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Jesus' Most Misunderstood Moment |
Matthew 21: 1-11
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© John Ewing Roberts |
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INTRODUCTION We begin with a film clip of Palm Sunday.[1] The black and white photography gives it a remote feeling, as does the Italian language. But there is also an immediacy - just a glimpse of a few words in the subtitles quickly calls to mind the familiar (perhaps too familiar) text. Savor the faces in the first scene, the departure from Caesarea Philippi to Jerusalem after the moment we recalled in our scripture sentences at the beginning of this service, those chilling words about taking up the cross and following Jesus. Watch for Peter's face; notice the youngest man in the group, surely John, the beloved disciple. Do not look for Jesus to be a Hollywood blond type. This man from the Mediterranean world will haunt you with his intense dark eyes. Above all catch the mixed mood of the day, the three "c's" of Palm Sunday, crowd, celebration and confusion. The confusion swirls around expectations to be met, questions to be answered and fears to be relieved. THE VIEW FROM THE CROWD Could you picture yourself in the crowd during the film clip? I hope so. Later in this week we will sing, "Were you there when they crucified my Lord...when they nailed him to the tree...when they laid him in the tomb...when he rose up from the dead?" Back up a few days and ask yourself, "Were you there when they waved their palms in praise?" We all know the right answer to that question. There is a call to confession that goes like this: Judas, slave of jealously, where are you? I am here. Peter, slave of fear, where are you? I am here. Thomas, slave of doubt, where are you? I am here. Men and women of Jerusalem, enslaved to mob rule, where are you? I am here. Pilate, slave of expedience, where are you? I am here. The story of Christ's passion and death mirrors for us much of our weakness and sin. We all come here as men and women who have missed the mark and who are alienated from God and our neighbor near and far.[2] We identify with those in the crowd who will praise Jesus on Sunday and deny, betray or abandon him a few days later. However, we can possibly see ourselves in that crowd in a more favorable light. Did you ever wonder who said the first "Hosanna!"? Would we have had the faith, the insight and the courage to cry out first? Did the first "Hosanna!" come by the same sort of pre-arrangement that Jesus made to secure the donkey and the upper room? Or did someone see Jesus on the donkey and pull together all the non-verbal clues, get the point and cry out "Hosanna!"? I don't know, but I do know that they said "Hosanna! Save now!" and that cry led to more confusion. "Save now" from what? From sin and death, or from Roman tyranny? "Save now" from religious hungers or abject poverty? JESUS' POINT OF VIEW Jesus surely had mixed feelings on that first Palm Sunday, a combination of joy over the affirmation and tears over the misunderstanding in the adulation and over the city he loved. Luke says that "he wept at the sight of the city". [3] There is more here than the fine dramatic contrast between enthusiastic and shouting crowd and Jesus in the midst of the tumult weeping.[4] There is more than the irony of the one crying while the many are celebrating. Jesus wept because he could see what the city was and what the city would be. He still weeps for all cities, all nations, all churches and all persons who are less than he would have us to be. Today he surely weeps for Kosovo. A fresh interpretation suggests that he wept possibly because of the temptation of the moment -this triumphal entry, as we call it, looked like a Zealot rally, a coronation of a king even though Luke went to some pains to make it clear that Jesus' reign was peaceful. Was he tempted to turn the moment into a revolutionary movement? Was he tempted to go the way of the power of this world? Was he tempted to ride a Zealot wave of revolution? Remember Luke 4, the temptations? Remember the vision of the kingdoms of the world - from the crest of the Mt. of Olives Jesus had Asia at his back and the Mediterranean world of Europe ahead of him. Remember the temptation at the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem? From the crest of the Mt. of Olives the pinnacle of the temple was directly in front of Jesus. If the temptation loomed up, he gave the same response he had in the wilderness, a resounding "no!" He was coming as king of peace on earth, good will among all peoples - the prophecy of Luke 2, the song of the angels to the shepherds had come true. His tears were over a city which did not understand the kind of king, the kind of peace it needed. His tears were for a city that did not understand how he fleshed out heaven's peace on earth in the way he lived, the way he taught and the way he would die. Jesus weeps not over his own fate, but over the fate of the city. We see this here and in two other passages in Luke: (1) Luke 13: 34-35 "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing. See, your house is left to you, And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'" (2) Luke 23: 26-32 "As they led him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus. A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him. But Jesus turned to them and said, 'Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For the days are surely coming when they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.' Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us,' and go the hills, 'Cover us.' For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?" THE VIEW AT WOODBROOK All of Holy Week would echo the mixture of understanding and misunderstanding of Day 1, Palm Sunday - the followers of Jesus getting the point some time and on other occasions tragically misunderstanding their Master. We get to follow Jesus during Holy Week and to try and understand all that happens to him and to us. We follow him as we read our Bibles and pray. We follow him on Thursday evening as we eat a simple Mediterranean meal, the kind Jesus and his followers often would have eaten, and then have a very special observance of the Lord's Supper. We get to follow Jesus and hear his signals on Friday. Some of you - work schedule permitting - will be able to come to this room between noon and 3:00 p.m. for a time of prayer and meditation. I hope many will come Good Friday night for the Tenebrae service of shadows when we explore how Jesus entered into the darkness of that darkest of days. More verbal and non-verbal cues on the meaning of Holy Week come to us in the Great Easter Vigil on Saturday night, a service of communion, a service when we renew our baptismal vows and revisit the whole history of salvation. Then comes Easter morning, next Sunday, back in this room, full of joyful people. My prayer is that we will experience the meaning of this week as fully as possible. It is a shame to come to church only on Easter, but it is better, I suppose, than not coming at all. It