The Popular Christ

Ever since he boasted about the “mother of all battles”, people have been making jokes about the Saddam Hussein’s phrase. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said that the mother of all battles turned out to be the mother of all retreats. Mayor Dinkins promised us the mother of all parades for the returning troops. The best line was by President Bush, who refers to his wife Barbara as the mother of all Bushes. Saddam Hussein will go down in history as the father of the mother of all clichés!

Getting back to the victory parade, it promises to be a good one. There will be an outpouring of emotion and joy, relief and gratitude as the people of America salute the brave men and women who fought in the Gulf War. I’m sure that the crowd will be huge, and spirits will be high. Everyone loves a parade.

There was another parade much like it 2,000 years ago. Cheering crowds… curious onlookers… harassed police. It was the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem on a day that came to be known as Palm Sunday.

We read about this parade in all four Gospels. Each Gospel writer sheds a slightly different light on the scene by sharing certain unique details. Only in the Gospel of John do we read that the branches that the people were waving were palm branches, from which we get the name Palm Sunday. Only Matthew tells us that there was not one but two animals involved in the parade - the donkey colt upon which Jesus rode, and its mother, who probably came along to keep an eye on her little one.

When we take the four gospel accounts and blend them together we have a harmony which gives us the full picture. It is a picture which portrays Jesus Christ, riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, presenting himself to the nation Israel as her Messiah.

Now just about everyone in Israel was waiting for the Messiah to come. In fact, the Roman historians Tacitus and Seutonius record rumors that were circulating around the Roman Empire at the time that a world ruler would soon arise from among the Jews. Messianic fever was in the air.

The Jews themselves were awaiting a Messiah who would overthrow the Romans who ruled their land. When Jesus came along and began to perform miracles, many of the Jews believed that at last they had their man. As the three years of Jesus’ earthly ministry wore on, the general public put more and more pressure upon him to become their king. In modern terms, they wanted him to declare his candidacy. As a result, Jesus increasingly withdrew from the crowds in order to spend time with his twelve disciples. But the crowds sought him out. They hunted him down. And when they heard that he was coming to the Feast of the Passover in Jerusalem - the most important of all the Jewish holidays - they thought at last the time had come.

These were the people who cheered for Jesus at his triumphal entry. I want us to think about them for a few moments this morning. I believe that there are some spiritual lessons for us as we reflect on what this crowd did.

I’d like you to notice that there were some good things to be said about these folks. There are five positive things I want you to notice about these people.

1. They were religious:

Most of these folks were in Jerusalem, or were on their way to Jerusalem, to attend the Passover Feast. That means that they were serious about their religion, serious enough for many of them to take the trouble to travel long distances to worship God.

John 11:55 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover.

Some of these people had traveled from as far away as Galilee, which lay 95 miles to the north. They had come on foot - a dangerous journey for anyone traveling alone. That is why many of these pilgrims traveled together in large groups. Others came by boat from the lands around the Mediterranean. They would have landed on the coast at Ceasarea and made their way on foot inland to Jerusalem.

Whatever else you say about these people, you have to give them credit for taking their religion seriously.

2. They were curious:

John 11:56 They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple area they asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the Feast at all?”

John 12:1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

John 12:9 Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.

These people had heard about Jesus, perhaps from the pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem from Galilee. They wanted to see him. They wanted to know more about him. They were attracted to him. They were spiritually inquisitive.

3. They were biblically knowledgeable:

When they met Jesus, and saw him riding on the donkey, many of them realized the significance of what they were seeing, because they had studied their Bibles. Way back in the OT, in the book of Zechariah, they remembered reading a prophecy which said…

Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

That prophecy referred to the coming of the Messiah. Here was Jesus riding on a donkey colt. He was a great man. He was a great teacher. He could perform miracles. He had great power. Therefore, they said, He must be the Messiah. And they were right because they were biblically knowledgeable. Jesus was their Messiah.

So they began to hail him by doing something else that was biblical. They began to quote from Psalm 118.

“Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the King of Israel!” they shouted.

