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Palm Sunday, 2008 The Rev. Jan Holland
Blessed is our Humble King
You’ve got to love a season that ends with a parade! So for me, Palm Sunday is another reason to love Lent!
What a great way to mark the end of a penitential season. We bless and gather our palm branches; we sing and walk together around the church and our little parade stirs up our spirits – lifts them up to the Lord! The music, the psalms of praise, the waving of palms – all contribute to the celebration we call Palm Sunday. Granted we don’t have a Bishop riding on a donkey leading us in a grand pageant from the Mount of Olives into the Holy City, but our procession is our tribute to that ancient practice.
It seems to me that today’s scriptures ask three things of us: First, to walk with Jesus into Jerusalem; Next, to have the mind of Christ Jesus in our hearts; and finally, to put our whole trust in God’s love for us. Let’s see how it all turns out.
Matthew’s Gospel tells us the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem for the Passover holiday. In Matthew’s view Jesus’ entry is the fulfillment of the passage he quotes from the prophet Zechariah: “look, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey and on a colt…” So Jesus sends two disciples to find a donkey tied, and a colt with her and to say to anyone who asks, only that, “The Lord needs them.” Then Matthew tells us they brought him the donkey and her colt and put their cloaks on them, and he rode them into the City with crowds ahead of him and behind, waving palm branches and shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Today we follow in that tradition as we pick up our Palms and sing “Glory, Laud and Honor to our Redeemer King…” because this is not an ordinary Sunday. In Luke’s Gospel account of the procession into Jerusalem the Pharisees appear on the scene with Jesus as the crowd becomes a little too loud and unruly for them. And when the Pharisees ask Jesus to silence the crowd, Jesus answers them saying, “…If these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
Today we cannot simply stand by in silence, because we know if we were silent, the earth itself would sing out. Because, we know the end of the story, the end of the story of the man the crowds called the “prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee!” We know that Jesus is also the Lord, the one who through his death has destroyed death and by his resurrection has brought life to the world.
We know that after his triumphant entry into the Holy City of Jerusalem, Jesus gathers his followers around him in the upper room for a last supper… where he prepares them for his death by blessing and sharing bread and wine and telling them to continue to remember him in this way.
We know, that the temple police seize Jesus and take him to be tried before Pontius Pilate… and he suffers unimaginable desolation as even his disciples deny knowing him and the crowd turns against him. We know that the “Hosanna’s” shouted out by the same crowd that lined the entryway into Jerusalem turned into shouts of “Crucify Him!” “Crucify Him!”
We know the cruel passion of Good Friday… [We know] the shame of the Cross, the scandal of the Crucifixion and the stunned confusion of his disheartened followers.
We know the hopelessness and despair of Holy Saturday and yet…, we also know… his words of forgiveness for our betrayal and ignorance…, we know the discovery of the empty tomb…and we know the miracle of Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Jesus could have chosen not to enter Jerusalem. As he set his face toward the Holy City the Gospels all tell us he met opposition even from his own disciples, yet we find him the faithful child of God, freely entering the city to face what he knows is God’s will for his life. Today Jesus enters the city of his destiny as we enter the experience of Holy Week; both of us trusting in the love of God.
Frederick Buechner speaks of “Trust” in his book titled, “Listening to Your Life”. Speaking from the anguish of his own life, he writes; “I remember sitting parked by the roadside once, terribly depressed and afraid about my daughter’s illness and what was going on in our family, when out of nowhere a car came along down the highway with a license plate that bore on it, the one word, out of all the words in the dictionary that I needed most to see, exactly then. The word was TRUST.
The owner of the car turned out to be, as I’d suspected, a trust officer in a bank, and not long ago – having read an account I wrote of the incident somewhere – he found out where I lived, and one afternoon brought me the license plate itself; which sits propped up on a bookshelf in my house to this day. It is rusty around the edges and a little battered, and it is also as holy a relic as I have ever seen.” [So in keeping with the recent playfulness of my colleagues – I offer a visual reminder to help us to Trust God as we begin the journey of Holy Week…]
Our Lord Jesus trusted in God, even unto death…and God gave him the name that is above every name; “so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” Jesus trusted God and walked in faith and hope. He healed the sick, “the blind received sight, the lame walked, lepers are healed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.”
The apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians says; “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…” Be in the same mind as Jesus when you face up to the challenges and opportunities of daily life…
When confronted by fear and doubt look to God for strength and courage.
When life comes at you too fast… slow down and find a quiet place to pray.
When called into a new adventure remember to have faith in God’s love…, remember to trust in God who sent a son, to empty himself for our sake… remember the beloved son; “Jesus Christ is Lord.”
Today, let the Gospel show us Jesus, our ‘Humble King’ in a royal procession, so that you and I may praise him and give thanks for God’s abundant love. Let our response be in our own faithfulness… as we commit ourselves this Holy Week to walking the path of the pilgrim, making the sacrifice, which only we can make this week.
What shall we take with us? Hold in one hand the palm branch – as a sign of the victory of Christ coming in Glory – and in the other hand the palm cross – as a sign of our trust in the greatness of God’s mercy and sacrifice on our behalf. And then live this week in the tension of these two symbols, that they may enlighten our hearts with the mind of Jesus.
Palm Sunday challenges us to be drawn into the divine drama of Holy Week and to experience God’s outrageously generous commitment to the world. I wonder: Does what we do make a difference to the world?
Will our actions today and all this week be a public witness to our faith and trust in God?
As we: Celebrate the institution of the Lord’s Supper, the foot washing, the stripping of the altar and the abandonment of Jesus on Maundy Thursday? Will we make a difference…?
As we: Spend some time in quiet contemplation at the foot of the Cross on Good Friday? Will we make a difference…?
As we: Experience our rich Biblical history; told in the stories of salvation, renew Baptismal Vows and proclaim the resurrection at the Great Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday? Will we make a difference…?
As we: Rejoice in the splendor of the Festival Choral Celebrations of Easter Sunday? I trust that we will!
The lowly donkey and her colt had very few gifts – she was not as beautiful as the horse; not sleek, nor well proportioned – but, when our Lord had need of her; she was willing to let Christ use her.
Are we willing to put our whole trust in God’s love for us and to let Christ use us – this day – this week – and always?
Amen.