March 28, 2010
 
Scripture:         Luke 19:28-40
 
Sermon:           “Faith and Irony”
 
            Turning our hearts and minds now to the word of God, let us read together the scripture lesson for the day.  Turn with me to the Gospel According to Luke, chapter 19 where we will read together verses 28 through 40.  You can find that easily on page 52 of the New Testament in the pew Bible.
            Palm Sunday.  Here we are.  Just a week away from Easter.  It almost gives you the impression that Palm Sunday is the entrance parade for the big day next week, doesn’t it?  All glory, laud, and honor we sing.  All glory, laud, and honor, to you Redeemer King.  It just feels like we are preparing for a coronation.  Doesn’t it?
            Stick with it this week.  There is much more to come.  You can’t get to Easter without Good Friday.  There is no resurrection without the suffering of the cross.
            Palm Sunday has always been a strange thing, really.  There is this story we remember of Jesus as he entered into the royal city of Jerusalem riding on a donkey.  The whole thing is meant to paint a picture of Jesus as the expected savior of the people, a new king.  Almost a thousand years before this King David had his own son Solomon carted into the city on a mule.  A priest anointed Solomon with oil.  And after all of this, Solomon was considered the legitimate heir to the throne and people sang out, “Long live King Solomon!” (1 King 1:38-40)
            Riding into Jerusalem on a donkey was a special sign.
            One of the prophets, Zechariah, told the people many years after Solomon about a time in the future when they would be redeemed by a great leader.  This was still hundreds of years before the life of Jesus.  That prophet said, “Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey.” (Zech. 9:9)
            And Palm Sunday?  Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey.  Folks are shouting out.  It’s a triumphant time.  Five days later he would be dead.  Irony.
            We’ll read the story today as Luke tells it.  Listen for the word of the Lord…
 
            After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.  When he had come near Bethpage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden.  Untie it and bring it here.  If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’”  So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them.  As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”  They said, “The Lord needs it.”  Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.  As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road.  As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!  Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”  Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.”  He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

