This Sunday is Palm Sunday, the day in which Christians remember Jesus entering into Jerusalem.
Read Luke 19: 28-40. Imagine the scene. Folks there as Jesus did this threw branches, maybe palms, on the ground, a symbolic gesture for ushering the king into the holy city. Some of the people who were there were so carried away by what was happening that they took the clothes off their backs and spread them out on the road in front of him along with the branches, so that the clip-clop, clip-clop of the hooves of the colt he was riding was muffled by shirts, shawls, cloaks spread out there in the dust as maybe even you and I would have spread ours out too if we'd been there because it was a moment with such hope and passion in it. That's what the palms are all about."Blessed be the King who comes in the name of the Lord," the cry goes up. There is dust in the air with the sun turning it that glimmer of gold. Around a bend in the road, there suddenly is Jerusalem. He draws back on the reins, slowing his pace. And he cries. "Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace." Even today, he says, because there are so few days left for Jesus. Then the terror of his vision as he looks at the city and sees not one stone left standing on another. "Because you did not know the time of your visitation," he says. Because we don't know who it is who comes to visit us. Because we do not know what he comes to give. The things that make for peace, that is what he comes to give. The absence of peace within our own skins no less than within our nations testifies to that.For all of its joyful hosannas, Palm Sunday is a day of contrasts.We see it in Jesus, as the ruler of all chooses to ride a donkey (which he had to borrow, by the way). The contrast is also clear in the destination, as the city that welcomes him will later scream for his crucifixion.
We have our own contradictions too, of course. Someone tells us that the best way to achieve peace is through a war. The strong are strengthened by holding off the weak. Parents confront their fears by buying a handgun for the dresser drawer. Schools encourage competition over cooperation. Governments and business seek to win at all costs, even if it bankrupts them. Jesus rides his lowly farm animal through all of it.
"He shall judge between the nations and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Isaiah 2:4). That is our Palm Sunday hope, and it is our only hope. That is what the palms and the shouting are all about. That is what all our singing and worshiping and preaching and praying are all about. The hope that finally by the grace of God the impossible will happen. The hope that Pilate will take him by one hand and Caiaphas by the other, and the Roman soldiers will throw down their spears and the Sanhedrin will bow their heads. The hope that by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the love of Christ, who is Lord of the impossible, the leaders of the enemy nations will draw back from a vision too terrible to name. The hope that you and I also, each in our own puny but crucial way, will work and witness and pray for the things that make for peace.
Prayer:
“His name is wonderful, his name is wonderful, his name is wonderful, Jesus, my Lord. He is the mighty King, Master of everything; his name is wonderful, Jesus, my Lord. He’s the great Shepherd, the Rock of all ages, almighty God is he; bow down before him, love and adore him, his name is wonderful, Jesus, my Lord!”* Amen.
In Christ,
Pastor Jack
*”His Name Is Wonderful,” The United Methodist Hymnal 174.
My reflection was helped by the work of Frederick Buechner's "The things that make for Peace" (http://frederickbuechner.com/content/weekly-sermon-illustration-things-make-peace) and William Carter's entry in Feasting on the Word, Year C Volume 2, 154.
Read Luke 19: 28-40. Imagine the scene. Folks there as Jesus did this threw branches, maybe palms, on the ground, a symbolic gesture for ushering the king into the holy city. Some of the people who were there were so carried away by what was happening that they took the clothes off their backs and spread them out on the road in front of him along with the branches, so that the clip-clop, clip-clop of the hooves of the colt he was riding was muffled by shirts, shawls, cloaks spread out there in the dust as maybe even you and I would have spread ours out too if we'd been there because it was a moment with such hope and passion in it. That's what the palms are all about."Blessed be the King who comes in the name of the Lord," the cry goes up. There is dust in the air with the sun turning it that glimmer of gold. Around a bend in the road, there suddenly is Jerusalem. He draws back on the reins, slowing his pace. And he cries. "Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace." Even today, he says, because there are so few days left for Jesus. Then the terror of his vision as he looks at the city and sees not one stone left standing on another. "Because you did not know the time of your visitation," he says. Because we don't know who it is who comes to visit us. Because we do not know what he comes to give. The things that make for peace, that is what he comes to give. The absence of peace within our own skins no less than within our nations testifies to that.For all of its joyful hosannas, Palm Sunday is a day of contrasts.We see it in Jesus, as the ruler of all chooses to ride a donkey (which he had to borrow, by the way). The contrast is also clear in the destination, as the city that welcomes him will later scream for his crucifixion.
We have our own contradictions too, of course. Someone tells us that the best way to achieve peace is through a war. The strong are strengthened by holding off the weak. Parents confront their fears by buying a handgun for the dresser drawer. Schools encourage competition over cooperation. Governments and business seek to win at all costs, even if it bankrupts them. Jesus rides his lowly farm animal through all of it.
"He shall judge between the nations and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Isaiah 2:4). That is our Palm Sunday hope, and it is our only hope. That is what the palms and the shouting are all about. That is what all our singing and worshiping and preaching and praying are all about. The hope that finally by the grace of God the impossible will happen. The hope that Pilate will take him by one hand and Caiaphas by the other, and the Roman soldiers will throw down their spears and the Sanhedrin will bow their heads. The hope that by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the love of Christ, who is Lord of the impossible, the leaders of the enemy nations will draw back from a vision too terrible to name. The hope that you and I also, each in our own puny but crucial way, will work and witness and pray for the things that make for peace.
Prayer:
“His name is wonderful, his name is wonderful, his name is wonderful, Jesus, my Lord. He is the mighty King, Master of everything; his name is wonderful, Jesus, my Lord. He’s the great Shepherd, the Rock of all ages, almighty God is he; bow down before him, love and adore him, his name is wonderful, Jesus, my Lord!”* Amen.
In Christ,
Pastor Jack
*”His Name Is Wonderful,” The United Methodist Hymnal 174.
My reflection was helped by the work of Frederick Buechner's "The things that make for Peace" (http://frederickbuechner.com/content/weekly-sermon-illustration-things-make-peace) and William Carter's entry in Feasting on the Word, Year C Volume 2, 154.
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