“Something’s Going to Happen”

Meditation on Luke 19:28-40

Palm Sunday 2013

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      After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, "Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it'"
     So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" They said, "The Lord needs it." Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!"
     Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, order your disciples to stop." Jesus answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out."
     And as Jesus came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”    (Luke 19:28-40)

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Is it just my imagination, or is that grass we see beneath the melting snow? On Friday, as the snow melted away enough so that I could finally take my mini cooper out for a drive for the first time in months, I thought to myself, “Could it be that spring is finally on its way?”


Of course, then I heard that snow was in the forecast again. It seems I get my hopes up, only to be reminded, once more, that I am not in York, Pennsylvania, anymore. The last time I preached that spring was on its way, I got a phone call from Alice Beekman two days later. During a snowstorm. She was giggling.


“Pastor Karen, you said spring was coming! What’s with all this snow?”


But even lifelong Minnesotans like Alice say they are ready for winter to end. And it isn’t just the cold weather and snow that makes us long for spring. In spring, the world around us changes before our very eyes. What has seemed dead and gone for 4 months or more has only been sleeping.


Brown, patchy grass comes back green and tall. Buds appear on bare tree limbs. Soon, there will be leaves.


Birds return from their winter homes. They stir playfully in trees and bushes, perch on telephone poles and wires, and fill the skies. They set to work building nests. Before you know it, there will be eggs and hungry, chirping young.


Flocks of honking geese pass overhead. Green shoots push through garden soil. Daffodils, tulips and crocus burst into bloom, as do forsythia, azalea, rhododendron, and dogwood. Perennials make a comeback—bigger and better than the year before.


Frozen fields of white melt away to reveal dark brown soil, waiting for farmers to work their magic with machines that swoop back and forth and up and down.


Just before spring arrives, something is different. The air seems to whisper, “Something’s going to happen. Something’s going to happen.”



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The change from winter to spring is similar to the dramatic change the Palm Sunday story signals for the Church. Something is different today, when we hear about Jesus riding boldly toward Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey, a crowd throwing down their coats for him and cheering him on.


Up to now, Jesus has been ministering, healing, preaching and teaching in the towns, villages, and countryside outside of Jerusalem. He has urged those from whom he cast out demons and made whole to say nothing about what He has done. He has mysteriously slipped through the grasp of his enemies, who have, at times, tried to push him over a cliff and stone him to death. His disciples have often been baffled about his true identity and relationship with God. When Jesus calms the storm, they say to one another, “Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?” When Jesus talks about leaving them to go and prepare a place for them, they protest their ignorance, saying “Lord, we don’t know the way to where you are going!”


Jesus answers questions with more questions and tells confusing stories with layers of meaning. And when he miraculously feeds the starving crowd, and the people plot to make him their king, Jesus goes into hiding, then escapes with his disciples in a little boat.


Today, there is no more confusion or subterfuge. What has been hidden from the disciples’ eyes is now plainly seen. The emboldened disciples have grown from the original 12 to be a “multitude.” They praise God joyfully with a loud voice “for all the deeds of power they had seen.”


We celebrate Palm Sunday like the disciples, heralding the Messiah with a noisy parade, the waving of palms, and little children singing “Hosanna, Loud Hosanna! … For Christ is our Redeemer, the Lord of heaven our King!”


Some of the Pharisees are taken aback by this display of emotion and praise for this man they call a “heavenly king.” They are also angry that he is riding on an unbroken colt of a donkey—an animal so unruly that few would dare try such a thing. Fewer still would remain mounted on its back. The taming of the wild creature is a sign of the peace Christ has come to bring through his own body, breaking down what divides human beings from each other and human beings from their God. Jesus riding on the unbroken colt of a donkey is also a sign of God’s promised visitation to the Jewish people, fulfilling the words of the Old Testament prophet Zechariah.


The time for quiet, for status quo, has ended. The season has changed; the world in Jesus’s time not only looks different, it IS different. The earth is filled with His glory. Creation is ready to cry out, “The Messiah has come! The Messiah has come!”


“Rabbi, order them to stop,” the unbelieving Pharisees feebly demand.


Jesus replies, “I tell you, if these people were silent, the stones would shout out.”


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The celebration will soon end. The multitude will run away in fear after Jesus is arrested. Peace on earth will not come without a high price. Jesus weeps at the sight of Jerusalem, looming ahead. He cries not because he knows he will suffer and die, but because his own people are unable to see the truth, that Jesus is the Messiah, the one for whom they have been waiting.


Jesus says, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”


Palm Sunday, also called “Passion Sunday,” marks the beginning of Holy Week. This is the point of no return. Jesus has come to Jerusalem to accomplish God’s work of salvation. This time, there will be no slipping away from the grasp of his enemies. It is “Passion Sunday” because of Christ’s love for us, a love so great, so passionate, that he was willing to become the Lamb of God, the sacrifice for the sins of the world.


As we follow in Christ’s footsteps to the cross on Calvary, we walk in gratitude and in awe of Him who died for our sakes. We walk without fear or shame. We journey on with the confidence of the children of God who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Christ draws us nearer to His cross not to condemn us, but so we may experience love and forgiveness and know God’s will for us.


We walk in hope and anticipation, much like the feeling we have just before the arrival of spring. We walk in the promise of victory over sin and death and life in a new heaven and earth.


Those with eyes open to the truth walk knowing that not only is the world being changed by Jesus’ death and resurrection, so are we!


All Creation cries out to the glory of the Lord every day, as it did that day so long ago, when the king of heaven rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, and the multitude sang praises to his name.


Each new day, as we await Christ’s return for His Church, the air seems to whisper, “Something’s going to happen. Something’s going to happen.”


And it will.


Let us pray.


Loving God, thank you for opening our eyes to the truth of Jesus, the Messiah! Thank you for the hope and promise of forgiveness and new life in Jesus Christ, who is the Lamb of God. Lord, we ask that you continue to transform us by Your Spirit just as you are renewing all Creation. Move our hearts to rejoice in You each day and praise your Holy Name just as the disciples did when Jesus rode a donkey to Jerusalem. Remove our fear and shame so we may draw closer and closer to you, with the anticipation that something good is going to happen—something even more beautiful than the arrival of spring after a long, snowy winter. Let us hear you whisper your loving will for our lives and be emboldened to tell others the Good News that the Messiah has come—and He is coming again for His church. In Christ we pray. Amen.