Three Cheers for Christ - The Peril of Popularity

His nickname was Sparky. He was a quiet kid, not very popular at school. In fact, Sparky was surprised if the other students even talked to him. He didn’t have many friends. He wasn’t very handsome, he wasn’t very athletic, and he wasn’t very brilliant. He was just one of those awkward people that the kids call a “nerd”.

During his high school years, Sparky never dated a girl. He was afraid of being turned down by any girl he might ask. It wasn’t that they hated him; they just ignored him. He never really enjoyed success in anything that he did.

There was one thing that Sparky liked to do, however. He liked to draw. He thought he had a certain amount of artistic ability. Unfortunately, nobody else seemed to think so. He submitted some of his cartoons to his high school yearbook, but they were turned down by the editors. He sent samples of his drawings to the Walt Disney Studios, but they rejected them, too. It seemed as though everyone felt that Sparky was a loser.

But Sparky didn’t let all this rejection discourage him. He used those painful experiences of rejection as the basis of a cartoon character whose life was a lot like his own - a boy whose kite would never fly; who sat for hours in the schoolyard thinking of ways to strike up a conversation with a little red-haired girl; a boy whose baseball team never won.

Sparky’s real name is Charles Schulz. He created the cartoon character Charlie Brown as the boy he himself had been. Charles Schulz took all that rejection that he had known, and he used it to bring laughter and blessing and insight to millions of people.

Today is Palm Sunday; a day of triumph, a day of rejoicing, a day of tremendous popularity in Jesus’ ministry. On Palm Sunday, the people of Jerusalem threw out the welcome mat. They were ready to give Jesus the key to the city.

What a contrast between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday! On Palm Sunday, the air was filled with the roar of the crowd. On Easter Sunday, the silence was deafening.

Why was there such a difference between those two Sundays, just a week apart? I’ll tell you why. Palm Sunday is about the popular Christ; Easter Sunday is about the real Christ. Palm Sunday is about the kind of Savior we want. Easter Sunday is about the kind of Savior God gave us.

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem, it was easy for that Palm Sunday crowd to get excited about him. It looked to them like their Messiah had arrived at last. He was riding on a donkey; the Old Testament symbol of royalty and kingship. It looked as though Jesus was riding into Jerusalem to take over, to kick out the Romans. No wonder the Jews were excited!

They were buzzing with the incredible news that Jesus had actually raised a man from the dead in the town of Bethany. That’s the kind of power a Messiah should have! Here’s a Messiah you could really get excited about!

I think if you took a Gallup poll of the crowd on Palm Sunday, you would find Jesus’ popularity ratings off the chart. He was the man of the hour. He had the people behind him. They were rooting for him; they were cheering for him. They were waving palm branches in the air and spreading their cloaks at his feet. Everyone was scrambling to get on-board the Jesus band-wagon. He was on a roll!

But just six days later, there was nothing but silence. Jesus lay in a cold stone tomb. Even his own disciples had deserted him. Why?

Because what happened that week made it clear that Jesus hadn’t come here to be a Palm Sunday Messiah; he had come to be a Good Friday Messiah. He wasn’t there to be what we wanted him to be; he was there to be what God wanted him to be.

What happened on Palm Sunday is a lesson on human nature. It reminds us of the danger of wanting to be popular, wanting to be accepted; wanting to be “in” as a Christian. It’s a lesson in rejection. But it’s also a lesson in how rejection can bring great blessing.

Let’s look at the Palm Sunday crowd for a moment. I’d like you to notice that there are some good things to be said about these folks. There are five positive things I want you to notice about them:

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 come to Jerusalem 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 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 Caesarea 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. They had gone to a lot of trouble to be there that day.

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?”

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. In other words, they were “seekers”.

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 wanted to see the great work that God had done. They were interested, they were curious. They were not apathetic.

3. They were biblically knowledgeable:

When they met Jesus coming over the Mount of Olives, and saw him riding on the donkey, many of them realized the significance of what they were seeing, because they had studied their Bibles. 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. All the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle fit together perfectly.

And they were absolutely right because they were biblically knowledgeable. Jesus really was the Messiah. So they began to hail him by doing something else that was biblical. They began to quote Scripture. They cried out the words of Psalm 118: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!”

Psalm 118 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 in their response to Jesus:

There is nothing worse than apathy in worship. These people who cheered for Jesus on Palm Sunday were anything but apathetic. They were pumped! They were excited! Matthew, Mark and John tell us that they didn’t mumble 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 were all shouting “Hosanna”, and breaking every noise ordinance in the books. It’s no wonder that the Pharisees and the religious leaders in Jerusalem were upset about all this uproar.

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 inquisitive, they were biblical, they were enthusiastic, and…

5. Their worship cost them something:

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 quite an important piece of personal property.

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.” That’s quite a commitment for them to make.

They were religious, they were inquisitive, they were biblical, they were enthusiastic, and they were even willing to make a costly commitment to Jesus.

But just five days later, this crowd that cheered for Jesus on Palm Sunday turned against him. Their cheers turned to jeers. The cry of “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” turned into “Crucify him! We have no king but Caesar.”

