The World Greets its Savior
Matthew 21:1-11
by Rev. Frank Schaefer

Can you imagine what it was like for Jesus entering into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey? Suddenly, spontaneously, people started to rip palm branches of the trees and shouted “Hosanna,” placing their coats in front of the donkey so that Jesus would ride into Jerusalme like a king.

He was greeted like a king even though he came so humbly riding in on a donkey and this, to me, is the moment, the one time, when the world acknowledged Jesus for who he was--the Messiah, the son of David. An astounding statement was made by humanity which acknowledges Jesus as God’s Savior of the world. They shouted praises to God, giving thanks for Jesus.

This is the only moment in which Jesus was ever treated that way by the world. Granted it was in Jerusalem and it was a particular ethnic and religious crowd, but people came to the Passover Feast from all over the world. This crowd was made up of people from many different countries and languages and backgrounds. They came to Jerusalem as pilgrims and so this event can be argued to be the moment when the world greeted their Messiah.

And think about it: it’s really the only one because just three days later the crowd shouted “crucify, crucify him.” A turnaround of events that leaves you scratching your head. Even after Jesus’ resurrection, he only appeared to a few of his followers.

So this is the moment in which Jesus was acknowledged by the world so much so that people who were by-standers said: “what is going on here?” The parade crowd answered: “this is the Prophet Jesus, the one from Nazareth in Galilee.”

God made it very clear to us in the Scriptures, such as in John 3:16 ( and we all know and love this passage, right?) “for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

It's so clear that God did this out of love for us; he sent His only Son out of love and deep care for us. God could have said: “okay this is it! Humanity messed up, I'm sending another flood.” But God did not do that. God could have drawn a line in the sand and said: “this is it!” but instead God was even willing to cross that line in a very, very personal way in order to reconcile us to Godself. I believe with all my heart that God will reconcile every single person on this earth to Godself.

Sadly, theologians through the ages have been very quick in putting limits on God's grace; they have been quick to say that God’s grace is not for everybody. Yes of course, they say, ideally, God would love for everybody to be reconciled, but that's just not going to happen. So, obviously there are going to be people that are going to be lost that will go to hell.

One of those theologians, John Calvin, believed in double predestination. Double predestination is a theological position in “Soteriology” that states that God has chosen a a group of elect persons. These people are predestined from before the foundation of the world to be saved. And, of course if you are making such a statement then what follows is that there is another group that is not elect and they were apparently predestined from the beginning of the world not to be saved. They were predestined for hell.

That to me is horrible theology. I'm sorry Mr. Calvin, but I just don't buy that; and as a good Methodist I shouldn't, because it was was John Wesley, the founder of United Methodism, who pointed to the very Verse I quoted earlier, namely John 3:16. He pointed out one word in that verse and that word is “whoever.” Whoever believes in Him! “Whoever” to John Wesley means that God intends everybody to be reconciled--everybody and anybody! In Wesley’s theology God's love stretches to all the world not just to some, not even “just” to the majority, but to every single one of God's children. We are all included!

Karl Barth, another well-known theologian, had an interesting contribution to make in this discussion. I don't particularly agree with all of his theology either, but there's one thing I really like about him. He was standing in the reformed tradition, in the Calvinistic tradition, so he had to come to terms with Calvin's theology on double predestination. He came up with a wonderful statement on this topic. He said:

God has determined through His Son as His image and as the first-born of the whole Creation to ‘reconcile all things to himself’ (cf. Colossians 1:19)…This much is certain, that we have no theological right to set any sort of limits to the loving-kindness of God which has appeared in Jesus Christ. Our theological duty is to see and understand it as being still greater than we had seen before.*

Some call Karl Barth a universalist because of this and similar statements he made. Honestly, I think if he is a universalist then I'm a universalist. I believe that in the end all of God's children will be saved and that God will reconcile all of creation to Godself. I cannot believe in in a God in a in a divine Parent who would reject any of His/Her children for eternity. For that reason, I’m struggling with the concept of, or the existence of hell as defined by orthodox Christian theology.

I truly believe God will reconcile all of creation. So, in a very real sense, Jesus is the Messiah of every single person in the history of the World. And that to me is the greatest news ever: that Jesus is the Savior of every single person who ever lived, lives now, and who will ever live in the future!

Jesus is the Savior of all the world. Whether people know Jesus or not doesn't actually matter at this point. All are chosen by God through Jesus. In the end they will know, but what’s so remarkable about God’s limitless love and grace is that absolutely everybody is chosen in and through Jesus Christ!

So, this passage of Jesus triumphal entry allows us to witness a truly historic moment. A moment when the world greeted their Messiah to acknowledge the truth of God’s great love and care for all of humanity. It is such a very special occasion, in fact, its the only occasion. This morning, we want to celebrate this amazing moment of revelation and acknowledgment. Let us chime in with the crowd and give thanks for God's amazing grace and love for all of God's children as focused in the person of Jesus Messiah. Let’s remember Jesus Messiah as we take communion, and as we partake, let us think about what this all means for us. Amen.

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*The Humanity of God, John Knox Press, 1960, pp. 61-2