I want to speak for a little while tonight, by the help of God, from these few words in the last verse—“And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.”
We read quite a lot, and see what is termed “Palm Sunday.” There is much singing, going to church, and then after the business is over, about lunch time, we see the people hurrying home with a little bit of palm in their hands. There is nothing wrong in that, but it seems to me that the significant part of Palm Sunday, the deepest part of it, the part that is most striking, did not occur in the morning at all. Indeed all those events through the day are secondary to that which went on when night was coming on.
We have here a demonstration of the exceptional deceitfulness and unstableness of men and their emotions. If there is any passage in the Bible that should make us hesitant in accepting emotional people on their face value, on short acquaintance, or on one demonstration, it is this one. If we knew nothing else of the word of God we would assume that when Jesus went into Jerusalem He was received as a prophet. That He was received with great joy, and that would be true, but we know the events that followed. We know that that same City, those same people, those individuals who under the stress of religious emotion cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest,” did under the stress and power of a different emotion cry out “Crucify Him, Crucify Him.”
We also see that it did not affect the Lord Jesus very much. He knew their depth; He knew how near He was to running ashore that day. When night came on He showed them that He did not trust them for He left them and went out into Bethany and lodged there. We might wonder why someone did not open their door to Him in the midst of all that welcome. A place among friends, but that does not happen somehow. Jesus turns from all that and goes to the quiet town of Bethany. He goes to a place where He had known comfort, friendship, love, loyalty, and praise God, a place where He could have companionship; a place where they were only too willing to use their hands for His few needs. There was a choice made that day as we see Jesus stand there. He could have chosen to ring in with those who were making a noise. He could have chosen to stay around Jerusalem and worked up the emotion more during the night, possibly, but He did not do that. He turned His back on Jerusalem that night as the shadows were falling, and went where He could trust people. He could not trust those at Jerusalem for all their loud noises. He could not trust them and the events of the next week proved that His distrust was rightly placed. He realized they were about to kill Him. He realized that He could have no rest or peace there.
There is certainly a lesson here…….a real lesson. Jerusalem stood then for education, for religion. People came from miles to go to Jerusalem and when they went there they were filled with a religious emotion. An emotion that raised them out of the commonplace of life, and when they went to Jerusalem they wanted to see something done. They wanted to get something for their money and trouble, and these who were there at that time, were there under a stress of religious emotion and were ready for anything.
This desire to go places where there is a demonstration of any kind is not dead today. Some religions urge their adherents to make pilgrimages to holy places. The Mohammedans go to Mecca, or to the tomb of the prophet at Medina. These poor people will take their life’s savings to go once on this pilgrimage and then afterward they are ready to die.
We see it in South America. They make pilgrimages to certain places. We see it in the United States. People go to certain places to have a glorious good time. In these places, whether the religion be Christian, Catholic, along the lines that we believe, or Mohammedan, or any other, you may be sure that people after traveling so far will be pretty well keyed up during the time they are there.
But, Jesus paid little attention to any of it. He did not care how far they came, or what trouble they went to, He knew their depths. He sounded them out. He saw the palms, the leaves and flowers strewn in His way. He saw it all, but turned quietly aside, and went to Bethany. What a contrast to Jerusalem, a place that is known the world over! A city that is noted for many things, particularly, for religion. It is one of the great cities of the world, yet when it came to choosing, Jesus turned to humble Bethany, a place little known, but a place where Jesus felt most at home. It was not because He liked the climate any better, or because He thought the city was better, but because He found loving hearts there, willing hands to help Him.
As we come to Palm Sunday today, we still find it in the hearts of men and women to make a show. If not to have a pilgrimage, that is not done a great deal around Baltimore, but it is dressing up. It is getting ready; a freshening up time, etc. It is a fixing up and preparing for what men call “Holy Week.” We see the palm again. We see the events are about the same as usual, and possibly some religious fervor or at least what stands for it today. I believe the Lord Jesus is still looking for the deep-seated love and devotion that there was at Lazarus’s house. The willingness to do the humble things. I do not read of Lazarus, Mary or Martha meeting Him with palm branches and yelling “Hosanna to the Son of David,” and spreading their clothes in the way so He could walk over them. That was not their way. Their way was to prepare Him a room; to make Him comfortable for the night; to fix Him a meal after His journey; to do the humble things that He needed, because Jesus then, as now, was interested in those persons who did the things that He needed done and not interested in those who did as they pleased and expected Him to accept them. He did not need those “Hosannas”. Prophecy had to be fulfilled, but He needed a place to rest. He was coming to the hardest time in His life, a time when He needed friends.
