Welcome to Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week which leads up to Easter. It is recommended by our denomination to consider both the Hosannas of Palm Sunday and the passion or suffering of Christ on this day. I chose to do that last year; however, this year—maybe because of the long snowy winter, which has included several deaths of folks around me—I want us to focus on the joyous side of Palm Sunday. As I like to do, I will begin with some scriptural background. Then we will look at who these crowds say that Jesus is, followed by who is Jesus Christ for us.

The Old Testament scripture that is prophetic for this Matthew passage is Zechariah. In verse 9 of the 9th chapter are the same words as in our gospel reading Matt. 21:5: “Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey and the colt, the foal of the donkey.” All of the gospels have this Palm story, with variations. As you may remember Mark was the first gospel written and Matthew and Luke seem to borrow much of their scripture from Mark. Matthew is even more concerned than Mark with the prophetic scripture in Zechariah even to the point of having Jesus ride on both animals at the same time.

Matthew also talks much more about the crowds than does Mark. All the gospels have people shouting Hosanna. This is taken from Psalm 118, read to us today. This Psalm is the last of the Hallel psalms sung at Passover. Hosanna was originally a prayer meaning “we beseech you” or save us. So the word Hosanna is not in the Psalm; instead we have, “Save us, we beseech you, O Lord! O lord, we beseech you , give us success!” and then an exact quote in the Psalm and the Gospels: “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”

Let’s now go to the parade scene. Use your imagination to feel with me what the crowds were like. Remember this was the time of the Passover. Passover is a special time for the Jewish people, it is the yearly remembering and celebrating of the time that God freed them from a life of slavery in Egypt, when Moses led them across the Red Sea. God promised them their own land and a very special leader, a King, a Messiah.. So for hundreds and hundreds of years the Jewish people had been going to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover and to look forward to the promise of the Messiah. It was a time of great anticipation and joy. In this Passover crowd there were many different kinds of people. Some, like the Pharisees, doubted and challenged Jesus as the Messiah. Most of the people probably didn’t really know what was going on. You know how crowds are—once the excitement started building, mob psychology took over until most everyone was excitedly calling out praises and adulation to Jesus. Jesus was being welcomed to the City of David as son of David and as God’s chosen Savior, a King of the Jewish people. Jerusalem was not a foreign city for Jesus, As a Jew he was entering the city which symbolized in his faith and in his scriptures God’s promise to Israel, the Jewish people. However, most folks expected a King with military power and might. And here was Jesus riding on a donkey (or two!), the symbol of humility. A king would surely be mounted on a great steed or stallion. So although this was quite a procession and the enthusiasm was exceptional, there was no clear, uniform understanding of what was going on. Can you imagine what the disciples were thinking, maybe that they had finally been successful. “We have it made with J esus. Where are those Pharisees now? The people finally recognize Jesus’ importance; it won’t be long now before we’ll have it made.” As the procession entered Jerusalem, we are told that the city was in turmoil and kept asking the big question: Who is this? The crowds answer, “This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.”

A prophet, a King, a Savior, a Messiah. Who is this Jesus? From our Bible we know many things about Jesus. He certainly was not a powerful general with a great army coming to liberate Jerusalem as many Jews expected. We do know that he attracted big crowds, that he was a very charismatic teacher/rabbi. We know that he fed the hungry, talked about being living water and living bread. We know that he performed many miracles, even raising people from death. We know that he was a person that prayed, that took time to get away from the crowds to commune to God in prayer. I could go on with many more descriptions of Jesus; however, the important thing is who is Jesus for you? Is he someone to admire or to follow? Soren Kierkegaard points out that Jesus consistently used the expression “follower.” “He never asks for admirers, worshippers, or adherents. No, he calls disciples. It is not adherents of a teaching but followers of a life Christ is looking for. Since Christ claimed to be the way and the truth and the life, he could never be satisfied with adherents who accepted his teaching, but ignored it in the way they lived their lives. I quote Kierkegaard again, “His whole life on earth, from beginning to end, was destined solely to have followers and to make admirers impossible.”

Who is this, Jesus? For me Jesus is the model for what God wants me to be and do. Not that I expect to be able to be as articulate a preacher and teacher as he, nor perform the kinds of miracles that he was able. However, there are some things that both you and I can do. We can worship God, take time to pray in both verbal and non-verbal ways. We can pay attention to the injustices in our world just as Jesus did in his world. And of course it is not enough just to observe. No, we must act to carry out the two great commandments: “Love the Lord, your God with all your heart, and soul, and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.” Any of you that have been listening to me for a while know that I believe the greatest thing about God is love. There’s nothing else that was more important about what Jesus showed us. He said again and again to love God, to love neighbor, to love our enemies. One of my favorites is John 13:35: “By this, all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." And also John 15:10: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.” Jesus models love for us. He also models the importance of community. He did not go about by himself but gathered all sorts and conditions of folks to be part of his community. He both showed and told them how much he loved them. In fact Jesus models for us that unconditional love that God gives us. It is this love that makes it possible for us to be followers of Jesus. It gives us the strength and the courage to do things that we could never do on our own. I like to think about all of you being with me a beloved community of followers. Most churches don’t do a very good job of inviting all sorts and conditions of people into their church family. Jesus kept company with prostitutes and tax collectors, Samaritans and Pharisees, women and children, people who were despised or had little or no power in his day. For me Jesus is the great lover, the model on which I want to base my life. Who is this Jesus for you? Amen.