Disappointing Jesus

I preached on Palm Sunday, and I decided to share some of my thoughts on John 12: 9-19. Most of my thoughts are simply my wonder about two significant points contained in this passage.

Wonder #1) How can the crowd go from "Hosanna" in one breath to "Crucify Him" in the next? They're waving palm branches on Sunday and looking to him as their new King, and on Friday, they're waving their fists in the air and have venom on their lips. How is it with the crowd that they can change their message in such a short amount of time? I think this is answered in wonder #2.

Wonder #2) Why is Jesus so silent on that donkey? Here is a crowd as eager as ever to believe in Jesus, and he stays absolutely silent upon the borrowed donkey that he rides. I was at a stump speech rally 4 years ago (has it really been four years ago?!?!). The candidate at that rally seized the opportunity to speak to a prepped crowd and made promises for 30 minutes to solidify his position as our candidate of choice. You'd think that Jesus would take this opportunity to do the same with this crowd. But he doesn't. He's absolutely silent. He makes no summary sermon, no final miracle like he did just days ago by raising Lazarus, he rides in quietly and listens to the praise of the crowd.

Is it because he knows what happens to a crowd when you disappoint their expectations?

The praise of the "hosanna" is really a politically charged campaign slogan that places the allegiances of the crowd upon the shoulders of Jesus to be their new King--a king they want to replace the current scum who control their nation and the occupiers who run it all. We see "praise," but I wonder if Jesus is hearing something different than phrases we can put to music someday.

Could he be hearing the expectations of the people that are too narrow and too small compared to the expectations that his Father has given him?

The crowd had tried to seize Jesus earlier in the book of John when he fed over 5000 people with a handful of fish and loaves. Imagine a king who had power to multiply food! I wonder what he could have done with the national treasury and the harvests?!

And just before his entry into Jerusalem, Jesus shows his power over death by raising Lazarus from the grave. A growing gathering of pilgrims for the Passover hear of this sign, and begin to think: imagine a king who has the power over death! He could certainly restore our nation to power by leading us against the Romans and displacing all of their puppets in government!

I think Jesus is so quiet because he hears these expectations in their hosannas, and he doesn't agree with a single one of them. In fact, he knows that he's riding into Jerusalem to disappoint their expectations and give them the king they need.

Their expectations, like our own of Jesus, are really the larger than life agendas of our sin. Our sin looks at salvation in too narrow a scope, considers us first, and uses whatever we can to preserve and save ourselves. Our sin is about us and us alone. It is out of our sin that we create our expectations of Jesus. And the good news of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem is his coming to disappoint our sin.

We expect people to get what they deserve in life. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, so we say. In fact to prevent you from taking my eye, we usually return force with greater force. Just look at how our kids argue with each other. Someone takes a ball, and pretty soon the bad mouthing begins and the tears flow soon enough. You get what you deserve.

But with God, we don't get what we deserve. God disappoints this expectation by giving us Jesus who is his mercy. Jesus is our Final Judge, but instead of hearing how horrible we are and the deaths we truly deserve, we hear how he has come to ransom us from our expectation-laden sin and set us free in his kingdom. Jesus disappoints us.

We also expect that not all people are lovable in this world. There are despicable people who have done horrible things in life. With these people, we think it easier to lock them up, throw away the key, and let them rot. Even with people who harm us and abuse our trust in life, we would rather let them rot than to do what God does with us.

God loves the very people who have abused the love and the gifts he gives. We are the unlovable, but God loves us beyond our abuse. Because of that, all people are lovable, and it's really for the 'worst of us' that Christ came to die. We will never see another person in this world for whom Christ hasn't died. That includes Osama, Hussein, Hitler, and you and me. God loves us all. God raises each of us from the rotting places in our life and sets us in his new kingdom. God replaces the stench of death that we make when we choose to love some and not all, when we make the judgments about whom we should love. God loves us all because we all receive his gifts.

God's love disappoints our expectation that we ought not to love everyone. And it's this love that the crowd yells, "Crucify him" instead of "Make him our King because he loves us!" We don't want a king that disappoints us. We want a king to fulfill our expectations. But thanks be to God that Jesus has come to disrupt, disturb, and disappoint our sin!!