Palm Sunday, Year C

Sermon on the Old Testament Reading

Scripture: Isaiah 50:4-9a

⁴The LORD God gave me an educated tongue
to know how to respond to the weary
with a word that will awaken them in the morning.
God awakens my ear in the morning to listen,
as educated people do.
⁵The LORD God opened my ear;
I didn’t rebel; I didn’t turn my back.
⁶Instead, I gave my body to attackers,
and my cheeks to beard pluckers.
I didn’t hide my face
from insults and spitting.
⁷The LORD God will help me;
therefore, I haven’t been insulted.
Therefore, I set my face like flint,
and knew I wouldn’t be ashamed.
⁸The one who will declare me innocent is near.
Who will argue with me?
Let’s stand up together.
Who will bring judgment against me?
Let him approach me.
⁹Look! The LORD God will help me.
Who will condemn me?

 

Sermon Title: When the Deck Is Stacked

There is a popular type of movie in which a character played by Sly Stallone or Bruce Willis willingly goes into a situation fighting overwhelming forces, impossible odds, and numerable obstacles. As we watch, we sit and wink at one another because we know that nothing can kill our superhero. In spite of the opposition, he will emerge in the end tattered and torn, worse for the wear, but alive and well. If for no other reason, Hollywood needs the character for sequel after moneymaking sequel.

For the suffering servant in our Isaiah text, there is almost a direct parallel. He will take his bumps, harsh though they may be, but know that “he who vindicates me is near” (v. 8 NIV). So he can forge forward, knowing that in the end, he will be alive and kicking. But when we take this as a text for Palm Sunday, the outcome changes. Jesus openly rides into the city, proclaims himself Messiah, faces the betrayer, takes the abuse, suffers the trial, endures the horror and dies. How could Jesus ride into the city knowing he would never ride out? How could he

willingly go into a situation knowing that the deck is stacked against him? How did the servant do it, and to a larger extent, how did Jesus? Perhaps this servant poem was not only a pattern for Jesus’ ministry, but for him a source of inspiration as well.

I. The Servant Is Prepared

Both knew that God had used everything in the past to prepare them for the present crisis. Nothing is wasted by God. Fred Craddock interprets verse 5 to read, “God dug out my ear.” Hear the pain in that? Even that which is unpleasant and harsh, God would use to temper the steel of his spiritual strength. Even the beaten back, the plucked beard, the spat-upon face God would use to forge the strongest resolve—“set my face like flint” (v. 7). Perhaps the servant foresaw and certainly Jesus knew that God was working in all things to remake them into his very nature and character (Rom. 8:28-30).

II. The Servant Is Committed

Both knew that their cause was greater than any set of circumstances or conditions. For the servant, it was the restoration of Israel. For Jesus, it was the redemption of the world—mine and yours! How could one endure hostile and violent opposition without complaint or reaction? The servant knew he was a small piece in a larger puzzle. Jesus knew that his obedience was the key to life’s greatest concern. Viktor Frankl has written that “if one has a ‘why’ to live, he can endure any ‘how’.” For Jesus, his was the most noble purpose of showing God’s love for you and me.

III. The Servant Is Not Alone

Both knew they were not alone in their circumstances. Repeatedly the servant said, “the Sovereign Lord has acted, is acting, and is with me” (vv. 4, 5, 7, 8, 9). Jesus knew that there was no experience through which he and the Father had not or would not travel together.

In the movie Romero, based on the life of Oscar Romero, archbishop of El Salvador, Romero is an unlikely candidate for such a mission. Before his selection, he is sickly, weak-willed, and supportive of the status quo. But when God calls, his life is changed. One critical point occurs when he makes his profession of faith, falls to his knees, and says, “I can’t. You must. I’m yours. Show me the way.” After great service to a greater cause, he is killed. But he, too, was never alone.

Perhaps in the same way, Jesus was able to face the stacked deck. But remember, they didn’t take his life—Jesus gave his life! And remember, too, God vindicated him as well (Phil. 2:5-11). But that’s another story—or is it?

