Prayer: Come Holy Spirit, come.  Take my lips and speak with them.  Take our minds and think with them.  Take our hearts and set them on fire with love for you.  In Christ’s name we ask it.  Amen

Jesus and his disciples are on the outskirts of a small town named Bethany just a few short miles from Jerusalem.  They have almost reached the end of their long journey—a journey that began many miles and many days before in the district of Galilee.  However, for Jesus, the journey will not end at Bethany, instead for Jesus the journey will end a little further down the road outside the walls of Jerusalem on the hardwood of a Roman cross.  The name Jerusalem means “foundation of peace” which is ironic when you consider how Jesus’ life ends.

Looking over the town lying before them, Jesus says to two of the disciples, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden.  Untie it and bring it here.”  He continues, “If anyone asks you, ‘Why you are untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’”  And, so the disciples depart.  When they enter the town they find the colt just as Jesus said.  As they begin to untie it, the owner approaches and asks, “Why are you untying the colt?”  The disciples respond, “The Lord needs it.”

Enough said.  The name speaks for itself.  “The name above all names”—the Lord.  The owner steps back giving his approval and the two disciples depart with the colt.  Names have power.

Few people understand the marketing value of a name better than those in the sports and entertainment industries.  That's why we'll see Demi Moore in the movies but not Demetria Guynes.  We’ll cheer Tiger Woods on in the Masters next weekend and not Eldrick Woods.  It's why we listen to Sting, but not Gordon Matthew Sumner.  And we'll watch Jennifer Aniston on reruns of Friends, but not Jennifer Anistonapoulos.  Names have power and marketing executives have figured out how to make the most out of them.
 
If we are going to be honest with ourselves, we all must admit that at one time or another, we have thrown a name around to get something or somewhere we want.  I remember well one sunny, spring afternoon I spent shopping with my mother on Canal Street in New York City.  The street was crowded with hundreds of avid shoppers like us.  People were carrying shopping bags full of purses bearing names like Gucci, Kate Spade, and Louis Vouton, not one was real.  I returned to the hotel that evening with a brand new Monte Blanc pen—a perfect knock off.  Why would anyone buy fake designer purses or fake designer pens for that matter, the name of course?  Names have power. 

Jesus enters Jerusalem triumphantly.  His followers and all those who have heard of the Galilean miracle worker carry palm branches and shout, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”  The crowd is cheering Jesus for his message of love and all the wonders he has worked in the name of God.  The great mob of people is crying out for a leader, a messiah, a king.  But is this all that is really going on?  Is this truly a triumphant entry?  Why does Jesus ride into Jerusalem, on this day, on the back of a colt or as other Gospels report a donkey?  Have you ever wondered why a donkey?  To fulfil an Old Testament prophecy, maybe?  Roman emperors rode in ornate horse drawn chariots as they entered Rome after military Triumph.  Perhaps you have watched a state function in England.  The royal family always rides in a shinning carriage adorned in flowers and gold.  The carriage is pulled by a team of perfectly groomed stallions.  But the one on whom God bestowed, “The name which is above every name,” the name at which “every knee should bow and every tongue confess” entered Jerusalem, entered his city on this very day, on the back of an ass. 

Perhaps you have heard of the word palimpsest.  This word refers to a time in previous centuries when paper was a tremendous expense and writing letters was the only form of communication over any distance.  In order to conserve paper, letter writers would fill a page with text and then rotate it 45 degrees and fill the page again over the existing script.  This saved a tremendous amount of paper—though it made reading difficult. 

Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday is sort of palimpsest.  The triumphal entry of the King of Creation into the holy city of Jerusalem is written on top of another text, which bears a story of humility and violence.  Jesus enters Jerusalem not to attend his enthronement or a banquet in his honor but instead he enters the city to die humbly, hanging on a cross.  Within three days of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he would enter the temple to drive out the parasitic moneychangers who were feeding off the resources of those who wished to honor God.  He would denounce the religious leadership of his people.  And he would say that he could destroy the Temple that had taken 40 years to create and rebuild it again in three days.  In a very short period of time, Jesus is alienated completely from the public and the religious leadership.  Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday like a king behind the cheers of the same people who would only days later cry out crucify him, crucify him, just as we did moments ago.  A 180-degree turn around in a matter of days.

The name Jesus means literally “he will save.”  Through his death and resurrection, Jesus has the power to save us from sin and death.  Power indeed.  But, this was not the power that the people expected or desired that cheered Jesus on during his entry into Jerusalem.  They were looking for a Messiah who would restore Israel to its former greatness.  They wanted a king in the grand tradition of David who would throw off the yoke of Roman oppression.  They wanted the lion of Judah, but they got a sacrificial lamb.  Jesus did not come to conquer and build an earthly kingdom; instead, he came to plant a heavenly one—a kingdom sown in humility, peace, and love.  Jesus’ power was perfected in the powerlessness he demonstrated on the cross.

There is still plenty of confusion today that surrounds the figure and name of Jesus.  As a part of today's Palm Sunday crowd, we have to wonder: What power does the name Jesus have for us?  For some, he is not much more than a self-help guru.  For others, he is an enlightened teacher and a wise man.  For others, he is a means to receive earthly power and prosperity.  For still others, he is a liberation leader, or a cosmic king, or a compassionate friend.  None of these are adequate descriptions of the man revealed to us in scripture.  If the Jesus we praise today is anything less than a Savior, then we have lost sight of who he is and what his mission was all about.

Jesus came in the name of the Lord God with the power to save us.  While our wallets may be full, our spiritual pocket books could be empty.  We may be without even one person we can say truly loves us.  We may be utterly, hopelessly bored.  We may sense there is no moral foundation in our lives.  We or someone we love may be very, very ill.  We are a world that is in more ways than one at war.  While our science and technology has reached unimaginable heights, we cannot escape the threat of terror; we cannot eradicate the problem of hunger and poverty; we cannot cure the common cold; we cannot rid the world of evil; and we cannot avoid the inevitability of our own death. 

There is much from which we need to be saved.  Names have power.  The name Jesus has the power to save us from all of this—even death.  Now that’s power.  What does the name Jesus mean to you?  Amen.

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