SHOUT for JOY; IT’s JESUS
Psalm 118: 1,2 & 19-29
LUKE 19: 28-40
APRIL 13, 2025 – PALM SUNDAY
Every year … every year since I was probably 9 or 10, I have tried to imagine the scene of Palm Sunday. On my trip to the Holy Land just before my fellow pastors and I began the slow descent down the roadway of the Mount of Olives towards Jerusalem from its crest in Bethpage I was trying to envision the moment and as many of you have heard before, ironically an Arab gentleman was seen tying his donkey to a post at the top of the hill before our assembly of clergy of all denominations slowly walked together on the path Jesus took that day …
You see, as a Christian … as boy, a teenager, a young adult and then later as a pastor … I have wanted so much to be able to go back in time to see that specific crowd … watch them place their coats along the graveled descending road … and then see them waving their palms … and yes, I wanted to hear them SHOUT FOR JOY because Jesus was there in front of them!!
Amidst all the storms that this world can produce … amidst all the chaos and stress that can inflict our lives … every Holy season … when we reach the conclusive few days of Holy Week … I always try to focus in on this glorious parade … the momentary apparent universal acceptance and welcoming of Jesus Christ. I can almost hear the voices looking out …”There He is … that’s Jesus!! Hey Jesus look at me!! Jesus, I love You!”
We can read of the necessary and truly reactive response from those of us who believe and love Jesus throughout the Psalms … ‘GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD because His faithful love lasts forever. Let the faithful shout out … ‘GOD’s FAITHFUL LOVE LASTS FOREVER!!’ God’s Faithful love … lasts forever.’ The very last words of the Psalms are, “Let every living thing praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!”
And friends I believe that we are able to connect the dots to God’s everlasting love and experience it if … and when … we are willing … when we have a free enough spirit … to shout for joy because of God’s loving gift to the human race … Jesus Christ! Praising the Lord is a connection to our sensation of joy … shouting joyfully is perhaps the ultimate praise although I could add dancing with joy, creating art with joy, singing JOY TO THE WORLD, and especially joyfully embracing all of our neighbors with love … Christians … the faithful followers of Jesus need to understand that joy and praise are essential elements to maintaining our God connection throughout our lives … that joy and praise does occur when we allow God to restore our souls.
And, when others see our passion for the God of creation … when others hear the excited joy in our voices when we reference Jesus … don’t you think that they too will want to change their direction leaving the world’s divisions behind for the unity of God’s love?
It was on Palm Sunday that Jesus’ ministry came to a resounding conclusion of celebration amongst those who were there in Jerusalem for the Passover. Days before the power-focused religious leaders made their evil deals … the crowd was focused on one thing … SHOUTING JOY for JESUS.
Friends reached out to friends … families hurried in the early hours to get to the hill … moms and dads encouraging their children to get up front because this was their chance … this was their opportunity … this might be that one moment to experience Jesus up close and personal and you would hate to miss out on that … you might not be here tomorrow to take Jesus on totally and completely and with joy and love.
Wouldn’t you have hurried to be there … I mean think about it church … if you were aware of God’s incredible gift of love in Jesus Christ … WOULDN’T YOU … want to get up close and experience Jesus with shouts of joy and to reflect the love in your hearts as a response to God’s gift. Just let the world know how fortunate you are to have Jesus.
These folks did just that … they hurried to the hillside and then once in their position as they looked across the valley to the Temple in Jerusalem …. perhaps some started shouting the words we heard from the psalmist today hoping to catch some “Jesus fever” … – “OPEN THE GATE of RIGHTEOUSNESS so I CAN COME IN!”
Is that a question or a request that you make of God friends. In the moments that you are joyfully celebrating God’s love for you personally through Jesus Christ … and of course for the rest of us too … are you asking … maybe even pleading with God … “OPEN THE GATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS SO I CAN COME IN.”
