Palm Sunday Sermon

Palm Sunday Matthew 27

April 17, 2011

Rev. Micah R. Gaunt

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit

            The poet William Butler Yeats once wrote of human kind, “the best lack all conviction and the worst are full of passionate intensity.” Yeats was not a Christian and he sees that much. We are embarking into the holiest of weeks – hallowed ground. Do we dare follow Jesus riding on His donkey into Jerusalem? If so we might as well acknowledge what a pagan can see. We are called Christians, followers of Christ and yet we are more concerned with the honor of the Huskers or the Bluejays/Bulldogs than the honor of God. We are more bothered by a bad call from a referee than when God’s name is profaned. Grumbling and complaints come so much more easily to us than prayer. We readily meditate on how someone offended us. We know all the angles for why he’s wrong, and what we’d like to say or do about it. Yet meditating upon God’s word doesn’t come easily at first so we give up. We are more concerned with the respect of our neighbors than with their salvation. We are concerned with so much. So many things occupy us, and take our attention. Yet the issue is really this simple: Life or death; heaven or hell; the word of God or the word of the devil and the world; faith or unbelief.

            And so, is there anyone who does right? Anyone who is not acting out of self-interest? Anyone who is zealous for good? That would be someone worth getting to know. Our time would be well invested thinking about that person.

            Who is this man that stands before Pontius Pilate? He keeps silent while lies and evil accusations are hurled at him. Why? Because He is saving His words for you. He is so intent on speaking in your defense. He is not concerned with His good name. He is concerned with your good name. Jesus gives Pilate nothing to work with. Barely says a word, because He is not there to answer to Pilate. He is there to answer to God the Father on your behalf. This is God’s will and so it is Christ’s will: that every mocking He endures be honor for you. Every time He is spit upon means a kiss from God for you. The anointed one of God is stripped that you might be clothed with royal robes of righteousness. His flesh is torn out from His body so that your flesh will be restored. Lips dry and cracked, tongue stuck to his mouth, Jesus thirsted, that you might drink freely of the cool, clear river of God. Christ overcomes the temptation of Satan to climb down from the cross, so that Satan can never have you. Christ endures hell on the cross that you might enjoy paradise. He is forsaken by His Father, that God might embrace you, and you gaze into His face. Jesus, the Christ, is killed so that you will live.

            The best lack all conviction, and the worst are full of passionate intensity? Hardly. There is none more good, and none more zealous than Jesus. Behold His Passion. This week let go of all worry. Abandon all fear. Forsake all anger. Renounce all resentment that you may be consumed by Christ’s passion. Even if you had good reasons for worry, fear, or bitterness, abandon them so that you might bask in the light Christ. Lay them down so that you might rest knowing God loves you with a perfect love that is free and pure. When you falter, if you be weak, have no fear. Christ died that you might live. Let the word of the cross give you life. In + Jesus name.