Palm Sunday with Rev. Terence Gray

Good morning. Isaiah forty three two says, when you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. And when you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. Lord church, as we walk through this very deep water, God is with us.

And though it may feel like the water is at our waistline, it will not overwhelm us or overtake us because God is for us. And if God is for us, well, who can be against us? But nothing still really prepares you for the gut punch of the phone call or the text. But even through the pain, we know that God is with us. And our elders are here for you.

Our session is here for you to walk with you through the season. I just want to acknowledge our our session and ask them to stand if you could. These are, shepherds your shepherds here that are helping guide us as we navigate this season. Thank you. Grief is a journey, and we're gonna go on that journey together as a family.

A while ago, our leaders sensed the Lord telling us that the word for this season is anchored. Though we go through this trial, we do so knowing that Ward Church is anchored to the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow. And so we can go through this grief together knowing that we are anchored to the person of Christ and we are held by him. Hebrews six nineteen says, we know this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

If you could, let's go before the Lord together in prayer before we spend some time in the scripture together. Oh, father, we come before you in the mighty name of Jesus acknowledging that you are the anchor for our souls. Though we go through the storm, though the winds and the waves beat against us, we have a steady hope in you. You are our rock and our salvation. You are our hope.

And even though we grieve, god, we don't grieve as those without hope. We grieve with hope. Oh, god, I ask you to lift up this time. God, speak to us through your word. I pray that you would move me out of the way, that I would decrease, and that you would increase and be made much of in the lives of your people, because we need you today.

For it's in the mighty name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that we pray together, amen. It was the 2007, and I was a college student at the University of Memphis. I was a sophomore at the time, 19 years old. And I was driving myself to work. I worked at a paint plant, and on my way to work at that paint plant that day, I stopped to get some gas.

Well, I pumped the gas, and as I tried to get back into my car, I noticed that I had locked my keys inside of the car. And so I'm outside of my Hyundai Sonata panicking, trying to figure out ways to get back into my car, and the owner of the store, a guy by the name of mister Alex, saw me. I knew him, he knew my family, and he walked out side and he says, it looks like you're in a little bit of trouble. I was like, yeah, I'm in trouble. I'm locked out of my car.

And he said, here, take the keys and he had a BMW. Take the keys to my BMW and drive home and get a spare key. And sure enough, he gave me the keys to his BMW, and I'm like, are you sure about that? He's like, yeah. Take take the keys to my car.

I know your father. I know and I know you're gonna do what's right, and so I know you're gonna bring those keys back. And sure enough, I got into that car, and I was so careful. When I backed out, I was extra cautious every step of the way until I made my way to my house and back home with mister Alex's keys. And I handed him back his keys, I thanked him.

And I thought to myself, I ought to lose the keys to my car more often. But sure enough, when we're handling something that belongs to someone else, you know, we hold it more gently, and we hold it more loosely. See, we handle things more gently and hold them more loosely when we know they belong to someone else. When we know that we're just a steward, when we know that we're just entrusted with it for a season, and we know that we have to give that thing back to its original owner, we hold it more gently, and we hold it more loosely. And one day, friends, one day we all have to give everything back to God.

Another way of saying it is one day we all have to return the keys because we're all just borrowing the car for a season, and we will all give an account for how we took care of what was placed in our hands. One day God will ask, how did you manage the resources that are placed in your hand? How did you use the gifts and the talents that I blessed you with? How did you treat my people? How did you care for that wife that I gave you, or that husband that I gave you, or those children that I entrusted you with, or with that job that I blessed you with?

How did you take care of what I placed in your hands? And today on this unusual Palm Sunday, we pause to acknowledge the good work of our beloved friend, pastor Scott McKee, a man who served this church faithfully, and who loved each and every one of you deeply. A man who modeled what it means to take care of what God has placed in your hands, even to the very end. He took care of you, his congregation. He took care of his family.

He mentored countless people outside of this congregation. He took care of what God placed in his hands, and now I believe he's in the presence of his father. And God has said, you can turn in the keys now, Scott, and rest. But as for you and me, as for you and me, God still has work for us to do, to manage our heavenly father's business while we are here on Earth, to make the people, places, and things that we touch better, to be faithful like our our friend pastor Scott. And one day, when we turn in those keys, we want our heavenly father to look at us and say, well done.