is a shame to come on Palm Sunday to sing All Glory, Laud and Honor and not come back until Easter Sunday to sing Christ, the Lord Is Risen Today. It's going from mountain peak to mountain peak and not going with Jesus into the valley, into the garden, and on to the foot of the cross. Some one compared the Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday "skip" to a high school student opening an admissions letter from the his first college choice and then skipping to graduation day. She would miss all the tests, term papers and "all nighters" but she would also miss the friendships, the mentoring professors, the life long network of relationships, the maturing, the excitement, the growth of college. Holy Week offers life's greatest growth and maturation experience for those who relive it as fully as possible with our Lord. Someone may say, "You're asking us to come to church a lot this week." I realize that it will not be possible for everyone to attend every service, but when I consider what Jesus did for us in these days, I believe there should be no apologies for the richness of the church schedule, only apologies for those who neglect. "Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all." The great gifts of these days are there for us. I pray that we will receive them in their richness and in the fullness of their meaning. MEANWHILE BACK IN THE CROWD I cannot get the crowd off my mind, and to it let us return. Matthew 21 records that people asked, "Who is this?" (v. 10), and received the answer, "This is the prophet Jesus...." (v. 11) Now the common people surely would have welcomed a prophet - a voice for the common people, fearlessly naming injustice, calling the rich and powerful to account on the basis of God's holy law.[5] But who really wants prophets with their "shoulds," "oughts," and "musts?" What rings with prophetic courage when addressed to others quickly turns to scolding moralism and a burden of guilt heaped on when preached to us. In Romans 7, Paul complained about the gap between what he ought to do and his ability actually to do it. If he can't pull it off, what of us? The good news is that Jesus is more than a prophet. He is the word made flesh, God incarnate. And that is why we cheer on Palm Sunday if we understand what the stakes are. We don't need another prophet berating us; we need the presence and power of God, a direct connection to empower us for all of life's necessary "shoulds," "oughts," and "musts." We need the direct, immediate presence of God, not petty sacrifices purchased with exact change in the right currency from the tables of the money changers. And maybe, just maybe, on that first Palm Sunday there were some people there who got it right, singing, "Hosanna in the highest!" because they were in the presence of someone who opens up the way to God like no one before or since, someone who so perfectly and completely made God present that they knew with Jesus they could find the holiness and power for life they ached for but lacked on their own. Was Jesus crucified for being a prophet who overturned the tables of commerce? Yes, but that is only part of the reason for the crucifixion. What made everyone fear him enough to kill him was the immediacy of his presence, this direct sense of the power of God, accessible to us, and making us accessible to God, scary stuff for sinners. This story helps make the point. Some students were into a Bible study on the baptism of Jesus. Their leader said that when Jesus was baptized, "The heavens were opened." The Greek word for "opened" is the same word from which we get "schizophrenic." It means the heaves were split, ripped open, a violent image. What separates us from God is now open. We can get to God. In Jesus we can reach up to God and be close to God. But one young man said, "No, that's not what it means. It means that when Jesus was baptized, the heavens were ripped so now it means that God can get to us anytime God wants! Now, nobody's safe."[6] The presence and power of God is let loose in Jesus Christ. The presence and power of God from us to him and from him to us is let loose in Jesus Christ. The presence and power of God is let loose on earth as it is in heaven in Jesus Christ. No wonder some worship and others crucify him. This week is all about the presence and power, day by day, step by step. THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE PALMS - A PROPHETIC GESTURE At Woodbrook today we join with many Christian brothers and sisters around the world in distributing palms at the end of the service. By accepting the palms we say with deeds beyond words, "I identify with those disciples who long ago welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem. I welcome him into my life and into my city. I welcome the presence and power of God into my life." But this prophetic gesture is itself in danger of being misunderstood. After all, as preachers and teachers have observed ever since that first Palm Sunday, in all likelihood some of those in the crowd who cried, "Hosanna" on Sunday were part of the mob shouting, "Crucify him" on Friday. Palm Sunday, as we observe it, is a combination of different gospel accounts, rather like our Christmas nativity pageant when Matthew's wise men arrive just as Luke's shepherds are leaving. (Those who noticed that there were no palms in the film clip should recall that of the four gospels, only John even mentions palms.) In accepting the palms we are in danger of being misunderstood, and not just over which gospel is our source. The issue is not textual but ethical. The disciples "got it right" on Palm Sunday, but before Passion Week was over... - one had betrayed him, - one had denied him, - three had fallen asleep instead of keeping watch, - one had forgotten about peace and reached for his sword, and - all but one had run away. Because of what happened after Palm Sunday, the day is both a time of celebration of Jesus as a peaceful king and a painful reminder of coming failure. Some of you are appropriately uncomfortable with Palm Sunday because you take very seriously what is coming. Accept your palm as one on the edge of the crowd, wondering if he really can be more than a prophet, if he really can save now. Accept it as one who will try to go with him through the garden, go with him through the judgment. Accept it as one who longs for grace and glory and prays for the courage to go with him all the way, the courage for the facing of this hour. [This sermon is for circulation within the Woodbrook congregation and may not be reproduced without permission.] Notes: [1] Pier Paolo Pasolini, The Gospel According to St. Matthew [2] Richard Eck, "Call to Confession," Imaging the WORD: And Arts and Lectionary Resource, Vol. 1, Kenneth T. Lawrence, editor [Cleveland, Ohio: United Church Press] 1994, p . 181 [3] Luke 19: 41 [4] Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV, The Anchor Bible Volume 28A [New York: Doubleday, 1985] p. 1253 [5] William H. Willimon, Pulpit Resource, Vol. 27, No. 1, January, February, March 1999, p. 52 [6] Story of Tom Long, cited in Pulpit Resource, op. cit., p. 54 |