Palm Sunday - 22 Feb 1964

In the days when Americans kept Negro slaves, there was an American farmer by the name of John Brown. If you have read the book ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ you will know how cruelly those slaves were sometimes treated. John Brown had been brought up to hate slavery. There were a number of Americans who sympathised with the Negroes and helped them to run away to Canada where they could be free. There was a chain of houses in the country where the runaway slaves were hidden and passed on by night until they reached Canada, where they could be free. John Brown grew up to be a farmer. All through his business days he was laying plans to win freedom for the slaves. When he was fifty years old he devoted his whole time to the task of setting free the Negro slaves. He was engaged in various activities to give protection to the slaves. He had an armed camp of refuge in the mountains. In the struggle of fighting against slavery he had to give up his life. It looked as though he had failed in his attempts to help the slaves.

But this famous chorus rang through the land: ‘John Brown’s body lies mouldering in the grave, but his soul goes marching on.’ ‘Mouldering’ means ‘decaying to dust’. John Brown’s body is decaying to dust in the grave, but his soul is marching on. John Brown is dead, but the cause for which he gave up his life is not dead, but is still alive. So it happened that not long afterwards slavery was abolished in the country. Many people fought for the cause for which John Brown had died and freedom was won for the slaves.

History is full of heroic stories of men who sacrificed themselves for others. But this will remind us of the noblest sacrifice of all: Jesus came into the world to bring men to a knowledge of God, and to draw them into a closer fellowship with him. In teaching men a new doctrine and a new way of life, he naturally came to clash with the ecclesiastical authorities of his day. The opposition went on growing from day to day, and finally Jesus knew that the time had come for him to come out into the open, and challenge them whatever the consequences might be. This is Palm Sunday when we are reminded of the triumphal entry of our Lord into Jerusalem. Everyone knew, and Jesus himself knew, that to come to Jerusalem for that Passover Feast was quite literally to take his life in his hands.

But in the last week he seemed to welcome danger. It was in that last week when He cleansed the Temple, that He spoke his terrible denunciation of the Pharisees. He spoke the parable of the wicked Husbandman which was a severe condemnation of the Jewish people. All these things were a challenge which the authorities could not ignore. And He began it all with the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday.

It is very easy to misunderstand the Triumphal Entry. It is easy to look on it with our modern point of view; as an act of utter humility. But it was more than that. It was a deliberately dramatised claim to be a king. In those days the ass was not the despised beast which it is today. It was only in war that a king rode upon a horse; in peace he came to his subjects riding on an ass. When Jesus entered Jerusalem as He did, it was a deliberate claim to be Messiah and king. It was in accepting Jesus as the Messiah and king that the people would come to a knowledge of God, and of His love, and be drawn to Him. So Jesus comes out openly with His claim as the Messiah and King. He enters Jerusalem knowing fully well that death was inevitable. He knew that He had to die in order that the cause for which He came to earth might prosper. His death seemed to put an end to His mission and His work, and life seemed to be a failure. But today as we look back on the 2000 years we can say how His death on the cross has been not a defeat, but a victory. As a result of his death the peoples of the world have been brought to a knowledge of God and of His love, and drawn into fellowship with Him.

The death of John Brown did not put an end to the fight for the freedom of the slaves. In fact it shored up people to fight more vigorously than ever before. Thousands of people fought for the cause for which John Brown died, and American slavery was swept out of existence. The heroic death of Jesus has had similar effects on all people throughout these 2000 years. What effect is it going to have on us? Let us think a great deal about the death of Christ this week. Let us do what so many Americans did after the death of John Brown, and pledge ourselves to fight our hardest till the cause for which Christ died is at last victorious.

As Jesus rode into Jerusalem claiming to be the Messiah and King, He comes riding into our lives bidding us make him King. Let us submit to His claim, for only in that submission do we find our freedom, and only in doing His will, do we find our peace. The glory of man is not in independence, but in submission to God through Jesus Christ.