, don’t we? It’s only days before who-knows-how-many in that same crowd will clamor for His crucifixion. And despite the crowd’s boisterous acclamation on Palm Sunday, Jesus knew He was headed toward a gruesome death before the end of the week. He knew this was the time set by the Holy Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – the time to bring salvation’s plan to its culmination. Jesus knew all this as He rode into the city.

The question many of us have often considered – and which I want to spend some time in this message considering again, is “What happened to the crowd between Palm Sunday and Good Friday?” And I want to add one more question to that first one: Why does it matter what happened to the crowd between those two dates?

We’ll come back to those questions in a few minutes

Palm Sunday and Good Friday did not happen in a vacuum. It was the sin-drenched history of humanity poured out on the Altars of Self since the Garden of Eden that brought Jesus to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. It was sin that would lead Him from the donkey to the cross to engage in a battle of inconceivable proportions – a battle that would determine the eternal destinies of everyone in Jerusalem on that fateful day – and everyone alive today.

Most of us have heard this story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem dozens and dozens of times. Many of you grew up with the story told and retold in children’s picture books, Sunday School lessons and from pulpits year after year.

There’s a danger in all that, by the way. The danger being that the all-so-familiar story becomes a ho-hum irrelevant tale of long ago. There’s a danger that the story on which salvation history hangs becomes stripped of its power to transform us from a “been there-heard it already” mentality to one of life-altering revelation even if we’ve been walking with Christ for half a century or longer.

Many of you remember the old spiritual, “Where You There?” Were you there when they crucified my Lord?/Oh, were you there when they crucified my Lord?/Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Were you there when they nailed him to the cross?/Were you there when they nailed him to the cross?/Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble/Were you there when they nailed him to the cross?

Does the story of our redemption at the cost of the Son of God's life cause us to tremble? At the very least, does it cause us to pause and reflect on such love, such wondrous love as this, that God would love a sinner such as I – and you?

In a very real sense, you and I WERE there when they crucified our Lord. I believe it eminently possible that God saw you and me through the lens of eternity when Jesus hung on that cross. And why not? Is it so inconceivable that the omniscient God who knows all things from the beginning of creation to its culmination to have known your name and your face even from Creation?

And when the Lord cried out, “It is finished!”  we should not doubt that what was finished was OUR redemption, even we who live 2000 years after that event.

And hear this again, please: If Jesus had NOT permitted Himself to be nailed to that tree, if He had NOT permitted those men – whose very DNA His hand wound together at their conception – if He had not permitted them to murder Him, then you and I would still be dead in our trespasses and sins and on our way inevitably and inexorably to an eternity in the Lake of Fire.

What happened to those in the crowd on Palm Sunday who also were part of the crowd on Good Friday? Well, we can’t really know what happened to them because Scripture is silent about that question. But knowing human nature as well as we know it – because we are all human – I think it’s safe to make some speculative assumptions.

In the 53 years I’ve followed Jesus, I’ve seen many followers of Christ turn away from Him. And so have you. And while their reasons for turning back to the world might be varied, I think there are most often only of two primary reasons a person leaves Christ: Either they tire of doing what Jesus wants them to do, or they grow angry, or annoyed, or disillusioned when Jesus doesn’t do what they want Him to do.

And I think the shorter the time grows before the Lord Jesus’ return the more urgent Satan grows in his seduction of humanity – and especially of churchgoers.

Why especially churchgoers? Because if he can seduce you and me away from Christ, we don’t often go away alone. We bring with us those who looked up to us, who trusted us, who thought we have the answers to questions like, “Are the Scriptures TRUE about forgiveness and eternal life? Are they TRUE when they tell me that God loves me, despite all that I have done?” 

As I prepared today’s message, the names three modern and well-known Christians came to mind because of what they’ve done. I’ve mentioned them in the past, and I do so again to emphasize the point:

The first is Joshua Harris. He was a megachurch pastor and author the then-popular Christian book titled, “I Kissed Dating Goodbye”.  Several years ago, Harris told his church that he’d found freedom from Christianity. He divorced his wife and shortly thereafter marched in a Gay Pride parade.

Around the same time Harris fell into apostacy, another big-name Christian also turned away from the One he used to call his Lord. Marty Sampson was a worship leader and song writer for the Hillsong megachurch. Like Harris, Sampson also boasted of having escaped from Christ.

And only a month or so ago, Philip Yancey, author of many well-known Christian books, admitted to an eight-year-long adulterous betrayal of his wife of more than fifty years. And during those eight years of continuous betrayal of God and his wife, he continued to write books and play the part of a faithful Christian.

Those are only three of many other modern examples of those who at one time shouted like the crowd on Palm Sunday, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ but ended up turning from Him. Such betrayal against the King of kings is nothing short of disastrous for them, their families, and for those who looked up to them. Why disastrous? Because Satan can more easily seduce those who once looked up to them to also walk away from Christ.

What comes over a person who once proclaimed Christ as their savior and to then turn from Him as some in that same crowd did on Good Friday?