—Gary L. Carver

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Sermon on the Epistle Reading

Scripture: Philippians 2:5-11

⁵Adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus:
⁶Though he was in the form of God,
he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit.
⁷But he emptied himself
by taking the form of a slave
and by becoming like human beings.
When he found himself in the form of a human,
⁸he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
⁹Therefore, God highly honored him
and gave him a name above all names,
¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus everyone
in heaven, on earth, and under the earth might bow
¹¹and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Sermon Title: The Perfect Example

I remember gymnastics in high school physical education. We waited for the coach in the gym, and we looked at the parallel bars, rings, and ropes with anticipation of swinging like monkeys and just having fun. The coach arrived with a state champion gymnast who demonstrated all the various devices. Then the coach said, “Men, by the end of the semester, I want you to perform every exercise just like this example I’ve shown you!”

Impossible! We didn’t want a state champion gymnast for an example to which we would be compared. We wanted our overweight, out-of-shape coach, who could barely hang from the rings to be the standard by which we were compared. Then passing would be easy.

I wonder if the Philippians felt the same way when Coach Paul said, “Here’s the example I want you to be like at the end of the semester,” and he gave them the example of Jesus Christ. What do you think they said?

“Coach Paul, how about Peter for an example? Or John Mark? Anybody but Jesus Christ!”

I. Some Give Up Before Trying

“Let the mind of Christ be in you.” Impossible. We are not divine. Who among us is quick enough to have answered the scribe who tested Jesus on taxation by saying: “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”?

Loving enemies is tough. Some think it is impossible and they give up before they start. How many people do you know who have given all but one of their coats to the poor? Sometimes we let the demands of discipleship pass right by and simply say, “It’s too hard.” But the Bible never asks more than we can do, and God always gives us the help we need.

II. The Text Tells Us How

There are three characteristics of Jesus that Paul encourages the Philippians to imitate:

A. An attitude of humility. The Bible doesn’t ask for wit or brilliance, talent or personality; it asks for humility. Anybody can be humble.

Augustine said, “It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” It is often our pride that we have to nail to the cross and see as “crucified with Christ.” Humility is the reflection of true agape love.

B. An attitude of service. Humility made it possible for Jesus to place the needs of people above his own.

I often tell people, “The highest title given to people in the Kingdom of God is not Apostle, Pope, Bishop, or Reverend; it is Servant.” This title is the one Paul used for himself more than any other. This attitude is the one Jesus modeled for his disciples, and us, when he washed their feet.

Christians are not called to great places of leadership until first they have humbled themselves in places of service.

C. An attitude of obedience. Having accepted our forgiveness for our failure to be obedient, a Christian’s life should reflect obedience. The old nature, which was changed at salvation, was a natural tendency to do things “my way” rather than “God’s way.” The new nature should trust God’s direction in the small things as well as the big.

Jesus’ obedience took him all the way to the cross. Rarely are Christians in the United States in the late twentieth century called to obey to that extent—but we could be! Christians in other places are so challenged, and they live up to the challenge.

III. And Jesus Was Exalted

God exalted Jesus and “gave him the name that is above every name.” Christians, likewise, are given his name, his righteousness, and his inheritance. We will be well rewarded for our humility, our service, and our obedience.

—Bill Groover

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Sermon on the Gospel Reading

