Christ Church Sermon, All For Love: When love won, March 29 2026

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Methodist congregation with the mission

of building inclusive community, sharing

Christ's transforming love. To learn

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Thank you for listening.

Today's scripture is Hebrews 2:14-15.

Hebrews 2:14–15

Since the children are made of flesh and

blood, it's logical that the Savior took

on flesh and blood in order to rescue

them by his death. By embracing death,

taking it into himself,

he destroyed the devil's hold on death

and freed all who cower through life.

Scared to death of death. hear what the

spirit is saying to the church.

>> Thanks be to God.

>> Thanks Sam. Well, good morning

everybody.

>> Imagine the scene, right? The road to

Jerusalem is crowded. People are

everywhere. Families have come from all

over the city to celebrate Passover.

Pilgrims are arriving with their from

every direction with their families. The

city is buzzing. There's all this stuff

happening. And then word begins to

spread through the crowd that Jesus is

coming. You know, the teacher from

Galilee, the one who's healed the sick,

the one who's fed thousands of people.

And people start whispering that this

might actually be the Messiah. And

suddenly all those people start moving

towards the road. Some begin cutting off

palm branches. Other be others begin

putting their cloaks on the ground. And

when Jesus finally appears riding down

the hill toward the city, the crowd goes

crazy. Palm branches are waving. Voices

are shouting, "Hosana in the highest."

It feels like the beginning of a

revolution. It feels like hope is

finally arriving. It feels like victory

is right around the corner. Hosana.

That's a word we all recognize. That's a

word we use in church. That's a word we

sing every Easter. Did you know it

wasn't actually originally a church

word? Not at all. Hosana was actually a

cry for help. It literally means save

us. So just for a moment, I want us to

join that ancient crowd. So when I say

my line, I want you to respond with the

word hosana and wave your palm branches.

And I want you to do it with the same

kind of enthusiasm that that crowd would

have had way back when Jesus walked into

the city. Can you do that with me? Are

you ready? Let's try it together. Lord,

save us.

That's pretty good. Lord, we need you.

>> Hosana.

>> Lord, bring your mercy.

>> Hosana.

>> Hosana in the highest.

>> Amen. Now you can all make crosses out

of your palm branches. That's good.

That's exactly what the crowd was crying

out that day. They didn't know how God

would answer. They didn't know what God

would do, but they knew they needed a

savior. And Palm Sunday is the day that

Jesus rode into Jerusalem to answer that

cry.

But here's what almost no one in the

crowd realized.

Here's what no one in the crowd thought

was going to happen. As they were

celebrating Jesus riding into the city

to be their savior, Jesus knew he was

riding in to the hardest week of his

life. Because the road that they thought

led to the throne was actually a road

that was leading to the cross. And

knowing that Jesus kept riding forward,

not because he misunderstood what was

happening, but because Jesus, who was

love, was determined to finish what he

started. And that's where the story of

Palm Sunday begins. Because before the

week was over, love was going to win.

Now, over the last several weeks, we've

been in our sermon series called All for

Love. And we've been asking one central

question. What kind of love do we see at

the cross? And we've wrestled with that

from different angles. We ask, is the

cross about punishment or is the cross

about pure love? Is is the love we see

on the cross selfish or is the love we

see on the cross selfless?

What kind of love would move toward

suffering instead of away from

suffering? And week after week, the

cross has been quietly reshaping how we

see God. Because the cross refuses to

stay small. The cross forces us to

confront something deeper. That God's

love is not cautious. God's love moves

toward us even if it costs everything.

And today, as we arrive at Palm Sunday,

the day Jesus enters Jerusalem, the day

the crowd shouts hosana, like we just

did, with palm branches waving and

crowds celebrating and hope in the air,

it feels like a victory parade. But what

they didn't realize on that day that the

real victory would not look like a

victory at all. Because the love Jesus

came to reveal,

well, it would win in a way that no one

expected. Listen again to how Hebrews

describes it. Since the children are

made of flesh and blood, it's logical

that the Savior took on flesh and blood

so that by embracing death, taking it

into himself, he could destroy the

devil's hold on death and free all who

cower through life, scared to death of

death.

That is such a powerful way to describe

it. Notice what the writer is saying

here. Since we are flesh and blood,

Jesus became flesh and blood. Now, we've

talked about this throughout the series,

right? God didn't stay at a distance.

God didn't remain theoretical. God

stepped into the same fragile,

vulnerable human condition that we live

in every day. He took on lungs that

would struggle to breathe. He took on a

heart that could break. He he he took on

uh a body that could suffer. He took on

skin that could be wounded. The eternal

son of God chose to step into the same

world where pain, betrayal, sickness,

and death are real.

