Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,
a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.
It's our hope that these sermons will draw you
more into the life of following God, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. Please consider coming
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you enjoy this sermon. God bless. Let me pray
again for us. Lord, we're thankful for your Word,
and most of all we're thankful that your Word
directs us to the Word made flesh. The true God
of true God, the mystery of our holy religion,
God man, Christ, took on flesh for us. He might
redeem us. God, as we just cried out with the
crowd, crucify him. And we have cried out with
the crowd, Hosanna. Lord, would you help us to
see ourselves as not detached from the great
story of redemption, but a part of it. That our
sin is what drives Jesus to the cross, and our
redemption is what we have through the empty
tomb. God, I pray that we would not be detached
this morning, but just as we heard from many
of us the words of your holy scriptures, that
our stories would be placed into yours. God,
speak to us now, we pray. Draw us evermore into
the life of Christ, our King. In his name we
pray. Amen. Okay, so I have something to share
with you. This is one of my favorite beer glasses.
And some of you years ago saw another one of
my favorite beer glasses. I'm gonna tell you
about that other one. And then eventually I'll
tell you about this one. That other one I got
was from a trip. that I took with my youngest
brother, who's now 29, but this was 17 years
ago. I was graduating from a seminary in St.
Louis. He flew out as a 12 -year -old. My parents
put him on a plane from Seattle to St. Louis.
And he went and he spent the last week with me
there when I lived in St. Louis, where I lived
for four and a half years. We went to some Cardinals
games. We went to City Museum. Tannis, has y
'all been there? If anyone, this is just some...
Pastoral advice if anyone's in st. Louis go to
the City Museum back to my sermon And and then
when we left we drove straight from st. Louis
over to the front the mountains in Colorado and
then we camped at each of the national parks
my brother and I in Utah and I got one Souvenir
and then we made our way up through Crater Lake.
We camped at Crater Lake and then up to Seattle
Crater Lakes the National Park in Oregon I got
one souvenir from that trip, and it was a beer
glass from the Moab Brewery. And what happened,
maybe some of you will remember, because I know
I've told this story years ago, was that Melissa
and I got married a few years later. We were
living in Richmond, and we had our first place
where we were renting, and three months into
our young, fragile marriage, we only dated three
and a half months, and we were engaged for five,
so we barely knew each other a year. That glass
fell to the floor of our kitchen and crashed.
The one glass that I had from my trip with my
youngest brother, and I had moved all the way
from Seattle to Virginia away from my family,
and I just start bawling. And my young bride
is looking at me. What's going on? What do I
do? What do I do? But it was my one souvenir
from this sweet trip that I had with my brother.
It was so much more than a glass. And y 'all
know that, right? I mean, it's so much more.
It had so much that it carried with it, so much
that it meant beyond just being a glass. We know
this. This is not just a random, you know, thing
of metal that was made into a ring. This carries
with it so much more than just being a metal
band. We know that the sounds hate spoken in
certain... context to certain people with certain
tones are so much more than sounds that the sounds
of love spoken the right time can be utterly
transformative. So when a crowd gathers outside
of Jerusalem and shouts things like, thank you,
thank you, Jane, you got it, and shouts things
like, Hosanna. It means a lot more than just
sounds, right? When a crowd gathers and takes
palm branches and waves them and throws them
at the feet of somebody entering into the great
city, they are not just thinking, man, you know
what? This will be a good time. This will be
fun. Why don't we all just grab branches and
wave them? It's got so much more. When they take
their cloaks and they throw them down in front
of somebody riding in on a donkey, they are not
thinking, you know what, let's play the floor
is lava with the donkey. That's how they're thinking.
It means so much more seeing something about
their hopes and their desires and their thoughts
maybe about what Jesus might do for them. in
the gospels, in Mark and Luke and Matthew and
John, we often have texts that are inviting the
people that are engaging with Jesus and also
us, the readers, to ask, what do we think of
this Jesus? What do we make of him? Who is he
for us? And I think the events of Palm Sunday
are sort of doing the same thing. What do we
do with Jesus? What do we make of him? The telling
of the triumphal entry actually is one of those
stories that happens in all the Gospels. I've
mentioned before that, you know, that's something
that we should always be attentive to, important
event. In some, well in John, there's only palm
branches that are mentioned, but the others,
like the Gotham Arch we've been in, and then
the Gospel Matthew that we just heard from, mention
these branches and these clothes. And so I'm
gonna talk about these. Talk about these which
we've talked about in years past here and there
in different kinds of ways But let's first consider
these palm branches Isn't it kind of fun y 'all
to like have something different and to wave
them. I think it's fun I think it's fun to like
attach it to my guitar and get a little action
with that I think it's kind of fun. It's fun
to shout hosanna together But of course these
these things have a history and they have import
they have meaning They have, of course, a history
in our church, but they have a history in our
church because they have a history in the text
and they have a history behind them because they
have a history with the Jewish people. It wasn't
just something random that they were doing. When
you join your voice with others, shouting things
like, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord, the King, waving branches,
it has a certain kind of meaning behind it. Palms
were the symbol of victory. and specifically
Israel's victory, Israel's national hopes. It's
a nationalistic symbol, the bald eagle, the stars
and stripes. You all may know that there are
some books that the Roman Catholic Bible has,
that our Bible here does not, though they're
very important books. A couple of those are first
and second Maccabees. And part of what's happening
in those books is telling the story of the Maccabean
revolt. What happened was because the celly seeds
were suppressing the Jewish customs and all that.