Scripture: Luke 22:14–23:56

¹⁴When the time came, Jesus took his place at the table, and the apostles joined him. ¹⁵He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. ¹⁶I tell you, I won’t eat it until it is fulfilled in God’s kingdom.” ¹⁷After taking a cup and giving thanks, he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. ¹⁸I tell you that from now on I won’t drink from the fruit of the vine until God’s kingdom has come.” ¹⁹After taking the bread and giving thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁰In the same way, he took the cup after the meal and said, “This cup is the new covenant by my blood, which is poured out for you.
²¹"But look! My betrayer is with me; his hand is on this table. ²²The Human One goes just as it has been determined. But how terrible it is for that person who betrays him.” ²³They began to argue among themselves about which of them it could possibly be who would do this.
²⁴An argument broke out among the disciples over which one of them should be regarded as the greatest.
²⁵But Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles rule over their subjects, and those in authority over them are called ‘friends of the people.’ ²⁶But that’s not the way it will be with you. Instead, the greatest among you must become like a person of lower status and the leader like a servant. ²⁷So which one is greater, the one who is seated at the table or the one who serves at the table? Isn’t it the one who is seated at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.
²⁸"You are the ones who have continued with me in my trials. ²⁹And I confer royal power on you just as my Father granted royal power to me. ³⁰Thus you will eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones overseeing the twelve tribes of Israel.
³¹"Simon, Simon, look! Satan has asserted the right to sift you all like wheat. ³²However, I have prayed for you that your faith won’t fail. When you have returned, strengthen your brothers and sisters.”
³³Peter responded, “Lord, I’m ready to go with you, both to prison and to death!”
³⁴Jesus replied, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster won’t crow today before you have denied
three times that you know me.”
³⁵Jesus said to them, “When I sent you out without a wallet, bag, or sandals, you didn’t lack anything, did you?”
They said, “Nothing.”
³⁶Then he said to them, “But now, whoever has a wallet must take it, and likewise a bag. And those who don’t own a sword must sell their clothes and buy one. ³⁷I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in relation to me: And he was counted among criminals. Indeed, what’s written about me is nearing completion.”
³⁸They said to him, “Lord, look, here are two swords.”
He replied, “Enough of that!”
³⁹Jesus left and made his way to the Mount of Olives, as was his custom, and the disciples followed him. ⁴⁰When he arrived, he said to them, “Pray that you won’t give in to temptation.” ⁴¹He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed. ⁴²He said, “Father, if it’s your will, take this cup of suffering away from me. However, not my will but your will must be done.” ⁴³Then a heavenly angel appeared to him and strengthened him. ⁴⁴He was in anguish and prayed even more earnestly. His sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground. ⁴⁵When he got up from praying, he went to the disciples. He found them asleep, overcome by grief. ⁴⁶He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray so that you won’t give in to temptation.”
⁴⁷While Jesus was still speaking, a crowd appeared, and the one called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him.
⁴⁸Jesus said to him, “Judas, would you betray the Human One with a kiss?”
⁴⁹When those around him recognized what was about to happen, they said, “Lord, should we fight with our swords?” ⁵⁰One of them struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear.
⁵¹Jesus responded, “Stop! No more of this!” He touched the slave’s ear and healed him.
⁵²Then Jesus said to the chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders who had come to get him, “Have you come with swords and clubs to arrest me, as though I were a thief? ⁵³Day after day I was with you in the temple, but you didn’t arrest me. But this is your time, when darkness rules.”
⁵⁴After they arrested Jesus, they led him away and brought him to the high priest’s house. Peter followed from a distance. ⁵⁵When they lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them.
⁵⁶Then a servant woman saw him sitting in the firelight. She stared at him and said, “This man was with him too.” ⁵⁷But Peter denied it, saying, “Woman, I don’t know him!” ⁵⁸A little while later, someone else saw him and said, “You are one of them too.”
But Peter said, “Man, I’m not!” ⁵⁹An hour or so later, someone else insisted, “This man must have been with him, because he is a Galilean too.”
⁶⁰Peter responded, “Man, I don’t know what you are talking about!” At that very moment, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. ⁶¹The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter, and Peter remembered the Lord’s words: “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” ⁶²And Peter went out and cried uncontrollably.
⁶³The men who were holding Jesus in custody taunted him while they beat him. ⁶⁴They blindfolded him and asked him repeatedly, “Prophesy! Who hit you?” ⁶⁵Insulting him, they said many other horrible things against him.
⁶⁶As morning came, the elders of the people, both chief priests and legal experts, came together, and Jesus was brought before their council.
⁶⁷They said, “If you are the Christ, tell us!” He answered, “If I tell you, you won’t believe. ⁶⁸And if I ask you a question, you won’t answer. ⁶⁹But from now on, the Human One will be seated on the right side of the power of God.”
⁷⁰They all said, “Are you God’s Son, then?” He replied, “You say that I am.” ⁷¹Then they said, “Why do we need further testimony? We’ve heard it from his own lips.” ¹The whole assembly got up and led Jesus to Pilate and ²began to accuse him. They said,
