Staying the
Course
Luke 19: 28-40
April 1,
2007
After he had
said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany,
at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples,
saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as
you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden.
Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’
just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” So those who were sent
departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt,
its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They said, “The
Lord needs it.” Then they brought it to Jesus;
and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set
Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept
spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path
down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began
to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for
all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying,
“Blessed is the king who comes in the
name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”
Some of
the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to
stop.” He answered, “I
tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”
Today begins Holy week! It is a very special week for Christian all over
the world. Today, Churches everywhere are celebrating Palm Sunday.
Christian Churches are celebrating as one the triumphant entry into
Jerusalem by Jesus and his followers. It is
an exciting and dynamic time for the Christian world and for the secular
world. We are claiming and reclaiming a time of history that was altered
by God’s grace and love for all of
God’s children. We are celebrating a day
where God set the course through His beloved
Son Jesus and stayed the course for His
created children.
The passage read to us from Luke this morning also
points out how excited the people were to see this man that they had heard
so much about. It points out that he had touched some in the crowd through
his teaching and preaching and maybe even through his healing of them or
of someone they knew. The good news that Jesus
had been sharing with his contemporary society had preceded him into the
Holy City and the people wanted to see this man who had such a powerful
message.
They lined the streets to see him. They climbed up into
the trees so that they could see him. They could hardly contain their
excitement and their expectations as they waited for him outside of the
city. I imagine that someone in the crowd had volunteered to go down the
road from the city and keep watch for Jesus
so that he could let the people know when he first spotted
Jesus.
The excitement was building by the second. The people
were straining to see him. They were eager to meet this man called
Jesus. They had heard through the grapevine
that he was coming to Jerusalem and they wanted to be the first to greet
him. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the lookout spotted
Jesus and the crowd erupted with great joy
and excitement. They were shouting his name as loud as they could shout.
They were running ahead of him and laying down palm branches before him to
soften his ride into the Holy City. They were even calling him King.
On the sidelines stood some people who were not excited
about Jesus coming to Jerusalem. Some of the
Pharisees who did not understand Jesus, his
message and ministry, asked him to keep the people quiet. They did not
want the excited crowd to call more attention to this man because they had
already determined in their hearts and souls that he was a troublemaker.
They had already decided that he was going to cause them more grief than
joy. They were frowning when the first person saw Jesus
because they did not want him in their territory.
On that first Palm Sunday, the line was drawn in the
sand. There were those who could hardly contain their excitement about the
coming of the King of kings. There were others who saw him as a great
problem and they knew if he showed up that they would have to try and rid
their world of him.
In the midst of this human drama rode
Jesus of Nazareth on a young donkey’s back.
He had set his eyes toward the Holy City and he was staying the course
even though he knew in his heart and soul that there were those standing
before him who opposed him.
In May of 1994, I preached the concluding sermon at my
home church in Rocky Mount. It was a day of many emotions for all of us
who grew up in that church and for the folks who had been faithful to the
mission and ministry of Clark Street Church. It was a day of celebration
and a day of sadness. I saw friends that I had not seen in many years. I
saw former Sunday school teachers and youth leaders that influenced my
life in many positive ways. The saddest words that were shared with me
that day came from my junior high and high school Sunday school teacher.
He was an important part in our lives. He helped many of us deal with the
challenges of growing up. He was always there for us. Our group graduated
from high school and went off to work, to school or into the military.
Unfortunately, our teacher disappeared from that church. He was no longer
active. Somewhere along the way, he lost his focus and did not stay the
course.
Jesus on that first Palm
Sunday showed all of His followers then and all of His followers today how
to remain focused and how to stay the course. It could have been easy to
avoid the conflict with those who were not crazy about him. He could have
turned around and gone back out into the countryside where the people
anxiously sought him out everyday. Remember, he had to get into the
fishing boats around the Galilean lake in order to keep the crowds from
pushing him into the water. They were touched by his words and his actions
and they wanted to be near him so that they could be touched by His love
and grace.
Jesus did not pick that
pathway. He knew he had to set the course for Jerusalem. He stayed on that
course knowing that there would be those who would do their best to knock
him off of his course. This morning, each person in this place of worship
is being invited to discover or to rediscover his or her course in life.
Through the actions of Jesus, we are being
invited to set our hearts and souls upon the Son of
God and to stay the course.
Ted Engstrom gives a succinct definition of integrity:
Simply put, integrity is doing what you said you would do. It means you
keep your promises. When you promised to be faithful to your mate,
integrity says you'll stay with that person no matter what -- for better
or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health. If you
promised the Lord that you would give Him the glory, integrity means you
keep on doing that whether you're reduced to nothing or exalted to the
highest pinnacle on earth. If you promised a friend that you would return
a call, integrity means you return it. If you promised your child that you
would spend Saturday together, integrity means you keep that appointment.
A promise is a holy thing, whether made to a chairman of the board or to a
child.
As Jesus entered
Jerusalem, He showed all that were watching him what it meant to keep
one’s word. His entry shows all of us today what it means to be faithful
to our creator God, to our family, to our
friends and to the mission and ministry that God
has called us to live out in this world.
Jesus knew that there were
people who were standing behind the crowd who were plotting to rid their
world of him. He knew that there were those who were standing in the crowd
grumbling to each other about him. Yet, he did not let any of those
negative turn him around. He did not allow those negative words spoken to
him make him doubt his mission and ministry. Through that negativity, he
moved forward to glorify God.
Theodore Roosevelt said: “It is better to be
faithful than famous.” What a great statement. One can show his or her
faithfulness to God by staying the course
that God has called that person to live out
in His mission and ministry. One stays the course by staying focused upon
God just as Jesus was focused upon
God as he entered Jerusalem on that first
Palm Sunday. Being faithful means that one will discover that quiet place
in his or her life and listen for the voice of God
to speak to him or her. We can learn how to discover that “prayer closet”
from Jesus. When life got to be too hectic,
Jesus pulled away from life and sat down in a
quiet place and truly listened so that he could hear the small still voice
of God. In our busy schedules, we need to
find that private place where we can and will have private time with
God. We learn to fine-tune our hearing so
that we may hear the quiet yet powerful voice of God
speaking to us and giving us direction in our lives.
Jesus approached Jerusalem
and he saw the crowd waiting anxiously for him. He saw others with a frown
on their face. He set his eyes upon God and
he moved forward. He stayed the course that day. That Palm Sunday started
a week that world has never forgotten. Why has the world not forgotten
that week? The Son of God moved forward to
offer to every individual the opportunity to know and receive the awesome
love of God into one’s life.
In the book of Ruth, her mother in law is trying to get
Ruth to leave her and go back to her own people. Ruth had taken a vow when
she married her husband to be a part of his family. Listen to her
response to her mother-in-law. Ruth 1:16-17 “Do not press me to leave you
or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you
lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your
God my God.
Where you die, I will die, there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus
and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!”
As a boy, one of my favorite programs on
television was Wagon Train. I can’t tell you what happened every week in
the program. I can tell you what does stay with me from that program. It
was the wagon master mounting his horse, looking back at all the folks who
were leaving the eastern part of this nation and heading out west and then
he said “Wagons Ho!” Then his arm swept forward and they began to move
forward with the goal of staying the course. Jesus stayed the course for
the mission and ministry that he was sent into this world to accomplish.
We are called to go and do likewise! We have been called by
God to be God’s
ministers in God world. May we commit for the
first time today or recommit our live to staying the course for the
mission and ministry of Jesus
Christ.
In the name of the Father, Son
and Holy Spirit.
Amen
