Is He The Messiah?
Sermon
I started experiencing difficulties with the concept of truth in my childhood. At first truth had seemed to be absolute, but as I grew older it began to appear to be more fluid. It became obvious that truth could be presented in so many different ways that sometimes it didn't appear to be the truth at all.
My difficulties were further compounded when I was introduced to quadratic equations at school. Having previously thought that two and two always make four and that sums were either right or wrong, I suddenly discovered that with quadratic equations (which I remember only dimly) there were at least two correct answers and those answers were entirely different.
I accepted that this was so because that was what I was taught, and I learned how to work out quadratic equations and now and then to come up with the right answers. But to this day I have never understood how a mathematical sum can have two answers which are both correct. It's a paradox. And since then I've discovered that life is full of paradoxes, and that this is especially so with Christianity.
Perhaps that first Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, is something of a paradox. On other occasions, Jesus was at pains to point out that he was a servant. Later that same week on the first Maundy Thursday, he washed his disciples' feet just as a slave might do, and he told his disciples they should act in a similar way towards each other.
He was the friend of the poor and the outcast; those who were spurned by society because they offended against the unwritten rules of society. He touched the untouchables such as lepers and prostitutes, and he befriended those tax collectors who were regarded as enemies of the state.
He was a humble man who never made any attempt to rise above his station in society, yet paradoxically on the first Palm Sunday he chose to enter Jerusalem as a king.
It wasn't as though the initiative came either from his disciples, or from the crowd. Jesus himself sent his disciples to fetch the unbroken colt, and from the elaborate procedures the disciples had to follow it seems fairly clear that Jesus had made prior preparations to make sure the donkey was available when he wanted it.
Presumably Jesus followed this course of action in order to fulfil the prophecy from the OT book of Zechariah 9:9, "Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass."
So in his actions on that first Palm Sunday, Jesus was making a very important and deliberate statement indeed. Throughout his entire ministry he never verbally claimed to be the Messiah or the Son of God. The only title he used of himself was the ambiguous, "Son of Man," which may well have simply meant human being. Yet here he goes out of his way to make it very clear that he regarded himself as the Messiah sent by God.
Again paradoxically, although the crowds respond by laying their cloaks on the ground as they would for any very important person, and by waving the nationalistic symbol of palm branches as they would to welcome a military leader, they stop short of actually claiming Jesus as the promised Messiah.
He's greeted instead as the prophet of the coming Messianic kingdom, the kingdom of God. "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!" they cry.
But by the time Matthew's gospel was written, some ten or twenty years later, the cry of the crowds has subtly changed. According to Matthew, the crowds shout, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" And "Son of David" was universally accepted as a title for the expected Messiah.
So according to Matthew, Jesus was recognised and accepted at this entry into Jerusalem as the coming Messiah, but according to Mark, although Jesus made such a clear statement of his own position, the crowds weren't yet quite ready to accept him as the Messiah.
So where was the truth of the matter? Was he proclaimed Messiah as he entered Jerusalem and was this the reason that the authorities sought to execute him? Or was he regarded as a great prophet and teacher and healer, but not necessarily as the Messiah?
Perhaps both were true. Perhaps the crowd was ambiguous about the status of Jesus, with some able to go the whole hog and declare him the promised Messiah, and others able at that time to go a certain way but perhaps not the whole hog. But maybe by the time Matthew was writing his gospel all those years later, the position had changed and everyone had recognised Jesus as the promised Messiah.
Today, perhaps life is even more ambiguous for many people. Society sees fewer things in terms of black and white these days and more in terms of grey, so that it isn't easy to know exactly what to believe.
Some people may be at the stage of being able to accept Jesus as a great prophet and teacher and healer, and not necessarily as anything more than that. Others are able to go the whole hog and accept him wholeheartedly as their saviour.
However they believed in him, or even if they didn't believe in him, Jesus still accepted the people. He received their shouts and acclamations, their praise and thanksgiving, he forgave them their sins, he healed them and taught them and loved them.
He didn't differentiate between those who were able to fully accept him, and those who were able to partially accept him. All were welcome, all were accepted, all were loved.
And Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. He still accepts all who come near him and even those who don't come near him. He pours his love and his healing and his forgiveness into every human being, knowing that not everyone can respond in exactly the same way.
