Beyond the Palms

Just before kicking off Palm Sunday, yesterday, our family did something that was very similar to Jesus riding in on a donkey, and that is we went over to Lee’s Summit and rode go-karts. It is a much different atmosphere. When I sit down behind a go-kart, it’s like one of the many things in life that I am not thinking I’m gonna let people pass me.

I am not thinking I’m gonna be nice and just hang back here. I’m thinking there is no one out here who can go faster than me. And the curves at this one were really big, so I had to let up going around the curves, but it was humbling because it’s a pretty, I mean, it’s like all go-karts, so there are guys who do this all the time.

So I did not win the race, and all I can think of is next time when I go back, I will not have mercy. You’d think someday that competitive nature would leave a guy. Most competitive, things I’m competitive with don’t leave me until I hurt myself, and then I think, okay, maybe I’m too old for that now.

But with this, I push through, and I think, man, if I wanted the world to know that I was the Messiah, the chosen one, the anointed one, I would have gotten at least a go-kart, and not a mule, a donkey, and not even a donkey, a little donkey that had never been ridden that you sit on there with 180 or 190 pounds, whatever Jesus was, and that donkey’s gotta be going, I don’t know if I can move right now. Now, the difference between what Jesus did and what happens to me when I sit behind the wheel of a go-kart is it’s not about speed, it’s not about being expeditious, it’s not about competition, it’s about following God’s will. And that’s what Jesus did as we see here in, we’re gonna look at the Gospel of Mark today, chapter 11, verses one through 11, and we’ll see this whole thing unfold.

Will you stand as you are able? Now, when they drew up to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever sat, untie it and bring it to me. If anyone says to you, why are you doing this? Say, the Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately. And they went away and found a colt tied at the door outside in the street and they untied it.

And some of those standing there said to them, what are you doing untying the colt? And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it and he sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields.

And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the king, the coming kingdom of our father David, Hosanna in the highest. And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple.

And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the 12. The word of God, inspired by God for the people of God. Thanks be to God, amen.

You may be seated. A while back, I took a class on, it was basically on storytelling in the Bible. And it taught us about perspective.

And saying, a lot of times, pastors don’t realize the perspective that other people have when they read the Bible. Now there are several options when you read the Bible. We usually put our place, put ourselves in the shoes of somebody in there.

Now in here, in this, we have Jesus. He kind of stands alone amongst the crowd. We have the disciples.

We have the villagers who question him. And we have the crowd or the multitudes that came out and set their cloaks and their palm branches down and waved. Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Quoting Psalm 18, a chant that Israel had been waiting for, that was promised in the Psalms, that wasn’t just for the kings of Israel coming back from war, but the promise they knew of the Messiah to come. And when they chanted that, they were saying he was the Messiah.

And Mark doesn’t get into this part, but another perspective we have is the perspective of the Pharisees that we see in Matthew and Luke that the Pharisees start questioning Jesus and say, Jesus, tell them to shut their mouths. Tell them to be quiet. You do know they’re calling you the Messiah.

And Jesus said, even the rocks will cry out if they fail to praise me. Now Jesus had a lot of perspective here. Now from a pastoral standpoint, they told us that most pastors will think of themselves as, who do they put their feet there? Who do they see themselves in the story? The disciples.

Thinking of the ones hearing it. And often as we are waving the palm branches, who does everybody, most people think of themselves when they read the story as the crowd, as the multitude saying it out loud. Now, it is a challenge to think of it from a different perspective.

I mean, when I was doing this, I was going, okay, what if I think of this from Jesus’ perspective? And it’s overwhelming for me to think of it from Jesus’ perspective. I mean, often when we see a door open, we, like me, want to take the expeditious route, the easiest route. And Jesus saw that door open, and they waved, and they blessed him, and he accepted it.

And he let them know, I accept your praises, and your glorifying of my name. He let them know that was good. But he also knew what was coming on Friday.

On Thursday and Friday. He also knew what he was gonna suffer. So he went through that door, and like Satan wanted to write, remember when Jesus was tempted, and Satan wanted to say, hey, I’ll put you in charge of all these kingdoms if you bow down and worship me.

That was not the expeditious route Jesus was gonna take to become king. When Jesus rode in on the donkey, it wasn’t the expeditious route to become king, because he rose up only to crash down. Like Dana said, the same group who was saying, Hosanna, was then saying, crucify him.

So like I said before, Jesus was wanting to do God’s will. And when I look at this, and I see what Jesus was doing, and try to think of it from his perspective, I think, okay, I look at, I read this through, and we see clearly in verse 11 that he says, go to the village in front of you, meaning they hadn’t been there yet. You will find a colt tied on which no one ever sat.

Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, why are you doing this? The Lord will send it. The Lord has need of it, and will send it back immediately.

Now, I’ve read all kinds of speculation on this. Some very renowned biblical scholars even believe that Jesus did not have any insight, and it was a trick, because the same word for Lord there is master in Greek. And they say, he was just saying, telling the disciples to say, his master needs this, meaning they’re thinking that the owner of the colt needs that.

I mean, in a sense, you know, God owns everything. We’ve been through that. But I don’t buy that, that Jesus didn’t have that insight and the perspective, and God didn’t guide his steps along the way.

When I think of the crowd, I think of, you know, Sunday morning, and worshiping, and giving God everything we have, but then thinking only a certain few can sit at the feet of the master. Only a certain few can be told by Jesus to go and do this thing that makes no sense, to get this donkey, to risk being arrested and thrown into jail and people thinking you’re stealing the donkey, when Jesus, through divine intervention, had already worked it out in advance. And then there are the Pharisees.

The Pharisees are hard to relate to, even though they’re a lot like church people, with all the judgments, and following the rules, and doing this, and doing this, and doing this. And, you know, even the saying that, hey, tell them to tone it down and use some decorum here. You know, sometimes it’s hard to worship passionately, because we’re embarrassed, or we think we’re stepping out of line, showing too much enthusiasm, too much zealousness.

Today, when we look at this story, I would like you to look at it from the perspective of the disciples. You know, we spend a lot of time when we are growing in our faith, and when we read the Bible, where it says we want to be like Jesus. We want to be like Jesus.

We want to grow up and be like Jesus. And there are certain ways in which we can be like Jesus, and there are certain ways that we’re never gonna be like Jesus, no matter how close to perfection we get. And some of that’s good.

Nobody has to die on a cross for all of humanity, because it wouldn’t do any good because we’re imperfect. Nobody has to bear the sin of the whole world, like Jesus did. But what Jesus did was follow God and God’s will.

And that’s what we’re called to do. I entitled this sermon, Beyond the Palms. When we think beyond the palms, how did we get there? And what all did God orchestrate to make this happen? Stan Guthrie tells the story about a man he calls Samuel, and he’s protecting his identity.

He said after watching the Jesus film and listening to Christian radio on July 15, 2001, Samuel received Christ. Now he said this was a monumental step because he was an Afghan, and he was, if he was in Afghanistan, he was Muslim. And he received Christ, and not a few weeks later did they go in and kick everyone out who was a Western aid worker for doing things they didn’t believe.

And the Taliban came for him. What would you do if the Taliban was, ah, that’s a side note. The Taliban came for him, and they arrested him.

They put him into jail. They beat him with a five-foot steel rod at least once a day, and on the 14th day they beat him so hard he passed out. And he had, later that night, he had an amazing dream.

He said in it he saw a luminous man wearing bright, bright clothes, and the visitor, whom Samuel later described as having very beautiful feet and long hair that came down to his shoulders, spoke kindly to him. And he said, get up. In the dream, the visitor led Samuel out of the cell, going to the front gate, and then he met another man who was wearing bright green.

Now green for Muslims is associated with God’s blessing, and the man led him out of the prison. When Samuel awoke, he found a cell door open. He walked through it to find there was no one guarding the outer prison gates, and the gate was open on the outside, and a close Western associate said he walked out and into the night.

God opened the door. Now, a lot of times in our lives we think, I can’t do this because a door isn’t opened, and that’s sometimes true. Sometimes God closes doors, you’ve heard that.

Sometimes God closes doors, and sometimes God opens doors. Now, Helen Keller, you guys know Helen Keller. She was blind in death and became a devout Christian and just changed the perspective of so many people in the world.

She said this, when one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us. Sometimes we’re saying God has closed a door or God won’t open this door, but we’re still staring at the same door that was closed instead of turning to Jesus and seeing the door that God has opened for us, and that open door where God would send us if we kept our eyes on Jesus. Now, what’s interesting to me anyway is Alexander Graham Bell is quoted as saying the same thing without, he just says, if anyone, he says, when one door closes, another opens, but we often look so long at the door that’s closed and we’re upset about that door closing, and we’re going, why isn’t that door open where there’s another door open if we would follow Jesus? Now, from my perspective, I look at Jesus, and Jesus had this close relationship with the Father, and he wants us to have that kind of relationship with the Father.

When he says I and the Father are one, be one as we are one, as in that’s how we can be like Jesus is being close to the Father, and then our actions become more Christ-like in what we do. Now, that’s why I say look at this through the perspectives of the disciples. Because believe it or not, we are disciples of Jesus Christ.

