When Jesus comes, Hosanna and palm branches are appropriate.

Steve Brown:
When Jesus comes, Hosanna and palm branches are appropriate. I’ll explain on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life. We are here to let you know that because of what Jesus has done, God will never be angry at you again. Steve invited our friend Justin Holcomb to join us in a special series about the season of Lent. Justin is a Bishop in the Episcopal Church, an author, and a seminary teacher.

Steve Brown:
Justin, this has been a great series. Justin has been, Dr. Holcomb, formally. The Right Reverend.

Justin Holcomb:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
Bishop and all that stuff.

Justin Holcomb:
You used to make Right Reverend jokes. People do, when you’re like the Reverend or whatever, people are like, Oh, the Right Reverend. And Right Reverend technically is only reserved for Bishops. And so now, after all those jokes, it actually is my title.

Steve Brown:
It really is who you are. Dr. Holcomb has been with us every Monday during Lent, and this is the last Monday of Lent, and we’ve all experienced Palm Sunday, last Lord’s Day. Great time in our church. Talk about that.

Justin Holcomb:
Yeah, so the church year, like we talked about the very first Monday we started doing this, the church year is a tool. It’s not mandatory. It’s just a way that Christians for hundreds of years have decided that they would worship together. And, you know, every Sunday you have a certain readings from the lectionary. In the church year you have Christmas and then you have Epiphany, which we just did a series previously, then you have Lent, which is this 40 day season leading up to Easter. And then in, then you have Holy Week, which is, you know, Palm Sunday, which is what we’re going to be talking about leading up to Maundy Thursday to Good Friday to the Crucifixion to then Easter Sunday. Then you have a few weeks of after Easter. And so, you just have this kind of rhythm.

Steve Brown:
Which is helpful.

Justin Holcomb:
It is helpful. And if you go to a church that does it, that’s where we’re trying to highlight some of the possibilities of how you can look at certain themes throughout that church year. Now, our worship needs to be focused on Scripture. This isn’t, and all of these themes are Scripture focused as we looked at all these prayers, all these prayers that we looked at during these seasons are always, really just summaries of Scripture. And we’re looking, the church year looks at the life of Christ, which is pretty Scriptural. And you’re looking at the birth and then his ministry and his life, his death, his resurrection, his sending of the Holy Spirit. And then his kingdom expanding. So, that church year is always focused on Jesus. And this Palm Sunday shift starts off Holy Week, which is really marking the beginning of, is commemorating Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, where it’s important that we realize he was welcomed as a king, yet he was journeying toward the cross and no one else knew it, because he wanted to fulfill his mission of redemption. So, let me read the prayer. This is important, before I read the prayer, when he, on the mount of transfiguration, so the transfiguration moment, he then turns to his disciples and says, I need to journey to Jerusalem. The language for journey is make my Exodus toward Jerusalem. Jesus knew that when he was going to Jerusalem, he was headed to the cross. He had the cross in mind. He talked about his death all the, not all the time, but frequently. He’s like, I’m going to die and then be raised up in three days. And no one knew what he was talking about. And he even said, I’m going to suffer. And when the Son of Man suffers, Son of Man is king language, judge language. And so, the cross isn’t something that he was surprised by. It wasn’t plan B. He didn’t get himself killed. He laid his life down. And he knew he was laying his life down as a sacrifice for the ransom of many. And that’s important for us to know. So, when he enters as a king, he’s entering as a different kind of king who’s going to lay his life. Most kings want their subjects to shed blood for their kingdom to continue. This king says, I’m shedding my blood, so you can live. This is a different kind of kingdom, so here’s the prayer for Palm Sunday.

Almighty and ever living God, in your tender love for humanity you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility. Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering and also share in his resurrection.

This one, again, is loaded up. I mean, I can’t help, I mean, again.

Almighty and ever living God, in your tender love for humanity.

Yeah, I mean, I’ve read these prayers for decades, and this one still jumps out to me to, I mean, I just don’t think of God’s tender love, which is all throughout Scripture, I mean.

Whoever harms you touches the apple of my eye.

You know, apple of my eye is this vulnerable, whoever hurts you is like they’re sticking their finger in my eye. This tender love for humanity. And then.

You sent your Son to take our nature upon him.

This is the great humility of the Son of God taking on human nature. I mean, this is the great condescension that he condescended in his humiliation to take on human nature. To suffer then, that wasn’t enough to take on human nature, but then to suffer like it is. He comes from heaven, takes on human nature, and then suffers when he had no reason to suffer for sins on the cross.

Grant that we may walk in his suffering

that’s straight from Paul

and also share in his resurrection.