So however you regard Jesus, come to him, for he has so much to offer. And like Matthew's crowds on that first Palm Sunday, maybe you too will eventually discover that he is the Messiah.
My difficulties were further compounded when I was introduced to quadratic equations at school. Having previously thought that two and two always make four and that sums were either right or wrong, I suddenly discovered that with quadratic equations (which I remember only dimly) there were at least two correct answers and those answers were entirely different.
I accepted that this was so because that was what I was taught, and I learned how to work out quadratic equations and now and then to come up with the right answers. But to this day I have never understood how a mathematical sum can have two answers which are both correct. It's a paradox. And since then I've discovered that life is full of paradoxes, and that this is especially so with Christianity.
Perhaps that first Palm Sunday when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, is something of a paradox. On other occasions, Jesus was at pains to point out that he was a servant. Later that same week on the first Maundy Thursday, he washed his disciples' feet just as a slave might do, and he told his disciples they should act in a similar way towards each other.
He was the friend of the poor and the outcast; those who were spurned by society because they offended against the unwritten rules of society. He touched the untouchables such as lepers and prostitutes, and he befriended those tax collectors who were regarded as enemies of the state.
He was a humble man who never made any attempt to rise above his station in society, yet paradoxically on the first Palm Sunday he chose to enter Jerusalem as a king.
It wasn't as though the initiative came either from his disciples, or from the crowd. Jesus himself sent his disciples to fetch the unbroken colt, and from the elaborate procedures the disciples had to follow it seems fairly clear that Jesus had made prior preparations to make sure the donkey was available when he wanted it.
Presumably Jesus followed this course of action in order to fulfil the prophecy from the OT book of Zechariah 9:9, "Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass."
So in his actions on that first Palm Sunday, Jesus was making a very important and deliberate statement indeed. Throughout his entire ministry he never verbally claimed to be the Messiah or the Son of God. The only title he used of himself was the ambiguous, "Son of Man," which may well have simply meant human being. Yet here he goes out of his way to make it very clear that he regarded himself as the Messiah sent by God.
Again paradoxically, although the crowds respond by laying their cloaks on the ground as they would for any very important person, and by waving the nationalistic symbol of palm branches as they would to welcome a military leader, they stop short of actually claiming Jesus as the promised Messiah.
He's greeted instead as the prophet of the coming Messianic kingdom, the kingdom of God. "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!" they cry.
But by the time Matthew's gospel was written, some ten or twenty years later, the cry of the crowds has subtly changed. According to Matthew, the crowds shout, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" And "Son of David" was universally accepted as a title for the expected Messiah.
So according to Matthew, Jesus was recognised and accepted at this entry into Jerusalem as the coming Messiah, but according to Mark, although Jesus made such a clear statement of his own position, the crowds weren't yet quite ready to accept him as the Messiah.
So where was the truth of the matter? Was he proclaimed Messiah as he entered Jerusalem and was this the reason that the authorities sought to execute him? Or was he regarded as a great prophet and teacher and healer, but not necessarily as the Messiah?
Perhaps both were true. Perhaps the crowd was ambiguous about the status of Jesus, with some able to go the whole hog and declare him the promised Messiah, and others able at that time to go a certain way but perhaps not the whole hog. But maybe by the time Matthew was writing his gospel all those years later, the position had changed and everyone had recognised Jesus as the promised Messiah.
Today, perhaps life is even more ambiguous for many people. Society sees fewer things in terms of black and white these days and more in terms of grey, so that it isn't easy to know exactly what to believe.
Some people may be at the stage of being able to accept Jesus as a great prophet and teacher and healer, and not necessarily as anything more than that. Others are able to go the whole hog and accept him wholeheartedly as their saviour.
However they believed in him, or even if they didn't believe in him, Jesus still accepted the people. He received their shouts and acclamations, their praise and thanksgiving, he forgave them their sins, he healed them and taught them and loved them.
He didn't differentiate between those who were able to fully accept him, and those who were able to partially accept him. All were welcome, all were accepted, all were loved.
And Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. He still accepts all who come near him and even those who don't come near him. He pours his love and his healing and his forgiveness into every human being, knowing that not everyone can respond in exactly the same way.
So however you regard Jesus, come to him, for he has so much to offer. And like Matthew's crowds on that first Palm Sunday, maybe you too will eventually discover that he is the Messiah.