And so when we look at this through the perspective of the disciples, all they had to do was Jesus said, hey, go into the village, ask for this donkey. When they question you, say, the Lord wants it. That’s all you gotta do.

It’s easy being a disciple in the sense that Jesus says it, they go do it, and it happens. And then a lot of times I would read that, and I would say, well, sure. If Jesus was right here in the flesh, then I would listen, I would be on my knees, I would take in every single word he says.

But on Palm Sunday, I wanna remind you that Jesus also said, go into all the world and make disciples of all people. And lo, I am with you always. That when we trust in God, through Jesus Christ, Christ is with us.

He’s still guiding us, he’s still leading us. We would have never had Palm Sunday had Jesus not been in tune with the Father. And what’s cool about God, is that he doesn’t, you know, we say, we sometimes sit and we say, God, open this door.

God, make this happen. God, do this, God, do this. And God says, let me work through you.

That those disciples who didn’t get what Jesus was saying, when they listened, miracles happened. And when we listen, and when we break off, as we enter into this last week of Lent, you may say, well, it’s too late. I haven’t been fasting this whole time.

It’s too late. I accidentally ate chocolate and then it was all over. Take that week, set some time apart.

Pray to your Father in heaven through the name of Jesus. Let Jesus guide you. Let Jesus give you steps.

Let Jesus speak to you. I mean, I’d much rather bring Jesus a Formula One race car than a donkey. But Jesus may be saying, hey, I just need the donkey.

Now, the donkey signified both that he was a priest and the procession showed he was a king. It’s pretty cool. It kind of ties to a lot of the symbolism around his birth too.

John 5 has some cool insight on what Jesus wants us to do. John 5, verse 19 says, So Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, the son can do nothing on his own accord, but only what he sees the father doing for whatever the father does, the son does likewise. That’s what Jesus was doing.

As long as we have a relationship with God, it’s not like we’re on our own. It’s not like we have to figure everything out ourselves. It’s like we just have to let God be God.

Let God do things through us. Now, I love the insight in John 12, where there is the triumphal entry. Now, John doesn’t go into a lot of details like telling us how Jesus had the foresight to tell them to go to this village.

So that’s why I read from Mark. But right after this happened, and the Pharisees were complaining, John 12, verse 20 tells us, Now, among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks, but these came to Philip who was in Bethsaida and in Galilee and asked him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew.

Andrew and Philip went to tell Jesus, and Jesus answered them. This is what he wanted to teach them. The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Will you read 26 with me? If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am there, my servant will be also.

If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. Jesus told the disciples how they can keep hearing him even after he was gone, that we don’t just serve him. Serving means we don’t just do good deeds for Jesus, but we follow him, and if we are his servant, where Jesus is working, that’s where we’re gonna be.

I try to pray every day. Show me where you’re working, Father. Show me where you’re working so I can join in.

Let me trust in you. The door’s there. When we see the door and we step through the door that God has opened, it’s like giving us insight.

When we have the right perspective, we see the door open, God gives us insight. Just purely by Merriam-Webster, insight is the power of the act of a situation penetration, seeing deeper into something. The act or result of apprehending the inner nature of things or of seeing intuitively.

The insight to grab the colt of a donkey. The insight to trust God in the little things. The insight of doing things that go against our nature.

The insight of letting God work through us so others can know Jesus and be blessed. Oliver Wendell Holmes said this about insight. A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life experience.

One more week. If you need a do-over, take a do-over. Make this week count.

Make this the greatest week of Lent you’ve ever experienced. May you draw closer to God. May you know Jesus.

May you listen for God’s voice and for the nudges of the Holy Spirit, for the pings on the radar that God has that show us where to go. That not only open the door, but when we step in, we can see deeper into God’s will than we ever had before. We wave our palms.

But there was a lot that went in behind those waving of palms. Let’s be part of waving the palms. But also, let’s be the ones who step through the door.

So God can give us wisdom. God can give us insight. God can give us guidance.

And we can be more like Jesus. Let’s pray. Almighty God, thank you so much for Jesus Christ.

Thank you for the example of the disciples who not knowing what he was getting at, but they listened to him. Not worried about themselves getting into trouble, they did what Jesus wanted them to do. They trusted in the words of Jesus.

Help us, God, to be your disciples, to know there is a whole world behind waving the palms, to know that we too, when we listen to the words of Jesus, we can have that insight and that understanding and you can guide us. Help us to have a relationship with you that means we believe you are alive, that you are with us, and that you guide us. Thank you for the wisdom you give us in Jesus’ name. Amen.