"Palm Sunday: Who IS this?"

"Palm Sunday: Who IS this?" 

Matt Johnson, April 13, 2025 at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Albia, Iowa

Happy Palm Sunday! Palm Sunday commemorates when Jesus' entered into Jerusalem and was greeted as a king. It takes place the week before Easter and reminds us of the events leading up to his crucifixion and resurrection. 

For those of you who don’t know me, I am Matt Johnson. I am a member of this church. Long ago I was a pastor so when Pastor John became ill, I offered to fill in as needed and here we are! I have a message I call “Why I Am A Christian and Why I Love This Church” I am doing on May 4th and I hope to see you here. 

A spoiler alert that I think is needed for today…one of the many things I love about this church and this denomination is that it allows for Christians to come together on the basics of Christianity, but have freedom to interpret theology in our own way. This is very unique to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). I like how our sister church in Coralville, Iowa explains it on their website when talking about different doctrines, such as the afterlife where they state “views on heaven and hell among the Disciples of Christ range from belief in literal places, to trust in God to provide eternal justice or universal salvation. The church itself ….lets its individual members decide for themselves.”  And later on they say “Church members are allowed freedom of opinion on this and other doctrines and are expected to give others that same freedom.”1  And in the official handbook for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) they go on to say much of the same thing.2 Some of what I say today might be the best thing you ever heard, some of it you might think, eh, I don’t agree with that. And that is OK. I will share with you what I think is amazing information about Jesus. I hope you like it!

I wore this purple jacket because we are still in the season of Lent. Technically, from what I understand, the liturgical color for Palm Sunday is red so if you have red on today, that works, too! I have a red jacket, but apparently I have gone through a bit of a growth spurt in my 50s so it doesn’t quite fit as well anymore. So purple it is!

OK! If you reach under your seat, you will find Bibles there if you want to read along as I read about Palm Sunday in Matthew 21:1-11 (NRSVue).

21 When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” 4 This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet:

5 “Tell the daughter of Zion,

Look, your king is coming to you,

humble and mounted on a donkey,

 and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7 they brought the donkey and the colt and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!

 Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

10 When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” 11 The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.” (NRSVue)

The whole city asked…Who IS this? That is the question. Who IS Jesus? Some have said he was a prophet or a very good man. That is what some of these people here are saying. This is the common belief among Muslims. He is one of their most important prophets. 

I think Jesus is a lot more than that. A whole lot more. Let’s look at what the Bible has to say and then let's think it through a bit. 

In John Chapter 8:58-59, Jesus says…58 “Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.” (NRSVue).

Jesus is claiming to have existed before Abraham was born and then says “I Am” which is one of the names of God. Jesus says quite clearly, he existed before Abraham was born hundreds of years earlier and then says “I Am”. The Jews fully knew he was claiming to be God and that is why they picked up stones to kill him for blasphemy. There are tons of other verses in the Bible that explore that, but I want to get you out of here in time for lunch. 

So who IS this…this Jesus? According to the Bible, Jesus is God. The people of his time clearly understood him saying as much about himself as I have just demonstrated. So what IS God? 

1 John 4:16 says…God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. (NRSVue)

Jesus is God and God is love. Jesus is love. When Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father, but through me, he is saying, love is the way.  

In Luke 10: 25 to 29…it says

25 An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” (NRSVue)

I love that Jesus says this. This is very much the Disciples approach to the Bible…what do YOU read there? Not what someone else told you to believe, but what do YOU read there?

27 He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” 29 But wanting to vindicate himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (NRSVue)

Then Jesus goes on to teach the parable of the Good Samaritan. In that story, multiple people of the “right” religion do the wrong thing and a man with the “wrong” religion, a Samaritan, does the right thing. The message is EVERYONE is your neighbor and your beliefs are meaningless if they are not LOVE because LOVE is the true religion. 

