Triumph or Tragedy?

Palm Sunday 
Scripture: Luke 19:28-44

Well, this Sunday, the lectionary wanted me to preach on the last supper and the crucifixion of Jesus – but I felt that was getting ahead of ourselves a bit. That to jump to Good Friday the Sunday before would miss the point and impact of Holy Week. We call it Holy Week because there are seven days between now and next Sunday – and there is a lot that happens in these seven days. Today is the start – as we remember Palm Sunday, and Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

For the people in Jesus’ day – it was a good day. There were great expectations. There were hopes and dreams of a nation and a people being pinned on a man as he rode into the city. The people knew the prophecies of Zechariah which was what we read this morning as our Old Testament reading. The king riding in on a donkey, humble and peaceful – but everyone in Jerusalem knew, that peace in their city would not come unless there was first a rebellion. Someone to throw off the Roman yoke of oppression. Then they would have the long-awaited king who would set them, as a nation, above the other kingdoms of the world.

They expected someone even greater than David. And if you have read anything about David – the people from my Wednesday night Bible Study I think have gotten a new picture of the kind of king David actually was – peace was not exactly the way in which David ruled. In fact, one might say David was the antithesis of peace – as God had warned him that because of his affair with Bathsheba, the sword would never depart from his house. And it never did. David’s reign and family life were filled with strife, conquest, war – not just between nations, but within his own family. One son raped his daughter. Another son killed the son who raped the daughter out of vengeance. That son then tried to overthrow David as king and wound up being killed himself. David’s other son, Solomon, then gained the throne via assassination and the killing of his brother as well. Thus, three of David’s sons were dead due to internal strife within the family.  

This kind of man, this kind of king and ruler – was the expectation. They wanted a king who would justify their lifestyle, castigate their enemies, vindicate their selfishness, and confirm their prejudices.  So the people wave their palm fronds, yelling “Hosanna! Save us!” They throw down their robes before him as was customary for them to do when they would coronate a king. Save us! Help us! Defeat the Romans!

Now you would expect your king to begin waving and lauding the crowds, wouldn’t you? As he arrives, he smiles and waves and embraces his adorers. That’s how it normally happens when a state figurehead walks among his people. Especially when they’re being inaugurated into their office.

But not Jesus – Jesus instead, as he approaches the city – he weeps. He cries, and he tells the people, “If only you knew what would bring you peace.”

This is the tragedy Jesus sees. The people don’t get it. Their answer to Rome is war. And Jesus isn’t going to give them that. Because Jesus knows that in the end – the violence of war solves nothing. It is only an endless cycle of kill or be killed. And so… Jesus weeps. Because he knows that even though they rejoice today, he will not fulfill their expectation and thus, they will reject him and what he brings and what he offers in favor, eventually, of a rebellion. A rebellion that will bring swift and utter destruction upon the city of Jerusalem.

Instead of walking up to the palace and claiming a crown, the first order of business for Jesus is to walk into the temple and start upending the money changer’s tables – to start attacking the religious leaders and structures of the day.

Not quite what the people had in mind when they gave him such a joyous welcome.  That joyous welcome is quickly going to change to anger. Anger and resentment that what they want – isn’t what is being delivered.

We go through this quite a bit don’t, we? Even today. We get angry when what we want to see happen, doesn’t happen. When what we think should be the right course of action isn’t taken. Whether it be in politics, the church, or even within our own families.

And if we ever wonder just how broken and messed up we are, even as the body of Christ, we still need only look to the City of Jerusalem. The place in Jerusalem upon which Christ was crucified and the tomb where he was raised from the dead is still a broken place. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is built over the traditional site of Calvary and the Garden of Resurrection. The church is jointly owned by the Abyssinians, the Armenians, the Copts, the Greek Orthodox, the Syrian Orthodox, and the Roman Catholics. The priests of these various traditions will hardly speak to one another. Each communion preserves its own chapel, conducts its own ceremonies, and no agreement can be reached about the repair of the building.

Thus Jerusalem still stands as a vivid symbol of the brokenness of Christ's Body.

So Jesus weeps over the fact that we still do not get what will bring us peace. Weeping over the world as a whole that has yet to “get it.”

So we are right in celebrating Palm Sunday the way we do – waving the palm fronds, singing “Hosanna!” asking God to save us – because we are no different from those people who celebrated Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. We ask God to save us—because we are broken, messed up people… but we typically want God to save us on our terms – in the fashion that we want him to save us. Part of our brokenness is to say – “Fix me MY way…”

Jesus came – wanting to put an end to our conflict and strife, knowing that attempting to do so, would only get him killed. Because getting in the middle of a fight is a dangerous thing. I can sit here and talk about that some more, but I think a scene from the movie “Pay it Forward” illustrates it in a far more moving manner than I ever could. The premise of the movie is that he wants to try and change the world by helping just three people, who in turn, will go and help three people. In the process – hoping that just those few acts of kindness might change people’s hearts. What we’ll see in this scene is what happens when the boy, Trevor, actually lives out this sense of justice. And again – sorry if I give the ending away, but it’s a movie that’s been out for 10 years.

Jesus, like the boy, Trevor, in the clip, wanted people to change. So he entered into the human experience – entered into the city of Jerusalem, knowing that his message of loving one another, of submitting to God’s will, of not operating the way in which the rest of the world operates – would get him killed. It would throw him into the middle of the human fight – and we’d put him to death for interfering.

So while we started with what seemed to be a triumph at the beginning of this service, we end on a somber and more tragic note – the note of Jesus weeping as he goes into Jerusalem. Weeping not for himself, but for those who will not recognize God in their midst. Weeping for each of us as every hateful word, every harmful thing we have ever done to another person nails Jesus to the cross.

Nailed to a cross where he would suffer and die - for us. I invite you to join us for both Maundy Thursday and Good Friday later this week as we continue down this road with Jesus. To participate in his final days and hours, coming to grips with and contemplating Jesus death on the cross. Though, as we will find out next Sunday - that death will not be the final chapter to this story.