Palm Sunday April 9, 2017
Luther Memorial Church Seattle, WA
The Rev. Julie Hutson
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
I remember my first political rally….some friends and I decided it was time…time to march….time to shout our opinions….time to band together. We would do it right there on our own street. Surprisingly, the neighbors didn’t even seem to mind. It was an election year and we created as much of a kerfluffle as we could muster, shouting with all that was in us “Nixon, Nixon, he’s our man! Humphrey lives in a garbage can.”
We were nine years old and we’d decorated our bicycles and our wagons and our scooters and we were parading up and down the streets of our neighborhood shouting this clever barb, none of us knowing why we thought so little of Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic nominee for president in 1968. Maybe we’d heard our parents discussing the election or seen something on the news. Maybe we’d grown tired of our usual neighborhood games. But for some reason, we decided it was time for a political rally, a parade of sorts.
To a degree, this day, Palm Sunday, is like that one. We parade and shout Hosanna and wave our palm branches. We know that we do it because we’ve heard the story of another parade, with Jesus on a donkey and the people waving palm branches and shouting Hosanna and putting their cloaks on the road before him. But, as with all stories….there is a deeper story. And since this day and this parade lead us into the holiest of times in the life of Jesus’ disciples, it’s worth remembering that we’ve chosen to hold this parade for reasons beyond what we sometimes remember.
Actually, we often hear talk of how the church is no place for politics. And that would be true, if it weren’t for Jesus. Now, I will agree that the church is no place for political partisanship….but how Jesus finds himself on a cross on Friday has everything to do with politics.
This is no ordinary parade; within the symbolism of this day, Jesus defines himself as the new King, which, it is important to note, did not set well with the current one. Jesus was always against empire, against corrupt and egocentric rulers, and so on this day, he appropriates the symbols of the empire and mockingly turns them upside down.
First he took as his own the symbols of the king. Instead of riding in on a tall white stallion, as a warrior, though, he rode in humbly on a donkey, fulfilling the words in Zechariah 9. His mission is one of restoration and peace: to restore Jerusalem and rescue Israel. “He does not come to magnify his own ego, but to fulfill God’s agenda.” [1] Those who greet him are common people, people who seek hope and justice, people who long for freedom from oppression. There are no soldiers who accompany him, no armed guards, no security detail, just those whose hearts are filled with hope that this one, is the Messiah.
Next, Jesus appropriates the signs of the priesthood. He identifies himself as one who has come to restore faithful life and worship. The psalmist calls Jesus’ entry parade a “festal procession”, with shouts of Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord! This is no ordinary ruler, this is a priestly ruler. And Jesus has a message for the Temple, for his first act after arriving will be to drive out those who are engaging in illicit business transactions in the temple and invite in the unclean, healing the blind and the lame. The temple will return to its rightful purpose as a place of healing, a place of worship, and a place where the righteousness of God takes root.
And then, Jesus appropriates the symbols of the prophet. He is the one who will bring the story of God. He is the one who is the story of God. “Who is this?” the people of the city ask, and the crowds waving their palm branches respond “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Jesus has warned them of false prophets before….”By their fruit you shall know them” he said (Matthew 7: 15-20). “Soon he will show the people exactly how rancid the fruit of the establishment’s religious leaders is, how they have substituted their own words for the word of God, in service to their power.” [2]
In many ways this day offered hope to those who gathered there….to those who were quick to cut branches from the nearby trees to wave in honor and to those who took off their cloaks to show their respect. These were people who were desperately longing for a sign and a symbol that the oppressive age in which they lived could change….that it would not have the final word. That their faith in Jesus would somehow make a difference, not only in their own lives and hearts, but much more so in the world around them.
We do not and cannot presume that this day stands on its own. That’s why the Church often folds the entire passion Gospel, which includes the Last supper and the crucifixion into this day. So that those of us who gather and parade and process and shout Hosanna remember that in crying out for justice and in appropriating the symbols of the empire, this parade becomes a death march and Jesus is leading the way.
Many ask whether Jesus knew at this point that he would actually have to die. By the time he gets to the garden later this week, he is painfully aware of his future. By the time he gathers at the table he is painfully aware of the betrayal of those closest to him. But when he’s riding in on that donkey….when he’s taking all of the signs and symbols of the empire and throwing them back in the face of those in power….does he have any idea what that will lead to?
Nobody knows the answer for sure. But this we do know….whether he did or whether he did not, he was not deterred from the message of the Gospel. He knew that a message of humility and love and inclusion in the face of the dominant message from the empire: power, fear, and exclusion, was a message worth the risk.
We re-enact this day, not only to feel good and to rejoice that Lent is at last coming to an end….that the end of these 40 days is in sight…we re-enact this day, this parade, this protest against power….because it reminds us that we are called to this same work. As long as there are places in the world where the powerful are oppressing the weak, where children are hungry and families are homeless and people are judged, not by their fruits, but by the colors of their skin or by who they love or by their gender… as long as people are being attacked by their own governments and are dying in the street….as long as the empire is strong arming the weak….we have a labor of love before us. We have the work to do that begins but does not end with sharing Christ’s love in community. We cannot stand on the sidelines. We cannot sit quietly in our own homes and call ourselves blessed because we are not like them, whoever we think that to be. Because when we do that, we can be assured that Jesus will ride in and call us to something else. Jesus will remind us that we are known by the fruits of our lives.
Beloved of God….this day marks the beginning of a holy week. I encourage and invite you not to abandon Jesus along the parade route, but to walk with him….come to the feast of love on Thursday…pray with him as you can in the garden….witness him on the cross on the good and terrible Friday. Only in this way, can we truly receive the grace that is still ahead.
Thanks be to God….and let the church say…Amen.
[1] Christine Chakoian, First Presbyterian Church, Lake Forest, IL
[2] Ibid