The Sounds Of Holy Week

The Sounds Of Holy Week Mark 11:1-11 What image comes to your mind after just hearing today's Scripture? What picture do you get in your head? Close your eyes for a moment and place yourself there. You hear the crowds chanting, "Hosanna!" You feel the breeze from the palm branches. You're getting knocked around by the crowd bumping into you. It's aggravating, and you push back so you can catch a glimpse of Jesus coming to town. What a moment. But oh, how fast moments pass by. Before you know it, Jesus has passed you, and there you stand, with the crowd's excitement fading. Today marks the beginning of Holy Week, and the chanting and shouting "Hosanna!" that began the week will not end the week. Now, here we are, almost 2000 years past that first Palm Sunday. We know how the week ends. We know what Jesus did. We know the outcome. But that first Holy Week, after all the excitement, there was some confusion. Have you ever wondered why the confusion? Why this week began with people shouting "Hosanna!" and ended with people shouting, "Crucify Him!?" There is no doubt that much gossip spread as Holy Week continued. Just think of all the noise on that Palm Sunday. All the cheering, shouting, people excitedly talking about what they thought Jesus was going to do. But remember, loud noises also have a way of disorienting people and causing confusion. As all the excitement of Palm Sunday wore off and the Passover proceedings got closer, people began spreading their own ideas of Jesus. They watched as Jesus cleared the Temple. They overheard Jesus' authority being questioned by the chief priests and religious leaders. The crowds listened to Jesus as a prophet and listened intently as Jesus taught in parables. Even when the noise grew silent, the people still became confused. What happened? What changed? Jesus didn't change. His message didn't change. His mission didn't change. His destination didn't change. So if Jesus never changed, then the only other answer is that the crowd changed. But how did the crowd change? The answer is the crowd's point-of-view changed. Put yourself back in that crowd. You hear the noise, the shouting. You can feel the excitement as you stand, leaning past others, watching eagerly as Jesus is approaching. Jesus is coming, and you're excited. But as soon as He passes, you're left standing there, watching Jesus continue into Jerusalem. When Jesus was coming, you got all excited. You were filled with joy because King Jesus was coming to free you from Roman oppression. You read Zechariah 9:9, which said, "Rejoice greatly, Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." You knew a king from the line of David would come to save you. And here He is, Jesus. But how quickly your point-of-view changed when the excitement of Jesus' coming changed into following Jesus. You began to rethink who Jesus was as you watched Him drive out the money changers in the temple. Your mind started doubting when you understood the weight of Jesus' words when He said, "Pick up your cross and follow Me" (Luke 9:23). It's one thing to stand in the crowd. It's one thing to get excited about Jesus. It's another to step out from the crowd and follow Him. People thought Jesus was coming as a warrior king who would defeat Rome and free the Israelite people. Jesus did come to set people free, just not in the way the crowd was cheering for. They had a misunderstanding of who Jesus was. A rather old-fashioned lady, always very elegant, especially in her language, was planning a week's holiday with her husband, so she wrote to a particular campground and asked for a reservation. She wanted to make sure the campground was fully equipped but didn't know how to ask about the toilet facilities. She just couldn't bring herself to write the word "toilet" in her letter. After much thought, she finally came up with the old-fashioned term "Bathroom closet." But when she wrote it down, she still thought she was being too forward, so she started all over again. She rewrote the letter, and this time referred to the bathroom closet as the B.C. "Does the camping ground have its own B.C." is what she wrote. Well, the campground owner wasn't a bit old-fashioned, and he had no idea what the old lady was talking about. So he showed the letter around a few of the campers, and the only thing they could come up with was that B.C. stood for "Baptist Church." And he wrote the following reply. "Dear Madam, I regret very much the delay in answering your letter, but I now take the pleasure of informing you that a B.C. is located 9 miles north of our camping ground and is capable of seating 250 people at one time. I admit that it is quite a distance away if you are in the habit of going regularly, but no doubt you will be pleased to know that a great number of campers go there, and many take their lunches along and make a day of it. They usually arrive early and stay late. It may interest you to know that there is a special supper planned there