Lessons Remembered

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

March 20, 2016

Palm Sunday

Lessons Remembered

John 12:12-19

The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival

heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.

So they took branches of palm trees and

went out to meet him, shouting,“Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord—

the King of Israel!”

Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it;

as it is written:

“Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion.
Look, your king is coming,

sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

His disciples did not understand these things at first;

but when Jesus was glorified,

then they remembered

that these things had been written of him

and had been done to him.

So the crowd that had been with him

when he called Lazarus out of the tomb

and raised him from the dead

continued to testify.

It was also because they heard that

he had performed this sign

that the crowd went to meet him.

The Pharisees then said to one another,

“You see, you can do nothing.

Look, the world has gone after him!”

**********************************************

Jerusalem was buzzing, bustling, teeming.

Visitors approaching the city from the west

on the Emmaus road

could see a cloud of dust hanging over the city,

dust kicked up by the thousands of pilgrims

who were already there,

pilgrims from east and west,

and from north and south.

The city of Jerusalem was always

awash with people during the Passover.

People came to celebrate the Festival;

and people came simply to enjoy time

in the swarming sultry city;

they came to take a break

from their everyday routines.

Jerusalem was the crossroads of the world,

a rich mixture of Israelite, Roman,

and Greek cultures,

spiced by visitors from the far east,

from Africa,

from the farthest corners of the world.

It was a city that never seemed to stop humming.

The city was always at its busiest

during Passover,

as pilgrims thronged to observe

one of the most holy rituals

the children of God followed.

The people of God would gather in groups

small and large

over a meal of lamb, bitter herbs,

and unleavened bread.

They would gather to remember,

remember the stories told them,

remember the stories read to them from scripture.

They would remember what had happened

more than a twelve hundred years before,

back in Moses’ time,

centuries before even King David ruled the land.

They would gather,

called by words from scripture:

“Remember this day on which

you came out of Egypt,

out of the house of slavery,

by strength of hand;”

(Exodus 13:3)

“Remember this day.”

the Lord commanded,

and so the people gathered to remember.

They would remember how

their ancestors lived in slavery in Egypt,

until God called a man named Moses,

a man raised in an Egyptian household,

and sent him to confront Pharaoh,

the king of Egypt,

and demand that Pharaoh

set the people of Israel free,

demand that Pharaoh unlock

their chains of bondage.

They would remember the number of times

Moses demanded his people’s freedom,

and how each demand was met with

Pharaoh’s hard-hearted refusal.

                                   

They would remember how God was with Moses

every time Moses confronted Pharaoh;

How God graced Moses with the words

Moses spoke to Pharaoh;

How God graced Moses with courage

to stand up to Pharaoh.

And then they would remember, how,

on that fateful night so many centuries before,

God passed through the land of Egypt

and struck down the firstborn in every household,

including the firstborn in Pharaoh’s own house.

They would remember how death visited

every Egyptian house that night.

And they would also remember

how death passed over the house

of every Israelite,

every house marked by lamb’s blood

around the doorposts.

They would remember how Pharaoh then

freed their ancestors,

freed them from slavery,

unlocked their chains of bondage,

and let them go from the land of Egypt,

let them go to be led by God to a new land,

and to new life as the people of God.

And so, more then twelve hundred years later,

the children of God gathered in Jerusalem

in response to God’s call to them,

“This day shall be a day of remembrance for you.

You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord;

throughout your generations

you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.”

And as the people of God remembered,

they would sing out their joy,

sing out as King David once did

a thousand years before,

“O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples.

Sing to him, sing praises to him,

tell of all his wonderful works.

Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.

Seek the Lord and his strength,
seek his presence continually.

Remember the wonderful works he has done, 

his miracles, and the judgments he uttered,.”

                 

Remember the wonderful works he has done…

Remember….

remember.

(1 Chronicles 16:8)

The people who had come to Jerusalem,

who walked the dusty, hazy streets

in the hot sunshine

were called by God to remember.

All the people were called to remember,

including the people who heard the commotion

on the road east of the city,

who went out to join the throngs lining the road –

they too were called to remember.

Those who lined that road

that led to the eastern gates of the city

watched a man ride by

on the back of a donkey so small

the man’s feet dragged in the dust.

As they watched him,

they got caught up in the crowd’s spirit,

and began to shout,

began to wave palm branches.

But what were they remembering?

Were they remembering God’s word to them

spoken centuries before

through the prophet Zechariah:

“Lo, your king comes to you

humble and riding on a donkey;…

…he shall command peace to the nations.”

(Zechariah 9:9)

As they shouted out their “Hosannas”,

and looked upon the man on the donkey,

did they remember God’s word spoken

through the prophet Isaiah,

that the one whom God would send to them,

would have “no form or majesty

that we should look at him,

nothing in his appearance

that we should desire him.”

(Isaiah 53:2)

What did the people remember that day

as they waved their palm branches,

as they watched Jesus and his followers go by?

Did they remember his lessons?

Did they remember his teachings?

Just days later,

those same people did not seem

to remember their excitement

from that first Palm Sunday

as they growled and snarled,

“Away with him! Away with him!

Crucify him!”

(John 19:15)

Remembering takes work.

It takes work to remember our Lord’s lessons to us:

that it is the peacemakers who will be blessed;

that we are called to be repairers of the breach;

that it is by our love that we are known

as Christ’s disciples.

It takes work to remember

that we are called to be merciful;

that we are called to forgive;

that we are called to love our neighbors;

that we are to turn the other cheek;

that we are to hunger and thirst

not for rightness,

but for righteousness;

and that we are to leave

vengeance and retaliation to God.

We will not remember our Lord’s lessons

any better than the disciples did

on that first Palm Sunday

if we don’t work at it,

if we don’t work at remembering.

And we have help,

help promised us by our Teacher,

who said to us,

“The Advocate, the Holy Spirit,

…will teach you everything,

and remind you of all that I have said to you.”

(John 14:26)

God’s Holy Spirit will help us remember.

Help us to remember why

we shout out our Hosannas

and wave our palm branches;

Why we walk with Christ to the Cross,

even though the emotional pain for us

is almost more than we can bear;

and, of course,

why we shout out so joyfully on Easter Sunday,

“Alleluia, he is risen!”

Remember.

Remember as you walk through this Holy Week,

remember that it is love that triumphs;

remember that the things of this world

will turn to dust;

and remember that death is not the end;

remember that the end is life,

life in the One to whom we shout out our Hosannas,

our Lord Jesus Christ.

AMEN