Matthew 21: 9-11

The crowds that went ahead of Jesus and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?”

The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

A Momentary Aberration

It’s Palm Sunday, and the joyous parade of palms has led us directly to a crossroads — for Jesus, for the church, and for our lives.

We can’t avoid it. It’s too late to find a detour. There is no alternate route. Our GPS systems are useless until we choose our destination. We have to make a choice between the Way of the Palms — the road of endless celebration — and the Way of the Cross — the path of suffering, pain, and death: “the passion of Christ.”

There’s no doubt which one is the sensible choice. No one in his right mind would choose the Way of the Cross…

We know the choice Jesus made, but that doesn’t close off any options for us. Even in the church, after 2,000 years, our tradition lets us choose to celebrate this day as “Palm Sunday,” or to observe the more solemn “Passion Sunday.” Our worship books offer liturgies for both. There isn’t even a suggested rotation — Palms one year, Passion the next. We’re left to our own devices.

I haven’t conducted a survey, but I think it’s a safe guess that at least four out of five worship leaders choose the Palms. And why not? Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem led soon enough to his betrayal, and to Calvary. The passion will play out in our worship on Thursday night and Friday, so why not seize the moment and savor the joy of the Palm Sunday parade?

I don’t mean to be critical of anyone who makes this choice. I’m one of them! But I do want to reflect on the choices we make in life. If Jesus is our number one role model, the decisions we make about education, careers, family lives and everything we do ought to reflect the values we learn from his life. Yet we cling to the Way of the Palms even as Jesus walks directly to the Cross.

As much as we’d like to follow him, at our core we’re humans first, and Christians second. But fortunately for us — and I do mean fortunately — we’re children of a merciful God, the God of grace, who never says, “Sorry, that was your last chance.”

When the door slams and reality hits us in the face, it doesn’t mean God has judged us harshly. The truth is: humanity — the world — is a lot less forgiving than God. More often than not, it’s our peers who are relentless in demanding that we live with the consequences of our mistakes.

We probably encounter more “Palm or Passion Sundays” than we’d like  — days when we have to make difficult choices: decisions that could affect the rest of our lives. This time of year, I think about high school seniors selecting colleges, and university students choosing grad schools or launching careers.

But the tough choices aren’t all left to the young. Did you know that the average American can expect to hold 9 to 13 jobs in a working lifetime? Today, many of my contemporaries are facing critical decisions they never counted on: pension buy-outs, early-retirement incentives and pressures that can change a lifetime plan overnight.

Every decision has its consequence, but the options aren’t always as clear-cut as passion or palms. The distinctions can be extremely subtle… and sooner or later, our choices depend upon trust.

We have to place our trust in something or someone; and for a Christian, even the most fundamental, dollars-and-cents decisions become a matter of discerning God’s will. There’s no one we can trust more completely than God. When all else fails, what do we have to rely on but faith?

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That’s the point I had in mind when I started thinking about this sermon. But as I spent more time reflecting on the Scripture — the Palm Sunday story we heard right after the first hymn — I started feeling a need to go deeper.

I had been seeing Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem as if it were a Broadway show… and I was watching from somewhere way up in the second balcony. But even if “all the world is a stage,” that’s probably not a helpful way to read Scripture.

To appreciate what God has done for us in the person of Jesus Christ, we have to climb onto the stage and join the players. We have to be part of the story, living each and every moment right along with Jesus.

That’s not something that comes naturally. We have to work at it; but it’s worth the effort… because only when we’re there as one of Jesus’ disciples —borrowing a colt and helping him on his journey — only when we’re there can we see where the procession is going.

Jesus isn’t about to make a 90-degree turn toward suffering and death. The Way of the Palms is the Way of the Cross… It always has been. It was the only path Jesus could have chosen.

The joyful exuberance of the crowds — the fact that, in Matthew’s words, “the whole city was in turmoil” — was but a momentary aberration (a “distraction,” if you will) from Jesus’s central purpose.

If he’d become the kind of king the palm-wavers hoped he’d be, the reign of Christ would have been short-lived — a minor footnote in the annals of human history. But following his path to the end — through betrayal, through the cross and the tomb, to the resurrection — following God’s path assured his eternal reign over the powers of sin and death.

In the end, what we want to remember about Palm Sunday is not a choice that Jesus made, but the mission he was sent to fulfill. The festive procession lasts but a moment, yet the journey leads on forever.

After living in Pasadena for nearly twenty years, Terry and I learned that the best vantage point for the Rose Parade on New Year’s morning wasn’t in the bleachers or on the sidewalk; it was right in front of our TV. Being there doesn’t make a bit of difference, unless you’re part of the parade.

So I invite you to journey with us this week on the Way of the Palms… the Way of the Cross… the Way of our Lord. As we take each step from day to day, let’s remember that the journey doesn’t end with the cross, or even with the resurrection. For us, it’s an ongoing journey toward active, vital engagement with the world as ambassadors — apostles — of the living Christ.

The parade of Palm Sunday, the poignant moments of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, and the amazing joy of Easter all prepare us for the road ahead. From this holy week and from this place, we are sent out into Columbus and all of God’s creation to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to change the world!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

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