Why would he do that? Well, because you

can't rescue people from a distance. You

have to go to where they are. And that's

exactly what Jesus did. Hebrews says

that he embraced death. not just endured

death, not just survived it, but he took

death into himself embracing death. Now,

think about how different that is than

the way power normally manifests itself

in our world, right? When people want

victory in our world, they avoid danger.

They protect themselves. They keep a

distance from suffering. But Jesus,

Jesus moved toward it. He didn't defeat

death by avoiding it. He defeated death

by embracing it. He walked straight into

the darkest reality human beings face,

death. And he brought the presence of

God with him. You see, the cross was not

about God losing control. It was about

Jesus stepping directly into the very

thing that held humanity hostage. And

Hebrews says that the reason was so that

he could destroy the devil's hold on

death and free all who cower through

life, scared to death of death.

That line describes the human condition

with painful honesty.

So much of life is shaped by fear. Fear

of losing what we love, fear of

suffering, fear of the unknown, fear of

death. Even if we don't talk about it,

it quietly shapes how we live our life

because it can make us cling tightly to

control. It can make us protect

ourselves uh instead of loving freely.

It can make us anxious about the future.

But Hebrews tells us that Jesus stepped

into death, death itself in order to

break its grip. Not by intimidation, not

by brute force, but by absorbing it. By

taking the worst that evil could do and

turning it into the doorway of life.

That is the strange, beautiful, upside

down victory of the gospel. Because evil

threw its worst at Jesus. Betrayal,

mockery, violence, death on a cross. And

if instead of that stopping the love of

God, it becomes the very place where

love is most clearly revealed. That's

the victory that Hebrews is talking

about. Death had thought it had won, but

love had already stepped inside and love

would walk out the other side, which

we're going to celebrate next week on

Easter.

But the story that leads to that Easter

moment begins today on Palm Sunday.

Because when the crowd thought a

political revolution was beginning,

while they were waving palm branches and

shouting for a king who would overthrow

Rome, Jesus knows that there's something

much deeper that is unfolding. He isn't

riding into Jerusalem to seize power.

He's riding in to confront the deepest

enemy that humanity faces. And that

enemy was not Caesar. It was not

politics. It was actually death itself.

And the victory was not going to come

through domination. It was going to come

through a love that refuses to turn

back.

Now, you got to understand that most

people on that first Palm Sunday were

there to try to celebrate the same

thing. They were hoping for the same

thing. They wanted Rome gone. They

wanted their nation restored. They

wanted their dignity back. They wanted a

king that was strong enough to defeat

their enemies and reestablished Israel's

power. And honestly, who can blame them?

For generations, they lived under rule

of other countries, Babylon and Persia

and Greece and Rome. Their land was

occupied. Their taxes were heavy. Their

freedom was limited. So when Jesus rides

into Jerusalem and crowds start waving

palm branches shouting hosana man,

they're thinking this is it. Finally,

the revolution has arrived. They're

expecting a king that's going to

confront Rome. A king who will overthrow

Caesar. A king that will win the battle

that needs to be won. And they thought

Jesus was that king. But Jesus came for

a battle deeper than politics. Hebrews

says he came to break the power of

death. And not just physical death.

Because the truth is long before death

comes and takes us physically, it shadow

kind of shapes how we live, right?

Doesn't it? There's this quiet fear that

runs underneath the surface of human

life. That fear whispers things in our

head. You're not safe. You're not

enough. You got to protect yourself. You

got to secure your future. You have to

make sure that you don't lose

everything. And that fear has been

present since the beginning of the human

story. And it shows up everywhere,

right? It shows up. It it it it drives

greed in our world because we're afraid

there won't be enough for us. It drives

violence because we're afraid of losing

power. It drives envy because we're

afraid someone else's success means our

failure. It drives our need to control

everything because uncertainty feels

unbearable.

And it even shapes the quieter parts of

our life. It makes people hold back.

Hold back love because they're afraid of

being hurt. It makes people chase

success because they're afraid of being

insignificant. It makes people exhaust

themselves trying to prove that they

matter.

underneath so much of our existence is

this deep anxiety. These thoughts that

tell us, "What if I lose? What if I'm

not secure? What if everything just

slips through my fingers?" Well, Hebrews

says that Jesus stepped into the human

story to confront our fear at its

deepest root. Not just to improve our

circumstances, not just to rearrange our

politics, but to break the very power

that keeps humanity in quiet bondage.

Amen. I mean, that's what Jesus is all

about. The writer of Hebrews says Jesus

came to free all who cower through life

scared to death of death.

People may look confident. They may look

successful. They may look in control.

But underneath people are simply trying

to manage their fear. But Jesus came to

break the power of fear.

The surprising part of the story is how

he does it. Not through force, not

through domination, not through crushing

his enemies,

but through love.

Jesus doesn't defeat fear by threatening

it. He defeats fear by walking straight

into and embracing the worst fear

humanity carries, the fear of death. And

he refuses to let death have the final

word. He enters suffering. He he he he

absorbs violence. He faces death itself.