He approached the humble home-like atmosphere of Bethany, and I believe we can in our experience see what kind of persons we are and what kind of persons the others are. Many people get their reputation of being great because they are great with their lips; on occasions they can wave palms; they can put on a good exhibition, but when the Son of God or the Holy Spirit comes to deal, they are out of the picture. When the revival is in full sway they can give a good exhibition of great welcomers of the Lord Jesus, but He needs the hidden away ones in small, humble places doing humble things, rather than running with the crowd for the latest thrill.
I believe these people would have cried “Hosanna” to most anything. They were that kind of people. There are thousands today waiting for an opportunity to give vent to their emotions and if one assembly will not supply the necessary floor space, or, if they do not like their kind of music, or their demonstrations they will go to another. I do not believe that type of person advances the kingdom of God or their own lives. You do not see any of this in Mary, Martha or Lazarus. Those “Hosanna jumpers” go on for ten years or more, and they are as hollow as a drum when they start and are just as hollow when they stop. The Lord Jesus does not trust them.
We had better measure our experience more about what God thinks. I am not so much interested as to what I think of myself or what people think of me. In certain moments I think too well of myself; in other moments perhaps I do not think well enough, but it will not make any difference what I think of myself, but it makes a lot of difference what God thinks. It does not make much difference what people think. There are some who may think too much of us, and others who may not think enough. It makes no difference—the ones who give us more credit cannot help us, and those who give less cannot hurt us, but WHAT DOES GOD THINK? Ah, we can tell. When God honors us, believes us, He will trust us with something. Jesus will trust us with something. Jesus did not trust these people. He did not stay overnight with them, but He went with those He could trust. There was something ready for Him to eat, a bed to lie down on, a comfortable place for Him.
So it is with our lives. Many make a show or religion. They may stand in the pulpit, they may sit in the pews. They may do many things in the church. They may be deacons or elders, but that does not mean that God trusts them. Man can give them that position. God does trust some, and the men and women whom He trusts He gives something to do. It may seem so small that people might say, “Well it doesn’t seem God would bother with that.” Well, Jesus forsook the temple and all the find things in order to come back to the town of Bethany so that He could accept the simple hospitality of Mary, Martha and Lazarus.
What type of person will you be? You will either be a “palm waver”, or a person whom God can trust; an humble, unobtrusive one; that is how God works. He does not work with a mighty trumpet sounding the way. He does not put people on a pinnacle, but He wants us to go, to yield, work for it and He will trust us with something. In that way you will find more of His approval upon you than all the “Hosannas” and “Glory to God’s” and all the rest of the business of Palm Sunday.
I know what I am talking about. There was a time I did not know, but I believe I have waited upon God long enough until He has been able to show me His way. Not all those who say, “Lord, Lord” will receive His best. You can be as loud as the next one but if you do not live a pure life underneath God will not trust you. If you are not trusted, it will be of your own fault. You may be able to preach, but God will not send you. God does not trust the rasping cry of Jerusalem. God trusts and honors the quiet love and devotion of Bethany. Hallelujah! The hidden away place, the small place, thank God! This Jerusalem killed the prophets, and yet even with Jerusalem, Jesus was not bitter. As He went out of the City He wept over it and said, “Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I would have gathered you as a hen gathers her brood, but ye would not.”
There comes to every man and woman the opportunity, and God says, “Come under my wings. I will reveal to you what I would have you do.” He starts you off quietly, humbly, but many people will not do it. The voice of God is drowned in a great surge of emotion, of fleshly work showing a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. It is drowned until at last God’s Son goes away and looks back and says, “But ye would not.”
Many today, I believe, go through the motions of doing something for God with heavy hearts, at least, with hard ones. There is a message here for you and for me. Is Go trusting us with anything? Is God giving us anything to do? Is He putting upon us some small responsibility? No matter how small a thing it is, it is a sign of God’s approval. Far more than your testimony, your talk, or your demonstration, is the sign of God’s approval when He says to you regarding just a small thing, “Do that for Me.”
It is wonderful to be a messenger of the King; to be in the King’s service and everyone should be in it. There is something about royalty that commands respect. We respect it even on the earth. Those who are close to the king are honored, and if they go on the king’s business, a fine ship takes them; they are treated well, they come home in the very best manner and are treated with the greatest respect until the business is finished.
