The Weather Report
A sermon brought forth from John 12:12-26 preached on Palm Sunday, April 10, 2022
What if Jesus was serious? What if following Jesus means a whole lot more than just being a nice person? What if there were consequences to following Jesus that we have not yet considered? Would we follow him into Jerusalem?
Nowhere in that first Holy Week was there room for faith without consequences. As we follow Jesus through this week, we can’t help but be confronted by a very uncomfortable question: Is my faith ready for—strong enough for—consequences?
As Jesus rode through the East Gate of Jerusalem upon a colt, He knew He wouldn’t make it out of that city alive. The details were not up to Him. They were out of His hands. Jesus wasn't in charge of how the crowds in Jerusalem would react to Him, what they would say or do. People are unpredictable like that, fickle too. Especially when they speak and act in large numbers. We’re dangerous in large numbers. We lose ourselves in crowds. Get thousands of people all in one place, there’s no telling what could happen.
In a religiously and politically loaded city like Jerusalem, during a religiously and politically loaded week like Passover, there will be interruptions or uprisings. There were Roman soldiers stationed at every corner of the city to keep the peace, but they anticipated violence.
What was the Palm Sunday moment like for Jesus? Yes, He appeared as if He was in control of everything. He had planned for all this. He had arranged for the colt He rode in on. All the pieces were in place, under His control. But what was happening on the inside? Jesus knew what the people do to their messiahs. As He rode into that city atop that colt, what exactly did Jesus think He was doing? What was His heart filled with? Was it fear? Or focus? Did He feel as calm as He looked?
The people hoped someone would be sent to them one day and fix what was broken, right what was wrong, but they were notoriously skeptical. Too many times they had put their hope in empty messiahs. Misunderstanding and distrust swirled around like wind that week. The air in that city was always unstable. Storms were always at hand. Jesus knew all of this as the palm branches waved.
Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!
As the crowd sang to Him that day did it sound to Jesus like worship or something else? “Save us!” they shouted. Yes, Jesus is here to save, but in an altogether different way than anyone could ever suspect or imagine. As He rode through the Palm Sunday parade that day, He heard the people sing of how they needed saving, but most of them were asking not for the messiah they needed, but for the Messiah they wanted: a messiah fashioned in their own image, for their own advantage.
But nobody, not one of us, gets to fashion Jesus into what we want Him to be. Jesus is not created for us; we are created for Him. Jesus is always and altogether different than the expectations we have of Him. Jesus doesn't stand for our causes. He isn't here to represent our loves. Jesus can't be given to the masses because the masses will take Him and make of Him whatever they want Him to be.
That first Palm Sunday the cheers of Hosanna were directed His way but were not for Him; they were for whoever the crowd thought Jesus was, who the crowd needed Him to be. We have a hard time letting Jesus be who He is. But Jesus never lost sight of His purpose, His identity. Whatever the people of that day, or this one, project upon Him never mattered or stuck to Him. Jesus kept His gaze upon the cross that awaited Him just outside that city.
Whatever hosannas were sung that first Palm Sunday, whatever storms would come His way that week, whatever “Crucify Hims” were shouted five days later, Jesus’s faithfulness and sense of purpose were unwavering.
Four gigantic fronts collided inside the gates of Jerusalem that first Holy Week: The way of Jesus coming in from the West, the way of the Roman Empire coming from the South, the way of King Herod Antipas descending from the North, and the way of the Jewish High Priest, Caiaphas in from the East. All the elements for a perfect storm were in place.
The major power players would have their way, and Jesus would be caught in the middle of it. The gospel of Matthew says that all of Jerusalem stirred in turmoil that week. Anyone who took the temperature and listened to the wind knew of the looming natural disaster about to take place.
There were Roman soldiers on guard throughout that city, part of a military force unparalleled in strength and power, ready to pounce on anything that came close to looking like trouble. Ready to snuff out any hint of an uprising.
King Herod Antipas had built his reputation out of stone and marble. He cared not a bit about God. He was a tyrant whose building projects brought him to fame, and it was that fame that was most important to Him. He cared nothing for the common people. Then there was Herod’s priest in arms, Caiaphas, another gathering front.
Pastor Eugene Peterson writes that Caiaphas represented religion as privilege, religion as exploitation, commodity, and oppression. If Herod was the leader of the secular world; Caiaphas was the leader of the religious one. Caiaphas was no real priest, no servant of God. He was interested in His own power and prestige. He wanted to take control of God.
These were the wicked weather patterns in place over Jerusalem that week, and Jesus was well-aware of every one of them. When all four of these fronts collided with the high-pressure religious system long-established in that Holy city, it created the perfect storm, a recipe for destruction. Jesus walked into this storm on the back of a colt. He knew of the natural disaster up ahead, and still, He set His face toward Jerusalem. That’s the weather report for this and every Holy Week.
What if there were consequences to following Jesus that we have not yet considered? Would we follow him into Jerusalem? Is our faith ready for—strong enough for—consequences? The thing is Jesus wants us to follow Him straight into this whirlwind.
Have you ever given yourself to Holy Week before? It’s a rough ride. It’s not easy. But we are called into the heart of the storm that is the last week of Jesus’s life. This week, there will be a tantrum thrown in the Temple. This week, Jesus’s authority will be questioned repeatedly.
This week, there will be a final supper to attend. It will be so much more than a meal. It will be loaded with messages for us about what it is to truly live, to truly partake of Jesus’s life and Jesus’s death, and therefore, to find new life. There will be a prayer prayed feverishly in a garden.
Then, two of His disciples will betray Him: Judas and Peter. Both will deny Him in their own way. Jesus will be arrested by the powerful people of His day. He will be questioned and tried by those who do not know what they are doing but will do it anyway. He will be mocked and flogged, nailed through His wrists, stripped naked, and hung up on a tree. From that tree, Jesus will utter seven last sentences, each one of them prayers. Then, He will die. Be buried in a tomb. But as it turns out, He’s only borrowing it.
I encourage you to walk with Jesus this week. To follow in His footsteps across Jerusalem. And let’s walk with each other. We have plenty of ways for you to worship and follow this week: Maundy Thursday dinner in Spring Hall and Good Friday worship in this space. If you do, it will make Easter Sunday even more joyous.
That’s the seven-day weather report for this Holy Week.
All praises to the One who made it all and finds it beautiful! Alleluia! Amen.