“We have found this man misleading our people, opposing the payment of taxes to Caesar, and claiming that he is the Christ, a king.” ³Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
Jesus replied, “That’s what you say.”
⁴Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, “I find no legal basis for action against this man.”
⁵But they objected strenuously, saying, “He agitates the people with his teaching throughout Judea—starting from Galilee all the way here.”
⁶Hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. ⁷When he learned that Jesus was from Herod’s district, Pilate sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. ⁸Herod was very glad to see Jesus, for he had heard about Jesus and had wanted to see him for quite some time. He was hoping to see Jesus perform some sign. ⁹Herod questioned Jesus at length, but Jesus didn’t respond to him. ¹⁰The chief priests and the legal experts were there, fiercely accusing Jesus. ¹¹Herod and his soldiers treated Jesus with contempt. Herod mocked him by dressing Jesus in elegant clothes and sent him back to Pilate. ¹²Pilate and Herod became friends with each other that day. Before this, they had been enemies.
¹³Then Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people. ¹⁴He said to them, “You brought this man before me as one who was misleading the people. I have questioned him in your presence and found nothing in this man’s conduct that provides a legal basis for the charges you have brought against him. ¹⁵Neither did Herod, because Herod returned him to us. He’s done nothing that deserves death. ¹⁶Therefore, I’ll have him whipped, then let him go.”
¹⁸But with one voice they shouted, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us.” (¹⁹Barabbas had been thrown into prison because of a riot that had occurred in the city, and for murder.)
²⁰Pilate addressed them again because he wanted to release Jesus.
²¹They kept shouting out, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
²²For the third time, Pilate said to them, “Why? What wrong has he done? I’ve found no legal basis for the death penalty in his case. Therefore, I will have him whipped, then let him go.”
²³But they were adamant, shouting their demand that Jesus be crucified. Their voices won out. ²⁴Pilate issued his decision to grant their request. ²⁵He released the one they asked for, who had been thrown into prison because of a riot and murder. But he handed Jesus over to their will.
²⁶As they led Jesus away, they grabbed Simon, a man from Cyrene, who was coming in from the countryside. They put the cross on his back and made him carry it behind Jesus. ²⁷A huge crowd of people followed Jesus, including women, who were mourning and wailing for him. ²⁸Jesus turned to the women and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t cry for me. Rather, cry for yourselves and your children. ²⁹ The time will come when they will say, ‘Happy are those who are unable to become pregnant, the wombs that never gave birth, and the breasts that never nursed a child.’ ³⁰ Then they will say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ ³¹ If they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
³²They also led two other criminals to be executed with Jesus. ³³When they arrived at the place called The Skull, they crucified him, along with the criminals, one on his right and the other on his left. ³⁴Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.” They drew lots as a way of dividing up his clothing.
³⁵The people were standing around watching, but the leaders sneered at him, saying, “He saved others. Let him save himself if he really is the Christ sent from God, the chosen one.”
³⁶The soldiers also mocked him. They came up to him, offering him sour wine ³⁷and saying, “If you really are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” ³⁸Above his head was a notice of the formal charge against him. It read “This is the king of the Jews.”
³⁹One of the criminals hanging next to Jesus insulted him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
⁴⁰Responding, the other criminal spoke harshly to him, “Don’t you fear God, seeing that you’ve also been sentenced to die? ⁴¹We are rightly condemned, for we are receiving the appropriate sentence for what we did. But this man has done nothing wrong.” ⁴²Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
⁴³Jesus replied, “I assure you that today you will be with me in paradise.”
⁴⁴It was now about noon, and darkness covered the whole earth until about three o’clock, ⁴⁵while the sun stopped shining. Then the curtain in the sanctuary tore down the middle. ⁴⁶Crying out in a loud voice, Jesus said, “Father, into your hands I entrust my life.” After he said this, he breathed for the last time.
⁴⁷When the centurion saw what happened, he praised God, saying, “It’s really true: this man was righteous.” ⁴⁸All the crowds who had come together to see this event returned to their homes beating their chests after seeing what had happened. ⁴⁹And everyone who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance observing these things.
⁵⁰Now there was a man named Joseph who was a member of the council. He was a good and righteous man. ⁵¹He hadn’t agreed with the plan and actions of the council. He was from the Jewish city of Arimathea and eagerly anticipated God’s kingdom. ⁵²This man went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. ⁵³Taking it down, he wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid it in a tomb carved out of the rock, in which no one had ever been buried. ⁵⁴It was the Preparation Day for the Sabbath, and the Sabbath was quickly approaching. ⁵⁵The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph. They saw the tomb and how Jesus’ body was laid in it, ⁵⁶then they went away and prepared fragrant spices and perfumed oils. They rested on the Sabbath, in keeping with the commandment.

