The journey began in Luke 9:51, where Jesus sets his face
to go to Jerusalem. It ends here in chapter 19. Jesus and his disciples arrive at Bethphage
and Bethany, villages, just east of the city. He sends two of his
disciples into the city to make preparation for his entry.
Then Jesus allows those disciples to instigate a series
of actions that have come to define our Palm Sunday worship traditions.
Luke makes it clear that there were more followers of Jesus than just the
12 who traveled with him. In chapter 10,
he endowed 70 of his followers with his power to heal diseases, cast out
demons, and proclaim that in Jesus, the kingdom of God has drawn near. By
chapter 19, that group of 70 has swelled to the size of a small community built
around Jesus. By the beginning of the
book of Acts, also written by Luke, that
group has grown to 120 or more.
Jesus gives instructions
in Luke 19:30 and his followers carry them out. When they go beyond what
Jesus instructed, he goes along with their initiative and enthusiasm.
They retrieve the colt as he told them to, but then they put their cloaks
on it. OK. They lift Jesus and set him on the colt and
they lead it along the road coming into the city. He did not tell them to
do these things, but Jesus willingly receives their adoration and their
praise. He doesn’t say, “I am God. I am your Messiah and your Savior.” He doesn’t claim those things at this
juncture, but when his disciples make those proclamations about him, he accepts
that. He never tells them to act in a certain way regarding him, but
neither does he deny their adoration.
They surely do not know what it all means, but they know Jesus is
special and that’s enough for the moment.
Luke, more than the
other gospel writers, makes it clear that this crowd lining the road is a crowd
of true followers of Jesus. They don’t know everything about him at this point,
but based upon what they know, Luke presents them as disciples. Their devotion to Jesus is imperfect and
incomplete, but Jesus joyfully receives the worship they offer.
Pharisees in the crowd
are the one who provoke conflict. These gatekeepers who dedicate
themselves to their own understanding of the law demand that Jesus silence
those of his followers who loudly praise him. He responds by definitively
affirming how appropriate it is that his followers treat him as one coming from
God. “I tell you, if these were silent,
the stones would shout out” (19:40). When we read this story from our
perspective we see how inappropriate it is when someone says Jesus was merely a
great moral teach or a wise rabbi. More
than those things, he was God in the flesh. Worship is the right stance
when we come before him.
Jesus cherished his
relationship with his followers at this point, before he was crucified and
resurrected. He knew full well what was coming - the suffering, the
abandonment, and the death. He knew some
of these who professed faith in him would hide when the pressure from the
authorities mounted. These who enthusiastically cheered him would run
away when he needed support. Even so, in
this moment, he loved his followers and he received the love they gave him
because it was the best they had to give.
In worship today we have
had three become church members, a man over 50 and two girls under 10. To be a
member is to say you want to be part of the body of Christ. You are
announcing to the church family that Jesus is your Lord and you’ve given your
life to Him. You want to worship and
serve him as a part of this church family and you are committing your life to
Him and committing to serving in this church.
Greg was not baptized
today because he was baptized many years ago. He’s joining our church
today but he’s been a Christian for a long time. He was baptized before
the girls were even born. God has led
him to commit to membership in our church family.
Tara Beth and Mary
Grace, in their baptism today declare their faith in Jesus. Their
baptism is their testimony that Jesus is Lord and that they belong to him. In becoming members and being baptized they
are telling all of us they want to live as Christians.
Can a child so young
make a commitment like the one Mary Grace and Tara Beth have made today?
Over the course of many years I have been in conversations with other
pastors, with church leaders, and denominational leaders on this very topic.
Committing one’s life to Jesus is a serious thing. Is it too serious for such a young
child? Can one so young understand
what’s happening?
Obviously, we baptized
these kids today because we believe their faith in Jesus is real and sincere.
I trust their parents. I trust
that they will continue to be raised in the faith. I trust our Sunday school leaders and both of
these girls are active in Sunday School and worship lab. I believe they
have had a real encounter with Jesus and their faith is genuine.
Is it a child’s faith?
Yes. In their lives, will these girls go through periods of doubt?
Possibly. It can’t be
predicted. Hopefully they will continue
to grow in faith and also in life, and that includes progress in their
education. Education opens a world of ideas many of which can lead a person
to question his or her faith. We grow
when we face questions and struggles and when we deal with doubt.
When we meet God and
grow in relationship with God, we are dynamic, not static. We have life
experiences, including great joy and deep pain.
We react to the world around us. Our team wins the
championship. There’s a devastating
terrorist attack. We get married. We move to a new place. All these and
1000 more experiences color our faith.
Jesus is Lord in all the seasons of life, but because the seasons of
life change and the things we go through are so different, we see him
differently. Sometimes, we fall into life situations that make it
difficult to see God at all. He’s there
and he loves us, but we can’t see him.
So, yes, I think it is
wonderful that a 7-year-old and 8-year-old were baptized today. I think
all of Heaven rejoices at their expression of faith. And, yes, I think they may backslide and have
periods in life where they have trouble relating to God. The same, by the
way, might happen to Greg at his season of life. It happens to me. I don’t predict difficulty for Tara Beth or
Mary Grace because of their age. I
predict it for all of us because we all go through dark times. If any of
us have seasons of doubt, it does not negate the faith we proclaim at
baptism. God adores that childlike
faith. He loves us where we are and
helps us grow to become more like Christ: loving, grace-filled, courageous, and
compassionate.
Jesus rode into
Jerusalem to the sounds of cheers and praises, coming from a small group -
70-80 true disciples. However, turning over a few pages to the end of
Luke 22, we see Jesus in prayer at the Mount of Olives. When the authorities come to arrest him, one
of the disciples strikes out with a sword, but that half-hearted defense
amounts to nothing. Jesus is arrested, roughed up, and no disciples are
found anywhere. Those who called out
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord” are silent and absent.
Only Peter remains and
he follows at a distance. Three times he has the chance to stand in
solidarity with Jesus. Three times he denies knowing him. The childlike Palm Sunday enthusiasm has
evaporated into abandonment and denial.
Yet, what comes about in
Luke 24? The same disciples that praised Jesus on Palm Sunday and left
him on Good Friday to die in shame, alone and broken, are gathered with them.
The resurrected Christ welcomes them back with love. He knew they would fail him and yet he absolutely
accepted their Palm Sunday worship premature and uninformed as it was.
Now raised, he raised them to a new level of faith - Easter faith; it’s
faith that cannot die.
When you see 2nd and 3rd
graders baptized, don’t worry that their faith might be too childlike.
Celebrate because angels in Heaven are celebrating the new birth of
Tara Beth and Mary Grace today. Rejoice and be grateful. God meets you in your childlike faith which
is as fragile as theirs; maybe more. Let the baptism of these girls
inspire in your hear the deep desire to offer all of your worship to God. Be inspired to give your very self to God,
committing your life to Christ.
We offer our Palm Sunday
faith to God knowing we would have failed Jesus just as his disciples did if we
had been there when he was arrested, tried, and crucified. We worship,
offering all the faith we have, however much that is. And we worship in gratitude because we know
on the cross Jesus accomplished forgiveness for our sins. In the
resurrection, he defeated death. He
loves us and when we come to him in faith, we have life. We are new creations, forgiven and bound for
the Kingdom of God.
AMEN
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