On this Palm Sunday, as we approach Easter, do you sometimes feel a distance and detachment from Christ’s death and resurrection?
It was so long ago, it’s distant history. “How,” you ask, “can it have any impact on the present?” It was 2000 years ago, so what possible connection can that have with April 2020? How are the dusty streets of Jerusalem relevant in hi-tech Grand Rapids? Why is the single death of Christ more important than all the Coronavirus deaths put together?
Or, maybe the disconnect is more personal. It’s not just the question of how such distant history can have any connection with the present. It’s how does another person’s life, death, and resurrection connect with me? I read the biography of Christ, but how is that relevant to my own biography? In the age of TikTok and lockdowns, how does a naked, bloodied, and bruised body, hanging on a wooden cross outside Jerusalem, have any bearing on my life?
Do you sometimes feel that disconnect? Do you identify with this distance and detachment from Christ’s death and resurrection?
The Apostle Paul saw the Colossians suffer with this problem too and addressed it in Colossians 2:11-12. Let’s use these words to connect the past with the present, history with today, and Christ’s life, death, and resurrection with yours.
Whether the gap is six feet, six miles, or 2000 years, I want to close that gap to zero. I want to show you, child of God, that you died 2000 years ago. Indeed I want to show you that you were present on Palm Sunday.
For more, see my sermon notes. Scroll down a bit further and you’ll find a one-page sermon summary infographic. Index to other sermon notes here.
