Palm-Passion Sunday
No one wants to see themselves as the enemy in a story. In the story of the prophet Elijah, for example, the people have wandered down a wrong path. They are being led by King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. Jezebel is trying to impose the worship of a Canaanite god named Ba’al on the people, and ruthlessly persecuting those who are loyal to Israel’s God. … Israel became a very difficult place for Elijah to be. He felt like the only one left who worshipped Israel’s God. We don’t like thinking about ourselves as people who just went along with Ahab and Jezebel.
This story is repeated over and over again. God uses Moses to rescue the people who have been enslaved in Egypt. But when they are on their way to the Promised Land they start grumbling and yearning to return back to Egypt. We don’t like imagining ourselves as one of those grumblers.
We have the Prophet Jeremiah, who had bad news for the people about where the leadership has led them all. Now the Babylonian Empire was coming, Jerusalem would be taken, and the Temple would be destroyed. There were false prophets who were telling a more optimistic story, and the people and their leaders preferred that story. … Jeremiah says of the people,
“… they did not listen or incline their ears, but stiffened their necks in order not to listen or take correction.” (Jeremiah 17:23).
We don’t like imagining ourselves as those who ignored Jeremiah, or rejected him because we didn’t like what he was saying.
Jesus laments over Jerusalem,
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing” (Lk 13:34).
These sound like the words of God, who is continuously sending prophets and teachers to Israel only to find them rejected. … And we don’t want to imagine ourselves as among those who would reject God’s messengers. … The Jerusalem Jesus is speaking about is a representative sample of humanity. There isn’t anything particularly unusual about the people of Israel that makes them particularly rebellious. They are us.
We want to think that if we were living in Germany during the 1930’s that we wouldn’t go along with what the Nazis were doing. If we lived in Alabama during the time of Martin Luther King Jr., we wouldn’t be against him, we would be for him. Surely, we would be the ones fighting against Apartheid in South Africa- we would be the allies of Nelson Mandela and Bishop Tutu. “Surely not I, Lord” “Surely, I’m not capable of such a thing”. If we were Hutus living in Rwanda during the 1990's, we surely wouldn't get caught up in the horror that was enacted against the Tutsi.
Peter says to Jesus,
“Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you” (Matt 26:33).But we know that Peter says these words on the very same day that he says he doesn’t know Jesus, three times. … We don’t like imagining ourselves as the crowd that turns away from the hero. We don’t like imagining ourselves as those who mistreat God’s prophets. With Peter we want to say, “I would never”.
But on Palm and Passion Sunday we admit to this reality. We see ourselves with our shadows intact. And this day is a kind of summation of Holy Week. We are the crowd who shouts for our King-
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”But our voices also join those who shout
“Crucify!” “We have no king but Caesar!”
We don’t like seeing that side of ourselves. But it is important for us to see this side of ourselves. When we see that darkness in ourselves, it will help us be merciful when we see it revealed in someone else. It is important for us to see what kind of horrors we might be capable of- and to cry out to God in that realization. …
Everything seems to start out well with Palm Sunday. When Jesus enters Jerusalem, he receives the welcome of a king. But this is even bigger. He is welcomed as the expected Messiah, who was finally going to rescue the people from Rome, and was going to replace their corrupt rulers, and fix the worship of the temple. He was going to bring in a new Golden Age that would never end.
To welcome him they laid their cloaks on the ground, which is a sign of loyalty and dedication. We read an example of this with King Jehu in the 2nd book of Kings, who is the one who would defeat King Ahab and Jezebel. After he is secretly anointed king we read,
“Then hurriedly they all took their cloaks and spread them for him on the bare steps; and they blew the trumpet, and proclaimed, ‘Jehu is king’” (2 Kings 9:13).
They welcome Jesus as a king, and he comes on a donkey. … Jesus is very purposely fulfilling a prophesy the people believed was about the messiah. The Prophet Zechariah says,
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zech 9:9).Zechariah’s words point to another son of David who would come to them like the son of David, Solomon, did. David has Solomon anointed King, in opposition to one of Solomon’s brothers, who was hoping to steal the crown from his brother. David says,
“… have my son Solomon ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon. There let the priest Zadok and the prophet Nathan anoint him king over Israel; then blow the trumpet, and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’” (1 Kings 1:32-40).… So these symbolic gestures point to new kings being anointed in the midst of controversy and in the face of existing corrupt leaders. They are saying here is one Like Jehu, who will fight against evils like Ahab and Jezebel. Here is one like Solomon, who is the rightful king, as opposed to the schmoozing, power-hungry, politically maneuvering brother who is planning on stealing the crown. …
There is a dramatic shift today. It is not only Palm Sunday, but it is also Passion Sunday. We can get spiritual whiplash today. The crowds shift from cheering for the arrival of their Messiah, their prophesied King, to shouting “crucify”. The justice system is manipulated by corrupt leaders and the cries of the mob to create an unjust conviction against Jesus.
We don’t want to believe that this could be us. We face our shadow side today. We don’t want to see it in ourselves, but there is a part of us that doesn’t want Jesus. To face Jesus and call him “Lord” means handing over control. It means admitting that I am not the ultimate authority of my life. He tells me to change things I don’t want to change. He tells me to be kind to people I don’t want to be kind to. He tells me that I am polluted by sin and I would rather shrug my shoulders and say “well, no body’s perfect”, than let him start the process of healing me. … So I see in myself that there is a part of me that doesn’t want him as Messiah. I would rather be Lord of my own life and decide for myself what is right and wrong.
If Jesus wants to come and forgive my sins, so I don’t have to be judged when my life is over, that’s fine. If Jesus wants to open up the way to heaven for me when I die, that’s wonderful. But there is a part of me that wants it to stop there. … I want the Jesus that just makes me feel warm and fuzzy and not the Jesus who exposes my darkness and challenges me to be transformed. … I’m happy for him to be messiah when he stays in the box I have made for him. I don’t want him to disrupt my life too much. When he starts encroaching on parts of my life that I want him to stay away from, that’s when I hear my voice start to cry “Crucify”.
Jesus is coming to fix the world, but part of what is broken in the world is me. I am broken. He’s not just going to fix all the people I have a problem with. And there is a part of me that is offended by that.
Our Messiah is humble enough to allow us to accept him or reject him. He won’t force himself on us. He will present himself to us, and we are free to accept him or reject him. We can welcome him as king, or crucify him as a fraud. God was willing to gently ask for our acceptance, not command it. But He will not give up on us. He will expose the darkest part of our soul. He will let us know that he sees it, and that he experiences the full force of our hate and wrath. He will receive it without rejecting us. He will even use our rejection of him, his own crucifixion, to show the unbelievable depth of his love for us- opening his arms in love for the world. AMEN
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