Earlier this week I shared once again my favorite verse with Janet Brown … we both smiled as I said, ‘Paul felt it was so important to experience joy in faith that he wrote these words in two of his letters that we have in our Bible, which makes you wonder how often he used them in sermons and in letters of his that were never discovered …
“REJOICE IN THE LORD … ALWAYS … again, I say it REJOICE!!” Of course Paul also wrote to the Romans, “Be joyful in hope and faithful in prayer!”
So what exactly is joy … and do we shout for joy or with joy.
I tried to do some research as to how many songs exist with the word joy in them. The answer I found was the simplistic 50+ popular songs with joy in the title. Some of these I knew but others are perhaps worthy of a Spotify playlist … there’s Stevie Ray Vaughn’s ‘Pride and Joy’ … Anita Baker’s ‘You Bring Me Joy’ … The Dave Matthew’s’ Band’s ‘Oh Joy Begin’ … DeCe Winans’ ‘I’ve Got Joy’ … of course there is ‘Joyful, Joyful, We Adore You’ by a wide variety of singers … and that all time classic “[1]Jeremiah was a bull frog was a good friend of mine I never understood a single word he said but I helped him drink his wing … and he always had some mighty fine wine singin’ JOY TO THE WORLD …”
I loved that song … singing joy to the world ALL the boys and girls now … Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea JOY TO YOU AND ME.”
And, so it brings us back full circle to joy. The ripples on a pond when you toss a stone across it … watching a puppy wag its tail when it sees a person it loves … actually we truly witness joy in our pets all the time …
I saw joy yesterday in the simplicity of my son-in-law showcasing new hot sauces that he and Colleen had just purchased. He knows I love hot sauces, and you should have seen Ryan’s glow of joy … so much more than a smile as he walked me towards the kitchen telling me the entire time about their adventure in the hot sauce store. He slowly unwrapped each bottle from the paper protecting the sauce … he described the sauces and knowingly took two spoons from the drawer … and opened the first bottle and poured some onto my spoon and then onto his. He smiled this huge smile of joy when I told him … I already own the one bottle he bought yesterday and yes, like him, I love the sauce too. In a moment of shared joy, we tasted the blend of flavors and smiled with and at each other. JOY … and then we repeated the joy again.
So, are you reaching and unwrapping the joy of your faith … are you showcasing your joy in a way that gets others to want to share in it with you?
As we enter this Holy Week … I think it is essential for our focus to return to discovering and living the joy of our faith that we discovered in those earliest moments of connection with God. Yes, to be almost child-like in how we live out our faith … Matthew quotes Jesus saying, “What I am about to tell you is true. You need to change and become like little children. If you don’t … you won’t see the Kingdom of heaven.”
Kids know how to release joyful energy without second thought and embarrassment. Kids know how to shout and run with joy … kids … remember the joy of being a child … are you ready to be a CHILD of GOD …
This friends … is a day of opportunity … it is a day when you and I can actually take these palms with us wherever we go on our day’s journey and you can display them in our car or your home or your place of work opening up an opportunity to tell others with JOY … that PALM SUNDAY 2025 is the day of the Lord and that you responded by REJOICING and BEING GLAD IN IT!”
The season of Lent is almost over for another year and I pray that you have focused in on getting personal with God this season. If you have … if you sense God’s love more than you did back in January in your personal life then you should be ready to SHOUT FOR JOY because of Jesus.
When you have joy in your faith … frankly that is good for your emotional wellness and sanity; you’ll have peace that goes beyond human understanding.
When you can shout for joy for Jesus it will open up the doors to have loving interactions with other people; you know loving your neighbors as Jesus loved.
And, today on Palm Sunday … if you can imagine that Jesus is walking right before you like I can … then you will be effectively prepared for Easter’s reality, which is our acceptance of God’s love through Jesus Christ not merely in words but through our spirit and soul. Easter celebrations are coming but we already know the loving truth of God … Jesus Christ is RISEN <<HE IS RISEN INDEED>>. Friends, Joy to the World the Lord has come …. It was good to hear your shouts of joy …. Keep them coming!