Sermon Recap: Palm Sunday
Group Leader Discussion Guide
Read: Luke 19:28-44
Group Questions:
How did the Israelites respond when Jesus failed to meet their expectations? How can we avoid responding like them when we experience a broken expectation?
Share a specific time when you had a certain expectation and it did not pan out. How did you respond?
Sometimes when we are in difficult situations we expect God to rescue us, but He does not respond in the way we are seeking. Why do you think this is so?
How is meeting our reality without trying to diminish or control it an act of faith?
Why is it so difficult to wait on God?
What does it look like when we truly surrender our expectations and wait on God?
Sermon Recap:
On Palm Sunday, we reflect on the day when Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. As He continued, large Passover crowds surrounded Him, saying, “Hosanna” meaning “save now.” Excitement and commotion spread throughout the city as many had seen Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead and undoubtedly, the news of what He had done had spread. Clearly there was an expectation of Him by the way He was greeted. But as Jesus proceeded He wept over the city. He was coming to bring them peace, but He knew that they had different expectations. Three tensions or conflicting storms were at play here:
First, the Israelites had been through a difficult history. They had been slaves under Egypt for hundreds of years, taken into exile by the Persians and Babylonians and were at this time under the oppressive rule of Rome. They longed for someone to rise up and deliver them from the hands of the Romans.
This was also the time that the Israelites were celebrating Passover in remembrance of when God had delivered them from bondage in Egypt using plaques. The last plaque had involved the death of the first born in every household except those where blood had been placed on the doorpost and the angel of death had passed over it. As they looked at their current reality, they wanted to be reclaimed as God’s people.
The Israelites thought Jesus would be the one to rip their oppression with riots and a sword, and that he would lead them in the fight and rescue them. But that was not Jesus’ plan. Instead of a sword, He would pick up the cross; He had not chosen a war horse, but a slow donkey; and He was riding into Jerusalem to overcome something larger than their current storm. His focus was on a death that would deal with sin, and not just the pain that comes with oppression and mistreatment. Jesus wept. For He knew He would break their expectation to save them in the way they thought.
Like the Israelites, there are times when we have broken expectations. When our expectations are broken, there is a sense of disappointment. It is like a form of a heart-break and the discomfort we feel is grief. Unfortunately, there is no life we can live that is not subject to disappointment, loss, heartbreak or grief.
In this season as we are living in the confusing reality of the coronavirus, we are experiencing grief. In this collective experience we are reminded that life is not in our control. Gaining control is not what we are meant to do. Neither is eliminating uncertainties. If that is our goal, then we will lose every time. One of our first acts of faith is to meet our reality without diminishing or trying to control it. A true spiritual life is not an escape from reality, but an absolute commitment to it. There are a few postures we can take to allow God into our hearts when it is broken:
Pay attention: We should pay attention to our anger and sadness. Feel it and allow God into it. Too often we attempt to numb out pain through denial, blaming, rationalizations, addictions or avoidance. But brokenness is the open space for God to dwell. Empty is where we are filled. Paying attention and surrendering our expectations allows God to transform us.
Wait on God: One of our greatest challenges is waiting on God when things are confusing. Waiting on God requires that we resist solutions and embrace the mystery of how God works.
Embrace our Limits: That is, through our grief, clarifying what is in our control and what is not. It is sobering and humbling to recognize our humanity. We must care for the things we can care for, such as our physical being with sleep, food and drink. And trust God to be fully God.
Like the Israelites, in our present reality, we acknowledge that we do not understand it all and that we are experiencing some disappointment and grief. Let us surrender our expectations and trust God to work His plan.