Palm Sunday and What is our Religion Good For?

Christ rides toward the Cross in my oil painting on the Triumphal Entry (printed on fabric). Here it is displayed at the retirement community where I preached on March 24. The Scripture is from Mark 11:1-11.

John Wesley (1703-1791) was a great preacher and founder of the Methodist movement. A man once asked Wesley what the religion he preached was good for. Wesley replied,

“To make all who receive it enjoy God and themselves, to make them like God, lovers of all, contented in their lives, and crying out at their death, in calm assurance, ‘O grave, where is thy victory! Thanks be to God, who giveth me victory, through my Lord Jesus Christ.”

Yesterday we celebrated this victory embodied in the humble king Jesus. This king appeared on the Jerusalem scene at Passover riding a donkey instead of a war horse. As a well-known hymn declares,

“Ride on, ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die, bow your meek head to mortal pain…”

(Last stanza of Ride On, Ride On in Majesty by Henry H. Milman).

Who would want to worship that kind of king? Like the man asked John Wesley, “What is this religion good for?”

Wesley’ reply was based on the central fact of Christianity: Jesus rose from the grave. Also note all the difference “this religion” makes in this life—such as enabling us to be “lovers of all!” For his answer, Wesley quoted the apostle Paul, who asks a question himself.

Paul asks a question of the grave (death) and even taunts the powers of evil, saying,

“Where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55).

By his death, Christ conquered sin, death, and evil, that he may share his victory with all who come to him.

Thus, the hymn ends:  “…then take, O Christ, your power and reign.”

So keep those palm branches waving in your heart for the King of Glory. One day we will join the heavenly throng with peoples “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues” in the everlasting song, and we will wave palm branches once again (Revelation 7:9).