Sermon 3/16/08
Lion King: Adored/Abandoned - Matthew 21:1-11, Matthew 26:14-27:66
(view lectionary notes for this text)
This Lent we’ve been using music from The Lion King to help us look at our journey with Jesus in a different way. You may have started to notice that The Lion King focuses a lot on what it means to be a king. Simba, as a young cub, and then as an adult lion, has to struggle with what being a king means, what kind of king he wants to be, what kind of king he’s expected to be. We heard, at the beginning of Lent, his Uncle Scar sing about what kind of king he would be – a controlling king, a selfish king, a mean king. We heard Mufasa sing, encouraging Simba to look inside himself, and to look to those who have gone before to figure out what kind of king to be. We’ve heard Simba ready to give up on being king altogether, overwhelmed by his mistakes and the pain he feels he’s caused. Today, we jump back to Simba’s time as a cub, when he’s singing about how much fun he thinks he’ll have being king, full of hope for his future.
Today, on Palm/Passion Sunday, we’re asking very similar questions: what kind of king are we looking for? And what kind of king was Jesus? We’ve reached the beginning of Holy Week, a tumultuous week in Jesus’ life. It begins with the test we’ve just heard from Matthew – what we call Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Jesus is coming with his disciples, as many Jews would have, to celebrate the Passover feast. He makes arrangements to ride into the city. And when he arrives, he finds the people are greeting him as if he was a king. Indeed, they seem to want him to be their king – throughout the gospels we read of places where the crowds are so thrilled with the healing and teaching and preaching of Jesus that they want to make him their king, even if Jesus doesn’t want to be such a king. So when Jesus arrives in Jerusalem, people are waving palms, spreading their cloaks on the ground for him to walk over, and shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” They see Jesus as a second David, their beloved king, and they’re ready for Jesus to be such a king for them too. And yet, Jesus enters carried by humble animals, never asking to be praised or made a ruler.
But today, on this Palm/Passion Sunday, we will hear of events that unfold just a short time later. We’ll hear the account of Jesus’ last supper, his arrest, his being betrayed and denied by his disciples, his trial, his crucifixion and death, as crowds of people shout that they’d rather a known criminal be freed than see Jesus go free. What happens in such a short time to make the crowds go from demanding Jesus be their king to demanding Jesus be crucified? When Jesus is sentenced, the charges against him are put on a sarcastic inscription over his head: “This is the King of the Jews.” Being a king is what the people demanded – and being accused of being a king is what Jesus was crucified for, just days later.
By now, many of you know that my favorite musical is Jesus Christ Superstar. I started seeing a local production of Superstar when I was in 7th grade, and I just fell in love with it. (I’ll admit that it didn’t hurt that I had a bit of crush on the actor that played Judas, but that’s beside the point.) I loved seeing the gospel, the passion, come alive on the stage. I’ve seen the staged production probably 30 times now, and worn out more than one cassette tape and then CD version of the musical. I love it because it makes the text so real – it makes me want to be a part of it, to have been there when these events first unfolded. It makes me wonder where I’d be in the scene – would I be with the disciples and the women who followed Jesus? Would I feel more like Peter or like Judas, or like one of those who is hardly even mentioned? Would I be a supporter of the chief priests and Pharisees? Would I even care about what was going on, or what I be watching these events unfold? Of course I’d like to think I’d be following Jesus. But where would I be?
The gospel, the scriptures, become truly meaningful when we can start to see ourselves in the texts and really imagine, wonder, explore, challenge ourselves – where would we be if we were there? Because when we can start to see ourselves there with Jesus, we can start to understand Jesus being here with us now, God’s presence with us today, what all this means for how we live today. On Palm Sunday, as we celebrate Jesus entering into Jerusalem, received by an expectant crowd, can you picture the scene? Can you see yourself in the crowds? I remember feeling when I was younger that with all the excitement, the music, the palm branches waving, the processions that we had in church on Palm Sunday, I remember feeling that I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jesus riding into the sanctuary. That’s how much I could fee it – that’s how much I felt really in it – the texts had come alive for me.