As we begin our journey into holy week and come to our text, we see a conflict brewing between Jesus, the ultimate authority and king, and the religious establishment of his day. When Jesus enters into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, some people are shouting, Hosanna, Hosanna, which means God, save us. Save us now. Please deliver us. There are people who are convinced that they are in the presence of the Messiah, and they are waving their palm branches, and they're throwing their their palms at his feet, because they know they are in the presence of the one that they've been praying for.

Then they're in the presence of the Messiah that they've been hoping for for so long. But then there are others who are present who are who are not so excited. As a matter of fact, they see Jesus' entry into the city as a threat to their keys, as a threat to their authority. And what we're gonna see in the text is this clashing of authorities as Jesus is revealed as the Messiah, and the religious establishment of his day is not too excited about it. They said, who is this guy?

He's riding into our city on a donkey behaving as if he is in charge? Is he coming for our keys and criticizing the job that we have done? The conflict picks up in Mark chapter 11 verse 15. It says on reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. This is picking up on a Monday.

He rode in on a Sunday, and on this Monday here he's entering the temple. And it says he overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. Jesus is furious. He's flipping tables. But why?

Is it just a bad Monday? Is he just having a bad Monday? What's what's behind what's behind this anger? The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. And so what's behind this?

Why why does Jesus come into the temple, begin flipping things? Why is he so angry? And now we see this conflict brewing where the religious leaders of the day want him dead. Well, let's go back to our text. Let's go back just a second.

And what we're gonna see is let's go back one more. What we're gonna see is, he overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. Let's break this down. What is happening in this scene? Well, the money changers were essentially changing the currency of those who had come from out of town.

And people are buying and selling animals, that were going to be used as sacrifices for this particular week. On the surface, nothing is wrong. People traveled distances, they couldn't bring their animals with them, and so they purchased their animals for sacrifices. Completely normal, completely okay. But here's what's taking place.

Those individuals who were poor were supposed to buy a dove if they couldn't afford a lamb. And what, the individuals inside of the temple were doing was overcharging for the doves. The doves were being sold at a higher price. In other words, the poor people were being priced out of worship. And if you came from out of town with a foreign currency, you were forced to pay an additional tax on top of that, to get your currency exchanged.

And so the outsider is being taxed from being near God, and the poor are being priced out of worship. And Jesus sees this, and he is furious. The chief priests and the scribes were responsible for this corruption, in worship, and they saw all of this taking place, and they did nothing. But Jesus says, enough. Enough.

So he's flipping tables, he's kicking people out because he has a deep love for the house of God, and he has a deep abiding love for the people of God. This is a rough Monday in Holy Week, but it picks up on Tuesday. Tuesday it says, they arrived again in Jerusalem. And while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders come to him. So they've learned from the last time.

The last time Jesus entered in on Monday, tables were flipped, people were kicked out. He's not letting people walk through with merchandise. He says enough is enough for this corrupt worship. And so the religious leaders, they see him and they say, uh-uh go any further, Jesus. What are you up to?

What was that stunt that you pulled yesterday? The story continues, and they say to him, by what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you the authority to do these things? You're Joseph's boy. You're a carpenter.

You you walk around with fishermen. Who are you? You're homeless. You don't have any military background, so how are you the Messiah? Who are you?

Who gave you the authority to do these things? And the conflict the conflict continues to brew. And they ask, who gave you the authority to do this? In other words, Jesus, who gave you the keys? Who gave you the authority to do this?

And the conflict continues to fester. They're saying, this is our establishment, but they don't realize that Jesus is the Messiah that they had been waiting on for centuries. They had been waiting on him for centuries. They've been praying for this moment. They don't understand what's happening.

So Jesus begins to speak to them in parables. A parable is simply an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. They don't get it, so he begins to break it down in the form of a parable. Let's look at Mark chapter 12 verse one. It says that he began to speak to them in parables.

He says a man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower and leased it to tenants and went into another country. What is he saying here? The vineyard is Israel. In this context, the vineyard was the covenant people of God. And the tenants in this story were the religious leaders who God had placed in front of Israel to care for them, to shepherd their souls.

This would be the scribes. This would be the priest. This would be even some of Israel's previous kings. And God entrusted his beloved people to these tenants. He entrusted his temple, his house to these tenants.

