Sermon "Sing Hosanna’ "
Rev. Lonnie Richardson
Sunday, March 28, 1999
Matthew 21:1-11
It seems there was a pretzel stand out front of an office building in New York. One day, a man came out of the building, plunked down a dollar, and then went on his way without taking a pretzel. This happened every day for three weeks. Finally, the person running the stand spoke up: "Sir, excuse me. May I have a word with you?" The fellow said, "I know what you're going to say. You're going to ask me why I give you a dollar every day and don't take a pretzel." And the owner of the stand answered, "Not at all. I just want to tell you that the price is now $1.50."
Have you paused from your busy schedule to consider the price of faith? We start to realize it in the story of Palm Sunday and yet there is a danger in the way we worship on Palm Sunday. It is the danger that we will forget why Jesus came to Jerusalem to begin with, and as a result we will forget why we sing hosannas. Often times we sing hosannas on Palm Sunday and then we sing "Christ the Lord has risen today" the very next Sunday. The events of Good Friday are not on our personal religious calendars. Oh, Jesus' death is mentioned. It is not that we completely ignore it. We just move past that fact as quickly as we can to get to the resurrection.
The problem is; we don't like to dwell on unpleasant things. Sometimes we don't even admit to ourselves that unpleasant things exist. When I was in college I had a bright red button with bold black letters which said, "Stop Torture." I had gotten it from a campus group as part of their campaign to stop torture in foreign countries. One day, out of the blue, someone asked me if I was part of the animal rights group on campus. I said no and gave them a puzzling look. He said, "I saw your button and thought you might be.” I said, "It means stop torturing humans." Then he gave me this strange look and said, "No one is torturing humans."
We don't want to admit the pain and the unpleasantness of life. We would rather close our eyes to it the way we do in a scary movie. We allow ourselves to think that people torture animals, but we don't allow ourselves to think that people torture people. As a result we often overlook those who are suffering and in pain. There is something to be said for accentuating the positive and eliminating the negative. But when it causes us to overlook those in need, the ones God is calling us to help, the lost, the hungry the sick it runs contrary to God's purpose.
Because of this tendency to overlook the negative we sometimes overlook Jesus' suffering and death. We get all caught up in the joy of singing praises to Jesus as he triumphantly enters Jerusalem. And we forget that Jesus came to Jerusalem to die. So when we get to Holy Week we put our hands over our eyes. And say to the person next to us, "Tell me when it is over." It may be unpleasant to think about, but Jesus did die. People drove nails through his wrists and feet. They nailed him to a cross. Jesus experienced terror and pain. What's most important is that he experienced that pain for our behalf. Jesus' death is a fact of our salvation that we must never overlook.
So, how can we joyfully sing hosannas in the face of Christ's suffering? The people in our story seem to have been grossly ignorant of the facts. If they had known, as we do, why Jesus came to Jerusalem, they would not be singing a song of triumph. You see, they thought Jesus would come in and take over the state. Right before this Jesus had to correct his disciples for thinking that his kingdom would appear immediately. (Luke 19:11) the prophets had said the messiah would come riding on a donkey. So when the people saw Jesus on that donkey, they thought he was coming to lead an uprising. They thought he would ride right up to Herod's palace and sit on his throne. Then he would order the Romans out of his newly established kingdom. The crowd was partially right. Jesus was and is the Messiah. But they expected a messiah who would rule an earthly kingdom.
Jesus didn't come to Jerusalem to sit on a throne. Jesus came to Jerusalem to hang on a cross. He said so to his disciples several times. He told them plainly. He said the Son of Man must suffer and die. How can we see ourselves shouting with those people. How can we joyfully sing their song?
So what are we to do? Should we revert to our old ways of overlooking Christ's death. Should we forget Good Friday and wipe it off our religious calendars. Can we; forget why Jesus came to Jerusalem and just blend in with the crowd of misled pilgrims? Can we blindly yell "Blessed is the King who comes to sit on Herod's throne."
Maybe we should celebrate the fact that Jesus came to Jerusalem to die. That is precisely what the Bible tells us to do. Paul wrote, "(Christ) humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."(Philippians 2:8-11) in other words Jesus is worthy of praise precisely because he went to Jerusalem to die.
This is not just an approach to Palm Sunday, it is an approach to all of life. Jesus' suffering was necessary to win our hearts and souls. Once we open our eyes to the suffering of Christ we see him as Lord more clearly than before. Every knee shall bow and all shall shout "Hosanna!" Because of his faithfulness. In Christ we can look at suffering and see something beautiful. So look at the suffering around you. Open your eyes to it, as unpleasant as that may be. Then hand it over to God. And God in Christ will turn that sorrow into shouts of joy. Amen.
