When Jesus arrived at Jerusalem it was the end of a long journey. Jesus had been going from village to village teaching and healing. Large crowds would flock to where ever he was. Sometimes the crowds were too big. At times Jesus had resorted to going out to the country for the people to gather. And even then there were issues of public safety and health because the crowds were so big. "How will all these people eat?"

All the time people were believing in Jesus. They were saying "He is one of the prophets of Old come back." "He is a mighty man or God." "Maybe he is the Messiah!" "Maybe he is the Anointed King that God has sent to free us from Rome and all other oppressors."

So When Jesus started for Jerusalem he rode on a donkey to fulfill prophesy. The people knew that the prophets had said the messiah would come riding on a donkey. So they gave him the first century version of a ticker tape parade. As Jesus went down central avenue through Jerusalem they shouted and sang and laid down their cloaks and waved victory palm branches. They sang "Hosanna" which means "save us!"

This was the culmination of a long journey. This was the end of the road. Jesus the Messiah was conquering Jerusalem in a bloodless coup. This was Jesus great finale! Or was it?

Five Days later it seemed that it was all over. The week had gone so fast. Jesus had entered in triumph. He had cleansed the temple. He had taught and healed. He had wrangled with the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Then as the Passover approached everything all went wrong. The religious and political hierarchy turned on Jesus. They even bribed one of Jesus' own disciples to betray him. He had been arrested on trumped up charges of sedition and rebellion against Rome. And a kangaroo court had sentenced him to death.

They beat him half to death then they nailed him to a cross. And he died. And Roman soldiers witnessed his humiliation and death. This was the end of Jesus. Or was it?

These two events, separated by less than a week, are a study in contrasts. One is a moment of triumph. The other appears to be a moment of defeat. One Jesus is surrounded by crowds saying save us. In the other people jeered, "Save yourself!"

But in both Jesus is seen as God's Son. Did you catch it? The crowds on Palm Sunday hailed Jesus as their Messiah the anointed one of God. That is easy enough to see. But at his death the centurion said, "Surely this man was God's Son.

True, neither fully understood what that meant but they recognized it. In both incidents the end seems to have come. And in both Jesus is glorified and recognized as King.

But of course we know that neither event was the end. We know that Jesus' purpose in coming to Jerusalem was not to gather a mob army. He did not come to lead a bloodless coup. He was God's anointed King of the Jews. But he was not there to defeat the Romans or their puppet pretender King Herod. So this was not the end.

Jesus came to die on the cross. He came not to be acclaimed but to be rejected. He came to be the final Passover lamb for the sins of the world. He came to die for us. And die a bloody and humiliating death he did.

But we know that even that was not the end. He had told them himself. Three days later he would rise again!

Mark 15:1-39

Jesus' death is full of ironies. The sequence of events is oddly juxtaposed to the actual realities present. For instance, Jesus was accused and convicted of the crime of blasphemy. Blasphemy is the crime of speaking against God or showing disrespect to God. But Jesus is God! Had he spoken blasphemously against himself?

Then there was the crowd. The very people who had hailed him as the king of the Jews on Palm Sunday, wanted him dead on Good Friday. Why did they want him dead? Because he claimed to be the king of the Jews. How ironic that the same crowds that yelled, "Hosanna," now yelled, "Crucify him."

And what of the way Jesus was treated. He was treated as a common criminal, yet he was the only innocent human on earth. In fact a murderer was set free so that Jesus could be killed. He was taunted, persecuted, and killed by the very people he came to save. Ironically as part of this mistreatment soldiers gave him a crown and a cloak and to bowed down to him.

These ironies highlight for us the truth of who and what Jesus was and is. Perhaps the most significant of these ironies is the last one. The only one to notice who Jesus was, was a Gentile. It was a Roman Centurion who faced Jesus and said, "Truly this man was God's Son!"

How did he know? What did that centurion see that made him realize this truth? Everyone there witnessed the same events. They all saw him nailed to the cross. They all saw the blood and heard the cries. Others in the crowd were close enough to him to see everything that this Centurion saw. The other soldiers who mocked Jesus, the crowd that had said, "Crucify;" they all saw the same events. Yet they did not come to that conclusion.

This is a significant question! Don't dismiss it. After all how many people throughout the ages have come face to face with the crucified Christ and not come to that same conclusion. How many have said, "There died a noble man," or "There died a prophet," or "There died a good moral teacher," but never said, "Truly this man was the Son of God." There are so many people today who know of Jesus' death on the cross who don't say, "This man was God's son." If we knew what that Centurion saw, maybe we could show it to them. If we could just point to whatever it was that drove him to that conclusion then others would say, "This man is the Son of God."