Every religion on Earth teaches this…it is called the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I think…and this is just me talking here…Jesus is like Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia. He pops up in different times, places and cultures and under different names, but it is all Jesus preaching the message of love as the way. The way is love. 

All throughout the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation, the message is clear…God is not happy with your rule following, prayers and religiousness and does not hear ANY of that if you are not loving people and caring for them. Jesus says the same thing over and over and over. If you are not following the way of love, you are not following Jesus. And if you are following the way of love, even if it might not be the so called “right” religion like the Samaritan, you ARE following Jesus if you have love.

A lot of people miss this. I have an endless amount of more Bible verses I could go over proving this point and I will do that at a later date in a sermon I am preparing on salvation and evangelism.  

Pope Francis is quoted as saying…“There’s only one God, and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Some are Sihk, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and they are different paths.” 

He said: “They are like different languages in order to arrive at God, but God is God for all … Since God is God for all, then we are all children of God.” 3

Some will say, well, but as Christians we believe in Jesus as the only way to Heaven. I agree. Jesus is the only way to Heaven. Jesus is God. God is love. Love is the way. 

And while I do not believe God is burning people in Hell for all eternity for having the wrong religion or no religion and I can make a strong Biblical case for that, and I promise I will at a later date, I do firmly believe that there are two choices, just as Jesus taught. You can choose love or you can choose evil. No one taught this more plainly in the history of the world than Jesus and then backed it up with his resurrection, which I believe really did happen and is the seal that his way and teaching are superior to all others. 

A lot of people have left Christianity and do not come back to church because of the idea that if you do not believe in a specific version of Christianity, you will burn in Hell forever.  Avoiding that is the whole reason our denomination was founded. 

Don’t get me wrong. I do believe Jesus is the only way to Heaven and there really is a Hell. Jesus talked about it over and over and over. 

What I am saying, which is the same thing many people in the early church said, is God is everywhere and not just among the Jews or the Christians, but EVERYWHERE. And God is love. God is fair. God will not force you to do anything or give you an unfair deal. Think about Jesus…do you really think Jesus would cast some poor person who never heard about him or was given a really hard to believe explanation into a fiery Hell forever. Would you do that? I wouldn’t! And certainly my love is much less than the love of Jesus who is God…who is love itself. 

I think we have grossly misread the Bible and grossly underestimated the power and love of Jesus for generations. No wonder people reject it. It makes no sense. It is not consistent. Love is always the consistent message. And again, do not get it twisted. There is something absolutely unique and special about Jesus and what I call true Christianity, more so than any other religion on the planet. 

A lot of people get hung up on errors they think they find in the Bible and give up on it. I certainly did at one point. However, I am not amazed when I find errors in the Bible. That is to be expected when humans are involved. I am more amazed at the incredible things it gets RIGHT. It says in God we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28 NRSVue). We now know from science that everything is basically one at the sub atomic level, that everything is just waves of light vibrating at different rates…in the beginning God said let there be LIGHT. 

How did a bunch of primitive goat herders know that without the help of modern science? They DIDN’T. God put that knowledge in their heads and they wrote it down as best they could according to the culture of their time. 

And the message of Jesus is strange and unnatural and yet also very practical for life in this material world. He does not tell you nothing is real and to just bliss out like some teach. That is of no use to us when life gets tough. He does things that address our needs and fears.  The first thing he does is give a wedding party MORE wine. That’s a great guy to have around. He feeds people, heals people, tells them they are loved and to love each other. He promises immortality and mansions in Heaven for everyone. He promises life and life abundantly. Health and happiness forever. Yes, life has suffering in this world. That can’t be helped, but it can also be really, really great. 

I think another proof that Jesus is unique is he goes against what is natural. Dog eat dog, survival of the fittest, might makes right, that is natural. Being kind and taking care of people and forgiving them, that is not. That is supernatural. No one teaches this quite like Jesus. It is very different. It stands out among all the other religions of the world. 