We’re, if we’re in Christ, that’s what baptism is symbolizing. That we’re dying in, like Christ died. That’s our crucifying ourself. Or we’re dying to ourselves, we’re not crucifying. And we’re also being raised in resurrection in the Christian life. So, I’ll stop there for a little bit, cause I got, we’ve got plenty we could talk about, but that collect is, that’s a doozy.

Steve Brown:
It really is. And Palm Sunday, you know, the religious leaders said to Jesus, you know, you’ve got a loud bunch here. Do you think you could get them to be a little bit quieter about all this? And Jesus said.

They were quiet, the very stones would shout out.

And what you just said is a place of great worship and joy and excitement. It’s why Lent’s so important and Holy Week is the place where we worship properly.

Justin Holcomb:
What’s the kicker about this Sunday, especially in the liturgy. The people who were singing Hosanna and laying down palm branches to greet their King were pissed off that he wasn’t the King that they wanted.

Steve Brown:
That’s right.

Justin Holcomb:
And then they were the ones who yelled crucify him.

Steve Brown:
Which is kind of scary, isn’t it?

Justin Holcomb:
Yeah.

Steve Brown:
It’s kind of like me.

Justin Holcomb:
It’s a lot like me.

Steve Brown:
Well, you’re a Bishop, so it’s a lot more like me than you.

Justin Holcomb:
Actually, you’re right. It is a lot more like you.

Steve Brown:
But it is the way we are, isn’t it? I mean, we want to make God in our own image, and he won’t allow that.

Justin Holcomb:
It reminds me of J.B. Phillips book, Your God is Too Small. If you go through the table of contents and just look at all the different gods that we make up, you know, the perennial grievance, the pale Galilean, the God in a box. I mean, there’s a whole great list, each chapter, but we like to domesticate God. And just like, I mean, I look at them and I’m like, how did you not know that he was supposed to be a Davidic King who was also a shepherd who was going to lay down his life. He told you. Well, I have the Bible, and I have Jesus telling me exactly why he came and what kind of king he is, and I distort that because I get frustrated that he’s not doing kingdom stuff the way I want it done for my little kingdom. And so, that moment in the Palm Sunday, if you do the liturgy, you walk in with palm branches, and then you do the first part of the Triumphal Entry, and then later on, either that week, you’re going to have a role where you’re saying, as the congregation, crucify him. And that is basically the two ends of the Christian life of

Steve Brown:
It really is.

Justin Holcomb:
Like, I do want you to be a king, and I forget that you’re the King and I’m not, and when I get frustrated with that, please be patient with your faithfulness that we talked about a few weeks ago. But this triumphal entry reminds me of Philippians 2. I just want to read Philippians 2:5 through 8 quickly just because I think it summarizes this heartbeat.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

That’s what this Palm Sunday, a humble king who came to serve us not to be served.

Steve Brown:
That’s what Lent’s about, you know, it’s so easy to believe the lies and to create a God that’s more likable and to our taste. It is so easy to work hard at being gooder so he’ll notice and love us. It’s so easy to slip into that kind of mindset. And the good thing about Lent is that it jerks us back from all of that and it says, pay attention, this is what it’s about, this is what I’m about, this is what you’re about.

Justin Holcomb:
Yeah, you are going to have your eyes fixed on something. You’re either going to be curved inward in our morbid self introspection, that’s redundant self introspection, you’re morbid introspection. Or you can say, God, get my eyes fixed off of me and fix them on the author and perfecter of my faith. And that’s what repentance looks like.

Steve Brown:
Oh Justin, this has been so good. Thank you for coming in and teaching us. I’m going to be better because of you and Jesus. Hey, you think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
And with that, we wrap up our special Monday series on the season of Lent. Big thank you to our favorite Bishop, Justin Holcomb, for leading us through that. And of course, that means that this Sunday we celebrate Easter. That’s why starting tomorrow and going through Friday, we’re doing a very special series on Easter for Holy Week. Hope you will join us. So, if you had to name one single issue that constantly hounds you, what would it be? Well, for a lot of believers, it would be guilt. But here’s some great news, Jesus’ death on the cross paid the debt for all our sins. That means guilt can actually lead us back to Christ to find true and lasting forgiveness. Steve wrote about this in a mini-book called Feeling Guilty: Grace for Your Mistakes. And you can get that mini-book for free, right now, by calling us at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail Steve@keylife.org to ask for that mini-book. Or if you’d like to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Again, just ask for your free copy of the mini-book called Feeling Guilty: Grace for Your Mistakes. And finally, if you’re blessed by the ministry of Key Life, would you help share that blessing with others through your giving? Giving is easy, just charge a gift on your credit card, or include a gift in your envelope. Or you can now give safely and securely through text, simply text Key Life to 28950 then follow the instructions. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.