And by doing so, he shows us that love

is stronger than fear. That self-giving

is stronger than self-p protection. that

life is stronger than death. So while

the crowd on Palm Sunday thought the

battle was about Rome, Jesus knew the

battle was something much deeper. The

enemy wasn't Caesar. The enemy was the

power of death and fear that had been

shaping humanity for generations.

Jesus rode into Jerusalem not to start a

political uprising, but to begin the

final confrontation with a deeper enemy,

a confrontation that would reach its

deepest moment at the cross and its

greatest victory in the empty tomb. Palm

Sunday is actually love moving forward.

>> Palm Sunday wasn't about Jesus getting

swept up into a parade. Palm Sunday was

about Jesus intentionally walking toward

the cross. He knew what was coming. He

knows betrayal is coming. He knows

abandonment is coming. He knows

suffering is coming. And still he moves

forward. He knows the cheers of the

crowd

is going to turn into accusations. The

palm branches that are being waved are

going to turn into a crown of thorns.

The shouts of hosana will eventually

become shouts of crucify him by the same

people. Jesus knows all of it, but he

keeps walking

because love,

real love doesn't retreat when it sees

the cost. Real love moves forward. You

know, sometimes I think we talk about

the cross like it was just simply a

tragedy, as if Jesus was kind of a

victim of history. things just kind of

got out of control. But Hebrews tells a

different story. Hebrews tells us Jesus

embraced death. He took it into himself.

He walked straight into the deepest

darkness of human existence and he

dismantled it from the inside out. The

enemy enemy believed death had won and

that fear was the ultimate control. But

when Jesus went to the cross, something

unexpected happened. Instead of love

collapsing under death, death collapsed

under love. That's what Hebrews means

when he says Jesus destroys the power

behind death. The cross was not the

moment that love failed. The cross was

the moment when love won. Hebrews said

Jesus did this for people who were

scared to death of death. That's why we

read this out of the message. I love

that line cuz that line describes us

more than we may realize. Because it

isn't just about fear of dying. It's

about fear of losing, fear of rejection,

fear of failure, fear of being exposed,

fear if people really knew us, they

might walk away from us. So what do we

do? We protect ourselves. We perform. We

build defenses. We try to control

outcomes.

But the cross interrupts that whole

system because the cross says something

extremely radical. Even at our worst, we

are loved. Even in our failure, we are

not abandoned. Even in death, God's love

does not stop. And when that truth sinks

into the human heart, fear starts losing

its grip. And when fear loses its grip,

love becomes possible.

Palm Sunday begins a week that is going

to look like loss. Jesus will be

arrested. His friends will scatter. He

will be mocked and he will be beaten and

he will be crucified. And by Friday, it

is going to look like everything

collapsed.

In fact, I want to invite you to attend

our teneer service that is this Friday,

Good Friday at 8:00 p.m. in the

sanctuary because that service allows

you to experience that part of the

story. But Hebrews tells us that what

was actually happening underneath the

surface of all those things was love was

dismantling fear, love was disarming

death, and love was reclaiming humanity.

And the moment that looked like defeat

was actually the turning point in the

entire story because when Jesus went to

the cross, we saw a love that refused to

retaliate. We saw a love that refused to

abandon. We saw a love that refused to

stop. And in the end, that kind of love

proved stronger than death itself. So

Palm Sunday is not about remembering a

parade. It is about recognizing the kind

of king Jesus really is. He wasn't a

king that ruled by fear. He wasn't a

king that conquered by force. He was a

king who won through love. And the

invitation of the gospel is not for us

to just admire that love. It is for us

to receive that love. The crowd shouted,

"Hosana, save us." And they were right

to shout that. They just didn't

understand how salvation was actually

going to come. You see, they expected

rescue through power, but salvation came

through love. Not by overthrowing Rome,

but by overthrowing death itself. Not by

crushing enemies, but by forgiving

enemies. Not by protecting himself, but

by giving himself.

And in that moment, when the nails were

driven, when the cross was lifted into

place, when darkness covered the entire

land, when it looked like love had lost,

it hadn't. That was the exact moment

when love won.

Let's pray. Lord, we are so grateful for

what you have done

and for how you have done it through

love.

We get all mixed up on what love looks

like. We get all mixed up on how we

should show love to others, especially

those that we disagree with. But you

give us the perfect example of what love

is supposed to be all about.

Walking in to the suffering, walking in

to the anguish,

and loving the people that are causing

it.

That's what you've done for us. That's

what you've done for this entire world.

And this Easter season on this Palm

Sunday, may we not just celebrate you

riding down the street as a king, but

may we accept that love that you have

given to us. And more importantly, may

we show that kind of love to the people

you put in front of us. We ask all of

this in your son's name. And everyone

said, "Amen.