First Presbyterian Church        Rev. Michael J. Imperiale

Salt Lake City, Utah       April 9, 2006

“Hosanna! Help! God to the Rescue”

Psalm 124; Mark 11: 1-11

Introduction

Every year the deacons helped the Red Cross run a blood drive at his church. This pastor had never given blood before, so he sat at one of the tables to find out all about it. The Red Cross nurse had a list of questions for him. As she worked her way down the list she asked him, “Do you engage in hazardous work?” He said, “Yes.” She looked at him and said, “You’re the pastor here, aren’t you?” And he said, “Yes.” She smiled, ignored his answer, marked “no” on her form, and said, “I don’t mean that kind of hazardous.”

Psalm 124 is a song of hazard – and of help. It communicates the difficulties in being a follower of God, a person of faith as well as the way the Lord intervenes with his presence and aid. Palm Sunday is the beginning of a holy week in which we see the people’s cry for help and the Savior’s answer with his life.

Having tried to avoid such crowds and notoriety, Jesus now enters Jerusalem for the final time. This time he meets the crowd head on as they shout messianic cheers of “Hosanna.” Little did they know how the Messiah would respond to their cries for salvation and help.

I. What Might Have Happened (vs. 1-5)

Becoming a Christian, having the assurance of salvation by God’s grace alone, trusting in Jesus as Savior and Lord are fairly simple and easy things. Receiving a gift doesn’t take much effort. But living in this world as one who wants to know and honor the Lord and live according to his will and purposes is another thing all together. It is not easy being a follower of Christ.

An elderly Christian man in Budapest was asked about the effects of persecution and discrimination on the lives of Christians during the Communist era. “It’s like the deep, fast-flowing Danube River,” he said. The banks of the river were artificially narrowed throughout the city of Budapest. As a result the river’s fast waters dug deeper and deeper into the river bottom.” Believers in various parts of the world live under restrictions with few political options. But their narrowed lives have found great depth by going deeper in Christ.

“But what if the Lord had not been on our side?” asks the psalmist. He answers with a series of striking pictures. “They would have swallowed us alive… the flood would have engulfed us… the torrent would have swept over us… the raging waters would have swept us away… torn by their teeth… trapped in the fowler’s snare.” All of this describes what would have happened if God had not been on Israel’s side. She would have been devoured. She would have drowned. She would have vanished.

Here is the Bible’s message of God’s sovereignty and providence. The people of God (both Israel and the Church) exist in this world not by our own economic and political strength, but by the God who calls us into being, by the God we worship. When we fall into the trap (the fowler’s snare) of thinking that the church and its ministry depend on us, we can easily become prideful and self-serving. Does the Lord delight when we give to meet the financial needs of the church? Of course he does. Does God love to see you and me work hard to see mission and ministry happen? Yes, of course.

But God is not dependent on us to accomplish his purposes. The Lord does invite us to participate in his plans and it is a good thing when you and I discover, develop and use his gifts for ministry and life together in the church. But God is not sitting in heaven, biting his nails, wondering if we will give and go. If you do not give and if I do not serve, God will find others to delight in his mission.

Someone has rightly said that the church is just one generation from extinction, and if the Lord is not on our side we will be devoured and drowned. The good news, the great news is that God is for us. As the apostle Paul says, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also graciously give us all things? For I am convinced that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (see Romans 8:28-39).

II. What Did Happen (vs. 6-8)

What might have happened didn’t. What did happen did. On this Palm Sunday morning we see Jesus enter Jerusalem resolutely to go to the cross to demonstrate the eternal extent of his love for us.

“Praise be to the Lord,” sings the psalm. “We have escaped. The snare has been broken. Our help is in the name of the Lord.” This is exactly what the crowd was shouting and hoping as Jesus came to them. “Hosanna! (it means ‘Help! Save us!”). Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!”

There is a thematic connection between Psalm 124 and Psalm 123. There the psalmist cries for mercy and waits (remember last week’s sermon on patience). Here the psalmist and Israel have received mercy and bless the merciful one. The Lord their God stepped in and all was changed. They were set free.

I have to admit my fear that God might not come through for me. Ithas been an inhibition in my Christian life. It has often kept me from sharing my faith directly with people for fear that they have not interest or will reject me or will just never respond. It has sometimes kept me from going and laying hands on the sick and praying for them for fear that they would not be healed.

How about you? If the Lord is on your side, what keeps you from responding in the boldness of faith and trust that will open the door to God’s amazing work in your life and for the people he has entrusted to your care?

Conclusion

“Do you engage in hazardous work?” You bet you are, if you are living as a Christian in this world. But God is on your side! Every day you will put your faith on the line. Although you and I have never seen God, we persist in making the Lord Jesus the center of our lives. In a world where nearly everything can be weighed, explained, quantified, subjected to psychological analysis and scientific control, I still trust in God, the one “no eye has seen, nor ear has heard, whose will no one can challenge or change. That’s a risk and it can be hazardous.

This holy week, you and I can put hope on the line. We don’t know one thing about the future. There may be sickness, trouble, difficulties, tragedy or even catastrophe. But God is for us. Nothing will separate us from his love. And every day we can put that love on the line. Jesus risked it all. And look what it got him – death and resurrection. Even without Christ, all of us, every human being will get death. But with him, those who trust in him, who risk faith, hope and love will get resurrection.

“If the Lord had not been on our side… Praise be to the Lord… the snare has been broken… Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!” In Jesus Christ we have been saved, we are being saved, we will be saved.                       

Let us pray together.