The World Has Gone After Him!
This Sunday, as you may know, is Palm Sunday. It’s the Sunday that Christians all over the world celebrate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem – where the crowds went to meet him, and lay branches from palm trees at his entry – to welcome him as a king would be welcomed to town. It is quite the scene. But because of our current sermon series, I won’t talk about Palm Sunday this week. So, I’ll take this time to share some thoughts about it now.
The fascinating thing about Palm Sunday, in my mind, is the Pharisees response to the crowds. They see the huge crowds that surround Jesus, the devotion and praise of the people, the celebration and the shouting, and defeated,
The Pharisees then said to one another,
“You see, you can do nothing.
Look, the world has gone after him!”
(John 12:19)
They tried to stop Jesus – but they had lost. The world – the crowds – have gone after him, followed him, given their devotion and celebration to him. They tried, but they could do nothing to stop it.
Why?
John tells us why: it’s because the crowds had heard – and seen – that Jesus raised a very dead man to life (Lazarus).
If someone could raise the dead, wouldn’t you want to see for yourself too?
I know I would.
If I saw the dead raised to new life, if I saw the sick made well, if I saw the oppressed made free, if I saw the broken restored, if I saw the hopeless transformed – I’d want to know who was responsible as well. I’d want to know who was behind it. I’d want to know and see for myself this Jesus who I’ve heard so much about.
That’s what Palm Sunday is all about, and when you think about it,
that’s what the church is all about as well.
The church is (supposed to be) an entire community of people raised to new life, healed, freed, restored, transformed – just like Lazarus was.
Living, breathing, walking, talking proof of Jesus’ transformative power.
That’s us.
At least it’s supposed to be.
And just like in the case of Lazarus – when the world out there sees the newly living, healed, free, restored, and transformed community – there will be absolutely nothing anyone can do to stop them from going after Jesus as well.
And that’s what our life together as a church is all about: living (and displaying) Christ’s dead-raising power in us, where the world will see us and go after Jesus with us.
The question Palm Sunday presses in on us is simple then: