Presented to Swift Current Corps
of The Salvation Army, 29 March 2015, Palm Sunday by Captain Michael Ramsay
Today is
Palm Sunday. We have already sung and had explained 'Palm Sunday Donkey
Riding': the song Sarah-Grace wrote when she was only 9 years old.[1]
This song
brings in the key elements of Palm Sunday that I am hoping to tie in with our
weekly Boundless readings in the message today.[2]
Tomorrow,
of course, we have our weekly Monday Night Meals and next week on Easter Sunday
we have a pancake breakfast that the men will cook and in your bulletins you
will notice a special multi-cultural meal that some of the ladies are hosting
on April 26th. Meals are important. Today, in our Scriptures, Jesus
is at a meal and he is telling this story about how the Kingdom of God itself
is like a meal.
Now this
story is quite something and it is meant to be quite something. Jesus has been
invited to a special meal and he has already openly condemned his fellow guests
for taking all the good seats at the supper (Luke 14:7-11). One of the guests
then calls out, Verse 15, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the Kingdom
of God” and then Jesus tells that person this story contained in Luke 14.
In the
story there are many people who are invited to this banquet, which represents
the Kingdom of God (v. 16). First the host sends out all these invitations and
then on the actual day he even sends out one of his employees, his slave to
collect everyone (v. 17).[3]
It is at this last moment that - as the banquet is presumably already prepared
based on the number of people who were invited and/or previously indicated that
they would come - all of a sudden, all of these many people who have all been
invited begin making excuses about why they can’t make it… and some of these
excuses are laughable.
One person
says, ‘I can’t come to the dinner anymore because… I just bought some land and
must go and see it’. Who buys land sight unseen – especially then and there -
and then decides all of a sudden that they have to see it on just that exact
same day as the big banquet to which everyone has been invited?
Another
person says, ‘I can’t come to the dinner anymore because… I just bought some
oxen and must try them out.’ Really! You bought these oxen sight unseen and the
only time you can try them out is the exact time when the feast that you’ve
already known about and presumably previously acknowledged is occurring?
These are
the first century equivalent of a girl being asked out on a date, saying ‘yes’
and then when the boy comes to pick her up she says. ‘I’m sorry I can’t come
out tonight… I’m washing my hair’.
The third
excuse offered in this story is not any better either.[4]
They say, ‘Oh yes I’d love to come to the banquet… but I’ve just been married.’
Really? This was a surprise wedding, was it? You didn’t know that this was in
the works when you were first invited? And besides the text here says that the
wedding is over already. The invited guest could just bring his or her spouse -
its not like seating is limited.[5]
Jesus is making the point that lots of people were invited to this banquet,
which is the Kingdom of God, and though they seemingly gave the impression that
they were going to attend, once all the costs were incurred by the host and all
the preparations were made by the host, all the people decided, ‘No, I’m going
to stay home tonight and wash my hair.’
Imagine you
are the host. You have spent all this money and all this time putting together
this big banquet, you invite everyone you know. You expect them to all be
there. You rent a number of cars to go pick them all up and all the chauffeurs
come back empty, with no one in their car. How are you going to feel – all that
time, all that money spent on all these supposed friends who then totally turn
their backs on you with all of their lame excuses?
This is the
way Jesus says God feels about His chosen people. He has gone to all this work
for them and He correctly feels that they have totally rejected Him. ‘Sorry
God, couldn’t make it to heaven, too busy washing our hair.’ ‘I would have like
to join your Kingdom but I have to sort my sock drawer tonight…maybe next
time.’ This is how Jesus says God’s chosen people are responding to His
invitation to Salvation.[6]
So how does
God respond? How does the host respond? How would you respond if you made this
big feast and no one you were expecting to come showed up and no one had a good
reason; no one could be bothered… or worse? The host is angry, it says: no
kidding.
He then
instructs his staff, Verse 21, to go out into the streets and invite everyone
in the streets and more. He says, 'invite the poor, the crippled, the blind,
the lame… .' He does this and the outcasts of society come in from the streets
for a free meal but there is still room.[7]
There is still lots of food and the host, God, doesn’t want His free gift here
to go to waste so He sends His staff member out again and He tells him to go
down the back alleys, find the street people there and compel them, force them
to come to this free fancy feast – which of course is eternal life. Jesus then
tells this person and anyone else listening to this parable about the chosen
people, Jesus says, Verse 24 ‘for I tell you, none of those who were invited
will enjoy my feast.’
About the
Kingdom of God and the chosen people, Jesus says: ‘…I tell you, none of those
who were invited will enjoy my feast.’ How does this apply to us today and how
does this apply to Palm Sunday? Sarah-Grace’s video showed us the importance of
Palm Sunday. Here was Jesus riding into the capital city of an occupied
country, received as a revolutionary leader, a liberator. People have come from
all over the occupied territories to the historic capital of the Kingdom of
Judah and they are flocking en masse to greet Jesus, waving nationalist symbols
and shouting ‘Hosanna! Save us! Save us!’
We remember
that the privileged Jewish leaders: the scribes, the Pharisees, the priests
don’t want this! They are plotting to kill him. Jesus is seen as a threat not
as much by the Romans as by the chosen religious and political leaders of his
own people. It is the leaders of the chosen people who not only reject Jesus’
invitation to eternal life in the Kingdom of God but who are hoping to prevent
the establishment of the Kingdom in the first place by assassinating him or
–better yet- having the Romans execute him for them. Jesus is saying that as
the Jewish leaders reject this invitation to join God’s Kingdom, they will not
experience it. If they reject salvation they will not experience it.
To explain
one parable with another, the Kingdom of God, this feast is like a boat coming
by during a flood. The people in the flood have the choice to either climb
onboard the boat or to die and the chosen people here decide that they would
rather die then get on a boat captained by Jesus Christ. It is the only boat
coming and the only way they can be saved from the overwhelming flood - but
they decide that they would rather die than place their lives in Jesus’ hands.
This is what Jesus, in Luke's account of this parable, is saying.
Well, how
about us? We have all been invited to the feast. The boat has come to pick us
up. It is the only boat coming. The waters are rising and the only way to avoid
destruction, the only way to salvation is to climb aboard that boat piloted by
Jesus.
On Palm
Sunday, people laid their coats at the feet of Jesus’ donkey and they waved their
branches before Jesus, calling out
‘Hosanna’ ‘Save us’, ‘Save us!’
Now all of
humanity is standing on the metaphorical roof of our homes as the flood waters
are rising and the last boat is coming. Let us not let our salvation pass us
by. Jesus promises that indeed as we call on him to 'save us, save us', he
will. Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave so that none of us need
to perish; so today if there are any of us who have not yet called upon the
Name of the Lord, it is my prayer that we will book our seat at the eternal
feast, that we will board the boat of eternal salvation, that we will call on
the Name of the Lord and experience His Salvation both now and forever more.
Let us
pray.
---
[1] Sarah-Grace Ramsay, Luke 19:24-40 Palm Sunday Donkey Riding.
Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 31 March 2012. On-line:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=i0N2OSlOBck
[2] Major Beverly Ivany and Major Phil Layton BOUNDLESS - THE WHOLE
WORLD READING. On-line: http://www.salvationarmy.org/biblechallenge
[3] cf. Leon Morris, Luke:
An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press,
1988 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 3), S. 251
[4] Cf. N.T. Wright, Luke for Everyone (Louisville, Kentucky, USA: WJK,
2004)
[5] Cf. Walter L. Leifeld The Expositor's Bible Commentary,
Pradis CD-ROM:Luke/Exposition of Luke/V. Teaching and Travels Toward Jerusalem
(9:51-19:44)/E. Further Teaching on Urgent Issues (14:1-18:30)/2. Parable of
the great banquet (14:15-24), Book Version: 4.0.2 and Jeremiah Parables of
Jesus p. 177: it is possible that only men were invited but nonetheless the
marriage does not diminish the person’s ability to attend the feast.
[6] But cf. Paul John Issac, ‘Luke 14:15-24’ in Africa Bible Commentary, Editor, Tokunboh Adeyemo,
(WordAlive Publishers: Nairobi, Kenya., 2010), p.1259. “…the future is
determined by our present response and the rich have excluded themselves.”
[7] R. Alan Culpepper, Luke (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon,
1995), 290 quotes Vachel Linday’s ‘General William Booth Enters Heaven’ here:
Walking lepers followed, rank on
rank,
Lurching bravoes from ditches dank,
Vermin-eaten saints with mouldy
breath,
Unwashed legions from the ways of
death.
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