And what Jesus is getting at here is that those people who had been entrusted to care for God's people and to care for God's house had not been faithful. Let's continue to the next passage here. It says, when the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. And they took him, and they beat him, and sent him away empty handed. Who are the servants in this story?

So we've established that the vineyard is God's people. The tenants are the religious leaders that have been put in place to care for God's people. The servants are the prophets who God sent to the people to correct them and make sure that they were in alignment with God's word and God's covenant. And so God would send prophet after prophet to his people to say, hey, you're missing it. You're not in alignment with the covenant.

You're not following me. And even the religious leaders, you're not following me. And so God would send prophet after prophet, and what would happen is those prophets would be killed. They would be beaten. Let's continue in the text here.

Again, he sent to them another servant, another prophet, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others, some they beat, and some they killed. The religious leaders who are hearing this parable, I think they're starting to get it. They're looking at this story, and they're starting to see, we are those tenants, and and and the servants are the people that god keeps sending to us.

And what Jesus is doing, essentially, is calling us murderers. Let's continue in the passage here. He still he had still one other, a beloved son. Oh, we're getting somewhere now. The son.

Finally, he sent him to them saying, they will respect my son. But those tenants said to one another, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours. And they took him and killed him, and they threw him out of the vineyard. Dear friends, Jesus just predicted his own death right in the middle of holy week.

He's saying to them, I know you're going to kill me. I know that there's a plot to take me out. But even in that, I'm giving you an opportunity, and I'm laying this before you. And he's gonna reveal something even greater, that this story does not end in death. The son is killed, but that is not the end of the story for the son.

Let's continue to this next part of the story. What will the owner of the vineyard do? The owner of the vineyard is the father. He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. The others are those who place their faith in the Lord.

Have you not read this scripture? Can you imagine how offensive that must have been to the chief priest and scribes to have Jesus say, have you not read the scripture? They thought they had read all of the scripture. Have you not read this scripture? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

The stone that the builders rejected had become the cornerstone. Jesus was the stone that the builders rejected, but simultaneously, Jesus is the cornerstone that holds everything together, the one who absorbs all of the weight. Jesus came to absorb all of the weight of sin and death. He's the cornerstone for you and me who holds everything together. And even after this parable, and even after hearing how they would reject him and be judged by his father, the chief priests and the scribes still go on to fulfill this prophecy.

They go on to reject the cornerstone. They go on to reject God. And this is the heartbreaking part. God came into their town, and they missed it. God showed up, and they totally missed it.

The great tragedy of Palm Sunday was that God came to town and dwelled among his people, and some people missed it. The very thing that they had been hoping for and praying for, they missed it. It's like having your head down and sending a text message as a shooting star flies above your head. What a shame. Why did they miss it?

Well, the scribes and the priests were so caught up in their own agenda that they failed to see the living God whom they claimed to love. And the crowds, some of the crowd missed it, because they expected the Messiah to be a military leader who would align with their social and political agenda. And once they knew that he was not up for that, they wanted him crucified. They missed it. He was the lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world, but they missed it.

Friends, how might we be tempted to miss it? Sometimes we miss it when things don't go our way, or when the prayer is not answered, or when the plan has to change, and we miss it. We may miss the fact that God is doing something through our broken plans. Sometimes we we miss it because the prayer isn't answered, but sometimes the kindest thing that God can do for you and me is not answer that prayer. Sometimes we miss it when we're hurting.

Sometimes the pain speaks so loud that we cannot hear the voice of God. My prayer for us at Ward Church is that even as we go through this pain, that we will not miss God at work around us, that we would not miss the voice of God, that we would see the providence providence of God, and the goodness of God, and the kindness of God, and the love of God. And that when Satan tempts us to despair and despondency, that in a very real way, we would know that god is with us and for us even right now. Keep your eyes on Jesus, dear friends. Don't miss it.

Don't miss what God might be doing in and through you. Will you pray with me? Oh, father, we come before you in the mighty name of Jesus, asking you, God, to open our eyes. Help us to see what you are up to in us and around us. Let us not miss it because your plan does not align with our plan.

Help us to be aligned with you and your will. You are good. You are wise. Your ways are above our ways. Oh god, it's in the mighty name of Jesus that we pray together.

Amen.