Palm Sunday
Awakened by the Word
John 12:12-19
29 March 2015 – Redeemer
Have you ever encountered a sleep walker? They look awake, but they are not. Their eyes are open but they do not see. They may speak, but it is a conversation with themselves. They might even eat a snack or take a shower, but in the morning they don’t know what they saw, said, or did.
We humans are a bit like sleepwalkers spiritually until we are awakened by faith. Until we are awakened to faith in Christ we walk in the sleep of sin, unbelief, and death, not really seeing things as they truly are. I stole that idea from a devotional book I’m reading by Dr. John Kleinig, a Lutheran pastor and professor from Australia. As I read Dr. Kleinig’s words this past week I thought about the Palm Sunday crowd. They were sleep walkers. They saw, but they didn’t see. They spoke, but they didn’t grasp the meaning of what they said. Even the Pharisees didn’t quite see what was going on – they speculated that the whole world was going after Jesus, but by the end of the week Jesus would be a Kingdom of One – He dies alone, enthroned on a cross, crowed with thorns, and robed in His blood.
That crowd was seeing, but not seeing. St. John tells us that they had been with Jesus when He raised Lazarus from the dead. Can you imagine what that crowd thought based on what they saw? What would you think if a few days after you buried your dad he knocked on the door and said, “Well, aren’t you going to invite me in for coffee?” And when you stammered out, “How? What? We buried you?” he simply said, “Jesus raised me from the dead.” Jesus raised Lazarus. It is a fact. This crowd was filled with witnesses. Jesus declared, “I am the Son of God.” And now He’s on a donkey, riding into Jerusalem, exactly as the prophet Zechariah had foretold:
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
What were they to think? He raised Lazarus from the dead. He is riding on a donkey into Jerusalem. That’s all the proof they would have needed. He is the Son of God.
They were right to welcome Jesus as God’s Messiah. They were right to call out “Hosanna” – “Save us Lord,” but they were still sleepwalking in unbelief. They weren’t clear on exactly how the Messiah would accomplish salvation. Would He simply start handing out life and health as He had done with Lazarus and others? Would He drive out the Romans and restore Mount Zion and Jerusalem to the control of His people? That is what they thought. But as Jesus made clear the way of salvation many people turned away, rolled over, and crawled back into the comfort of unbelief.
Some of them turned away on Monday of that week when Jesus entered the temple courtyard and threw out the money changers and the worshipers. Gone was the profit of markerters of God and the convenience of worshipers. Even the disciples were sleepwalkers – literally. Remember the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus was in the throes of anticipating the cross and praying for His Father’s strength. The unseen battle for the Kingdom caused Him to sweat blood and what were His disciples doing? Sleeping. They had no idea. Jesus was arrested, beaten, mocked, spit upon, and convicted. Ten of the eleven disciples abandoned him because they could not see how the cross could accomplish anything.
How often do we desire and fall into the same sleep as the Palm Sunday crowd and the disciples because we don’t see what’s really going on? The disciples did not see the battle the devil was waging against Jesus at Gethsemane and the Cross. What they saw was God letting evil win the day. If Jesus was God why didn’t He fight? Why didn’t He call down the angels? Why didn’t He defend Himself in court? Why did He let them spit on Him and whip Him and finally nail Him to the cross?
Are you tempted to sleepwalk in your own spiritual dreams about God? Do you desire that God would rise up and do something powerful? Why does He allow Islam to spread through the murder and hatred of Christianity? Why are advocates of unnatural marriage (homosexuals) winning the blessing of the Law while real marriage is on the decline? Sometimes we simply tempted to roll over and go to sleep in ignorance. I don’t want to see my own sins against marriage or my own prejudice and hatred of people not like me. I don’t want to stand for the truth of God’s Word when it causes me trouble and sleepless nights. I don’t want to hear Jesus calling me to repent of wanting a Savior who does it my way.
Do you know what finally woke the Palm Sunday crowd up? Do you know what finally rousted the Apostles from their drowsiness and disbelief? I have to warn you – this is a spoiler alert for Holy Week. So if you don’t want to know what we’re going to talk about next Sunday cover your ears. Jesus rose from the dead. When Jesus was awakened from death by His Father and appeared to His disciples and spoke to them, they came to faith. By God’s Word, by Christ’s risen presence, by His resurrection, those drowsy doubters became active, living, seeing, and speaking Apostles.
Isaiah tells us how the Lord awakens us in today’s Old Testament reading. He speaks of a man who is awakened by God’s Word. “Morning by morning … He awakens my ear to hear. … The Lord God has opened my ear.” There was an old custom in baptism, still in use in Martin Luther’s day, in which the pastor spit on his finger, touched the right ear of the child or candidate and said, “Ephphatha” (which means “be opened.”)
By the Word of God, in the morning of your life, the Holy Spirit called you out of the slumber of unbelief and death, to hear His Word, to see His cross as your salvation, and to live in the reality that God Himself redeemed you from sin and death by the blood of His Son. Baptism awakens you to see what the Apostles saw on Easter Sunday and the crowds saw on Pentecost day. God is active to save you in the person of Jesus Christ, in His death on the cross, in His rest in the tomb, in His awakening to life on the third day.
Isaiah’s words are so rich. As you read them you wonder, “Is Isaiah talking about himself or someone else? Is he talking about you or Jesus?” I think the answer is yes. There certainly are very specific words about Jesus in the Isaiah text – the reason it was chosen for this Sunday, “I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.” Isaiah wrote those words 700 years before Jesus gave His back to the whip and His face to the spit of the soldiers – that ought to awaken you to the truth that the Old Testament points to the cross, to Jesus.
But Isaiah’s words are also God’s Word for you – to awaken you to His saving work. Because Jesus back was whipped and His face was spit upon, because He saved you in this way – His death for your sins, the words Isaiah speaks of Jesus are also true of you, “You shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates you is near. Who will contend with you? Let us stand up together? Who is your adversary? Let him come near to you. Behold, the Lord God helps you; who will declare you guilty? There is your life when you are awakened to faith in Jesus. Your Savior is near you – as near as His Word and His Sacrament. Who will contend with Him? The devil did and lost. Sin did and is buried. Death did and it is vanquished. Who will declare you guilty? Well, not the judge of the world, because the One who judges you has been declared “guilty” for you and paid the price of your judgment with His blood.
May this Holy Week awaken you to see Jesus, behold His saving work on the cross, and receive the fruits of His salvation – forgiveness and life. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
28 March 2015 anno Domini