            Now, wait just a minute!  Read back through that.  Where were the palm branches?  Seriously.  Where were the palm branches?  I could have sworn that people were supposed to be waving palm branches in the air as Jesus made his way into Jerusalem on a donkey.
            That’s a big deal in the Middle East.  It has been for thousands of years.  When there is a great national victory, people sometimes wave palm branches in joy and celebration.  Some folks did it when the statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled over in Baghdad several years ago.  They waved palm branches in the streets.  Did you happen to see that?
            You can’t very well have Palm Sunday without palm branches, can you?  Luke doesn’t seem to say anything about it.  Does he?  Three other gospels, Mark, Matthew, John…they all say that folks were waving these things around, throwing them down on the ground in front of Jesus.  It’s not in this version of how things happened.
            Kind of interesting, isn’t it?  Palm Sunday and no palm branches.
            And why isn’t anybody shouting out “Hosanna!  Hosanna!”  That’s how this story is supposed to go.  That’s how I remember it, anyway.  They waved palm branches and shouted out “Hosanna!”  Didn’t they?  Isn’t that how you remember it?
            Luke doesn’t mention anything about “Hosanna!”  Read back through it if you like.  It’s not in his version.  “Hosanna” should be in there.  It means “O save us!”  “O save us, Jesus our King.”  That’s what the story ought to be like.
            How can you have Palm Sunday without any palm branches and without the people yelling out “Hosanna!  O save us!”?
            It’s almost as if Luke is telling a different story entirely.  At the very least, he seems to want us to think about it a little bit differently.  No palm branches.  No “Hosanna!” on the lips of the crowds.  And look at that…the crowd isn’t even doing the shouting here in Luke’s gospels.  They’re not making a sound.  It’s Jesus’ disciples.  Read it!  That’s what Luke says.  It’s almost as if there isn’t much of a crowd at all according to Luke.  What?  The people in Jerusalem didn’t notice?  Is that what he’s saying?  The people in Jerusalem didn’t care?  I’d like to know what happened to the crowd according to Luke.  Why did the disciples have to do all the shouting?  Didn’t all those other people know that this Jesus was coming?
            If this was the only version of the story that you ever read?  Would you think that it was really a big celebration?  Luke seems to be talking about something other than the day when all the people in Jerusalem greeted Jesus with great shouts of joy proclaiming him to be king.
            And when the Pharisees in this story told Jesus to put an end to this, they almost seem like they’re mildly annoyed at the very worst.  They certainly don’t seem to be threatened.  “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.”
            When Matthew told this story, he said, “The whole city was in turmoil.”  Luke doesn’t quite say that, does he?
            I’ve been to a big celebration before.  I’ve been to a parade.  I’ve seen it when folks just lose their minds in elation and expectation.  The sidewalks are filled with people.  Fathers are holding their children on their shoulders to see over the crowds.  People are shouting and singing, trying to get a glimpse of a celebrity going by.  Have you seen that before?
            Palm Sunday usually makes me think of when the Beatles first came to America.  Or, it makes me think of when the first astronauts to land on the moon cruised down the streets of Manhattan sitting on convertibles.  You remember when soldiers came home from World War II, some of you.  Ticker tape parades.  Throngs of people straining to get close.
            I thought that was what Palm Sunday was supposed to be about.  Here comes the one who will save us!  Here is this Jesus we’ve heard so much about.  You hear Luke tell it and it isn’t such a big thing.  Nobody seems to have shown up.  Well, nobody except the Pharisees.  And there isn’t a palm branch or a hosanna to be found anywhere.
            You know what?  This isn’t a celebration.  Not according to Luke.  This isn’t a celebration.  Do you know what this is?  This is a demonstration.  Luke is talking about a demonstration.
            You’ve got this ragtag, rough and tumble collection of disciples posing their leader on top of that donkey and calling him “king.”  Luke is talking about a demonstration.  They’re saying something.  They’re making a point.  But, what in the world are they up to?  I’d like to ask Luke what he thought was going on.  He didn’t tell this story the same way.  This isn’t the Palm Sunday that I remember from Sunday School.
            What does it mean when they start calling him “king”?  That’s what they said, you know.  “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”  They knew full well that Jesus did not have a throne.  He did not live in a grand palace.  In fact Jesus once complained that he didn’t even have a place to rest his head.  He certainly didn’t have an army.  Posed no real threat to anyone in power.  What did they mean by king?
            What do you mean when you call Jesus your king?
            Kings were powerful men.  You say “king” and people would imagine great men like David.  They think of King Charles of England.  You think of Roman emperors like Alexander the Great.  Men who could control populations of people spread out over vast territories by various means of power.  That is a king.
            Is that what Jesus’ disciples were saying?  Are we supposed to think of Jesus like that?  Alexander the Great did once march into Jerusalem.  He was conquering the place, really.  The ancient Jewish historian, Josephus, recorded that “all the Jews together greeted Alexander with one voice and surrounded him…he gave his hand to the high priest and, with the Jews running beside him, entered the city.  Then he went up to the temple where he sacrificed to God under the direction of the high priest.”
            This is the man whose desire to expand the reach of his empire bogged down in the distant land of India because his army was tired of war and threatened mutiny.  That’s what being a respected king was all about.  Power.  Victory.  Domination.
            Are we supposed to think of Jesus like that?  I mean when you and I use language about Jesus talking about his power, his authority, his rule, his kingdom…do we take everything we know about these things from the world around us and try to understand Jesus this way?  Is that what Palm Sunday was trying to teach us?
            Or, maybe Jesus’ disciples were saying something else—according to Luke.  Maybe they were making a statement.  Maybe they were trying to tell people that Jesus is the way things ought to be.  Are you with me?  Maybe they were holding Jesus up as the true definition of king.
            See, you can let all other kings define your understanding of Jesus.  And that Jesus is powerful.  That Jesus does whatever he wants to do.  That Jesus brings about a version of peace through domination.  That Jesus desires great wealth and will seemingly do whatever it takes to gain it.  That Jesus is deeply fascinated with himself.
            OR, you can hold up Jesus as a bold demonstration of just how corrupt all of these things are in the world around us.  You say that Jesus is king, you’re saying that he is the way things ought to be.  Compassionate.  Giving.  Obedient to God.  Courageous.  Full of integrity.  Vulnerable.  You put Jesus on a donkey and march him into Jerusalem and you’re saying that there is something dreadfully wrong with the world because it doesn’t look and act much like its true king.  This is the king who isn’t going to dominate the world, this is the king who is going to die like a criminal on a wooden cross as people walk by saying, “Can’t he save himself?  He saved others!”
            Our faith?  It’s full of irony.

Rev. David James Brown

Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)