This is one of the “Hallel” Psalms which are read before the Feast of the Passover, and again, it refers to the coming of the Messiah. Whatever else you say about them, you have to admit that this crowd was a biblical crowd.

4. They were enthusiastic:

There is nothing worse than apathy in worship. These people who cheered for Jesus on Palm Sunday were anything but apathetic. They were stoked! They were excited! Matthew, Mark and John tell us that they didn’t quote Psalm 118 under their breath, they shouted it at the top of their lungs! Luke says…

Luke 19:37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:

They must have made a lot of noise, because even more people came out from the city to find out what was going on. So you had a crowd around Jesus, a crowd behind Jesus, and a crowd on the road in front of Jesus, and they’re all shouting “Hosanna”. The Pharisees and the religious leaders in Jerusalem were peeved at all this enthusiasm for Jesus.

John 12:19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”

The crowd was religious, they were curious, they were biblically knowledgeable, they were enthusiastic, and…

5. They put their money where their mouths were:

We read in Matthew, Mark, and Luke that the people took off their cloaks and laid them in the road in front of Jesus. Now a cloak in those days was a lot more valuable than you might think. It was the principal outer garment that a person wore. During the day, your cloak would protect you from the fierce rays of the sun. At night, when it got cold, you would sleep with your cloak wrapped around you. A man’s cloak was so valuable to him that he could use it as collateral to secure a loan. In fact, the Law of Moses forbids a lender to keep a borrower’s cloak after sunset - because then the poor man would have nothing to wrap around himself as he slept. In the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus taught about going the second mile, he said

Matthew 5:40 And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

So a man’s cloak in those days was a pretty important possession.

Now look at what these people did. They were so caught up in the excitement of this parade for the Messiah, that they did something that was a very sacrificial act. They put their cloaks down on the road to serve as a carpet for the king. That was an action that was highly symbolic. They were saying “Jesus, you can have my most valued possession. I’m laying it down at your feet.”

They were religious, they were curious, they were biblically knowledgeable, they were enthusiastic, and they were even willing to make supreme sacrifices for Jesus.

But just five days later, this crowd that cheered for Jesus on Palm Sunday turned against him. Their cheers turned into jeers. Why?

Their Palm Sunday allegiance to Jesus was not a permanent allegiance, so it was really not allegiance at all. They were spiritual groupies, attracted to the media star of the moment. Just as the ocean tide goes in and out with the influence of the moon, the gravitational pull of events later that week was going to draw those people away from Jesus. By the time Friday morning rolled around, and the soldiers dropped the cross into that black hole in the ground, the crowd was all gone.

But what about their religiosity? What about their interest and curiosity? What about their enthusiasm? What about their biblical knowledge? What about their sacrifices?

Their religiosity was like all religiosity. They were not interested in receiving Jesus as a Savior who would save them from their sins. They didn’t want a Savior because they didn’t think they needed one. They were busy trying to earn their way to heaven by keeping the Law. They just wanted Jesus to pat them on the head and say “You’re doing a good job.” They wanted him to endorse their religiosity.

Their curiosity and interest were not spiritually motivated. They just wanted to see Jesus perform miracles. They were thrill seekers, attracted to the flash and the excitement of what Jesus did. People are like that today you know.

In the book Megatrends 2000, authors John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene trumpet the religious revival of a new millennium. People today are more interested in spirituality than ever before, they say. But what kind of interest is it?

Roger Palms, the editor of Decision Magazine has the answer. He describes people today as being “spiritual tourists”. Listen to what he says:

We live in a time of spiritual tourism, of brief excursions into varieties of religious views or practices, a combining of a little occult, a little New Age, a little Eastern mysticism, from a buffet of selections that appeal to the wants of the moment. Pastors meet people who are “spiritually grazing”, those who visit a church now and again looking for something that “appeals to them before moving on.

This is exactly what made the crowd follow Jesus on Palm Sunday 2000 years ago.

