Palm Sunday Sermon - Year C
This sermon was preached on Palm Sunday, 2019 at Church of the Apostles, Kansas City. The audio recording can be found here.
I think we all need to recover after that long reading! I’ll go ahead and open us with a prayer and you can allow your legs and mind to rest for a moment ;)
TheSunday before Easter is a bit of an anomaly. It is like the Sunday that couldnot make up its mind: Palms or Passion, Palms or Passion, Palms or Passion…atsome point there was a gathering and it was decided that instead of picking oneor the other, we would do both.
Weare covering the whole of the Passion from a big picture, 40,000 footperspective today and then we will begin focusing in ever more closely duringthe coming week. Palm Sunday was used for centuries as the day during whichchurchgoers would hear the whole story of Holy Week other than the story ofEaster. Why? Because getting people to church on a Thursday and Friday betweentwo Sundays isn’t the easiest accomplishment…but I’m sure we don’t knowanything about that! Palm Sunday became the one day when people could hear the fullstory of Holy Week, when they would be taught what happened on Maundy Thursdayand Good Friday. Put it like this…let us assume that this is your first time inchurch. And let us also assume that you won’t be back until next Sunday…thisassumption is only for this sermon, by the way, you are utterly and absolutelyexpected to be here Thursday and Friday…well then, if I kept my sermon only tothe liturgy of the palms and the Triumphal Entry so that Thursday and Fridaycould be stand alone texts…then you would hear about Jesus entering the city onSunday and the following Sunday you would hear about how he rose from thedead…are you following me? You might be a bit confused on Easter!!
So,I don’t want to focus my time on the intricacies of the Last Supper institution,though I could go on and on, nor do I want to add anything to the crucifixionscene—I’ll leave those two texts to these two preachers!—instead, I want toshow you how Kingdom permeates the entire Passion narrative. We are not leftwith a choice between Kingdom and King on one hand and Palms and donkey on theother as if the two are mutually exclusive, as if we have to pick between Palmsand Passion. The One who rides into the city amidst cries of Hosanna and palmson one Sunday is the same One who is exalted and enthroned upon the cross onthat Friday. Let us begin.
Formany Christians in the world, the Saturday before Palm Sunday is known asLazarus Saturday. We heard from Ellis last Sunday about the scene at the homeof Mary, Martha, and Lazarus when Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with perfume. Thistook place in John 12 and then the story moves forward in John’s gospel to thechief priests plotting to kill Jesus AND Lazarus because it was his fault thatJews were deserting, and then the story moves to the Triumphant Entry and tothe Last Supper in Jerusalem. The Gospels all place Jesus in Bethany before theTriumphal Entry. The Orthodox have a unique perspective leading into PalmSunday and it is one that I think needs a great deal of reflection on our part.The Saturday before Palm Sunday is known as “Lazarus Saturday” in the Orthodoxtradition. Why? Well, we may have read John 12 last Sunday, but what storyimmediately precedes the scene at Lazarus’ house? Yes, you’ve done well! It isthe raising of Lazarus from the dead. The Orthodox celebrate this miracle onthe day before Palm Sunday because it creates a fantastic backdrop for theentry of Jesus into Jerusalem and ultimately what will happen on Friday andSunday. Think about it with me for a second: Jesus raises Lazarus from the deadand proclaims “I am the resurrection and the life.” He then shares a meal attheir home and is prepared for burial by Mary. Then, and only then, does Jesusenter Jerusalem as a triumphant king…what exactly has he triumphed over?
Wespend a lot of time in the church talking about how Jesus’ entry is one of ahumble king, riding on a colt rather than a war horse. It was the people whoplaced their hopes for a king of a militaristic and political nature uponJesus, ascribing to him the value and worth that they would for a conqueror. Wethen admit that Jesus wasn’t doing what they thought he was…or was he? Have weso missed the forest for the trees with our relentless theological nitpickingthat we lose sight of the fact that Jesus was in fact entering the city as aconquering king?
Inour attempts to highlight Jesus’ humility, even using the passage fromPhilippians 2 as support, we have poked so many holes in the triumphal entrytext that it will no longer hold water. We have placed so many cuts along thesupport beams that the text can no longer bear the weight it was meant to.
John’saccount of the triumphal entry includes what feels like a random verse from theOld Testament. John writes, “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, yourking is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” We emphasize the donkey andminimalize the coming king. Here is the context for the verse: Zechariah 9 inwhich the prophet prophesies about the end of Israel’s oppressors, about theirdownfall and destruction, and about the God who is watching over his people andwho will enter the city in triumph to the cries of the people. Here is thepassage in full:
Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
and the warhorses from Jerusalem,
and the battle bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations.
His rule will extend from sea to sea
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
11 As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.
12 Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope;
even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.
13 I will bend Judah as I bend my bow
and fill it with Ephraim.
I will rouse your sons, Zion,
against your sons, Greece,
and make you like a warrior’s sword.
TheKing has come. The kingdom is coming. The entry on a donkey is in juxtapositionto the chariots and warhorses that Caesar or another demigod may use, but thecoming King is still triumphant, still victorious. “See, your king comes toyou, righteous and victorious…”
Thetriumphal entry did not happen in a vacuum. It was not an accident. Everyonegathered together would have seen the meaning before them plain and simple. Iwould like to experiment with this idea and I need your full attention andeffort. I will start saying a well known phrase and I want you to finish it forme. For example, if I were to say, “Give me a break, give me a break” you wouldsay “break me off a piece of that kit kat bar.” Bonus points for those whosaid, “Fancy feast.” Ready?
