I've just given the 8am Holy Communion Service talk at HTB on Palm Sunday, and here's the talk!


Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem
Matthew 21: 1-11
 
I’m one of those people who when I’m reading really likes to be able to picture the scene in a story. Like when Homer describes morning as the “rosy-fingered dawn.” Or when Bronte describes the dark and formidable Wuthering Heights house. You almost feel as though you were there and could shake hands with the characters.
 
And I love these really descriptive passages we get in the Bible. The opportunities we get to glimpse a little more of the personality of Jesus – those moments in the stories in the Gospels when you can really imagine and recognise the emotions that Jesus might have been feeling at that time – it makes him less like an emotionally-distant figure and so much more human and tangible.. Like when we’re told that Jesus wept at Lazarus’ death, or the gentle, maybe faintly amused repetition of a stressed Martha’s name when he visits her and her sister Mary: “Martha, Martha, you are upset and worried about many things…” Or when he patiently sits and explains AGAIN to his disciples the meaning of the parable he’s just told, and then has to keep rephrasing it until they get it. Or when he’s in the Garden of Gethsemane, frustrated and upset that his disciples can’t seem to stay awake with him, and when he can’t help but ask God “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.”
 
And I wonder exactly what Jesus must have been feeling at this point.
 
Here he was, finally arriving in Jerusalem. His faithful and obedient disciples go and fetch the donkey and colt that he’s asked them to bring and they cover them with their cloaks to make his journey more comfortable. As he rides through the gate into the city, the crowds excitedly herald his arrival with cries of “Hosanna!”, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Meanwhile the adoring throngs are laying their cloaks in front of him along with palm branches, a symbol of triumph and of victory in Jewish tradition. I can imagine it must have been quite a scene – the bustling crowds, pushing one another out of the way to have a good look at the famous Jesus – wanting to put their palm branch where he would see it. The noise must have been deafening as the people cried out in praise “Hosanna to the Son of David! Hosanna in the highest!”
 
And yet, despite this joyful scene, and the hoards of happy people, and his disciples by his side, I can imagine that Jesus might felt incredibly lonely. For all the obedience his disciples might have shown him up until that point, he knew, that in just a few days, one of them would betray him, and another would deny not once, but three times that he even knew him. And Jesus knew, as his donkey steadily trotted over the palm branches, that before a week had passed, he would be arrested, beaten, and mocked. He knew that the cries of possibly this same crowd who today were announcing his arrival with triumphant shouts of “Hosanna!”, would instead be cheering for the release of Barabbas, a robber in the place of Jesus. Their joyous shouts would then change to yells of “Crucify him, crucify him, crucify him!” And as a consequence he would be taken to the top of a hill, nailed to a cross, and with the sin of the whole world on his shoulders, be separated from his heavenly Father.
 
What conflicting emotions must he have felt? I wonder if he had some of those moments when for a flicker of time he’d almost forget what was coming his way. Like when you wake up in the morning, and for a split second forget something not so good which might have happened the day before. And then you suddenly remember and it all comes flooding back. I wonder if he almost felt angry at the crowds, knowing that their praises would soon turn to jeers and mocking. I wonder if he felt afraid and felt like turning the donkey round and heading for the hills.
 
I wonder what it was that helped Jesus get through the week he was facing. We know that he experiences the same human emotions that we do – for all that he was God, he was also man, and I’m fairly certain he can’t have been completely unaffected as he arrived in Jerusalem, knowing what was to come. I think it must have been a combination of a number of things, but perhaps two of the most important were courage and faith. But most specifically faith in the knowledge that although he was nearing the end of the road to the cross, he knew it was all part of his Father’s perfect plan. And that although he was on the edge of this terrible precipice, that pasture was in sight, and that he loved mankind so much, that this was the sacrifice he knew must be made and was prepared to do for. He had faith that the resurrection would come, and with it new life for him and all God’s children. As it says on the back of our April services card Romans 6: 3-5 says this:
“Just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
 
The dictionary definition of courage is “The quality of mind enabling one to face danger or hardship resolutely.” And in Hebrews, as Pastor Agu reminded us two weeks ago, we are told that "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.” I think this blend of mindsets must be an awesome one to have. I’m sure there aren’t many situations in life that can’t be faced when armed with courage and faith. Fortunately, we won’t be faced with the same challenge that Jesus was on this day. But even in our own lives, I’m sure there are times when we can perhaps draw strength from seeing the courage of Jesus, and having faith in the promise that God has made to us in Jeremiah that he has “plans for us – plans to prosper us and not to harm us.” Perhaps when we’re facing major surgery, or a medical diagnosis, or when our job doesn’t seem quite so secure anymore, or at the loss of a loved one.
 
We are told in 1 Corinthians that “no eye has seen, no ear has heard no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”  But we are also told in James that we will face trials in life – but through them, we will develop perseverance, and we may become mature and complete, not lacking in anything if only we hold on to that faith with courage.
 
I love the fact that God is so honest with us – he never made us empty promises of an easy ride in order to get us on his team. Instead, we are given the truth that he is a God who has suffered too, and is with us through the trials we face and there is always the promise and knowledge of that beautiful pasture somewhere up ahead.
 
I grew up in Liverpool, and I went to a high Anglican church there. I was an acolyte and a server there for 12 years until I went to university. I’ve no idea how many Sunday services and high masses I served at, but through all that time the service that would really stick in my mind was the Maundy Thursday evening service. Though perhaps a day early, the large cross with the figure of Jesus would be brought into the centre of the altar for the service, and the service would remind us of Jesus’ time in the Garden of Gethsemane. It would conclude with the choir singing Psalm 22, which seems to describe so perfectly how Jesus might have been feeling on the night before and the day of his crucifixion – verse 14 says this: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me.”
 
And as the choir were singing this final psalm, instead of the clergy servers and choir processing out of church in the usual orderly style, we would all leave our stations in disarray to symbolize the disciples abandonment of Jesus as he was arrested. We would then strip the church of anything decorative – altar cloths, banners, altar rails and then would commence what was called the watch, which is when the congregation could stay if they wanted in silence, and pray. But as a child I somehow saw it more as an opportunity to keep Jesus company in what must have been one of the loneliest times in his life. A chance almost to say thank you for what he was about to do for me, and as Jesus stays by my side through my trials, that I wanted to stay by his side through his.
 
And so as we go into Holy Week, starting off with Palm Sunday, I challenge you to keep company with Jesus, and pick out those times when you can identify with his emotions. And through that, build up your own courage and faith in him and with him in the knowledge and the promise of the pasture of his resurrection just a few days away. Because at the end of Psalm 22, after the description of his suffering it says this:
 
25   From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
       before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows.
 26 The poor will eat and be satisfied;
       they who seek the Lord will praise him—
       may your hearts live forever!
 27 All the ends of the earth
       will remember and turn to the Lord,
       and all the families of the nations
       will bow down before him,
 28 for dominion belongs to the Lord
       and he rules over the nations.
 29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
       all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
       those who cannot keep themselves alive.
 30 Posterity will serve him;
       future generations will be told about the Lord.
 31 They will proclaim his righteousness
       to a people yet unborn—
       for he has done it.