 

Sermon Title: Picking Sides

God’s plan of salvation was passionately moving toward a culmination. Jesus said, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (22:15). In another part of town, the ecclesiastical elite met behind closed doors and “plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him” (Matt. 26:4 NIV).

Despite the expansiveness of this text, it brings to mind the Jesus problem, Pilate’s problem with Jesus, and the inescapability of picking sides.

I. The Jesus Problem

Jesus wasn’t denominationally oriented. Being a Jew or a Samaritan or Presbyterian or Baptist or Roman Catholic or whatever didn’t matter to him. As he told Nicodemus, “God so loved the world” (John 3:16). Naturally, that didn’t sit well with religious snobs—the kind of people who assume God loves them a little more than anybody else.

Jesus wasn’t traditionally bound. He talked about growing and getting better. He talked about expanding wineskins; making room in our lives for the new and improved ways that God provides to make life better (see Matt. 9:16-17). He upset the kind of people who long for the way things never were.

Jesus wasn’t socially bigoted. He hung out with prostitutes, tax collectors, and sexual sinners; with rich and poor; with Romans, Jews, and Samaritans. No one was outside his embrace. He gave no quarter to the kind of people who expected their holy men to cater to the upper crust.

But the thing that upset many people the most was that he never denied being who he was, is, and will always be: Lord and Savior. He acted like God because that’s exactly who he has always been.

II. Pilate’s Problem with Jesus

Pilate was the Roman governor of Judea from A.D. 26 to 36. Essentially, his job was keeping the peace and keeping Palestine in step with Rome. While Pilate did not sympathize with the religious case against Jesus, he was sufficiently convinced of its disruptive nature to hear it. Like an apathetic clerk at the complaint department, he feigned interest.

Predictably, after briefly interviewing Jesus, Pilate announced, “I find no basis for a charge against this man” (23:4 NIV). Again, Pilate didn’t care about the religious issues. As far as the other civil charges (23:2), he did not believe Jesus was a threat to Rome. Jesus didn’t have an army. And since his arrest, he didn’t have many fans. So Pilate felt it was much ado about nothing.

Trying to keep his distance from the petty religious problems of Palestine, Pilate sent Jesus to Herod. Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate. Pilate offered a real criminal named Barabbas as a substitute. Pilate “realized that though Jesus may have upset the sensitivities of the Jews, he was not really guilty of any crime under Roman law” (John Drane, Jesus and the Four Gospels, 1979). But his reasoning misjudged the obsessiveness of Palestine’s religious passion. Jesus was the issue and Pilate had to deal with them about him.

While the religiously antagonistic to Jesus (Sanhedrin) could pronounce capital punishment, only Rome could carry it out. Because he didn’t care about the religious issues and wanted to keep his standing with Rome, Pilate allowed—enabled—the extermination of Jesus.

III. Picking Sides Is Inescapable

In one final attempt to distance himself from the whole thing, Pilate “took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!’” (Matt. 27:24-26 NIV).

Like so many symbolic acts, Pilate’s little handwashing act was hollow. He chose compromise and expediency over Jesus. He thought he was getting off the hook. But Pilate’s presumed neutrality earned a place for him in history that will never be erased. For whenever Christians gather, they always remember how our Lord “suffered under Pontius Pilate.”

Some churches are like Pilate. They think they can be neutral on the great issues of the day, even when the will of God as exemplified in Jesus and explained in the Bible is at stake. But does anyone think that our Lord will be smiling at the gates of heaven when someone says, “Lord, I was neutral on the issues of faith and morality”?

Neutrality always enables evil to prosper. Just ask Pilate. Just ask Jesus. There is no place for neutrality in the Kingdom. As Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters” (Matt. 6:24).

Christians, take sides for Jesus and follow him!

—Robert R. Kopp