[0:00] Those who had followed him and gathered to follow him as he went up to Jerusalem knew what time it was. The crowd that came up from Jerusalem knew what time it was.
[0:11] And in a peculiar way, they said what time it was because they cried, Hosanna to the Son of David. And Jesus was so impressed with their coming out, and so afraid, really, that they might seize the opportunity in a way that it wasn't to be seized, of making him a king, that he picked out of Zechariah that verse, which, Behold, your king comes to you meek and lowly and riding upon an ass on the foal of an ass.
[0:45] And so he was careful to choose a donkey so that nobody would think he was coming to make war. He was a man of peace. And the crowds that were gathering around them, as crowds can so easily do, could have turned to violence, except that Christ was careful to ride the donkey.
[1:06] And he knew that the violence would come in its own appointed time, and not very far from that time in which he rode triumphantly into Jerusalem. But he knew what time it was, and Jerusalem didn't.
[1:20] Jerusalem, who had stoned and murdered the prophets for countless generations, when her king came, she did not recognize him. When her day of judgment came, she did not recognize him.
[1:34] When the day of opportunity and the establishment of the kingdom of God and of his Christ came, again Jerusalem didn't recognize him. So that Jesus gave the solemn prophecy, there will come a time when not one stone will be left upon another of this city.
[1:53] And the story of the destruction of Jerusalem, within about 40 years of this event, is a story of terrible bloodshed, and terrible violence.
[2:05] As this city that didn't know what time it was, that the judgment came home to it, and the city and temple were destroyed. But you see, it's Jesus who knows what time it is.
[2:21] And I think the purpose of our remembering Palm Sunday is because we have to know what time it is. The city of Vancouver has to know what time it is.
[2:33] As I go around and talk to various people in various places, I get different ideas of what time it is. When I talk to people about this parish, I get different ideas about what time it is.
[2:48] When I talk to people about their personal lives, I get different ideas about what time it is. And what I think we need to do in this Holy Week is turn to the person of our Lord Jesus Christ and trace with him the steps of his arrest, the Last Supper, his humiliation before the soldiers of Pontius Pilate, his slow walk to the hill shaped like a skull, his crucifixion, the hours in which he hung upon the cross, his burial in the tomb, and his glorious resurrection, in order that our particular time pieces can be put back in order and we can rediscover what time it is in our world.
[3:45] Because we're all operating on different times and we need to turn to the Lord of time. The calendar and the clock will tell you what time it is in terms of a scientific measurement of time, but only Jesus Christ can tell you what time it is in terms of your life.
[4:04] Only Jesus Christ can tell us what time it is in terms of our parish. Only Jesus Christ can tell us what time it is in terms of our city, our province and our country and our world.
[4:22] And when you see that humble figure marching into Jerusalem in a progression that wasn't too hurried to stop and make time for two blind men, that wasn't too hurried for people to lay garments in their way in the acknowledgement that a king was passing by, and to tear branches down off the trees to praise and glorify the God who had come among them in the person of Jesus Christ.
[4:55] That procession is in a sense the heartbeat of the timing of the history of the world and of your history and of my history.
[5:08] He is the Lord of time. And though somebody over here will say time is running out and another person over here will say we scarcely have time to do this and another one we haven't got time to do this and another one we must catch up to this.
[5:25] Nevertheless, Jesus Christ is the Lord of time in your life and in mine. And it's by him that we have to set our watchings.
[5:37] I think what Christ is saying to us on Palm Sunday, as you see him stir the whole city in preparation for something that they wouldn't recognize then, but in due course they would recognize that that was their hour and they missed it.
[6:00] So Christ is saying to us, do you know what time it is for you? And I think as we trace the story of his death and resurrection, Christ is saying to us, gentlemen, synchronize your watches.
[6:17] Get in time with the purposes of God that are revealed to us in Christ. That's what we need to do.
[6:29] And that's what the services of this week are to help you to do. To come to terms with your own life. There is a clock in Chester Cathedral in England, which it's a clock that ticks loudly.
[6:53] And as it ticks, there's this poem which passers-by can read and say, when as a child I laughed and wept, time crept. When as a youth I walked, as I am taught, time walked.
[7:10] When I became a man, time ran. And then time flew. And soon time will be gone. And it asks the question, will Christ have saved my soul by then?
[7:26] Amen. And what we're asking to do is that Jesus Christ might be able to say to you, do you know what time it is for you?
[7:42] And when you say, no, I don't think I do know what time it is for me. I think he's able to tell you. And you're able to set your watch by that time.
[7:54] And know that he who is the Lord of time and of eternity has told you what time it is today.
[8:08] It came everyone whose heart stirred him up and everyone whom his spirit made willing, they brought the Lord's offering. We sing hymn 596. when you're of you who are you who those you Thank you.
[9:12] Thank you.
[9:42] Thank you.
[10:12] Thank you.
[10:42] Thank you.
[11:12] Thank you.
[11:42] Thank you.