Jesus really did exist and he was and is God. He could have emerged from any race or religion on Earth because they all had the same problems that needed to be addressed as the Jews. 

Jesus could have easily emerged from this or that religion and his followers would then start to see him retroactively in their traditions and retcon him into the story. A lot of early Christian believers did this. They started seeing Jesus in the Old Testament in places no one saw him before or in places that were never meant to be prophecies. 

I think Jesus is waiting to be found in all places, stories and cultures if you are looking for him. Those who seek the light will be given more light. Ultimately, you will find him MOST clearly in the Bible. 

What matters is God is real and God did burst into history as Jesus Christ so as to level up our species to a better and more advanced yet simultaneously simple way to live. The way is not sacrifices or tons of rules. It is LOVE. Jesus comes to level us up from the old ways to a more advanced way of love. 

The way of love has always been the way to God. Always. And the most popular and profound vehicle for the teaching of that eternal truth for the majority of the human race has been Jesus as taught in this book, the Bible. It’s not enough to just know these things. You have to believe them. Belief is demonstrated first by true repentance and then true action. A tree is known by its fruit. Faith without works is dead. True religion is the care of widows and orphans. 

Repentance…saying…oh my God…oh my God…I am so sorry. I wish I had never done that. I hate myself for having done that. We have all done that. Whatever that is. The stain we cannot wash off. And the world will never let you forget. You know what you did. You’re disgusting. And that may be true to some people in this world no matter what you do. But not to God. Not to Jesus who is God. You are clean today. You have a 2nd chance. You absolutely will go to Heaven and you absolutely will see your loved ones again. None are lost. We go on and on. 

Some will say, whatever Matt. Jesus is God, God is love, that’s nice. Sounds like you have been listening to the Beatles too much. And you have no proof outside of that Bible of yours about God and certainly not Jesus. Well, when you take the Bible or any other religion’s holy book literally, they are very different and have a lot of hard to believe stories. However, when you read them allegorically, they start to have a very similar theme…love…and no holy book of any religion, in my opinion, comes the closest to the truth as the Bible does. So do I have proof? You bet I do. And it’s all around you. 

Just open the Book of Nature. Its author is God. Go out in your yard or a park and sit down in a lawn chair and look around you, down at the ground, up at the sky. The proof of God is everywhere. We see ants create ant hills, bees building beehives, beavers creating dams and humans creating entire civilizations, stories, religions, works of art, spaceships and music. Humans have pondered the deepest and most profound concepts imaginable. Humans have learned to tinker with DNA and have found everything to have a “code” to it.

The Universe is a work of geometry. One can use logic and reason to deduce that there is a

Creator who uses geometry to order and create the Universe. Everything has a code to it so that must mean there is a coder: God. We know there is a vast difference between the creative imagination of an ant as compared to a human. It is only logical to assume there is an intelligence as far beyond that of humans as humans are from ants (or farther) in the Universe. If one keeps going from one greater intelligence to another, eventually you will come to an end of all that to what can only be described as…God. 

If that God wanted to speak to us on how to live, it would require manifesting as one of us, for if God just "talked" to us face to face, the immensity of God compared to us would most likely kill us (as is stated in the Bible in Exodus 33 and it makes sense if you think about it). So God manifested as a human being in history. And while many before Jesus had claimed to do this, no one ever had the history changing impact that he did. 

I have also spent a lot of time studying near death experiences and other afterlife studies. There is a ton of research on the subject and not just some goofy stuff on the Internet, but real scientists with MDs and PhDs being funded by actual American and European universities. To me, they have proved beyond any question there is an afterlife. And you will never guess who keeps popping up over and over and over…even for people who are atheists or other religions…you guessed it…Jesus. 

And the Jesus of the near death experience is the same Jesus as I have come to understand him from the Bible and explained to you today. He is God manifesting in a way that won’t totally blow our little human minds. He is love. He rejects no one. He doesn’t care about your religion, lack of religion, who you love, how you love, how smart you are, how dumb you are, who you voted for…nope. None of that. He just wants you to love God and love people. He does not force it though. Some people who reject this have reported a dark, scary Hell experience and they only are delivered from it when they repent and are sorry for the bad things they have done. Then Jesus swoops in and forgives them, even after they have died.

Who IS this? Who IS Jesus? That is Jesus to me. And his way is LOVE. Because he is God, God is love and the way to God in all places, times, creeds and cultures is LOVE. 

And it’s not enough to know there is a God and an afterlife. Even the Devil believes in God and knows there is an afterlife. Knowing about such things is NOT enough. You must be sorry for your sins, ask for forgiveness and then go on to live a life of love and forgiving others. God just wants you to love each other. Period. That is the timeless message that comes through over and over. In my opinion, that is the true way of Christ and what it means to be a Christian.

As a professional historian, I can tell you that even the most atheist of historians believe that Jesus Christ was a real person in history. He lived when the Bible said he did, he was baptized by John the Baptist, was an impressive preacher with a large following, many thought he was God, he upset the Jewish and Roman authorities and they had him executed on a cross under the rule of Pontius Pilate and Caiaphus. His followers claimed he appeared to them after his death and were willing to die for it. There is AMPLE reason to believe all of this is true. As I have promised, I will get into that in greater detail at another time. I believe it. I believe in Jesus. And it just makes sense to me. If there is a God and that God wanted to tell us something without violating our free will, this is exactly how God would have to do it. Provide just enough evidence to make it plausible, but not so much that it was no longer a free will choice. It’s real my friends. Who IS this? Jesus, that’s who. Even now, 2000 years later, his message is unique, radical and if we actually follow it, world changing. 

I preach what I believe is true Christianity that is real and scientifically provable. I believe it’s real and sometimes we miss it when we forget that, most of the time, Jesus and the Bible is teaching NOT literally, but in parables, metaphors and allegories. I believe it is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and the world needs it now more than ever. In a time of loneliness, despair, hopelessness, hate, division, with technology that is not making our lives better but creating mental illness and narcissism…just like the meme says…y’all need Jesus. Now more than ever. The real Jesus. I do, too. His way keeps us loving and kind and forgiving. It involves meeting once a week as often as we can so we are not alone anymore but have friends who are striving to be good and do good. Not perfect, but good.

If this message has resonated with you and you want to become a Christian or rededicate your life as a Christian, not a perfect person, but a loving and kind, forgiving non judgemental follower of Jesus, if you want that way of life that can give you real hope and a real purpose, bow your head, close your eyes and pray with me now.  

“God, thank you for loving me no matter what. I want to follow the way of love, the way of Jesus. I want to be a Christian. I confess I have not always lived according to your way of love. Thank you for forgiving all the things I have done that are not good and wiping the slate clean and giving me a second chance. I want to love you God and love my neighbor as myself. I understand my neighbor is everyone on planet Earth, even people I don’t like. Especially them. I believe you are real God and that Jesus is real. I know I will see my loved ones again because of your never ending, never ceasing universal love for all humans everywhere in all time, places and cultures regardless of race, creed or no creed at all. From this day forward, I declare myself to be a Christian and will follow Jesus’ way of love. I declare Jesus is my Lord and Savior. He is the Lord of my life in that he is my guide on how to live and he is my Savior because saves me from my former ways to a new way grounded in love. In Jesus Name, Amen.”

1. “Our Beliefs & Practices,” | First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), accessed January 23, 2026, https://icdisciples.org/ourbeliefs.

2. D. Duane Cummins, A Handbook for Today’s Disciples, 5th Edition (Chalice Press, 2017).

3.  Vatican News, “Cardinal Cupich: Pope Francis on Interreligious Dialogue,” Vatican News, October 2, 2024, https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2024-10/cardinal-cupich-pope-francis-interreligious-dialogue-asia-visit.html.