The world has gone after Jesus. Will you?

Sermon for Palm Sunday

John 12:12-26

Once again we’ve commemorated Jesus’ Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem with a procession and with palm branches. I think you all know the significance of this day, why we celebrate it. I think you know where Jesus was going on Friday of that Holy Week, and why, and what it means to follow Him. But no one in that first Palm Sunday crowd knew any of that.

As for Jesus’ disciples, they fetched the donkey, as Jesus instructed them, and they watched the ride, but John tells us they didn’t put it together with Zechariah’s prophecy until later. They didn’t know where Jesus was really going, or why. Still, they went after Him, because they had come to know Him and believe in Him as the Christ who had come from God to save them—whatever that meant.

Then there were the multitudes who waved their palm branches and sang their Hosannas with joy as Jesus rode into Jerusalem. But they didn’t know where Jesus was really going, or why. Still they went after Jesus, because, as John tells us, they had heard of this great resurrection miracle Jesus had recently performed on Lazarus, who lived just outside the city of Jerusalem, whose raising was especially astonishing, because, unlike the other two people whom Jesus had raised—the daughter of Jairus and the young man of Nain—this miracle was witnessed by many, and Lazarus had been, if you’ll permit the phrase, “good and dead.” The other two had died the same day, or, at most, the day before. But Lazarus had already been dead and buried for three days when Jesus called him out of the tomb. They wanted to see Jesus for the miracles that He had done, and might do.

We’re told in John’s Gospel that certain Greeks were also there in Jerusalem, Greeks who had converted to the Jewish faith and who wanted to see Jesus. They didn’t know where Jesus was really going, or why. Still they went after Him, hoping that, even though they weren’t Abraham’s children according to the flesh, He might be the promised Christ who would remove the barrier between Jew and Gentile and make a single Holy Christian Church out of all the nations.

So many people had gone after Jesus that it infuriated His enemies, the Pharisees, who wanted nothing to do with Him, who wished He would just go away. “You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!” Well, they were about to go after Him, too, not to praise Him, not to worship Him, not to seek instruction from Him, but to kill Him.

For this reason, or for that reason, and usually for the wrong reason, we might say that the world has gone after Jesus. The question for today is, Will you? And if so, why? And for what? And what does it even mean to go after Him? These are pressing questions that need answering, and they’re especially appropriate for the day on which our two young confirmands will give their own answers to those questions.

Where was Jesus going? He was going to the cross. Zechariah’s prophecy about Christ the King riding into Jerusalem on a donkey was one of the most notable and obvious fulfillments of Old Testament prophecy pointing directly at Jesus as the Christ. That prophecy from Zechariah made the Christ look like a victorious conqueror, and yet also a humble one, a lowly one who would bring salvation to His people. But many prophecies, including prophecies from the same prophet Zechariah, also pointed to the Christ as a suffering Servant who would be rejected by the people of Israel and who would be put to death by them. We’ll be reviewing some of those prophecies later this week.

Jesus had already revealed to His disciples many times where He was going, that He was going to the cross. He reveals it to them yet again in today’s Gospel. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.

That brings us to the reason why Jesus was going where He was going. Why was Jesus the Christ going to “fall into the ground and die” like a grain of wheat? Why was He going to the cross? He was doing it, so that by His death, He might rise out of the ground again and grow into a stalk that produces much grain. Or, using a different analogy, that He might be a vine that would produce many branches.

You see, there is no life apart from Christ. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All have earned death and eternal condemnation for their sins. All begin life already dead, already trapped in the devil’s kingdom. But Jesus, who is not only true man, but also true God, would suffer the full penalty for the sins of the world and would give His life on the cross, to make atonement for every wicked thing we’ve ever done and for the evil people we are by nature. He is the righteous One who gave His life for the unrighteous. And now God the Father offers the life of His Son to all people. Repent of your sins! Be grafted into Christ by faith! And so receive the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life. That’s how Christ produces much grain as a result of His death, by bringing many people into His body through faith, so that He shares His righteousness, His sonship, His life with all who are joined to Him.

So what does it mean to go after Him—to go after Him in the right way, in the way that leads to life? To go after Him means, first and foremost, to repent and to believe in Him and to be baptized in His name. Most of you, maybe all of you here, have been baptized. Our two young confirmands were both baptized by me, right here at this baptismal font, Aiden 12 years ago, Lucas 13 years ago. You have begun to go after Jesus.

But going after Him is not a one-time thing, or a one-part-of-your-life thing. Being born to Christian parents, being baptized with a Christian baptism, spending your childhood going to Church and hearing God’s Word is a good beginning. But it’s only a beginning.

To go after Jesus also means continuing to hear His Word and study His Word, not because your parents tell you you have to, but because you know it’s God’s will, and that His words are your source of life. Lucas and Aiden, you’ve spent extra time over these last three years reading and studying the Word of Christ at home and in catechism class. But that’s still only a beginning.

To go after Jesus also means to “do this in remembrance of Him,” to regularly receive His true body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar as your special connection of the branch to the Vine or to the stalk of wheat that has sprung up from the earth in His glorious resurrection. Lucas and Aiden, you’ll begin to receive the Lord’s body and blood today. But that’s still only a beginning.

To go after Jesus also means to imitate Him in His kindness and compassion, to be like Him in showing love to others and in obeying God’s commandments. It means a life devoted to prayer and to sanctification, struggling against your sinful flesh and walking according to the Spirit, as the Spirit of God lives in you and strengthens you through Word and Sacrament.

To go after Jesus is a lifelong following. It has to be. Because if you follow Him for a time and then wander away, you’ll share the tragic end of Judas the betrayer. No, following Jesus means losing yourself, losing your earthly life, putting your friends after Jesus, putting your career after Jesus, putting Jesus ahead of your family, your comfort, your earthly happiness, your safety, even your very life. It means following Him all the way to the cross and bearing your cross with patience, even as Jesus did. As He said in today’s Gospel, He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.

The way of Jesus leads to the cross, not only for Him, but for you. It means being hated by the world, if you dare to confess Him before the world. But after the cross comes the resurrection. After death comes life. After dishonor comes the greatest honor of all, being honored by God the Father Himself, because you went after Jesus and stayed with Him for life.

The world has gone after Jesus. Will you? May God the Holy Spirit inspire all of you here today to do just that, to go after Jesus, in the right way and for the right reasons, all the way to the cross, and to the grave, and to the endless life that follows. Watch Him this week. Watch Him take on our enemies of sin, death, and the devil. Watch Him love you to His final breath, and then watch as He rises again and brings life and immortality to light. Amen.