Sermon 4-4-04
All in a Week's Work - Luke 19:28-40, Luke 22:14-23:56
(view lectionary notes for this text)
Today we celebrate Palm/Passion Sunday, a unique day in the church, a combination of two very different events in the ministry of Jesus Christ, brought together on one Sunday. In many churches, perhaps even usually here at St. Paul's, the service on this day is simply the service of the Palms - the service of remembering Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Indeed, the entry by Jesus, the people receiving him with joy and welcome - this is an important day to celebrate. But what's this other part - the service of the Passion?
Passion is a word that might be more on our radar these days, with the recent release of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. In terms of our Christian story, the word passion means the suffering and death of Christ. This is the passion. And so, the service of the Passion takes us through the gospel account of Jesus betrayal, trial, and crucifixion. Passion Sunday used to be celebrated as its own Sunday during the fifth week of Lent, before Palm Sunday. But when the common lectionary was developed, the common set of texts we use each week, Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday were joined together in one Sunday.
What's the rationale for this move? Well, first, a practical reason: these days, less and less people celebrate the full Holy Week - people might attend on the Sundays: Palm Sunday, and then Easter. However, missing Holy Week - Maundy Thursday and Good Friday - means missing the middle and very important part of the story - the trial and crucifixion. How can you have Jesus' resurrection without his death? Celebrating Palm/Passion Sunday together means you get the whole story.
But I think there's a deeper reason 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. 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?
But let's start back at the beginning: Palm Sunday, the triumphant entry. Why, now, are people welcoming Jesus this way, with cloaks thrown down and cheers of Hosanna, which means, 'God save us'? Throughout the gospels, response to Jesus and his teachings has been mixed at best. But on this day, when he comes into Jerusalem this time, the people are waiting for him, lining up to see him, receiving him as if a king.
And that's just it. The people were expecting a king, welcoming a king. What does it mean to be king? I think of the recently released The Return of the King, the last installment in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The third story follows Aragorn, the rightful king, as he returns to the throne. Though he is good, though he is working against the evil forces at work in his world, he certainly is a different kind of king than we would think of when describing the kingship of Christ. Aragorn, like most kings, must lead with the sword, vanquish his enemies, and take the throne, rule the people. Even a good king is not the kind of king Jesus is. But this kind of king is indeed the kind the people were expecting, asking him to be, demanding that he be.
No doubt the people of Jesus' day had the desire for such a king. The Jewish people had been for a long time under the rule of the Romans. Their land, their homes, their lives, were all under control of another nation, another people, whose customs, practices, and laws were foreign to the Jewish people. They were prisoners in their own land, and they certainly resented it. They rightly pegged Jesus and his ideas as revolutionary, world-changing. Couldn't Jesus be the one to free them from their captivity?
By week's end, the crowds are not shouting "Hosanna", but "Crucify Him!" This Jesus isn't who they thought he was after all. He had talked about the kingdom of God all through his ministry, but he didn't seem to want to be king at all! He had talked about not coming to bring peace, but to bring a sword - but he wouldn't actually let his followers raise a sword against his captors. This Jesus spoke of turning children against parents and having people leave families just to follow him, but where was he leading people anyway? To their death? He turned over the tables of the money changers in the temple, exciting some that he might be ready to burst out and make a scene, but he would not even defend himself at his own trial. This Jesus wasn't the king they were looking for after all. They had been misled, mistaken.
Perhaps in our fast paced world, it is not hard for us to believe that someone could rise and fall in fame so quickly. We've seen it happen with political candidates in the last months. We see it happen to Hollywood celebrities who we can't get enough of and then can't get rid of fast enough. But Jesus? Surely we would not respond like the crowds to Jesus, surely we would want to welcome him everyday as much as we welcome him into our midst on Palm Sunday, right?
Well, do we? Do we want as much to do with Jesus when Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek? Do we want to be his followers, when he demands that we lay down our life, leave our homes and families, but God, and only God, first? Do we want to turn our pockets out when Jesus demands that we sell all we have and give it to the poor? Do we rejoice when he tells us that we are most blessed when we are most persecuted?
We love the Palms - love to wave our branches and sing our praises. And we are sincere - we want someone to guide us so badly. This world is so chaotic, so crazy - we'd love for someone to help us navigate this course of life. And we desire so much to feel God's grace in our lives, to hear God's voice speaking to us. But we are also the people of the Passion - we want God's voice, but wish we could pick what God had to say to us. We want God's grace, but like to determine who else can or cannot receive it. We want some direction, but we want to retain the right to go our own way too. And so, deep down, we're ready to crucify Christ too, because he is more challenging to us than we are ready to accept.
Theologian Dorothy Sayers writes, "I know that I can stand in here and sing praises to Jesus one day, and walk by on the other side of the road as he lies in a gutter the next. I know that I can be lost in wonder and praise at the gracious mercy of God one day, and then turn around and make the most callous judgment of someone the next day, just writing them off, rejecting them entirely without showing any sign that the grace I have been shown has begun to rub off on me. I know that some days I can sing in here "Brother, sister let me serve you, let me be as Christ to you," and then walk out and treat you as though I was born to rule and you're lucky to have me in your company."
How can we face ourselves? How can we go on, knowing that it is we who betray Christ? It is I who denies him, you who denies him. We are the ones who shout to have him taken away, to have him leave us alone, to have him die on the cross. How can we bear our guilt?
God, forgive us, we don't know what we're doing.
From Palms, to Passion. Let us not forget the life cycle of these palm branches. Today they make crosses for us. Signs of celebration, signs of crucifixion, signs of resurrection. But these same palms will also be burned into ashes, ashes that are used on Ash Wednesday, when we begin our Lenten journey again next year. The cycle is ongoing and repeating, because without this cycle of death and ashes in turn with our celebrations of resurrection, it is too easy to forget how in need of God's grace we are. It is easy to pretend that we have nothing to do with Christ's crucifixion, and everything to do with his resurrection. It is to easy to claim that it was the others who put him to death, that it is the others who fail to live and love as Christ calls us to.
We are here, as the palm branches are waved in joy. Let us also be here, and take responsibility, when Christ is crucified for us, by us, because of us. For it is only by taking in the fullness of Jesus' humanity, the completeness of his journey through life and death that we can truly gather together in celebration on Easter.
Hosanna! God save us! Amen.