Why Pomp Now?

Palm Sunday

March 24, 2013

Why Pomp Now?

Luke 20:9-19

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Why did Jesus go through the trouble of Palm Sunday? For years Jesus had kept a low profile. Every time one of His miracles threatened to cause thousands to follow Him, He pulls away and tells the healed to keep quiet. Most of His travels kept Him far from the hustle and bustle of big city Jerusalem. He preferred the desolate places and the little villages.

So why does He change-up now? Why the pomp now? Why the pageantry and the crowds now?

Because He wanted this parade into Jerusalem to highlight His coming disgrace. It would only serve to cause folks to shake their heads in contempt and pity, that this rabbi from Nazareth who had entered Jerusalem to great acclaim, left a few days later under a cross. What a fall from grace that would only attenuate the ridicule as He stood in front of the priests and Pilate and as He walked past the same crowd with a cross and as He hung from it. In short, it was royal parade leading, not to a crown of jewels, but to a crown of thorns.

And why the disgrace? Why the humiliation? So that He would stand alone, and walk alone, and hang alone. Separated from all mankind and from God Himself, God died.

Just as Jesus was anointed before He died and not after, so too He enjoyed His victory parade before His place of ultimate victory on the cross. And this is our God always doing the unexpected and always doing it for us.

And so we join the hosannas and with the palms to our victorious King who died alone and saved us all by Himself.

In the name of the Father 

and of the + Son and

of the Holy Spirit. Amen.