to raise money to buy more seats so that everyone will be able to sit in comfort. I want to say that it pains me very much not to be able to go more regularly, but it is surely no lack of desire on my part, just that I am so busy most of the time. As we grow older, it seems to be more of an effort to go, especially in the cold weather. If you decide to come down to our campground, perhaps I could go with you the first time you go, sit with you and introduce you to all the other folks. Remember, this is a very friendly community." Can you just imagine how stirred up that lady got when she read that? That letter persuaded her not to go. From her point-of-view, she wasn't going anywhere near that campground. All because of a misunderstanding. The crowd that Palm Sunday had a misunderstanding as the week went on. When Jesus sent two of His disciples to bring back the colt that nobody has ever ridden, Jesus was teaching His disciples that He knew all things. Only God can tell you the future in advance, and as the disciples untied the colt, Jesus even predicted what the men would say. Once they brought back the colt, Jesus was able to ride it with ease. Scripture says the colt had never been ridden, meaning that it would not like having a rider on its back. But once again, Jesus shows His power over creation by riding this colt. The Bible doesn't say if Jesus' disciples picked up on this, but Scripture does say that they placed their cloaks over the colt for Jesus to sit on. With Jesus now heading into Jerusalem, the crowd watches prophecy be fulfilled as Jesus rides in on a donkey. In joyful praise, they waved palm branches and "spread their cloaks on the road." Think of the meaning of this moment. Most of the people in that crowd were poor. They didn't have much money or possessions. But what were they doing? Spreading out their own cloaks just so the donkey Jesus was riding on didn't get its feet dirty. What they had, they were giving to the Lord. It's easy to give to the Lord when we think Jesus will do what we want. It's easy to be joyful when we have expectations of what we want God to do to make our lives better, safer, and more enjoyable. The crowd saw Jesus coming as a King who would free them from Rome, but their point-of-view began to change later that week when Jesus said, "Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's" (Mark 12:17). Caesar was Emperor of Rome, and giving back to Caesar meant the crowd misunderstood Jesus. Picturing yourself in the crowd is one thing, but also picture yourself as the donkey. One time Corrie ten Boom was asked if it was difficult for her to remain humble while she was a prisoner in a WWII concentration camp. Her reply was simple. "When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on the back of a donkey, and everyone was waving palm branches and throwing garments onto the road, and singing praises, do you think that for one moment it ever entered the head of that donkey that any of that was for him?" Then she said, "If I can be the donkey on which Jesus Christ rides in His glory, I give Him all the praise and all the honor." What a point-of-view! The crowd had the best view of Jesus, yet they didn't see Him. The donkey couldn't see Jesus on his back, yet humbly served Jesus. Some misunderstandings are funny, like that woman thinking the 250 person bathroom was 9 miles away. But some misunderstandings can be tragic, turning joy into hate and re-shifting your entire point-of-view of Jesus Christ. The sounds of that Palm Sunday confused the crowd. When the crowd is chanting, it's easy to go along with everybody else. It's easy to get all caught up in the hype. It's easy to take the coat off your back and lay it down for Jesus when everyone else is doing it. But as the weak went on, listen to one more sound. It's the sound of people. Mark 15:11 says, "The chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead." Did you hear that? "The chief priests stirred up the crowd." They persuaded. They convinced. They deceived. "Hosanna" was replaced by "Crucify Him" because that excited Palm Sunday crowd was "stirred up" and persuaded that Jesus was nothing more than a blasphemer. A liar. The disciples, the crowd, the donkey, they all heard the celebration, but as the week went on, they became persuaded to change their minds. To change their perspective. The sounds of the crowd are hard to silence. The sounds of the crowd are intimidating. The sounds of religious leaders, like the Pharisees, are persuasive. Hosanna means "Save us." Save us from what? We can't let our personal desires block us from who Jesus is. We can't let the crowd's noise stop us from hearing Jesus' message. Don't be deceived by false teaching. Skip the crowd, resist the noise, listen to Jesus. As you journey through this Holy Week, follow Jesus. Be reminded of what Jesus went through, for you. Shout "Hosanna in the highest!" And let The Sounds Of Holy Week remind you of why you can even shout, "Hosanna." AMEN 2