TheLord be with you : and also with you
Thereforewe proclaim the mystery of faith: Christ has died, Chris is risen, Christ willcome again
Ok,those were the easy ones because they have a natural response. Here are a fewothers:
Here’slooking at you kid.
Mamaalways said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonnaget.
Theymay take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!
Thereis meaning to these phrases well beyond the actual text. You know them because you have a context forthem, they do something to you, they take you somewhere. For a moment there,even the most fleeting of moments, were you not on an airstrip in Morocco, or abench waiting the hope on the bus, or even in the Scottish highlands manycenturies ago? I won’t belabor the point much longer, but we are able to go tothose places because we have been there, we know them, we have them ingrainedin our memory, etched on our hearts…and now we have the triumphal entry.
Thisis a key to the whole text because even though we end up at the foot of thecross or outside of the Garden Tomb with Joseph of Arimathea, the whole liturgyis framed around Triumphal Entry and the Coming King. The star of the show, asit were, is this verse in Luke’s gospek which has been borrowed from Psalm 118.Surely you heard it twice today during the liturgy of the Palms and your mindwent straight to the Sanctus during the Eucharist. You have a context for thistheological concept: holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might. Heaven andearth are full of your glory, hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comesin the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest.
Hosannameans “save us.” The people lining the street to Jerusalem were singing thepraises of YHWH and crying out to him that he save them, that he rescue them,that he deliver them. They did this and then anointed the “King who comes inthe name of the Lord.” You heard the majority of the Psalm read this morning:it is a Psalm of praise and victory. The LORD heard the cry of his people andhis mighty hand has delivered them! The use of Psalm 118:26 here suggests to usthat the whole Psalm would have been used by the people against the backdrop ofIsrael’s long history with YHWH. This crowd may have cried “crucify!” just dayslater, they may have expected Jesus to overthrow Pilate and Caesar in explicitfashion, but they got one thing right: the King was entering the city inrighteous victory and they, the crowd, were in desperate need of salvation andrescue…
We’vespent the overwhelming majority of our time this morning going through thepassages from the Liturgy of the Palms because honeslty the rest doesn’t makesense without it. Jesus as the true King, as the one coming in the name of theLORD, as the one entering in triumph, this is what helps us to understand thepassion more fully. It was never about human thrones and powers, it was alwaysabout triumph over evil and death. The One who resurrected Lazarus comes toJerusalem in faithful obedience to the covenant to allow humanity to expend itsevil upon him and to resurrect from the dead.
Jesushas been traveling toward Jerusalem with his face set like flint ever since hedescended Mt. Tabor after the Transfiguration. As Cynthia reminded us, hewalked slowly through the crowds en route to his destination, but he was alwayson his way to palms and passion, cross and tomb, death and life. He enters thecity after demonstrating his power over death only to be met by the fullembodiment of human evil and execution: the Roman cross. He rides into the citythat is the center of Israel’s religious life, the city on a hill that was seeas the meeting place of heaven and earth, the city that would have been thelogical site of a restored Israel…and he does so only to leave the city a fewdays later under the burden of a wooden cross and a crown of thorns…
Humanityexhausts its evil upon the Son of God.
Thepowers and principalities of the world snuff out the light of rebellion.
Satanclaims victory over the God with whom he thought equality could be grasped.
And friends, there isn’t any relief from this predicament. We don’t get to move beyond the text and see resurrection here. We don’t get to see the story fulfilled and completed. As we journey through the texts today and through the next 6 days we are left with this unhappy and uneasy feeling of “but what happens next?”
Wehave to do some work today to hold firmly in our hearts and minds that whichIsrael had never forgotten: YHWH was covenant maker and covenant keeper and hewould redeem his people. This is what Lazarus helps us to see: the God whoraised Lazarus from the tomb is the same God who made the valley of dry boneswalk and is the same God who will raise Jesus from the dead. The story ofLazarus is a kingdom story. It is triumphant. It is victorious. It is thebeginning of the reversal and renewal of all things and it is (one of) thereason that Jesus can enter the city hearing, “Blessed is the king who comes inthe name of the Lord!”
Friends,here is what I ask of you today:
Asyou look upon the King entering the city, say…
Asyou look upon the Lord sharing a meal with his friends and followers…
Asyou witness the beating and scouring of the King of the Jews…
Asyou gaze up at the King who is enthroned upon the cross…
Asyou enter into Holy Week and travel toward Easter…
Perhapswe can make it more personal: Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem, a city overwhich he would weep, and he does so in triumph as the one who raises the deadto life. What parts of your life need raising? What areas of your heart needthe triumphal entry of Jesus? What gates and doors in your hearts, minds,emotions, imaginations, or dreams need to be flung open to allow the King ofkings and the Lord of lords to enter? Or, if we can move out just a moment:what parts of our city, our offices, our state, our nation, our world, need tobe opened up to the entry of Jesus?
Thisis not religious speak! This is real, friends. He comes to you in the same wayhe came to Jerusalem…amidst the praises of the people, enthroned by the criesof “salvation” and royal welcome…he comes to you to lead you throughPassiontide, to guide you through Holy Week, to bring you to share in his meal,kneel at his cross, wait by his tomb, and proclaim “Alleluia” once more nextSunday…will you join?