Introduction: Ruth Holladay is a column writer for the Indianapolis Star, and on March 19 of this past week she wrote under the title, “Put the Angst on Ice and Pass the Popcorn.” Here is part of what she wrote: “…what is this ominous sense of doom that looms like a big, fat, funnel cloud on our humble, homespun Hoosier horizon? I know. It’s the knowledge that we are mediocre (meaning) ordinary, so-so, and just plain crummy to the point of lousy. And yepper, it’s true, we are mediocre, although it hurts…to say it. But consider the evidence. Out of 50 states, Indiana – sweet little Indiana! – waddles in at No.13 in obesity, blows rings around the competition at No.8 for smoking, and is first in per capita income decline. The latter means we’ve fallen like a chuck of limestone on hard times, plummeting from the top third in earnings to the bottom third in the past 35 years. Not to put too fine a point on it, but we’re really dumb, too; 41st in SAT scores, 44th in the number of college graduates, and 46th in enrollment in two-year colleges. …Which brings us to business. The Indiana Chamber of Commerce publishes an Economic Vision report card giving us the following grades: D in entrepreneurship, F in initial public offerings, and F in small business employment. Had enough? Just one more statistic, and don’t be shy. Marion County is No.2 in the nation in syphilis cases. So there it is folks: we are poor, stupid, and sexually diseased. (All) these dark thoughts have invaded my head in light of the General Assembly’s recent failure to thrive. After 10 weeks in session, we have no balanced budget, no property tax relief, no business incentives, and no future for public education.” With her title, “Put the Angst on Ice and Pass the Popcorn,” we know Ms. Holladay plans to finish on a higher note. And she does. It turns out we Hoosiers are No.2 in popcorn production, No.2 in tomato processing (Yea, salsa!), No.1 in ducks, No.5 in hogs, and No.5 in chickens (excluding broilers). We are first in “egg-type chicks hatched” and No.2 in ice cream production. And finally, “we’re in the top 10 for tornadoes.” (If I could add a few other high notes, Indiana, sweet little Indiana, has been a great place for us to raise our two children. Our son has been able to follow his dream of flying by graduating from Purdue, one of the great aviation schools in all of America. Being a resident of the state made it easier for him to be accepted. And who knocks off Duke University in college basketball’s semifinal round of the NCAA South Regional but sweet little IU?! (Art, I have the front page of the Star from Friday – UPSET – if you want to take a picture of it.) And who hasn’t admired Indiana Jones and envied his life of adventure? And Suzie’s family from Texas, who have visited us often, has said repeatedly, “The folks here are warmer and friendlier than they are where we live.”) And there is more, but you are already asking, “What does this have to do with Palm Sunday?” What does Hoosier angst have to do with the Sunday we celebrate the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem? Good question. And here’s the answer: Life has a way of being pretty messy. Poverty, ignorance, and sexually transmitted diseases may be cause for Hoosier anguish, but they are not unique to the citizens of Indiana – they are rampant around the world! Our world of sin has given birth to all manner of ills in every corner of the planet. That is why the Lord Jesus is riding into Jerusalem on a donkey with cloaks on the ground and palm branches waving in the air! In sending His Son into town on a donkey, God is shouting out a message that is too often not heard and too often not understood. God is making a way for life to be good; God is offering to anyone who will respond a way of life that can be satisfying and filled with contentment, regardless of outward circumstances. Palm Sunday, that first Palm Sunday, was and is a drama spelling out a phenomenal message of hope and life and wholeness and peace and victory and triumph. Oh to God that every Hoosier understood the meaning of this day! And more than that, that every Hoosier believed what he understood about this day! Here is the message of Palm Sunday: Disciples of Christ participate in the joy of God’s triumphs, God’s victories, through the oil of devotion and the experience of death. The followers of Jesus know joy in life, all of life, through devotion to Him and death with Him. The challenge for all of us today is that we leave this place excited about the prospects of a life blessed by God, regardless of what is on tomorrow’s horizon. The hope of the Scriptures for our text today is that life can be better than we have known so far. Interested? Turn with me in your Bibles if you will to John 12. I want us to read verses 1-26 and find the hope that God offers to all of us this morning. “Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead. There they made Him a supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him. Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. Then one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who would betray Him, said, ‘Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?’ This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it. But Jesus said, ‘Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial. For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always.’ Now a great many of the Jews knew that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also, because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus. The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out:
