Quiet Consideration

 March 24 – Palm Sunday

Focus Scripture: Mark 11:1-11

Quiet Consideration

Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

What must it have been like to be there so long ago? Jesus, who had spent years healing, teaching, and preaching, both in the gentile and Jewish regions, was making his way into Jerusalem. Those who knew their scriptures, the words of the prophets, saw that prophecy was being fulfilled.

The prophet Zechariah, in verse 9:9, described this exact scene. “See, your King comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

This Jesus was no threat, no harm, just salvation, righteousness, and peace. This is the Jesus the Bible describes: our Savior who loves us and wants only for us to love God in return. God is our God, and we are God’s people. And for this brief time on a Sunday before Passover, it was so.

The people threw down their cloaks and their cut branches, palms as we envision it and re-enact today. They were more than caught up in the moment. They were celebrating the Messiah!

Our perspective, though, is different. We know what comes next. These people who greeted Jesus did not. Their excitement must have been palpable. Anyone of us there are that time would likely have joined right in, expecting only amazing and awesome things to come.

This Messiah would throw out the Romans! This Messiah would usher in the Kingdom of David! This Messiah would restore the glory of David’s Royal City, Jerusalem! Wow.

Now, zoom in on just one person. You, yourself, part of that crowd who knew nothing of what was to come but had heard so many stories of sight restored to the blind, leprosy and skin diseases healed, storms quieted, demons cast out. Imagine your sense of anticipation and excitement. I cannot wait to see what happens next.

Now, focus on being a disciple, one of the twelve. You have been following Jesus around for years, traveling north and south, east and west, seeing things that no other person had ever seen before. You were in the boat when the storm was quieted. You saw the possessed restored and the herd of swine run off the cliff. You saw the dead girl alive again! And now, the crowds! You had only good things to anticipate. Jesus was taking his rightful place as King, Redeemer, Savior. All was going to be wonderful, regardless of what those Pharisees had been saying, doing, and planning.

For the balance of that day, you would be right. And it is right for us to celebrate the triumphal entry this morning because Jesus was triumphant. Jesus was fulfilling prophecy that had stood for hundreds of years. Jesus was doing what he came to do. Fulfilling the images of Psalm 118, verses 25-27, He who comes in the name of the Lord had arrived. With boughs in hand, people were joining the festal procession. All that we had learned in the temple through our entire lives was coming true right before our eyes.

We can take this scene and project it forward to what is to come for all of us. John’s prophetic words in the book of Revelation describe this jubilant celebration on an eternal and infinite scale. I will not get into the details of that now, but I think we can say that this time and place was, for all involved, a glimpse of heaven. The Kingdom of God was breaking through, it only for a short time.

And then it ended. The procession was over. Jesus entered Jerusalem and a deserted temple. After all, it was late in the day. The contrast is jarring.

In researching this sermon about this haunting close of the Mark text – Jesus entered the temple, looked around, and left to head back to Bethany – I found many competing theories for what was happening here. After all, why would Jesus need to go look around? As God incarnate, wouldn’t Jesus know what was happening there?

The most compelling possibility, I think, is that Jesus was mentally preparing himself for what was to come. He knew that there was to be conflict and suffering in the coming days, and he wanted to process what was happening and where. After all, Jesus did not spend a lot of time in Jerusalem. He was out and about.

After this short event of surveying the temple, Jesus left. As we are told, he went back to Bethany with the twelve. It is worth mentioning that Bethany, while close to Jerusalem, less than an hour’s walk, is to the southeast on the far side of the Mount of Olives. While close, Jerusalem was not visible, and Bethany would have felt secluded.

In short, I think Jesus needed or wanted a visual so he could then think and pray about it. Human beings, after all, are visual people. We can imagine Jesus doing his walk-around and then processing what he had experienced that day as he walked back to Bethany.

But that would not have been the end. Jesus would then have prayed about it, probably finding some secluded place to consider the painful road ahead as he spoke with his Father about it. Wouldn’t we have done the same if we were committed to a course that was sure to end as the prophets said and as God knew it would? Of course.

God’s grace is evident here. Despite the coming darkness, Jesus rode into town on a donkey, peacefully accepting the praises of the crowd as he made his triumphal entry, and despite the fact that these same people would soon be calling for his crucifixion and the release of Barabas, a murderer. The Lamb of God would be rejected by those he came to save, but he loved us anyway.

And he would be alone. Jesus Christ was preparing to take on the sin of the world and be separated from the Godhead for that time from final breath to life anew and forever on Resurrection Sunday. Jesus would be all alone.

The difference is that we are not and never will be all alone. Because Jesus did what he did, we will never need to face that time of quiet consideration in anticipation of pain, what could easily become desperation, as we will never be alone.

Friday’s news about Princess Katherine of Wales included this point as she addressed others being treated for cancer, facing uncertainty and fear. As one cancer patient to all the others, she said, “You are not alone.” This must be comforting for many, but remember that Katherine is a human. Whatever her intention and title, whatever the promise, it does not rise to the promise that Jesus Christ made to us then and upholds now.

Unlike Christ, who was alone, forsaken on the cross, we are embraced by a different reality. It is a reality that must go into our quiet consideration, our calculations, and our prayers.

We are not alone. As God taught God’s people in Deuteronomy and repeated in the New Testament in Hebrews, God will be with you and me. Jesus prepared his disciples with the promise of the Holy Spirit. Jesus made this promise to us, and Jesus always keeps his promises.

So while Jesus was alone for us, paying the penalty of our sin, we will never be alone in, for, and with Jesus. From the times of celebration to the times of quiet consideration and pain, be not afraid. In Christ’s love, we are here for each other, and we live as the loved children of our God.

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You are welcome to join the congregation of First United Methodist Church of Shelton (CT) in person or online at 10 AM Eastern Time any and every Sunday. Services are streamed live, and past services are recorded. The church's web address is www.UMCShelton.org.

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Questions? Comments? Feel free to post your thoughts. Please keep it civil. Peace to you, and thanks for reading. - Bill Florin