Scripture gives us some insight – of course. Listen to what Jesus said in that third chapter of John’s gospel: “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” (John 3:19-20)

What happens to some people between Palm Sunday and Good Friday? I think some also walk away from Christ when He says things that, to us at the time, don’t make sense – as if, by the way, God is obligated to speak and to do what we can understand with our finite minds.

I think of that sixth chapter of John’s gospel when the Lord told the crowds: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me . . . .” (John 6:53-57)

At that point, many of His followers walked away from Him because they thought: “This is insane talk.” (verse 60). And I suspect many never returned.

But the story doesn’t end there. We pick it up at verse 67: “So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.” (John 6:53-68)

To whom shall we go? He has the words of eternal life.

I asked at the beginning of this message if what happened to those in the crowds between Palm Sunday and Good Friday – if it has any relevance to us today? Was it – IS it – important?

The answer is an unqualified, ‘Yes.’ Those who today want to stay with Jesus – EVEN WHEN THEY DO NOT UNDERSTAND everything He says, or does, or does not say, or does not do – those who want to stay with Jesus do so because – well, ‘Where shall we go?’ He alone has the words of eternal life.

I’ve said this to you before, even recently, and I am grateful to say it again: Just look at yourselves. How many heartaches have YOU experienced in your Christian life? How many shattered dreams? How many disappointments? How many unanswered questions – especially the questions beginning with, ‘Why?’

How many of you suffer physical or emotional hardships, even knowing that you might not get better in this life? And yet, here you sit. Week after week. Around the calendar. Year after year. And you still intend with God’s help to follow Jesus until you take your last breath.

Why? Your answers will all be individualized; And of course, the Holy Spirit continues to hold onto you. But you also have an important role to play in that ‘holding-on.’ What is that role?

You DON’T WANT to go. Surely you know that because of your sin nature and under the right circumstances you COULD make that disastrous decision to go your own way, to leave the love of your life. But you ALSO know, after all these years and all your life experiences, you know there’s nowhere else to go. Jesus alone has the words of eternal life, and Jesus alone can take you to eternal life.

And so, my point to all that I’ve said this far? Keep at it! The Palm Sunday crowd didn’t know Good Friday was around the corner. And no one on Good Friday knew that Sunday was a’coming.

Keep at it. The devil is a most seductive, magnetic, and beguiling liar. And he is not done with us until we are finally with the Lord Jesus in our new bodies after our death.

The devil hates us with a most malicious hatred – and if he can take us down, as he did with Harris, and Sampson, and Yancey – if he can take us down, he will take others with us.

BUT! – And this is a most important ‘But” – on the other hand – and we NEED to know this – it is because of your faithfulness to Christ in and through it all – that God uses your faithfulness to bring others also along with you to that Celestial city.

You NEED to know that in your heart of hearts. You and I are, as St Paul wrote, ‘co-workers with Christ’ in the building of His Kingdom. You Must believe that because the whole of Scripture tells us that is true.

As I bring this message to a close, I want to cite only one example of what I mean when I say God WILL use our faithfulness to draw others to Himself. This story comes from the 6th chapter of 2 Maccabees, written a few hundred years before Jesus was born.

During this time, the Jews lived under Greek domination. The Athenian king decreed that all Jews were to turn from their faith, make sacrifice to the Greek gods, and eat pork – something God forbade all Jews to eat. To refuse meant a torturous death. We pick up the story at verse 21, after 90-year-old Eleazar refused the non-kosher meat:

“The officials in charge of this sacrilegious meal took [Eleazar] aside privately because of their long acquaintance with him and urged him to bring meat of his own . . . and to pretend that he was eating the sacrificial meat that had been commanded by the king. In this way he would be saved from death.”

But Eleazar answered: “At this stage of my life it would be terribly wrong to be a party to such a pretense,” he said, “for many young people would be led to believe that at the age of ninety Eleazar had conformed to a foreign practice. If I should engage in deceit for the sake of living a brief moment longer, they would be led astray by me, while I would bring defilement and disgrace on my old age.  For the moment I would avoid the punishment of mortals, but alive or dead I shall never escape the hands of the Almighty. Therefore, by bravely forfeiting my life now, I shall prove myself worthy of my old age, and I shall leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for our revered and holy laws.” With these words he went immediately to the torture rack . . [and] in this way he died, and by his death he left an example of courage and a model of virtue not only for the young but for the entire nation. (2 Maccabees 6:21-31)

Did you catch that? “I shall prove myself worthy of my old age, and I shall leave to the young a noble example of how to die a good death willingly and nobly for our revered and holy laws.”

What happened to Eleazar between his initial commitment to the God of Israel and the threat of death in his old age if he didn’t turn from his faith?

What happened? Like ALL the martyrs of our faith, he CHOSE to stay true to His God. Read again those last dozen or so verses of Hebrews 11. It was and is the Holy Spirit who enables them – and us – to remain true to God, even on the rack of torture.

Please, my brothers and sisters, hear this one more time today: It is ONLY, ONLY, ONLY the Holy Spirit’s power that keeps you and me faithful. That is why we repeatedly seek Him in prayer to keep us humble, penitent, and obedient. Where else can we go? Jesus alone has the words of eternal life.

Keep at it. Keep walking with Christ. And know this: Sunday is coming when we shall see our Lord face to face.