The Key to an Inspired Palm Sunday Sermon (or Any Sermon)
Leonardo da Vinci was a genius.
Painter, sculptor, inventor… If he imagined it, he created it.
But how did he get to imagining his creations?
By getting curious and asking questions about his subject.
Consider just a few of the qualities he examined/questioned in his notebooks as he prepared to draw a river, as Twyla Tharp shares in her book, The Creative Habit: Learn and Use It for Life (Kindle edition, pp. 175-176):
Of the different rates of speed of currents from the surface of the water to the bottom.
Of the different cross slants between the surface and the bottom.
Of the different depths of the rivers.
Of the different shapes of the hills covered by the waters.
Of the different shapes of the hills uncovered by the waters.
Where it is high in the middle and low at the sides.
Of the different slants in the descents of the water.
The more da Vinci knew about his subject, the more real, vivid, and felt his drawing would be.
Preachers can apply da Vinci’s process to sermon prep.
When we play 20 Questions in our sermon prep:
our prep stays focused, saving us time
the text comes alive, exciting us to preach it
and our listeners feel the Good News, inviting them to share it.
How to Apply 20 Questions to Sermon Prep
Create a word document on our computer, or grab your favorite pen and notebook
Close your eyes. Take three deep, slow breaths. Say a prayer and center yourself.
Read the text.
Set a timer for five minutes and start it.
Brainstorm (at least) twenty questions. What makes you curious about this text? Consider:
characters (on- and off-stage)
setting, geographically and historically
emotions (demonstrated and inferred)
theology
how it “worked,” that is, how things happened from one action to the next (For example, when Jesus changed water into wine what was the process?)
At the end of the five minutes, review your questions, highlight the three you find the most compelling, and jot notes about why those questions are compelling.
Go find the answers.
TWenty+ Questions for Palm Sunday
With Palm Sunday coming up, let’s take a look at the Liturgy of the Palms, Luke 19:28-40.
Here are the twenty-plus questions I brainstormed in just five minutes:
“After he said this…” Said what?
“Going up to Jerusalem.” Going up? Why not on or over?
What did Bethphage look like?
What did the Mount of Olives look like?
What did Jerusalem look like?
What was the approach to Jerusalem like as you drew closer?
Which two disciples did Jesus send?
What village did they go to and what did it look like?
How did they feel about borrowing a colt? Were they nervous about a possible confrontation?
How did Jesus know there would be a colt?
What did the colt look like? Shaggy? Well-groomed? How did it smell?
Did the two disciples see more than one colt? If so, how did they know they’d found the right one?
How did the colt’s owner feel about two strangers taking it because they said someone else needed it?
Didn’t the owner need his own colt? Did the owner put up a fuss? How did this inconvenience them?
What happened to the colt after Jesus was done riding it? Did one of the disciples return it to its owner? Did they feed and water it? Pet it in gratitude for its service?
How many cloaks did people spread on the road?
What did the cloaks look like? What were they made of?
The whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God. Does this mean everyone in the crowd was a disciple?
Was a crowd already gathered and waiting for Jesus, or did it gather spontaneously as more voices were raised and drew the curious?
How many in the crowd really knew who Jesus was?
Why did the Pharisees want to Jesus to tell the disciples to stop?
How did Jesus hear their request over the crowd’s noise?
What emotions was Jesus feeling when he said the stones would shout if the crowd was silenced?
Choosing Three Compelling Questions
Scanning these questions, I rewrite the ones I find the most compelling and say why.
At BsP, we refer to these as “leading questions,” because they’ll guide our exegesis to keep us focused, efficient, and effective.
Here are the three I selected from the list:
Why did the Pharisees want Jesus to tell the disciples to stop? What motivated the Pharisees—and what motivates us—to quash others’ joy?
What emotions did Jesus feel when he said the stones would shout if the crowd was silenced? Knowing what was about to happen, was Jesus’s affect subdued so he said this with confident matter-of-factness? Was he caught up in the moment himself, praising God along with the crowds? I’m curious because I want to feel myself in the scene and empathize with Jesus.
How did the colt’s owner feel about two strangers taking it because they said someone else needed it? I often feel reluctant to give my things and my money away when charities say someone else needs it. What prompted the owner to give his colt to strangers? What prompts us to offer what we have to a go-between, let alone the actual recipient?
The next step is to focus my research—and my sanctified imagination—to answering those questions.
By staying focused on a narrow slice of the text, we save time that might otherwise be spent wandering aimlessly through one commentary after another, hoping to find a nugget of inspiration.
Plus, we want to answer our questions for the very reason that we find them compelling; We’re curious!
This curiosity keeps the process of sermon creation fresh and alive, which is vital to the health of our preaching spirits.
As we dig into our questions, the more specific and detailed we make our responses, the more vividly we will share the Good News for our listeners.
Because when we imagine it, we’ll preach it.
With the help of the Holy Spirit, channel your own inner Leonardo da Vinci when you prepare your next sermon—and see what comes to life!
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