How in the world could that have happened? How could Jesus have had them in the palm of his hand, so to speak, on Palm Sunday, and lose them entirely the following week? Where were his media consultants? Where were his public relations people? What kind of ministry was this that things could have gotten so far off track in so short a time? Let me tell you what happened.

What happened in the hearts of those people on Palm Sunday is something that can happen in our hearts today when it comes to our allegiance to Jesus.

Whenever a professional sports team, or a famous rock band comes to town, they always attract a crowd. There are people who hang around the hotel where they are staying, hoping for an autograph, or maybe just a glimpse of them. These are people who like to be near the action, who like to bask in the glow of fame that surrounds a star. There are even women who are willing to offer their bodies to these celebrities. There’s a name for these people: they are called groupies.

That Palm Sunday crowd were a lot like spiritual groupies. They were attracted to Jesus for his star quality. He had caused a sensation in Israel. All eyes were upon him; everybody was talking about him. Being close to Jesus was where the action was.

But just as the ocean tide goes in and out with the influence of the moon, the things that happened later that week were 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 spiritual groupies were all gone.

Because what happened to Jesus later in the week was rejection, hostility, persecution, execution. And nobody wants to stick around when that kind of stuff is going down.

It’s easy to be a Christian when it’s “cool” to be one. It’s easy to give three cheers for Jesus when you’re in a big crowd at a Christian concert. It’s easy to be a Christian when it’s the “in” thing to do. It’s easy to be a fan when Jesus is a celebrity.

But what happens to your Christianity out there, where it’s not exactly popular to be a Christian? What happens when people start laughing at you, and start throwing verbal stones at you when they find out you actually believe in Jesus? What happens when they start calling you a Jesus freak, or a religious fanatic, or a fundamentalist?

Do you feel the temptation to pull away, to put some distance between you and Jesus? Well, if you do, you’re not alone. So did Andrew and Philip and Matthew and Thomas and all the other disciples. So did Peter when he denied Jesus three times.

You have to admit that there’s something about rejection that turns us into jello. There’s a lot of that Palm Sunday crowd in all of us. We want acceptance and popularity so bad that we’re willing to turn our back on Jesus in order to stay on good terms with the world.

Or, what’s maybe even worse, we try to make Jesus into a popular Savior that the world will find more appealing so they won’t reject him anymore. Some Christians have tried very hard to do this. They’ve tried to make Jesus popular.

They’re the ones who go around saying that if you just follow Jesus, you’ll get what you want. You’ll have health and wealth and success. Well, who wouldn’t want to follow a Savior like that?

But that Christ, the Popular Christ, is not the real Christ. That’s 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 stretched out his arms and died a horrible death on the cross because of our sinfulness. The real Christ is the one who took upon himself all the hostility, all the hate, all the rejection of the world. And as he hung on the cross, he was even forsaken and rejected by God.

You know, I’m glad that Jesus didn’t succumb to the temptation to play to the grandstand on Palm Sunday. I’m glad that he didn’t bow to the pressure of popularity. I’m glad that he didn’t give the crowd what they wanted. Because if he had, he wouldn’t have gone to the cross.

Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

All that rejection that Jesus suffered on Good Friday brought blessing for you and me.

And when Jesus said that if we want to follow him, we’ll have to take up our cross also, I think that he has the same thing in mind for us. It’s through being rejected, and being wiling to be rejected for Jesus’ sake, that God can use us to bring blessing to others.

Like a young soldier named Jim. Jim was a Christian. He was drafted into the Marines during the Viet Nam war and found himself in boot camp at Parris Island. The other recruits in his barracks soon noticed that Jim would always read his Bible before lights out. They began to mock him about it and call him names.

One soldier, whose name was Ralph, was especially obnoxious. He would curse and swear at Jim whenever he saw him with his Bible open. Turns out that Ralph’s father had been a preacher who had left his family to run off with another woman. Ralph’s hostility towards Jim’s Christianity came from the pain of a broken home and a father who had failed.

One day, Jim’s platoon spent the entire day on a forced march with full packs through muddy swamps in sweltering heat. When they returned to the barracks, they were exhausted. The men were cursing and complaining about their day.

Somehow, Jim found enough energy to get out his Bible and read a few verses before dropping off to sleep. But when Ralph spotted him, he became so enraged that he took his muddy combat boots and hurled them at Jim. They smashed into his face and splattered he and his Bible with mud.

You can imagine Ralph’s surprise the next morning when he found his combat boots all cleaned and polished, placed neatly beside his bunk. Jim had stayed up in the darkness cleaning the shoes of his enemy. That simple act of love so impressed Ralph that a few days later, he accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior.

It may be that you have a Ralph in your life today. Someone who gives you nothing but rejection. Or maybe you’re running with a crowd who have never had the opportunity to see someone who is willing to stand alone for what they believe.

God wants to use you to bring great blessing to those people. But he may call you to undergo the kind of rejection that Jesus experienced the week after Palm Sunday. Will you be willing to do it for him?