What was it that led a Roman centurion, of all people, to this most profound conclusion? He was a Roman, a Gentile. To him, Judaism was just some provincial oriental religion. He had probably worshipped Zeus or Athena all his life. Yet this Pagan Roman said, "this man is God's Son."

How did he know? You know what I believe? I think it was the cry Jesus gave right at the end that made the centurion see the truth. In verse 37 it says that Jesus gave a loud cry and took him last breath. Then in verse 39 it says that when the centurion saw he breathed his last he said, "Truly, this man is God's Son!"

So what was so special about this loud cry Jesus gave right before he died? Many people cry out in pain or agony right before they die. But this was no cry of pain. It was a cry of victory. The centurion who knew about military campaigns and conquests could see the victory. At the moment of Christ's death this military man could see the divine strategy that used the death of an innocent man to conquer God's foes. And in amazement he said, "Truly, this man was God's Son."

What was the victory that Jesus had won? It was a victory over death. Victory over physical death: the separation of a person from their breath. Through his death, by breathing his last, he brought eternal life to all who would accept him. But it was also victory over spiritual death: the separation of the human from God.

Something significant along these lines took place at the moment of Jesus' death; at the moment of his victory. Did you notice? At the moment Jesus' died it says that the veil in the temple was rent in two. In the temple there was a veil that separated the Holy of Hollies from the rest of the temple. It separated the people from the holy presence of God. By Jesus' death that veil was torn open. People, once kept from God, now had direct access to God. Through Christ the alienated sinners of the world could see God face to face. Through Jesus the Gentiles and outsiders could come directly to God.

This was the victory that Jesus won: a victory for us against the forces of evil that would separate us from our Heavenly Father, a victory that ensured, not a mere political peace, but lasting inner peace for all who would accept it, a victory that saved not merely physical existence but saves the soul from eternal death. This marvelous victory of victories is what the centurion saw in Jesus' death. It was this victory, which caused him to say, "Truly, this man was God's Son!"

Do you want to see this victory - in your life? Then just give your life to Christ. Ask the crucified Christ into your heart today. And through his death he will give you victory over sin and death. Then publicly profess that belief in Jesus. That is what the young people in the confirmation class will be doing next week. They will be publicly professing their belief in Jesus as the Son of God. They will be claiming their part of the victory that Jesus won for us all on the cross!

But many of you have given your life to Christ. Yet you don't feel victorious in your life; instead you feel defeated. That is normal. I am sure Jesus' disciples felt defeated right after Jesus' death. They didn't feel victorious. The problem is people believe the Devil's lies. The Devil tells people, even born again Christians, that they are not victors because they don't measure up by the world's standards of victory. But the truth is that we are victors over sin and death and the Devil.

The best example of this is the cross itself. Most people thought Jesus was defeated when he breathed his last. I am sure even the Devil thought he had won. But the truth was much different. You see God takes what the world calls defeat and turns it into victory. God's Son Jesus took death on a cross and through it offers you eternal life. Do you know any one who can perform such a miraculous feat? I do! May I introduce you to him? His name is Jesus. Truly this Man is the Son of God!

The Story goes that in ancient Israel there was an Old Wise Woman. An this Old Wise woman wanted to know what the messiah would be like so that if she saw him she would know him. So she prayed that God would show her what the messiah would be like. And as she prayed and angel of the Lord appeared to her and said "Your prayer has been answered. Just watch and you will see the answer to your prayer.

And the old woman looked and there in front of her was a small farm. And she heard a voice and it said: "Joshua." And she heard another voice and it said, "Yes Father." The first voice said, "Go fetch some water for the sheep they are thirsty." Then she saw a young boy running to the well to drawl water. Then she heard the voice again and it said, "Joshua" And the boy said, "Yes Father." And the first voice said, "Go plow the fields so that the seeds can be planted in good soil." Then the old woman watched as the boy plowed a field. Then she heard the voice a third time. "Joshua" "Yes Father" "Go bring the sheep into the pen, for darkness is coming and the wolves will get them." Then the boy went and brought the sheep in.

Then the angel said to the wise old woman: "Do you understand?" And the wise old woman said, "Yes, I understand! The Messiah will do as he is told."

