Palm Sunday
John 12:12-19
April 13, 2025
Why were the people of Jerusalem waving palm branches and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” on that Palm Sunday morning when Jesus rode into the city on a colt? We might exuberantly answer, “Because Jesus was coming…” okay, but WHY?
Well, our reading from John tells us – the reading we heard just before we processed in. It was because this crowd had heard that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. It’s sort of like what happened in chapter 6 of John, after Jesus fed the 5,000. They sought Him out, and when they found Him on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, it was because they wanted more loaves of bread. This time it wasn’t the same people, but it was still the “crowd” who had heard of something wonderful and amazing.
But just as soon as Jesus opened His mouth and started talking and teaching, they wanted nothing to do with Him. And in fact, the same crowd who shouted, “Hosanna” on Palm Sunday also shouted “Crucify Him” on Good Friday. It was the crowd who went to Jerusalem for Passover and who stayed there through Saturday or Sunday.
What is it with the crowd? What is it that our Lord is trying to tell us when it comes to the crowd? And let’s be clear, the crowd plays a VERY important part in this divine drama.
Why did the evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John rely so heavily on the crowds of people? Yes, every Gospel includes the crowd, some more than others. And then there are these other individuals who show up throughout Jesus’ journey, the sick, the lame, the blind, the deaf, those who have sick family, those who seek Jesus’ help, and juxtaposed to the crowd, seeing and understanding Jesus very differently.
And the crowd is sometimes on board with Jesus’ work and words, sometimes they’re not. Sometimes they want to thank Jesus, sometimes they want to destroy Jesus. They often make little to no sense. They’re just there, they’re not consistent, they follow, then they turn away, they trust, then they defy, they praise, then they condemn.
And get this. There is another group of people who are discussed much along Jesus’ journey to the cross, a group that is a lot like the crowd. And yes, it is the disciples. There is a clear correlation between the crowd and the disciples. And there is a correlation between the crowd and we, here, at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church. And now we start getting to the point.
The crowd believed…something…something about Jesus. But what? Did they believe He was coming to die on the cross to take away their sins? No. When they cried out, “Hosanna, save us,” they were crying out for a savior who would save them from the injustices and oppressions of the Romans and everything that came with having the Romans rule their nation.
Why do you cry out “hosanna” to the Son of David; why do you cry out, “Lord, save us?”
Now, in spite of the fact that the crowd didn’t quite get why Jesus was coming, and riding on the foal of a donkey for that matter, on the back of a beast of burden, Jesus’ arrival did induce a response, that’s for sure. The crowd cheered and shouted “Hosanna,” albeit for the wrong reasons, and the pharisees and religious leaders jeered in anger and rage.
Everything Jesus says and everything He does evokes a response. No one can miss His coming. To coin a phrase, “you either love him or you hate him;” you either love Jesus or you hate Jesus. And this has never changed.
The crowd loved Jesus; the religious leaders hated Jesus. The crowd loved Jesus because He represented for them a hope, a promise, a positive change in Jerusalem and Israel. They hoped He would save them from oppression and from a foreign nation ruling over them, that He would restore the throne of His father David, or as some may say, the “Golden Age” of Israel.
And for those who understood the Scripture, Jesus seemed to be the promised Messiah, only they understood Messiah to be a political savior – they still believe the same to this day – and not a savior from sin, death, and the devil. And if it was true that Jesus was their Messiah who came to save them from oppressive Rome and corrupt religious leaders, then He represented the most positive change agent to come to Jerusalem since perhaps the Maccabeans centuries before.
So, why not shout out “Hosanna to the Son of David”, right? Only their shouts were short-lived, because when He refused to defy Pilate or take down Herod, their hope of Jesus being that sort of messiah was lost.
The religious leaders – the Sadducees and pharisees – on the other hand, they shouted, not “Hosanna,” but as is recorded in the other Gospels, those religious leaders shouted to Jesus in scornful words, telling Him to silence the crowd and be on His way.
See, they feared the Romans. They knew the politics behind it all and worried that another upheaval in Jerusalem could lead to disaster, not only for the city, but for their positions. The Sadducees enjoyed a very cosmopolitan life in Jerusalem, hob knobbing with the Roman leadership and keeping power by collaborating with the powerful. The pharisees, on the other hand, kept their power, not by being collaborators, but by making sure uprisings and revolts were as infrequent as possible. They all knew that when the crowd got stirred up, very bad things could happen, especially if Rome decided to send in a legion or two to destroy the city.
For those religious leaders, Jesus was a troublemaker politically, and a false prophet theologically. He needed to be dealt with before things got out of hand, before the Romans came in and stripped the pharisees of their influence and robbed the Sadducees of their position.
You love Him or you hate Him. You embrace Jesus or you repudiate Jesus. There simply is no other way with Jesus. His teaching, His works prevent you from approaching Him lukewarmly. Indifference toward Jesus is impossible. You either cry out “Hosanna” or you cry out, “Be Quiet!”
As sinful people, we find that we cry out “Be Quiet,” far more than we cry out “Hosanna,” don’t we? His Word becomes a roadblock to our favorite sins; His teaching becomes course sandpaper when we try so hard to live and think and go about our lives as we please. We, like sheep, often go astray; we go our own way. We follow the crowd to the edge of the world convincing ourselves that if the crowd does it or thinks it, that it must be right and good, only to discover that we have fallen off the edge and there is nothing at the bottom but death.
We pursue our dreams, and once we think we’re about to fulfill them, we find our dreams are but illusions put there by the devil to lead us down dark paths.
This is why Jesus has come. He didn’t ride into our lives as an earthly king or lord to put right centuries of bad politics or to drive out the corrupt politicians from congress. He didn’t cross the threshold of our hearts to make guiltless our sins and our disobedience, to be a blind king who cares not that we fall short of God’s glory.
Jesus has come, not to save us from aches and pains, from life’s struggles and hardships, from natural disasters or disease, but Jesus has come to save us from that which left us for dead in Eden, from God’s judgment against us that, because we sinned, we shall die. Jesus has come to save us from death and hell by becoming a curse for us. He came, not as a mighty conqueror of nations, but as a suffering servant, the Lamb of God to be led willingly from the main gate to skull hill, to be charged unjustly, judged unfairly, and condemned.
He has come to die for you, so you need not die. He came to be silenced by those who hated Him and raised high like a triumphant banner by those who shouted, “Crucify Him.” And by His stripes, you are healed.
So, shout “Hosanna, Lord save us.” Shout it loud and never stop shouting it, because it is this Lord who has come to save you, forgive you, and set you on a path to eternal life. But His path leads not to a golden throne or a fine palace, but to a bloody, wooden cross far outside the limelight of the great city. Amen.
