The Beautiful Celebration
The Beautiful Empty • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Celebrating what we don’t know.
Celebrating what we don’t know.
Good morning this Easter season we are talking about the idea of the beautiful empty. We’re talking about how it’s possible to embrace the emptiness we feel inside of our hearts and not seek to endlessly fill up with stuff, possessions, relationships, adventures, and more. Last week we introduced this idea of the beautiful MT today. We’re going to continue it with the beautiful celebration.
Of course, as this slide indicates, and this video is so beautifully illustrated, we don’t always celebrate what is yet to be. We don’t celebrate the future, because how can we? I mean, sometimes we approximate this week celebrate the potential of a high school graduate with a graduation celebration that both looks backward and looks forward with Hope. But I’m Palm Sunday the crowds were packed in the streets of Jerusalem, celebrating Jesus, and they thought they were finding a Messiah, who would overturn the political leaders and set them free but the reality was they were actually celebrating something so much greater that was going to happen!
12 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.
13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”
14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
16 His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.
I love this passage that describes Jesus coming into the city in the crowd shouting for joy, but I also love this last verse. I love the humanity of his disciples. They did not understand these things at first.
Now, you might think yourself why would you line the streets with palm branches that’s simply what did when a hero came to town. You would throw a palm branch parade, when Jerusalem beat Jericho in the football game, they would throw a palm branch parade. Perhaps a Super Bowl parade might be a better modern day comparison that idea was you welcome the hero home.
Now what happened this day was not just the product of a frenzied crowd or a victorious football match. But these people were actually quoting scripture. They were quoting passages that God had given to them hundreds of years ago and something to clung to with Hope.
25 Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success!
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.
These words in psalms were written way before Jesus was born in a manger, but they could easily be said of Jesus. The celebration this crowd had was appropriate. They did not understand what was going to happen. And they could not understand that what was going to happen was bigger than what they could have imagined! They wanted a temporary solution Jesus wanted to provide a eternal solution. But what’s really cool here is even though they missed what Jesus was doing. They also kind of nailed it right on the head.
They celebrated Salvation
They celebrated Salvation
“Hosanna”
“Hosanna”
You know we use this word in church from time to time. We find it in some of the songs that we sing. Did you know that it’s from a Hebrew phrase? Meaning, save us. The crowd they celebrate his salvation on that day shouting hosanna.
But they probably weren’t thinking about salvation, the way that we think about it. We think about it in terms of Jesus saving us from hell and changing us from the inside out. They might have been thinking about the prophecies like this one found in Isaiah.
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Can you imagine living under the thumb of another country for as long as you could remember? You have this memory as a people of been free and yet forever it seems the invading country has put a thumb on your religion put it thumb on your culture has stopped you from being who you are. Imagine if Russia Defeated and came in and took over America and told us how we could think where we could worship what we could do. The Israelites lived for a long time looking for a political leader to save them. They thought Jesus would be a war hero, bringing salvation from an oppressive government.
Instead, Jesus came bringing not what they thought they wanted but what they truly needed.
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,
9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
The crowds were right, Jesus was coming to town to bring salvation, but he had a bigger battle, and a greater enemy to face than the Roman government. He wanted to provide a way for each of us ourselves to find freedom from the oppression of sin, he would bring freedom that no one that they could imagine. He would bring freedom that many people in our day can’t imagine. he would do it in a way that didn’t look like a victory, but it was the greatest victory ever.
Many people today I think they need freedom from poverty or some relationship or the oppression of government or big tech, but the greatest freedom we can have a spiritual freedom. The greatest freedom we can have is a peace of knowing we have a relationship with God.
They Celebrated The Coming Savior
They Celebrated The Coming Savior
“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
On that first palm Sunday, the crowd celebrated the come in salvation, and they welcomed the Savior who would bring this salvation. This phrase right here is actually a way of welcoming someone important another way you might say it is welcome. In the name of the Lord. They wanted to welcome the one that was mentioned in Jeremiah 23.
5 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’
There are probably two reasons. This crowd welcome Jesus into Jerusalem. First of all it was the week of Passover and the city was packed with people planning to celebrate the time that Jesus sent their people free from slavery. However, the people in the city are also welcome Jesus because this was a seat of power in that area, Jesus wasn’t just coming to celebrate he was coming to take over and win. Or at least that’s what they thought.
No, Jesus did celebrate Passover while he was in Jerusalem but he had no plans to sit on the throne there. Instead, He planned to show His followers the depth of His love for them.
16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Jesus took the Passover meal and showed us how he would be the sacrificial lamb. He wasn’t looking for a throne in Jerusalem. He might say he is looking for a throne in our hearts. He wants us to grasp the width and the depth of his love. He wanted us to know how much God truly loved us.
They Celebrated the King
They Celebrated the King
“Blessed is the King of Israel”
“Blessed is the King of Israel”
The idea of a savior coming to town insinuates that a future king is coming to town. That is why the crowd that day shouted, “Blessed is the king of Israel.” There were giving him the title before he had taken the throne. As they saw Jesus riding in on a donkey, maybe they remembered the words of the prophet Zechariah.
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
What a king he would have been for them. They had seen the way he treated people so differently. He was the picture of compassion. He brought healing with him. If this great Jesus was anything, he was humble, speaking the truth in love like none before him.
That week would come and go, and alas, Jesus would not be in a throne room graciously leading the people of Israel. In fact, come Friday night, his body would be in a borrowed tomb. How confused and disappointed the crowd must have been.
But we know the truth of the story. We know Jesus used a borrowed tomb because he planned to return it on Sunday morning. And return it he did. But again...that is a story for next Sunday. So while Jesus may not have sat on a throne in Jerusalem, the book of Revelation lifts the curtain of heaven and shows us precisely what kind of king Jesus is.
11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Jesus is a faithful king. He is a true, just, and mighty king. King of what? King of Kings. It is not simply a title; it is the truth of who Jesus Christ is. There is no one above him. He reigns over all and is worthy of our honor, our praises, our lives, and our everything.
We Celebrate What We Know
We Celebrate What We Know
The crowd that celebrated Jesus that Sunday will revisit Psalm 118 that week on Thursday when they celebrated Passover. This Psalm is part of the Hallel, a prayer of thanksgiving added to the morning service on festive Jewish holidays. The prayer, whose Hebrew name means “praise,” comprises six psalms (113-118) that amount to an extended-expression of praise and thanks to God for the many kindnesses bestowed upon Israel.
More than likely, Jesus and the disciples would have read Psalm 118 together.
Can you imagine Jesus hearing those words? Unlike the rest of all humanity, He truly understands what they are referring to. So let’s revisit it ourselves as we celebrate what we know.
27 The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!
28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you.
29 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!
They got so close to getting it right on that first Palm Sunday. But no one could begin to imagine the amazing plan God had set in place. Salvation was coming. Not to set us free from an oppressive government but to set us free from the oppression of sin. A savior was to be welcomed. Not to a city or a celebration, but into our hearts to help us know how great God’s love is. And a king was riding on that donkey as it entered the town. But not just a king; it was the king of all kings coming to set things straight and make things right that had been lost in the garden.
Today, let us join our voices with those who, so long ago, shouted to welcome Jesus.