But here’s the caveat – here’s the catch. If we want to be in it – if we want to see ourselves in the text – if we want the scriptures to come alive for us, we have to be in it all the way. We can’t look for ourselves in the crowds greeting with joy Jesus as he rides into the city, and not look for ourselves in the crowds that are yelling for his crucifixion. We can’t look for ourselves among his followers, and not look for ourselves among them when Jesus is abandoned, denied, and betrayed by his closest friends and companions. We can’t show up for the palms, and again for the resurrection, without knowing, understanding, experiencing what happens in between.
That’s why today we celebrate Palm/Passion Sunday. Palm/Passion Sunday is a unique celebration that puts the traditional Palm Sunday service together with Passion Sunday, a day in the Christian calendar that used to be held earlier in Lent. The traditional Palms Service remembers Jesus entering into Jerusalem, a king, though a humble king, a different kind of king, being greeted by a waiting crowd. The Passion Service is a recounting of the trial, crucifixion, and death of Jesus. The practical reason that they were moved together to one Sunday was because of the changing pattern of people’s attendance at services during Holy Week. People might attend worship on Sundays – and be present for Palm Sunday and Easter – but miss the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services in between. For those worshippers, the narrative would seem to go from triumph to triumph – the entry into Jerusalem right to the resurrection. But so much that’s important happens in between. There is no resurrection without death. Palm/Passion Sunday gives us the whole story.
But there’s a deeper reason to hold these two themes together, I think, to have these two gospel texts share the same Sunday morning space. They are poignant enough alone, full of meaning. But together, juxtaposed, with their stark contrasts, these texts hit even harder. First the crowds are welcoming Jesus in an impromptu parade. “Hosanna!” Then they are shouting "Crucify him, Crucify him!" What happened in this last week of Jesus life to make them change their minds so completely? If we can find ourselves in this crowd on Palm Sunday, we have to find ourselves in the Passion too – to really examine ourselves.
Where are you in this story? What God wants to know, what God asks of us is what part we play – where are we in this scene? Are you Mary Magdalene, letting your life be turned around by God? Are you Peter, struggling to get it right but never giving up? Are you the thief on the cross, ready to repent, or jeering at Jesus? We all wish in our hearts to believe that if we’d been there, we wouldn’t have been one who fell away. But I wonder – would we have been like Pilate, trying to avoid responsibility? Like Judas – angry that Jesus wasn’t acting as we wanted, overcome with doubts about our actions? Would we have been like Simon of Cyrene – passing by, and yet drawn in to a life-changing event? Would we have been lost in the crowd? Would you have been cheering him on one day, only to be yelling for his death a few days later? Or would you have been a person on the outskirts, not even aware of the events going on so close by? Where would you be? Where are you now? What role do you have in this drama, this passion, as it unfolds before us again?
The Palm crosses we receive today are perfect symbols of the tension of Palm/Passion Sunday. The very palms that symbolize welcoming Jesus in joy are turned into crosses – the instrument of Jesus’ death – even as they represent to us the Christ who rises again. How like our own lives these symbols are – we take our same selves, our same souls that we use to praise and worship God, the same lips that we use to make commitments to following God, the same hearts we offer as gifts to God, and we turn them into, use them instead to break our promises, to quit our commitment, to turn off the way of discipleship, to deny who God is to us and who we are to God, to betray God for something cheaper, that really has no value, because, like the Pharisees, and the high priests, and Herod, and Pilate, and even Jesus’ disciples, we are scared of the power that Jesus has, and how he might use that power to change our comfortable, contradictory lives into uncomfortable challenging journeys of faith. We are full of such hopeful faith, and yet such faltering doubts. We are so anxious to show our commitment, and yet so quick to break our covenants. So in need of love and grace, so hesitant to forgive, to understand.
By our actions, or our inaction, by our presence or our absence, by speaking up or staying silent, by our passion, or our apathy – by our choices, one way or another, we place ourselves in this scene, cast ourselves in a role in this passion story. Where are you in this story? I believe God desires for us to be center stage – as close to Jesus as we can come – walking with him. Today, I invite you to look at this image on the screen. The image is of the crucifixion. See the people near the cross. See the city in the distance. See the guards. See the thief on the cross. See the women, crying. See Christ, crucified. And see yourself. Where are you in this scene? As you hear the stories of the passion today, I invite you to wonder and imagine. Find yourself, your face, in this story.
Amen.