#6 - Jesus Saves Us Now
John 12:12-19 - Victory Fellowship
April 2, 2023 - Rev. Roderick Grabski
Palm Sunday
I. The Moment Before the Moment
March Madness is one of the biggest sporting events of the year. Millions of people tune into watch; tens of thousands fill out a bracket. But it is fascinating that the interest in the tournament goes down every weekend. Why? Because when you watch those first couple rounds, there are all kinds of uncertainty. You have no idea what might happen next. Every year, there are “Cinderella stories” of underdog teams that pull the upset and beat the favorite.
March 16th – The 15th ranked Princeton Tigers upset the #2 ranked Arizona Wildcats with a 59-55 win.
Then on St. Patrick’s day – The #16 ranked Farleigh Dickenson Knights upset the #1 ranked Purdue Boilermakers with a 63-58 win.
This is the first time ever that none of the #1 seeded schools made it to the Final Four.
A. The Thrill of Uncertainty
And then there are the moments that all sports fans long for, found in the closing seconds of the game when a shot lifts towards the goal, and what happens with that ball determines the outcome of the game. The moment before the moment we know how it all shakes out is the one that people wait for and watch for.
The uncertainty and excitement of these moments, the moments before the moment, are what we live for. Much of our life, much of our story is found in the moments leading up to when the ball goes in the air.
Video
B. Story Structure (graph)
Some of you will remember from middle school the simple graph that shows the structure of a story. After the story reaches its climax it is moving towards Resolution. Resolution is where everything is wrapped up and tied up neatly. Much of our life is found waiting on Resolution.
We want resolution. Most of us don’t like it if we read a story or watch a movie that leaves the ending open to imagination or interpretation.
II. The People of God Wait
Much of the God Story finds its characters waiting for Resolution as well. Abraham waits for the son that is promised to him by God. At the age of seventy-five he receives that promise, and then he waits decades to see it resolved. The Israelites wait to enter the Promised Land; they are released from slavery and wait for decades to make it to their future home. The Hebrew people call out for a king, and then it turns out the kings they get are not the kings they wanted, and so they wait for the King, the Messiah, the anointed future king. They wait for centuries. When is he going to come? When are we going to be set free? When do we get our real King, the one who can save us?
A. The Waiting Is Over
By the time Jesus comes riding into Jerusalem, the people are ready. This isn’t one of those moments when the people blow it; this is one of those moments when they get it, and they get it right.
There were enough people who recognized that Jesus was the one, unlikely though he may be. And they created enough excitement that by the time Jesus came into Jerusalem on the first day of the most important week in their culture—the week of Passover, when they would retell the story of what God had done and hold out the hope of what God would do—they were ready.
By the time Jesus got there the whole city had gathered on the streets to welcome him with great fanfare.
B. Save Us and Now
And here is what they said: “Hosanna,” which has become a word of praise, but is, at its root, an imperative statement of salvation, a word calling out to be saved. The word actually means “save now.” In other words, we can’t wait any longer; this is it; wrap this up. Hosanna. Save us now.
There comes that point in any good story, where you are longing for Resolution, when you can’t take it anymore. The story is everything at this point; you are begging the author, the director, whoever is in charge, “Will you give me some Resolution? I can’t do this anymore.”
C. Recap
We have talked about the threads in the story. Beginning in Genesis we saw Thread #1: God speaks because God desires relationship.
The laughable dream of Abraham showed us Thread #2: If God makes a promise, God keeps it.
As we watched the wandering people of God get frustrated in the wilderness, we found Thread #3: God will provide all you need for the journey.
Then with David, we saw an unlikely little shepherd boy become king—Thread #4: God calls the unlikely and gives them a better story.
Then last week we talked about the prophetic voice singing over us the beautiful message of Thread #5: God’s love is recurring and relentless.
Jesus’ coming and his triumphal entry on Palm Sunday appear to be the Resolution of all these threads. This is not to say it is the end of the story; it’s not. There will be even more important events that happen afterwards, but it seems at the time to be the culmination of this waiting for Resolution.
Some of us find ourselves there today. We are waiting for God. We need God.
III. Broken People Need Resolution
Don’t miss that it was a broken community of broken people like us who cried out to God that day. They waved palm branches and cried Hosanna. Jesus comes to these people in his normal clothes, looking like them, riding on a donkey.
He connects Genesis to Abraham, to the wandering Israelites, to David, to the exiled Judah-ites, to them. A broken community is crying out to their God, and finally God comes.
The story of our God, the story written into the fabric of time, and the fabric of our souls, is that God comes—not how you expected God, to be sure. But God comes in power and in love.
A. The Promise to Us
To all broken communities of people, God comes.
To broken marriages, God comes. To broken finances, God comes.
To broken churches, God comes. To broken nations, God comes.
God comes and by the end of the week we have forgotten, and we cry out Crucify! And do you know what? He comes to us again.
It’s pretty likely that you are at a place in your story where you are waiting for Resolution. That’s where we spend most of our time. Most of the time is the mean time.
You’re waiting for some deal to go through, somebody to pick up the phone, somebody to come home, a check to be mailed, a wrong to be made right, your body to cooperate. That’s where most of the story takes place, any good story.
And God comes. Jesus comes for you. Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!
PRAYER
SONG: Always Only Jesus (MercyMe)
John 12:12-19 NKJV
12 The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ The King of Israel!” 14 Then Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written: 15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion; Behold, your King is coming, Sitting on a donkey’s colt.” 16 His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him and that they had done these things to Him. 17 Therefore the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb and raised him from the dead, bore witness. 18 For this reason the people also met Him, because they heard that He had done this sign. 19 The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, “You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!”
