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Looking Closer at Palm Sunday
A while back over at The Gospel Coalition, Kevin DeYoung did a short, but good post called "Preaching Carefully on Palm Sunday" about the Palm Sunday crowds and a common mistake preachers (and others) often make. Since it's short, I'm going to put the whole thing here:
"Just to be clear: the crowd on Palm Sunday welcoming Jesus with shouts of “Hosanna!” is by and large not the same crowd on Good Friday that demands his death with shouts of “Crucify!”
This is a popular point preachers like to make, and I’ve probably made it myself: “Look at the fickle crowd. They sing songs to him on Sunday and five days later on Friday they want to kill him. How quickly we all turn away.” But read all four gospel accounts carefully (and check some good commentaries). The excited throng on Palm Sunday was filled with Galilean pilgrims and the larger group of disciples, not the Jerusalem crowd in general (see Luke 19:37; Mark 15:40-41).
R.T. France summarizes:
There is no warrant here for the preacher’s favourite comment on the fickleness of a crowd which could shout ‘Hosanna’ one day and ‘Crucify him’ a few days later. They are not the same crowd. The Galilean pilgrims shouted ‘Hosanna’ as they approached the city, the Jerusalem crowd shouted, ‘Crucify him.’
Have a blessed Holy Week that sticks closely to all sorts of glorious texts." [1]
So why do people often teach this? I put myself in this category too, because I've taught this as well. I think we WANT it to mean this because, quite frankly, it preaches well. Gives people a good jolt to see how quickly those people deserted Jesus. "Don't you desert Jesus like they did! Be careful!" or something like that. Unfortunately, as Kevin wrote, it's just not there.
So what is the takeaway here? I think we can take something a little closer to our own hearts from this passage. I have a question: If it's not the same people yelling "crucify Him!", then where are the people that were shouting "Hosanna" just days ago? They're gone. They're gone because they didn't really follow Jesus - they just got caught up in the excitement of a miracle man that might deliver them politically.
Is that what Jesus is to you? Why are you here? To see miracles? To escape hell? To be with your friends? To make a "Christian nation"? It can be a lot of things that draw us to church. The deceptions of our hearts are endless. The reason for the church is JESUS. We are His body. We gather to exalt Him above all and to make His name known to the nations, no matter the cost. And that's the hard part, "no matter the cost". Where will you be when things get hard? If you're here for entertainment or a social club or "to have a voice" or because you just don't want to go to the hot place, you're going to find it very hard to say "Hosanna!" when things get hard. Jesus alone can and will sustain you. He is powerful and He is Savior. Come quickly Lord Jesus!
Looking Closer at Palm Sunday
A while back over at The Gospel Coalition, Kevin DeYoung did a short, but good post called "Preaching Carefully on Palm Sunday" about the Palm Sunday crowds and a common mistake preachers (and others) often make. Since it's short, I'm going to put the whole thing here:
"Just to be clear: the crowd on Palm Sunday welcoming Jesus with shouts of “Hosanna!” is by and large not the same crowd on Good Friday that demands his death with shouts of “Crucify!”
This is a popular point preachers like to make, and I’ve probably made it myself: “Look at the fickle crowd. They sing songs to him on Sunday and five days later on Friday they want to kill him. How quickly we all turn away.” But read all four gospel accounts carefully (and check some good commentaries). The excited throng on Palm Sunday was filled with Galilean pilgrims and the larger group of disciples, not the Jerusalem crowd in general (see Luke 19:37; Mark 15:40-41).
R.T. France summarizes:
There is no warrant here for the preacher’s favourite comment on the fickleness of a crowd which could shout ‘Hosanna’ one day and ‘Crucify him’ a few days later. They are not the same crowd. The Galilean pilgrims shouted ‘Hosanna’ as they approached the city, the Jerusalem crowd shouted, ‘Crucify him.’
Have a blessed Holy Week that sticks closely to all sorts of glorious texts." [1]
So why do people often teach this? I put myself in this category too, because I've taught this as well. I think we WANT it to mean this because, quite frankly, it preaches well. Gives people a good jolt to see how quickly those people deserted Jesus. "Don't you desert Jesus like they did! Be careful!" or something like that. Unfortunately, as Kevin wrote, it's just not there.
So what is the takeaway here? I think we can take something a little closer to our own hearts from this passage. I have a question: If it's not the same people yelling "crucify Him!", then where are the people that were shouting "Hosanna" just days ago? They're gone. They're gone because they didn't really follow Jesus - they just got caught up in the excitement of a miracle man that might deliver them politically.
Is that what Jesus is to you? Why are you here? To see miracles? To escape hell? To be with your friends? To make a "Christian nation"? It can be a lot of things that draw us to church. The deceptions of our hearts are endless. The reason for the church is JESUS. We are His body. We gather to exalt Him above all and to make His name known to the nations, no matter the cost. And that's the hard part, "no matter the cost". Where will you be when things get hard? If you're here for entertainment or a social club or "to have a voice" or because you just don't want to go to the hot place, you're going to find it very hard to say "Hosanna!" when things get hard. Jesus alone can and will sustain you. He is powerful and He is Savior. Come quickly Lord Jesus!
[1] http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2011/04/16/preaching-carefully-on-palm-sunday/. Accessed 6-8-12.
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