There's this revolt. And in those books, palms
are used in celebration of the restoration of
Israel. The restoration of the Jewish temple.
Palms were a way of saying we fought and we won
and we got what we wanted Of course beyond this
actually I mentioned this in years past I'm sure
I have the palms were actually stamped onto the
Jewish coins that symbolized this time the we
won We won against the Romans So to wave a palm
branch was to say, here's the one that's going
to do it again. Here's the one who's going to
give us what we want, who's going to establish
our desires to bring us our national freedom.
They shouted a part of Psalm 118, Hosanna, blessed
is he who comes in the name of the Lord, but
actually occasionally some of the gospel texts
add that then they say the King, they add on
to it. They wanted Jesus, and here's part of
what I'm saying. They wanted him as long as he'll
give them what they want. He'll restore their
kingdom. And of course, in some ways, it's not
like what they wanted was a bad thing. What was
bad about it was that they wanted him to give
them what they wanted. We wave our palm branches
or we did wave our palm branches and and it's
fun and we cry our hosannas and All that is good.
But part of what we are also saying is that we
engage with Jesus in the same way We are the
fickle ones that say hey come Establish my kingdom
Give us what we want Jesus Give us pretty hair
Or hair Give us friends. Give us food that we
can delight in and jobs that give us meaning
and the spouses of our dreams and kids that listen
to us. Give us politicians that can enact the
laws that we deem right for our world. Give us
what we want, Jesus. Be our King. Be our King.
A pastor friend once told me this, everybody
is ready to receive Jesus as long as it means
a place in the sun. As long as coming to Jesus
makes you go, ah. Everybody wants a Jesus to
support what they do and how they think and how
they want to live. Everybody wants that Jesus.
Everybody wants the cosmic yes man. Everybody
wants the God who says, I'm on your side. And
when we have palm branches and we're waving these
brother sisters, we are saying we do the very
same thing. We are just like them. Just give
us what we want, Jesus. But I said, you know,
there's these two things that happen, right?
The palm branches and the cloaks. We've talked,
of course, about the donkey and all kinds of
other things in years past, but the cloaks. So
there's this wild story in Second Kings chapter
nine. It tells about a really bad time in the
history of Israel when kings forgot about God
and sort of did whatever they wanted. You know,
they established their kingdom. God, I'll use
you as long as I get to do my thing, that kind
of thing. And they led Israel away from God,
and God through Elijah, one of his servants,
anoints Jehu, this new king. And when he does
this, he tells him that he is going to be specifically
a king who brings judgment on Israel. And as
Jehu is anointed for this task of bringing judgment
on Israel, we hear this, okay? Then in haste,
every man of them took his garment and put it
under him. And they blew the trumpet and proclaimed
Jehu's king. Sound familiar? Throw the cloaks
down. You're the king. Cloaks have a history
too. weren't playing floor is lava with the donkey.
They were saying something. There's a story of
the king of Israel being anointed and declared
king and cloaks being put on him. Everybody's
saying, you're the king. But for us, what you
have to hear is that king was anointed for judgment.
To bring judgment upon Israel. So what do we
make of that? What do we make about this symbol
that evokes the judgment of God? And rather unquestionably,
the triumphal entry is the beginning, in a way,
of this story of judgment. In the Gospel Mark
that we've been in this spring, the very next
story after the triumphal entry is Jesus cursing
the fig tree, which is symbolizing Israel and
their rejection of God. In Matthew, the very
next story is not the story of the fig tree.
That's the one after the next one. In Matthew,
the story is of Jesus going into the temple and
what does he do there? Hey y 'all, it looks good
in here. Let's have a good time. No, he doesn't.
He flips tables, right? What the triumphal entry
does is it enters into this very great time of
judgment. Judgment of God. Palms and cloaks.
A do -what -we -want crowd. A crowd that says,
Jesus, I will take you as long as you can be
my king. And then a symbol of the judgment of
God upon the very people of God. The crowd wanted
a king. They wanted a king who would restore
what they wanted. They wanted a king who would
give them their heart's desires. They wanted
what he would give them. But here's the thing,
when you take that with the cloaks, there's a
sense in which what is happening is Jesus saying,
I see what you desire. And if you could just
put the symbols together in a way, you might
see that I want to give you something far better.
A king that doesn't want to give them their kingdom,
but his. And in order to do that, the king must
come in judgment. And here's the thing, unlike
the story of Jehu, where he goes on and assassinates
King Joram to help restore order in Israel, here
with Jesus, we have this king who brings judgment.
and the king who bears judgment. I mean, part
of what Jesus is doing is he is bearing or bringing
judgment, flipping tables, cursing the tree.
But as we go to the story, he's not the one just
who brings judgment, but the one who bears the
judgment. Jesus is the king. Not always that
we want but he is the king that we need and he
is specifically the king that we need Because
he is the king who brings judgment and then he
bears it himself And he does this again not to
bring about what we always want but but we what
we most need Jesus himself rides into Jerusalem
on a donkey not just to enter in and say, look
at this victorious entrance, but to make the
journey to the cross. He goes to Calvin to bear
the judgment properly of sin, properly of rebellion,
properly of the rejection of God. He bears the
judgment that we deserve, that he might bring
us not to our kingdoms, but in his kingdom. Judgment
we deserve he takes upon himself that the kingdom
we don't deserve can be given to us. What I'm
suggesting to you is these symbols in some ways
are mixed. Mixed symbols. They're rich and they're
deep. But we see their import when we can kind
of feel it all together. I want to tell you a
little bit about this glass. This is also not
just a glass. And if for some reason one of you
comes and breaks it, they're going to cry again.
Because this glass I got half of my life ago
When I went with one of my dearest friends my
oldest friend outside of my family known him
since I was three When he and I hitchhiked around
Ireland He's a stocky redhead guy. It was awesome.
It was perfect and We I got this at the Guinness
Brewery If you if you've gone to that tour you
go you end at the top where you get to look out
over the city and you get Free glass of Guinness
And I bought this one there. You can't even see,
but there's a Christmas tree on it. But it's
one of the fond memories of my life with one
of my dearest friends. And this dear friend is
going through one of, actually, I can say the
worst time of his life right now. And so I was
looking at this glass and thinking about this
sermon. And I was thinking of how mixed this
feels. where it brings such deep joy and also
my heart breaks. And in some ways, I sort of
want you to hear your own cries for Hosanna.
And feel how mixed they are. Cry out to Lord.
Save us, right? That's what we're saying when
we say Hosanna. Save us Lord. And our shouts
are mixed. heavenly hosts, the kingdom of God,
an establishment of our way, our sinful desires.
But here's the wonder, right? Is that zero question,
Jesus knew how mixed they were as he entered
into Jerusalem that day. He knew what palm branches
meant and what cloaks meant. He knew that their
hosannas would soon become, crucify him. He knew
that. And in the wonder of God's grace, Jesus
makes it today, not to the throne, but to the
cross. And he does this because The kingdom that
you want is not the kingdom that you need. The
kingdom you need is the kingdom of God. And He
brings that through His death and the resurrection.
And the judgment that He brings is also the judgment
that He bears for you. So go to Him. Go to Him
in your mixed stuff. mixed hosannas. Jesus goes
to the cross for you. Brothers, sisters, let's
say this again. Hosanna. Hosanna. Say this after
me. Blessed is the one who comes in the name
of the Lord. Blessed is the one who comes in
the name of the Lord. Hosanna. Hosanna. Let me
pray. Lord God, I pray that we would come to
you in our mixed stuff, sometimes crying out
heartedly, Lord. Save us and Half -heartedly
also the other half saying establish my kingdom
and that you would work that through that half
-hearted palm waving hosanna shouting cloak throwing
That you would go to the place of the cross for
us that we would know that you went there for
us to bear the judgment that we deserve To give
us the kingdom Not the one that we always think
we want but the one we most need God, do this,
please. This week, Lord, convict us that it is
not just their shouts long ago that were mixed,
that were tainted, that were distorted by sin,
but it is even ours. Our sin that cries out,
crucify Him. Show us our sin, Lord, this week.
And may the cross loom large. Amen. Thank you
for listening to Second City Sermons podcast.
We hope this sermon has encouraged you to worship
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