Sermon 2019.04.14
The Shouting Stones
(Luke 19:28-40; Palm Sunday year C)

1. Shout!  I did a lot of shouting in 2010. Duke won the NCAA basketball tourney – and I was still a seminary student at Duke. You can bet we shouted! YEAH!

That same spring, after four long years of grad school, I graduated. I joined the crowd of students on the football field throwing my cap in the air and shouting! YEAH!

Then we moved to Mosinee, Wisconsin – to Packerland. I had church members with entire rooms of their homes dedicated to watching and cheering the Packers. There was a lot to cheer for that year as they played their way to a Super Bowl win in 2011. YEAH!

There are times in life when you can’t keep silent. You’ve got to shout! Wedding proposals, job promotions, sporting events, ticker tape parades – some things can’t be bottled up.

Today we celebrate one of those shouting occasions: Palm Sunday, and Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. There was shouting and cheering that day too. And all too often, we celebrate it like we’re watching a telethon on TV:  yay. yippee. good for us.

You can’t celebrate Jesus sitting down, folks. Let’s join the crowds on Palm Sunday with a big ol’ football cheer. Are you pumped up? Are you ready to jump and shout? Three cheers for Jesus – let’s do it:

Here comes Jesus! YEAH! 
Here comes the King! YEAH! 
Here comes the Savior! YEAH! 

2. Enter the king.  Jesus knows how to make an entrance. He rolls like a king – King David, to be exact. The donkey was the limousine of the day for Jewish kings, and an unridden colt was reserved for something sacred and holy. Jesus rode down the Mount of Olives and entered Jerusalem from the east, the road of kings.

The old testament prophet Zechariah foretold it in 9:9, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Jesus nails it!

Palm branches? That was the ticker tape parade of the first century. Laying cloaks on the ground? That’s like rolling out the red carpet.

The crowds clearly recognize Jesus as a king, greeting him with cheers and the words of Psalm 118, a psalm of victory. Are you ready to cheer again?

Blessed is the king!  YEAH!
Who comes in the name of the lord! YEAH!
Bringing peace and glory! (Luke 19:38) YEAH!  

3. Crowd of witnesses.  It helps that Jesus has a bit of a reputation by now. He has performed signs and miracles – casting out demons, healing the sick and blind, feeding crowds of thousands with a few loaves and fishes. Only a few weeks before, and only a couple of miles from Jerusalem, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. You can bet that made waves!

Part of the job of Jesus’ disciples was to witness his deeds of power. We often think of the twelve disciples, but that was just Jesus’ inner circle. There was a much larger group of women and men who followed Jesus. Here they are described as a whole multitude of disciples (Luke 19:37) who are shouting out Jesus’ deeds of power. Ready to cheer?

	Jesus makes the lame to walk! YEAH!
	Jesus makes the blind to see! YEAH!
	Jesus brings the dead to life! YEAH!

4. Red carpet treatment.  Unfortunately, fame also brings opposition. Not everybody is excited to see a provincial prophet getting the kingly red carpet treatment. Some people begin to sharpen their claws when Jesus comes to town.

The local power elite, the Sadduccees who control the temple and the Pharisees who lead in daily religious life, see Jesus as a threat to the status quo. He challenges their tired clichés and stale worship. The people turn to Jesus and turn away from meaningless ritual.

And then there’s the elephant in the fortress. The Romans who actually rule Jerusalem are hyper-vigilant for any threat to their power and authority. Jesus enters Jerusalem and the parade goes right by their fortress. If Rome feels the situation getting out of control, they’ll bring the hammer down and stomp out any rebellion.

The red carpet of fame will soon run red with blood. And the people will shout,

	Crucify him!  YES!
	Crucify him!  YES!
	Crucify him!  YES!

5. The shouting stones.  The Pharisees try to control the situation. “Teacher, order your disciples to stop!” they say. But Jesus replies that it is a shouting day: “If these [people] were silent, the stones would shout out” (Luke 19:39-40). Sometimes you just gotta shout.

Jesus wins the day, but sin will win the week. Fickle fame will turn on Jesus, and in five days the stony-hearted crowds will be shouting for his death: 

Crucify him! YES!
His blood be on us and our children! (Matthew 27:25)  YES!

Peter, the rock, will crumble and deny Jesus (Luke 22:54-62).

Jesus will be whipped and crucified, and his life blood will drip away on the stones of Jerusalem. As the blood of Abel called out to God from the earth, the blood of Christ calls out from the stones (Genesis 4:10).

Friends, we have a part in this. We cheer Jesus on when we feel blessed. But we turn on Jesus when he challenges us, when he calls out the darkness of our stony hearts. It is for the sin of the whole world – it is specifically for your sin, and my sin – that Jesus dies on the cross. His blood is on us, on our fathers and grandfathers, on our children and grandchildren.

And yet… Jesus loves us. What can wash away our sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can change our hearts of stone and give us hearts for love alone? Only Jesus.

That’s why Jesus rides in like a king, and goes to the cross like a criminal. Jesus claims authority to change our lives because Jesus loves us. Jesus dies for our sins because Jesus loves us. And when the stone of the tomb breaks and rolls away on Easter morning, our stony hearts will be broken open with the love of Christ, and we will be ready to shout again.

- Amen.