Palm Sunday March 23-24, 2024
“Something’s Missing” John 12:12-19
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
Some years ago one of our worshippers came out of the sanctuary and had a question for me. “Do you know how many times you mentioned ‘joy’ in your sermon today?” I told her I had no clue – I just sort of make this stuff up as I go. Well, it turns out that she asked that question because something was missing in her life – joy. It had left. Disappeared. When she heard it mentioned in the sermon – evidently repeatedly – it caught her attention. She wanted to experience it again.
I wonder if you find joy missing from your life. Now, maybe, this is not the Sunday to start talking about joy. It is still Lent. Next Sunday, Easter, is the time for joy. We get to say that word that starts with an “A” (Alleluia) once again. But this week is a somber week. On Thursday Jesus receives the kiss of death from someone who claimed that he was a believer. That evening the other 11 became like little cowards and they ran from Him. On Friday it was time for crucifixion. No joy in all of this.
But maybe, just maybe, this is a day for joy. Maybe, just maybe, everything that is going to happen this week is the ultimate reason for joy. Those things that we witness about His suffering don’t make us happy, they don’t bring us a smile, but they do bring us joy – a holy contentment.
If it has been a while since you have had joy, if it has been missing in your life, Jesus wants to bring you joy – today. On the first Palm Sunday there was an amazing amount of joy. “A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of Him and those that followed shouted, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’” (Matthew 21:8-9)
This was a party. This was joy. But Jesus could have stopped it all. He could have said, “This is short-lived – they are going to be asking for my head in just a few days.” He could have told them what He told His disciples and the very words that earned Jesus a rebuke from Peter, “From that time on Jesus began to explain that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” (Matthew 16:21) Maybe the hosannas would have ended, and the crowd been hushed, and the party would have been over.
Joy can be built on the wrong foundation. It can crumble amazingly fast and then just be gone. Dr. David Schmitt, a preacher who teaches preachers how to preach told this story: I once knew a woman who didn’t want to go to church. Well, she wanted to go to church, just not her church. She had recently been through some tough times. Her husband died in an automobile accident, leaving her with two small children and one large house. One weekend, she called and asked if we could go to church. I said, “Sure. What time are your services?” And she said, “No, I was hoping to go to your church.” And then she explained. She didn’t want to go to her church because she felt she didn’t belong there. She had been back since her husband’s death and she felt alone in the pew. She felt alone because her husband wasn’t with her. But she also felt alone, because her church wasn’t with her. ‘It’s as if I don’t exist’, she said. Her church was a place set apart for praise. They had a praise band and a gospel choir and uplifting messages that brought people to their feet with their hands in the air. Now, I am not criticizing contemporary worship here. I am criticizing any type of worship that tries to create joy by denying all sorrow. Consider my friend. When all was going well in her life, with a wonderful husband and two beautiful children, she felt she belonged. But then, when sorrow came to her home and decided to sleep in her bed, she didn’t feel that she belonged any more. Her church celebrated joy as the absence of sorrow and it didn’t give her a place or the language to express her sorrow. It didn’t proclaim the presence of someone in their midst who rejoiced over her and comforted her with His love.
There are many things that rob us of joy. Our sins rob us of joy. We try substitutes for what is good and holy and right and all we get is sorrow and regret and pain. Circumstances, especially the hard ones, rob us of joy. The reality of life can take away joy.
But we, as Christians, have something that so many people don’t have, we have something that is lasting and permanent. Believers In Jesus Christ truly have abiding hope and deep joy. The events of Palm Sunday and of Holy Week tell us that joy is not the absence of sorrow, rather, it is the presence of someone who comes in the midst of sorrow. We don’t need to create a false joy, or look for substitutes. Jesus provides His presence in the midst of our life, in our troubles, in our struggles with sin or mortality, and that provides what has been missing – joy. Joy is knowing Jesus is with us. Joy is receiving a feast at the table – “The bread of life given for you, His blood poured out for you.”
In Hebrews 12 there is a verse that caught my attention, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2) Joy? Jesus had joy in going to the cross? Joy in being beaten, tortured, 6 hours of crucifixion? No, no joy in that. But He had joy in bringing us joy. Joy in being the answer for our sin. Joy in being the fullness of our salvation. In the prayer that He had made just 24 hours before, He said, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:11) Also in that same prayer, “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.” (John 17:13)
He delights in us knowing His love. He has joy when we are confident that we are in His possession. When there is no doubt in our soul that He has purified us from all uncleanness, Jesus has joy. When we can sleep knowing that neither life nor death, neither the present nor the future can separate us from the love of Christ, Jesus has joy. And so do we!!
Some time ago I read a wonderful little book called The Grace and Truth Paradox by Randy Alcorn. He quotes John Newton, the man who wrote the hymn, “Amazing Grace”. He writes, “Eighty-two years and blind, Newton said shortly before he died, ‘My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour.’” (Pg. 49)
Our joy is found in the faith that He has given us. Even in the darkest times, even on a day like Holy Thursday or Good Friday, where everything goes south, Jesus is present. Psalm 139 says, “Even the darkness will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to You.” (Verse 12) There is joy in knowing the Jesus who dies for our sins and rises for our eternity.
There is also joy in the pure praise of God. On Palm Sunday there was praise after praise. “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!” (John 12:13) There is joy in giving God what He deserves – genuine praise for who He is and adoration for all He has done.
I wonder how many of us are just plain lacking joy. We live life. We do our duties. We might even smile from time to time. But there really isn’t any joy. Today, tomorrow, even the days after those, Jesus has come to bring a full and meaningful joy. He’s the only one who can truly give joy.
You might ask me on the way out, “How many times did you mention ‘Joy’ in your sermon today, Pastor?” I won’t know – I still make up the sermons as I go. But I will know that it has all been about joy – the joy that Jesus came to bring us every day. Any message about Jesus is a message about joy – His presence in the midst of our life. Amen!!
(This message was originally preached to God’s saints at Ascension on April 9, 2017.)
