Make Way, make way, for Christ the King

(Jn 12.20-26)

Things to bring

- Acetate of words that crowd shout out

- Acetates of faces (ACET01-005)

- 3 shoe boxes with the words WHO, ARE, YOU? written on them.

- Crown in first box

- Microwave Popcorn in second box

- Candle and matches in third box

- Microwave oven

- Palm crosses

- Prayers

Welcome and Introduction

Notices

Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessed is the King of Israel!

Song 167 Give me oil in my lamp

We ask God's forgiveness for our sins

God our Father, we come to you in sorrow for our sins.

For turning away from you, and ignoring your will for our lives;

Father forgive us: save us and help us.

For behaving just as we wish, without thinking of you;

Father forgive us: save us and help us.

For failing you by what we do, and think and say;

Father forgive us: save us and help us.

For letting ourselves be drawn away from you by temptations in the world about us;

Father forgive us: save us and help us.

For living as if we were ashamed to belong to your Son,

Father forgive us: save us and help us.

Absolution:

May the God of love

bring us back to himself

forgive us our sins

and assure us of his eternal love

in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,

who in your tender love towards mankind

sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ

to take upon him our flesh

and to suffer death upon the cross:

grant that we may follow the example

of his patience and humility,

and also be made partakers of his resurrection;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Setting the Scene

I want you to imagine what it must have been like on that first Palm Sunday.

Fist of all, imagine a crowd. Have you ever been caught up in a large crowd, ...like when thousands of football fans stream out of a football stadium, ...or thousands of shoppers converging on the January sales. ...the sort of crowd where you sort of get swept along, whether you want to go that way or not.

Well Jesus was caught up in the middle of two crowds. ...One of them was following him from Bethany, making their way towards Jerusalem for the great Jewish feast of Passover.

The other crowd was coming in the opposite direction. They were coming out of Jerusalem, in order to meet Jesus. The news had spread that Jesus had raised Lazaus from the dead, ...and this second crowd were coming to find him.

Imagine the confusion when these two crowds met. It must have been rather like the confusion we sometimes get outside in the car park after a Sunday morning service! With one lot of people trying to go that way, (heading home), ...and another lot of baptism families trying to get this way, in time for the baptism service.

And right in the middle of this confusion was Jesus, riding on a donkey.

Imagine the excitement. When a football crowd gets excited they wave their football scarfs. Well the crowd coming out of Jerusalem had brought something much bigger to wave, ...ask what.

There would have been no difficulty in getting hold of them; there were plenty of date palms around Jerusalem, ...and they still grow there today.

200 years earlier palm branches had become a nationalist symbol, ...and people were probably waving them in the hope that Jesus was coming to free the Jews from Roman occupation.

Great excitement.

Imagine the smell. It's one thing to be among a crowd of people here in Britain in the January sales, ...it would have been quite different in Jerusalem, on a hot and sweaty day, ...it must have ponged quite a bit.

Imagine the noise. People were shouting. (OHP)

Hosanna!

Blessed is he who cames in the name of the Lord!

Blessed is the king of Israel!

Glory in the highest!

Split into four groups and practice shouting.

Imagine the faces.

- some were too hot,

- some were shouting at the top of their voices,

- some were very happy,

- others were very angry. The religious leaders didn't like what they saw one little bit. "This is getting us nowhere", they said, "Look how the whole world has gone after him!"

And they were so jealous, they were even more determined to kill him.

- others were curious, ...they'd heard about Jesus, and had come along to see for themselves, ..."but who is he?", they asked themselves?

Well our Bible reading picks up the story when some of these go up to one of Jesus' disciples, and ask if they can have a word with Jesus.

Imagine the crowd, and the confusion,

imagine the excitement, and the smell,

imagine the noise and the faces,

...and this is what happened next...

Reading: John 12.20-26

Song 457 Make Way

Talk: Who Are You?

We were thinking about the different faces in the crowd, ...I imagine that quite a lot of them were of the curious type (OHP).

..trying to work out who Jesus was.

In our Bible reading we're not told exactly what those Greeks said to Jesus, ...but I guess it was something like this...

(get out boxes) WHO ...ARE ...YOU? ...JESUS

Can we say that together... Who are you Jesus?

And Jesus gave three signs to show who he was. None of them were a straightforward answer, but all of them explained a lot.

Ask someone to come and open the first box.

A CROWN

The first sign to show us who Jesus was, is not something that Jesus said, but something that he did.

He came as a king.

Hundreds of years earlier, the prophet Zechariah had said these words:

"Rejoice greatly: O Daughter of Zion!

Shout, daughter of Jerusalem!

See, your king comes to you,

righteous and having salvation,

gentle and riding on donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

(Zech. 9.9)

That's why Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, ...he came to fulfil that prophecy that had been written hundreds of years earlier. It was a sign that Jesus really was the king that they had all been waiting for.

But there was a problem. At the time the crowd did not understand the significance of Jesus coming on a donkey. We read in John's gospel, that it was only after Easter that the disciples remembered what the prophet had written. (Jn. 12.16)

At the time, this first sign passed them by, ...and they didn't see it.

So we are left with the same question:

WHO ...ARE ...YOU? ...JESUS

Can we say that together... Who are you Jesus?

Ask someone to come and open the second box.

A BAG OF POPPING CORN

Read instructions on packet and microwave for 2 min. 15 sec. Carry on talking SLOWLY while it's cooking.

The second sign to show us who Jesus was, is a seed that died, but came alive again.

That's what all seeds do - I've got some here in my pocket, (show them).

We bury them in the ground, and they die. But then they come alive, and create new life for hundreds of others.

In our Bible reading we heard Jesus say:

"I tell you the truth, unless an ear of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." (v24)

Jesus knew that the time of his death was near, ...but that he would spring to life again, so that millions of other people could live forever too.

Yes he was coming to Jerusalem as our king, ...but he wasn't the sort of king that the crowds were expecting.

He wasn't coming with great power, to drive out the Romans. Instead, he was coming to die, ...that through his death others may live.

A seed that comes to life.

Now Jesus didn't have a microwave, ...but here too we have seed that has sprung into life. In the packet were little seeds of corn, like this. By putting them in the oven they died, ...but now what do we have?

Open packet and pour into a bowl, and say Jesus was a seed that came alive. Ask the child to give some to children in hall afterwards.

But, you know, when Jesus talked about a seed that came alive, I don't think the crowd would have understood that either.

So we are still left with the question:

WHO ...ARE ...YOU? ...JESUS

Can we say that together... Who are you Jesus?

Ask someone to come and open the third box.

A CANDLE and MATCHES

So Jesus went on to describe himself as a light:

"You are going to have the light just a little while longer", he said.

"...put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light." (v35,36)

On a dark night, you can trust a light to show you where it is good and safe to walk.

That is why Jesus compared himself to a light, ...he came to show us the way to live which is good and safe.

Pile boxes up ...reading down, they spell the word WAY.

He urged people to follow the example of his WAY before it was too late.

THE WAY

The last verse in our reading said this:

"Whoever serves me must follow me"

That is the challenge for us today.

...Jesus is the WAY

...are we prepared to follow him?

Jesus came to be our king

...to be a living seed

...to be a light.

That demands a response from us. Will you follow his WAY?

Processional Song:

To the tune of Frere Jacques (in four parts)

During this song everyone collects a palm cross.

Christ has died, Christ has died

Christ is risen, Christ is risen

Christ will come again, Christ will come again

He's my Lord, he's my Lord

Processional Song: TAPE

Let the flame burn brighter

Let us declare our faith in God:

We believe in God the Father,

from whom every family

in heaven and on earth is named.

We believe in God the Son,

who lives in our hearts through faith,

and fills us with his love.

We believe in God the Holy Spirit,

who strengthens us

with power from on high.

We believe in one God;

Father Son and Holy Spirit.

Prayers

The Lord's Prayer:

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Lead us not into temptation

but deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom,

the power, and the glory are yours

now and forever. Amen.

Song 99 Come on and celebrate!

Blessing

We go out to serve the Lord:

Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessed is the King of Israel!