The events of Palm Sunday show us the kind of Messiah Jesus was. The events of Palm Sunday did not take place in a vacuum. They were preceded and followed by events that gave meaning to them. The story of Palm Sunday really begins when Jesus set his face for Jerusalem. Jesus and the Twelve Disciples had been traveling around the holy land. Then, all of a sudden, Jesus up and decided to go to Jerusalem. They had heard Jesus talking about the kingdom to come soon and they had heard Peter say that he was the Messiah. So they thought, "This is it!" "Jesus our Messiah is going to Jerusalem to take his rightful place on the throne of David." "God has sent Jesus to save us from the Romans." They were so sure that Jesus was going to triumph They were so sure that they began to argue over who would sit at Jesus' right hand in the Kingdom. In other words, they were arguing over who would be the Chief of Staff come the Revolution.

To add to this air of expectancy Jesus made a dramatic entrance into the city. When Jesus got to Jerusalem the first thing he did was send one of the disciples to borrow a colt. Now we look at Jesus on this colt and we say, "Oh look at Jesus meek and mild riding that humble little colt." Humility was part of why Jesus rode a colt. But every good Jew, who knew their Scripture, knew that the messiah would ride a colt into Jerusalem. To them it was not a sign of humility. It was Jesus proclaiming "I am the Messiah." This colt was very important to Mark. Mark only wrote 11 verses about Palm Sunday and 6 of them are about the colt. So when Jesus came riding in on that colt people started yelling "Hosanna! Hosanna!" And they laid down their coats for him to ride over. And they shouted that God's kingdom was coming. It was a first century version of a ticker tape parade.

But we all know the glory of that moment did not last long. Oh, Jesus and the disciples did stage a raid on the temple and they even took control of it for a while. And Jesus did show the Pharisees up when they asked him a few tricky questions. Jesus even healed a blind man right there in the temple. But by the end of the week all that had changed. The hosannas were just echoes of the past. The same crowds that had yelled "Hosanna! Hosanna!" at the beginning of the week, were yelling "Crucify! Crucify!" at the end of the week. They said, "What kind of a Messiah are you? "How dare you claim to be the Messiah when you won't even conquer the Romans." "Imagine the nerve of him riding into town on a colt and claiming to be God's Messiah." "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!"

Why did the people turn against Jesus? Jesus was the Messiah after all. The crowds got angry because Jesus was not the kind of Messiah they had expected. They had expected the messiah to establish an earthly kingdom. They expected the messiah to conquer the Romans. But Jesus did neither. They forgot that Jesus had plainly said he would suffer. Everyone recognized that his riding a colt was a fulfillment of Prophesy. But they failed to remember the meaning of the Prophesy. The prophet had said that the Messiah would ride a lowly colt because he would be no ordinary king. The Messiah would not ride in on a white charger and take over the state. The Messiah would on the level of the people and would rule their hearts. Jesus was a different kind of Messiah from what they were looking for.

Like the disciples, we sometimes forget that Jesus came to Jerusalem to die on a cross. If it were not for the cross Jesus would not be our king in heaven. It is Jesus' death that sets us free to be followers of Jesus. Without the cross of Christ there is no crown of glory. Jesus was and is the Messiah. But the only crown he wore on earth was a crown of thorns.

Paul talks about what kind of Messiah Jesus was in his letter to the Philippians. Paul wrote, "Being found in human form, Christ humbled himself and became obedient unto death even death on a cross." Jesus could have called down the angels of heaven to rescue him from death. But he humbled himself to his father's will to die on a cross for our salvation. It was because Jesus was obedient to the Father's will that he can be called the Messiah. Jesus was willing to die on a cross so that you and I could be saved. Because of that he is our Savior and we worship him. Like the boy in the wise old woman's vision: the messiah will did as his Father in heaven told him to do.

So what difference does it make what kind of Messiah Jesus was? It makes a big difference. Paul wrote, "Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus, who, though being in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of human beings." The mind Paul is talking about is Jesus' willingness to obey and serve. Jesus was the son of God. He didn't have to die on a cross for our sakes but he chose to. He chose to take on the form of a servant and obey God even if that meant death on a cross.

As followers of Jesus we need to learn from his example. We should be obedient to our heavenly father just like Jesus was. They say that imitation is the best form of flattery. Well we should be imitators of Christ.

Jesus was hailed as Messiah and King today. And you were part of it. Your children waved palm branched, and you sang "Hosanna Loud Hosannas." It is easy to follow him know. But don't be deluded into thinking that people will always hail Jesus as King. Before the week is over he will be hanging on a cross. Then where will you be?

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