Our King rode into Jerusalem that day, through the shouts of a spectacular mob. He was not fooled by it. He realized how soon those same lips that cried “Hosanna” would turn and say “Crucify Him.” It is surprising how soon people’s lips that have sung the praises of God, have testified, possibly spoken in tongues, supposedly of the Holy Ghost, can turn and allow themselves to be used for quite another purpose. How many times does this happen? God help us not to rest on emotionalism. I am not against it if God is in it, but too many people are satisfied with a surface something that God does not honor and never trusts. These people who live on the surface can give you a good argument from top to bottom, but God does not trust them with anything worthwhile and if you watch their lives for awhile, you will find it is for a good reason.
Self will wave the palm; self will cry “Hosanna”, but self will not do the humble thing. Self will be too busy. While the crowd was crying and shouting out, those women in Bethany were making a place for Jesus quietly. They were preparing something for Him, for His coming. They knew He would be tired and weary. We are too busy sometimes, supposedly, to do great things that in reality are small. We are too busy to do something definite that will be a start in our crown sometimes. I would rather have a small genuine diamond than a big piece of glass, but the world runs more to glass than to diamonds. People think more of palms that quiet places of devotion and trust.
There is a difference between this “Hosanna” crying like they did in Jerusalem that day than the rejoicing in the Holy Spirit. The rejoicing in the Holy Ghost is a holy thing. There are ways of worshipping God in the Holy Spirit, but there are other ways of hollering “Hosanna” in a shallow way, with palms in our hands. There are ways of doing this without making an outward demonstration; without doing a thing and not opening the mouth. There are ways of dressing up, sitting with the saints of God, nodding the head to everything that is said, but in the heart there is not the slightest idea of obeying. I believe some people put on a front as these people put on this demonstration. They approve of everything, but in their hearts have no idea of doing them. I know of people—great talkers, approve of everything. They have such a thick skin it seems the word never gets through. They nod their heads and leave the assembly the same old way apparently, with no intention of ever changing.
Again we see this same spirit, not necessarily a loud one, but a bluff, a spectacle that Jesus turns from. They bluff people sometimes but God is not mocked, and He will not send on an errand a man or woman who simply has on a front. God is interested in hearts—not in fronts. I would God, that everyone of us, and I believe we are in a measure on the way to it, be willing to live in Bethany; let the something that attracts the thousands be where it may, but let us wait on our Lord. We are not fit to do great things. If we were, we would be doing them. The reason we are not doing great things is not that He has a prejudice against us, but it is because we do not measure up to do them, and we might as well see it. We might as well stop building air castles, and start doing the small things that we can. It is far better for a woman to wash clothes that she can do, than to preach a sermon that she cannot. One amounts to something, and the other does not.
The true message of Palm Sunday was not in the morning with the palms, and shouts and noise, but in the night, in the quiet and rest of Bethany. There are two parts to this message. The one part when the people thought, “Here comes the prophet.” The other part of what Jesus thought when we read, “At even He left them.” What a pity! What a pity some people go on through a lifetime with their sham and bluff and think they will bluff it through at the end of life, but when they have bluffed their last bluff, they will reach out and find the One that they made game of will not be there.
God help us to see that the Lord Jesus will leave us if we are shallow. He does not stay with those who are not sincere. Let us take this Palm Sunday message home with us. Let us not live in the midst of the noise and hollow hosannas, but let us live in a place where we are doing some humble thing for Christ’s sake and His sake alone.
We have seen our Sister who is on the field—there was no task too humble for her to do. She did not seek a great place. She sought the small place, the humble one, and therefore God has trusted her to do something for Him. I would rather see this one trusted to go on that holy errand for God than anything else. It proves that Jesus trusts her.
There are others here, praise God, it may be and it should be that everyone of us should be doing something for the Lord Jesus. Gideon’s men were those who would stand in the darkness with strange weapons. We are coming to a day of darkness when emotionalism will not take us through. Only those who are willing to go through for Christ’s sake will stand the test. It gives me joy to know that in the midst of a world that is turning away from Jesus there are places that He can go in. Today, in the midst of a worldly church and a sinful world there are still places where He is welcome. There are some still willing to put themselves out to do some humble thing for the Lord Jesus. Let us remember Palm Sunday by Bethany rather than by Jerusalem. Let us not try to be like the inhabitants of Jerusalem with the noise and shallowness, but by the power of the Holy Spirit let us be willing to live in the humble place. Let us not strive for the great place, but let us set our hearts towards the quiet place—the place Jesus loved and found comfort in. Amen!