But what about their biblical knowledge. Surely they were different from people today in that respect? After all, they had studied the OT Scriptures and knew them well. But their biblical was a smoke screen to the fact that they made the Bible the handmaiden of their own selfish desires.

You see, these people wanted a Messiah who would be a political leader. They wanted someone to kick out the Romans. They thought Jesus might be their man. So they applied Bible verses to him. They made the Bible say what they wanted it to say. And while they were right in using the Bible to say that Jesus was the Messiah, they were dead wrong in their conception of what kind of Messiah he was going to be.

So they were enthusiastic. But their enthusiasm was based on a completely wrong expectation of what Jesus had come to do. As far as they were concerned, Palm Sunday was going to be Jewish Independence Day. They fully expected Jesus to ride that donkey into Jerusalem and right up to the gate of the Antonia fortress and send Pilate and his legionnaires packing. And they cheered for Jesus to do it. When they came out of the city to meet him, they came with a political agenda.

And the sacrifices they made for Jesus on the way to the city - the laying down of their coats and all - were made with the anticipation of getting something back in return. They thought that when the Messiah came, he would introduce an age of wealth and abundance. They’d all be rich! So who wouldn’t lay his cloak down on the road if he thought tomorrow he’d get two? Their praises and their palm branches came with strings attached.

This crowd, on the surface, looked pretty good. But Jesus knew that, spiritually speaking, their hearts were far from being in the right place. How do we know he thought that? Well, what did he do in reaction to all this acclaim? He wept. He stood on the hill overlooking the city of Jerusalem and he wept. Isn’t that weird? In the midst of all this popularity and acclaim, Jesus wept about the spiritual blindness of the people and their unwillingness to follow Him. I wonder whether he thought of the words of Isaiah the prophet, who said…

These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

The very next day, Monday, Jesus saw a fig tree in full leaf. In the middle east, when a fig tree comes into leaf, it also fruits. Jesus went over to the tree. He was hungry, He fully expected to find some fruit, but he found nothing. So he cursed the tree, and the next day it withered and died. That was the only negative miracle Jesus ever did. He did it because that fig tree advertised fruit but it had none.

The Palm Sunday crowd advertised spiritual fruit but they had none. Good Friday proved that. And there are many people like that today. They advertise fruit, but they have none. The green leaves of spirituality make them look pretty good, but there’s no fruit.

There are people who are very religious - you can always find them in church. They take their religion seriously and go out of their way to observe it.

There are people who are very inquisitive, wanting to know all they can about the Bible and about theology and about prophecy. Like the Athenians in Acts ch.17, they love to hear the latest spiritual ideas.

There are people who are biblically knowledgeable. They have spent years studying the Bible. They may have memorized a lot of it. They can quote you a Bible verse on any subject. They know important facts like the difference between an Ammonite and an Amorite.

There are people who can be very enthusiastic about the Lord. They’re like cheerleaders for Jesus. They think of their church services as pep rallies for the Savior. They thrive on the rush of emotion and excitement.

And there are people who are willing to make sacrifices for the Lord. But they do so secretly hoping that God will give them tit for tat.

Who are all these people? They are you and me.

As I have reflected on the events of the Triumphal Entry, I have had to admit that there’s a lot of that Palm Sunday crowd in me. There’s a part of me that wants to take Jesus Christ and make him into what I want him to be. I find it so easy to come to Jesus with my agenda. There’s a part of me that wants Him to fit into my plans and my dreams and my expectations, when what I should be doing is asking Him how I fit into His. There’s a part of me that wants to hide behind an advertised piety without having any real inner purity of life.

If you have felt any of these things, then you have tried to make Jesus into the Popular Christ. And the Popular Christ is not the real Christ. The Popular Christ is just a messiah of our own making. The real Christ is the one we meet on Good Friday. The real Christ is the one who has to die on the cross because we are sinners. The real Christ is the crucified Christ. The real Christ is the one who comes to us, not on our terms but on His; not ready to endorse our agenda but to invite us to accept His.

And it is only when we do that we will begin to bear real fruit in our lives.