The LCA provides this sermon edited for lay-reading, with thanks to the original author.
Palm/Passion Sunday, Year C
Luke 19:38-40.
Luke describes how the people spread out their clothes on the road for Jesus, like a huge carpet to welcome a king. In his Gospel, John also mentions that the people wave palm branches to hail Jesus, the way they would welcome a victorious war hero or political leader.
But Jesus isn’t a new political leader, or their war hero, or a new king coming to rule over Israel. Jesus is far greater than any of those important figures.
During the days of Holy Week we travel with Jesus as he submits to the political leaders of his day, and these rulers include King Herod. It is the rulers of his day who order Jesus’ death by crucifixion. If Jesus were to become a great politician, or a powerful earthly king, then he would have been a failure within a week of entering Jerusalem. Such hopes would all have ended when they put the body of Jesus in a stone tomb, and sealed it with a huge rock.
The excited crowds of people are right to wave their palm branches and spread their clothes on the road to hail Jesus as the great one to come to the holy city. But not everyone is excited. Some of the religious people of the day become so disturbed by the welcome, they call on Jesus to stop the people from calling out to him as their great king. Maybe they are scared of what King Herod might do to them if he hears about people welcoming a new king into the capital city. Jesus says to them, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers.”
What an extraordinary picture! “The stones would burst into cheers!” And there would be lots of cheers. In the Roman Empire, highways were built with blocks of stone. The whole road would have erupted in cheers! This could have been more dangerous to the people than King Herod.
The geography of Israel and Australia’s arid interior are similar in many ways. There are lots of stones in both countries. We have huge stones, like the Devil’s marbles. Our farmers have spent a lot of energy and time clearing stones from their paddocks, and more stones keep appearing. Just think of the noise and the tremendous ovation if all the stones were to break out into cheers when Jesus went by!
Let us look at a few reasons why the stones might react this way.
Firstly, Jesus is the creator of everything in the universe, including the rocks and stones. Even Satan recognised this. He invited Jesus to use his power to turn the stones out in the desert into loaves of bread to satisfy his hunger. But Jesus refused. He didn’t use his almighty power to get himself out of a dangerous situation: neither in the desert, or on the cross.
It is interesting to note that Luke gives reasons why the people were so excited and were cheering Jesus on.
“As they reached the place where the road started down from the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.”
The people were praising Jesus for all the wonderful miracles they had seen! Here is someone from God who has the power to turn stones into bread, for whom the stones lining the road could have burst out into cheers if the people had kept silent.
What are some of Jesus’ wonderful miracles the people knew about? There are, for example, the miracles where they see Jesus is even stronger than the power of death. Jesus had brought Lazarus back to life, freeing the dead man from the cave that had a stone rolled against it. Jesus merely speaks the word, and Lazarus comes back from death. Jesus spoke the Word, and dead young people came back to life. Jesus also spoke the Word to many sick people and their sicknesses and terrible diseases that normally led to death disappeared. Jesus was stronger than death!
But Jesus would not use his miraculous power to escape death for himself. Not only did Jesus submit to a terrible death, but he used it for good for all people. He offered his dying body as a sacrifice to take the blame on himself for all the evil in the world. He took on the worst powers of evil and death and destroyed them. Jesus took our punishment for every sin we have ever and will ever commit. He literally went through hell and came out the other side. He was too strong for the dreadful powers of death and hell.
Note how Jesus wins people by his unselfish love. His unselfish love reaches out to touch you and me. He heals us with his love. The stones would cry out if Jesus didn’t show his unselfish love!
There is another reason why the stones would cry out to welcome Jesus. Jesus had tried to prepare his disciples for his coming death by pointing to the massive blocks of stone that made up the magnificent Temple building in Jerusalem. Jesus prophesied that these massive walls of huge rock would collapse, after his death. And they did. The early Christians saw the collapse of the walls in their lifetime.
But Jesus was also speaking about his own body. He said that God’s temple would be raised in three days. He spoke of his own body. This is where God now lives, in the holy city, wherever Jesus walks. Not just in the Temple, in the holy of holies. But wherever Jesus is, there is God, moving among the people.
The crucified body of Jesus is laid in a tomb hacked out of stone, and the entrance is sealed with a huge stone. Jesus is trapped in stone, but no stones can hold Jesus in. Death is too weak to hold Jesus in the tomb. On the third day Jesus rises from the tomb. I wonder, did the stones cheer when Jesus returned from Death?
Revelations 5 describes how the cheering and the joy continues in heaven.
Then I looked again, and I heard the singing of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and the living beings and the elders. And they sang in a mighty chorus:
”The Lamb is worthy – the Lamb who was killed.
He is worthy to receive power and riches
And wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing.”
And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They also sang:
Blessing and honour and glory and power
Belong to the one sitting on the throne
And to the Lamb forever and ever.” [Verses 11-14.]
Today we go back into the world, where politicians rule, and we obey their laws, as Jesus did too: a world where there are still earthly kings and queens. We praise God for Jesus, not because he was a great earthly leader or king, or a famous politician, but because of his unselfish love. He laid down his life for his people. We praise God that Jesus took on the powers of death and evil and won the victory for us. Jesus is greater than any earthly ruler or politician.
All the gravestones in the cemeteries in our land can silently cheer and praise God. Death is not the winner, but God is. Death is not our ruler, but the God of loves is. Death has lost its grip.
The one who created all of life, including even the rocks and stones, is the same one who has given us his Word – to raise you and me to eternal life. Whenever you see a stone, let it remind you of your resurrection. Amen.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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