Coming and Going
Sermon for Palm Sunday, year B
Bible reading: Mark 11:1-11
Today Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. How crazy! Jesus, the king of the universe rides into Jerusalem on a donkey – on this most humble animal, this animal used mainly by the poor, this animal that was associated with peace.
Jesus rode into Jerusalem in the lead up to the Passover, the celebration of Israel’s deliverance from their cruel slavery in Egypt. Passover was a time when hopes were high that the Messiah would come and flex his muscles and drive the Romans out and bring freedom to the people of Israel. Passover was the time when tensions were high with thousands of extra pilgrims come to celebrate, and heaps of extra Roman soldiers sent to crack down on any signs of an uprising.
In this highly charged atmosphere Jesus rode into Jerusalem, not on a horse, but on a donkey; not to make war, but to make peace; not to kill, but to be killed. How crazy!
It’s like the President of the USA leading the Independence Day procession on push bike, or the Premier of Russia leading a May Day procession on foot. Jesus made an anti-triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It was like street theatre. Jesus was mocking the powers of this world, the powers of violence, and oppression, and greed. Brian McLaren says we live in a world where:
some seek profit that will make others poor. They seek security that will make others insecure. They seek equity for themselves but are insensitive to the plight of others. Their pleasure inflicts pain on others. Their gain means loss for others. They seek and use power in ways that will injure, dehumanise, reduce or oppress others.
Into this selfish, violent world, Jesus rides on a donkey bringing peace and love to the world. Jesus comes in humility, in fulfillment of Zech 9:
See, your king comes to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey. I will remove the battle chariots from Israel and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and I will destroy all the weapons used in battle. Your king will bring peace to the nations.
The common people are excited as Jesus approaches Jerusalem. They applaud him as the Messiah. Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!
Who knows what the people understood about Jesus, or about the Messiah. But they certainly pinned their hopes on him. They had seen him help the poor and the needy from one end of the country to the other. They believed he could help them. They cried out for him to help them. ‘Hosanna! Save us God.’
Do you believe Jesus has come to help you? …You, who are stressed because your job is insecure and your finances are depleted?
Do you believe Jesus can help you? … You, who are living in a troubled relationship, and feel dehumanised and devalued?
Do you believe Jesus has come to help you? … You, who are burdened with guilt because you know your sins keenly; you, who are walking at a distance from Jesus because you fear God?
Henri Nouwen says:
Every time I look at this Christ on the donkey, I am reminded again that I am seen by him with all my sins, guilt, and shame - and loved with all his forgiveness, mercy, and compassion… There is nothing that he does not fully know. There is nobody whom he does not fully love.
This text is at the heart of what we believe about God. God comes to us in Jesus: your king comes to you… humble… in peace…
in love… to forgive, not to condemn. To die for our sins, not to condemn us to death for having committed them. Jesus comes to you as your friend, because he loves you so much he is prepared to die for you, and through his death clear the way for you to come home and live at peace with him.
hosanna, to crying out
crucify him!
Jesus got a right royal welcome on Palm Sunday outside the city gates. But it all turned sour from then on. He was entering the city of those who had been plotting his death almost since day one. He was entering the temple of those who were robbing the people in rebellion against God. Within a few days people were almost all united against him, baying for his blood. Old religious and political enemies, suddenly united in seeking to destroy the one who came to love them and forgive them. Even his best friends betrayed him, and denied him, and forsook him. Within a few days the crowds moved from shouting hosanna
, to crying out crucify him!
Jesus comes to us today reaching out to love us, to forgive us, to call us into his family. This is a wonderful week for us. But it is also a dangerous week, a week of temptation and choice. Will we still be with Jesus on Thursday, on Friday, on Saturday, on Sunday?
- will we still acclaim him, or will we deny him?
- will we choose the Lord, or choose Barabbas?
- Will we carry the cross with Simon of Cyrene, or take the easy road?
- Will we be found at the cross with Mary Magdalene, or slink away in shame and fear?
- Will we join the criminal to pray to him on the cross, or ridicule him?
- Will we join the woman to anoint him with love, or curse the cost of loving him?
Here is the crunch of Palm Sunday, of Jesus coming to us in love and forgiveness. It is his free gift to us. He pays the price for it on the cross. It is a high price, this love of God, which forgives us for our sins, and brings us eternal life. Despite the high price, it is easy for us to take it, and then leave it. To celebrate his love for a day, and forget it for a lifetime. We call this cheap grace. To receive the love of God in baptism, but not to follow Jesus as his disciple; to receive the forgiveness of God in Holy Communion, but not to live in forgiveness with one another; to cry out to God for help when we are in trouble, but not to answers the cries for help from those around us. This is cheap grace, and it is the cousin of crying ‘Hosanna’
today and ‘Crucify him’
on Friday. Dorothy Day said: love is a harsh, dreadful thing to ask of us, but it is the only answer.
In coming to us in love, Jesus asks us to go to one another in that same love. Coming and Going belong together. As Jesus has come to us and given his life for us in love on the cross, so he asks us to go to one another in loving and sacrificial service, even to the ends of the earth. Jesus died loving, and most of those we call saints also died loving, as they tried to tell the world: ‘God loves you.’
That is our call this Palm Sunday: to go to one another in love, as Jesus has come to one another in love. To go to as many people as possible to tell them of the love of Jesus who comes to us all today, dies for us all on Friday and rises for us all on Sunday. Amen.