‘Hosanna!’ ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ The King of Israel!’ Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: ‘Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.’ His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him. Therefore the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead, bore witness. For this reason the people also met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, ‘You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!’ Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast. Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus. But Jesus answered them, saying, ‘The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.” We can understand this passage and remember its message by using just three images. One is the palm branches, another is the fragrant oil, called spikenard here, and the third is a grain seed. Thinking about the palm branches first, they symbolize joy. Wherever you see palm trees and palm branches in the Scriptures, they represent joy, happiness, delight, and satisfaction. There are many examples, but perhaps the best is found in Revelation 7 where the great multitude that surrounds the throne of God in the future is made up of people wearing white robes and holding palm branches, and they are full of great joy. When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on this particular day, His coming was part of God’s plan for victory and triumph for all the earth. The people, not understanding all the details of the Messiah’s coming, were thrilled that King Jesus had arrived. Though their misconceptions would come to light at a later day, they nevertheless exulted in the coming of the king of Israel. And so they should have! Luke’s Gospel tells us that if they had not rejoiced in this manner, even the stones would have cried out! Now it is an interesting fact that we know more about this day of palm branches than did the disciples who were there that day. Notice how John makes reference to this day in verse 12. “The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! The King of Israel!” This day, the ‘next day’ of verse 12, is a very special day in the Scriptures and in the plan of God. I’ve often explained its importance in Palm Sunday sermons, and today I’ll sketch it out again for those of us new to our church this year and for those of us with failing memories. This day, the day that the Lord Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a colt, is actually Monday, March 30, 33 A.D. We know this date from understanding something told to the prophet Daniel hundreds of years before. In Daniel 9 we read, (Daniel 9:24-25), “‘Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.’” Now you can look this material up on our web site courtesy of Ian Blair’s hard work (Go to the Sermon Center and click on the link to “Individual Sermons;” from there you can open the Palm Sunday sermons), but for this morning, I’ll just share a summary. Notice there are 70 weeks or, literally, 70 sevens in Daniel 9:24. There are 69 sevens in Daniel 9:25 – 7 sevens and 62 sevens. These 69 sevens are a time frame with a definite beginning and a definite ending. The beginning of this time frame, according to our text, is a date on which a decree is issued to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. The ending is a date on which the Anointed One, the ruler, comes. See again how Daniel 9:25 states it? “So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks…” So, if we could know the beginning date, we could figure out the ending date. And we do know the beginning date. It is March 5, 444 B.C. This is the date that Nehemiah went in to see the King and Queen and got permission to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. (Nehemiah 2:5) Now if we use the King’s decree date, March 5, 444 B.C., and we add 69 sevens worth of years…we are working with a total of 483 years… And if we convert those 483 years into days… understanding that a prophetic year had 360 days in it, we come to 173,880 days. If we add those days through the centuries to March 5, 444 B.C., we arrive at March 30, 33 A.D. That was the very day the Lord Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt, all the while being hailed as the king. Daniel 9:26 says, “After the 62 sevens, the Anointed One, the Messiah, will be cut off and will have nothing.” In fact, 4 days after riding into Jerusalem, the King, the Lord Jesus, was “cut off”, that is, crucified on Friday, April 3, 33 A.D. (My source for all these calculations is the Ph.D. dissertation of Dr. Harold Hoehner, done at Cambridge University, published the year he graduated as “Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ”.) The point I want us to understand here is that the Lord Jesus arrived in Jerusalem right on time! And what a day that very day was!! All the Gospel writers make reference to this ‘triumphal entry.’ Now, the cartoon writer, Johnny Hart, has understood this incredible timing, and a couple of years ago, he devoted his Palm Sunday strip to this very issue. Here it is. (Go Art, you should have this in a file from last year…) We understand from our study last week regarding Biblical victory that one element of victory is a parade. God has arranged this parade, on this very day, in anticipation of the victory that is going to take place on Friday’s cross and Sunday’s resurrection. Thus the palm branches are waving in the hands of the disciples of Jesus ‘on this day.’ The symbol of the palm branches conveyed the joy of God bringing His plan for all the ages to completion right on time, according to His own very accurate time-table, right to the very day, just as the angel Gabriel had said to Daniel hundreds of years before. What all this means to us on this Palm Sunday is that if God is a part of our lives, every day is full of meaning! I have told you about the inventor, Arnold Beckman. His most famous invention was the pH meter, which he invented in 1934 because a friend of his, a research chemist, needed to know how to measure acidity in lemon juice. That invention earned him a spot in the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1987. Mr. Beckman’s philosophy: “I tried to make the most I could of each day.” If he lived life this way, why wouldn’t we -- who have a relationship with the God of Heaven? Every day is just one slice of His eternal plan that will come to pass! So, how is it we get grumpy and discouraged in the face of this kind of truth? Palm Sunday is a day of joy! If God is part of our lives, then everyday has meaning – no matter what happens – and we can rejoice in what He is accomplishing. The second symbol in our text is the oil. In verse three of chapter 12, we see Jesus’ friend, Mary, taking this very expensive oil, really a perfume, and pouring it on His feet and then wiping His feet with her hair. One of the other Gospels that refers to this same incident tells of her anointing His head, too. And we know the fragrance of this oil fills the whole house where they are gathered at dinner with Jesus. Now friends, if the palm branches were a symbol of joy on a very special day anticipating God’s triumph, then this oil and the way it is used is a symbol of honor and devotion. Didn’t we just see in Daniel 9:26 that the Messiah is called the “Anointed One?” This text in the NIV says that this anointing takes place at a dinner which ‘was given in Jesus’ honor.’ We know from Judges 9:9 that the olive tree boasts, “by my oil gods and men are honored.” And so Jesus tells Judas Iscariot to leave Mary alone, for she alone seems to understand that He, the King, is going to His death. She is anointing Him for that day of His great victory. In that anointing she is expressing honor and devotion. The lesson for us is simple: we, as His disciples, get to participate in God’s victories through the oil of devotion. Palm Sunday calls us to devotion through the sacrificial symbol of oil. John, the Gospel writer, fully intends that we, his readers, make the connection between Mary’s act of devotion and the Triumphal entry into Jerusalem that immediately follows. In Character Forged from Conflict, Gary Preston writes about Gladys Aylward, a missionary to China during and after World War II. “Gladys’ ministry in China was chronicled in the film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness. She suffered terribly during her journey across the mountains of China in order to bring a hundred orphans to safety in Shensi. These children, ranging in age from 4 to 15, were saved because of Gladys’ faithful devotion to God. But it was not without cost. When Gladys arrived in Shensi with the children, she was gravely ill and almost delirious. She suffered internal injuries from a beating by the Japanese invaders in the mission compound at Tsechow. In addition, she suffered from relapsing fever, typhus, pneumonia, malnutrition, shock, and fatigue. Through her ordeal Gladys learned more about obedience to Christ. She learned to choose Christ over anything else life had to offer—so much so that when the man she loved, Colonel Linnan, came to visit her in Shensi as she was recovering and asked her to marry him, she declined. In her heart she knew she could not marry him and continue the work God had for her among the children of China. Out of her devotion to God, she said good-bye to Linnan at the train station, and they never met again. Gladys continued serving God faithfully in China and England until her death in 1970.” What would we say today to our children to describe our devotion to King Jesus? How would they be able to see it? It is the message of Palm Sunday that devotion to Christ allows us to participate in His victories. There is one last symbol in our text today. Very quickly, it’s the grain seed, the kernel of wheat, in verses 23-26. As Gentiles desire to see Jesus, for they are worshipers who have come to the Feast, Jesus makes reference to seeds. He illustrates discipleship as a sacrificial investment by referring to seeds that fall into the ground and produce many more seeds. That production comes through the death of the initial seed. “Unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.”(12:24) The image of a seed dying and creating roots, sprouting and bearing other seeds, is part and parcel of Palm Sunday and its message of impending victory. Jesus Himself is going to His death, Stephen will follow soon in the book of Acts as will James, the brother of John. Out of these deaths will come a strong and growing church, God’s victory over sin, death, and the evil one. These seeds are an image of sacrificial investment. From one will come many others. Out of our own personal acts of dying to self come victories for the kingdom of God. It is our experience of death that opens the doors for our participation in God’s triumphs. (Conclusion) Palm Sunday is a day of symbols: palm branches of joy, the oil of devotion, and the seed of sacrificial discipleship that too often leads to death. God has placed before us in His word images that call us to victory. Disciples participate in the joy of God’s triumphs through the oil of devotion and the experience of death. Are you full of joy today in spite of the circumstances? Are we ready to die to personal interests and desires? Have we been planning acts of devotion to God through serving others in costly ways? You have understood the meaning of Palm Sunday, God’s very special day as He anticipated the most marvelous victory known to man!
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