April 10, 2022 – Palm Sunday
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Luke 19:28-40[1]
He’s been
called by many names: Prince of Peace, the Nazarene, Teacher, Mighty Counselor,
Rabbi, Prophet. The disciples reported that he was called John the Baptist,
Elijah, or another ancient prophet. We know him as Messiah, Christ, Savior. But
when he entered Jerusalem that Sunday, as the crowd waved palms in the air,
there were some who thought of him in a different way.
He was an
outlaw, a trouble maker, a rabble-rouser who hung out with sinners, tax
collectors, even (sniff) fishermen. Those in power were threatened by him.
John’s Gospel tells us, “Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given
orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should let them know, so that they
might arrest him.”[2]
They came for him, finally, at the end of that week, and when they caught him,
Jesus said, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as though I
were a bandit?”[3]
I mean really,
what had he done that was so bad? Matthew tells us that “At that time Jesus
went through the grainfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and
they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. When the Pharisees saw it, they
said to him, ‘Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the
sabbath.’”[4]
Breaking the laws about doing work on the sabbath could get you in trouble.
Maybe it was
because he kept forgiving people’s sins. The scribes said, “Why does this
fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”[5]
Maybe it was because of that whole “God is my Father” business. According to
John, they wanted to kill him, “because he was not only breaking the sabbath,
but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.”[6]
There were some
who clearly labeled him because of the company he kept. A tax collector, some
fishermen, a bunch of women with questionable history – they were quite a
motley crew. And Jesus even called them out on it. He said, “The Son of Man has
come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a
friend of tax collectors and sinners!’”[7]
He must be bad news, I mean, just look at his friends!
I think it
probably had something to do with stirring up the crowds, and that show he put
on of cleansing the Temple of the buyers and sellers. Whatever the reason, some
people had it out for him, and they labeled him “Outlaw.”
There is a song
I heard many years ago called “The Outlaw” by Larry Norman. It begins like
this:
Some say he was an outlaw;
that he roamed across the land
With a band of unschooled ruffians
and a few old fishermen.
No one knew just where he came from
or exactly what he’d done;
But they said it must be something bad,
it kept him on the run.[8]
Some say he was
a poet, a teacher, or maybe a storyteller. Matthew tells us, “When Jesus saw
the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came
to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them.”[9]
This is the beginning of what is known as the “Sermon on the Mount” which
encompasses three chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. The people listened for hours,
and even for days. Later in Matthew we hear Jesus say, “I have compassion for
the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing
to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the
way.”[10]
This begins the story of the “Feeding of the Five-Thousand.”
He taught them
in parables, little stories that put the Kingdom of God in metaphorical
imagery. “Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable
he told them nothing.”[11]
Here was a poet, or perhaps a master storyteller, who mesmerized the crowds.
Mark tells us they were “spellbound.”[12]
The parables captured their attention, put the big cosmic questions into terms
they could understand, and they were so simple that you could memorize them.
His voice could
make the waves stand still. “A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into
the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern,
asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you
not care that we are perishing?’ He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to
the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He
said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were
filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the
wind and the sea obey him?’”[13]
Who is this? A
magician? Is he a sorcerer? Is he an ancient alien, as the History Channel show
would have us believe? “And early in the morning he came walking toward them on
the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were
terrified, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in fear. But immediately
Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’”[14]
He certainly did many things that can only be described as miraculous. “He
could walk upon the water; he could make the blind man see… and did tricks with
fish and bread.”[15]
John’s gospel
is filled with the mysterious acts of power that Jesus performed. At the
wedding in Cana, you might be OK with me leading the ceremony, but Jesus is the
one you want at the reception. Wine conjured out of water, six large jars full,
and good quality at that![16]
John also tells the story of a resurrection that came before Easter. His friend
Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha, had already been in the tomb four days
when Jesus arrived. Deeply moved by the grief of Mary, Jesus shows them the
glory of God. “He cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man
came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped
in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’”[17]
This was no zombie. Lazarus was himself again. Of all the amazing signs that
Jesus did, this is probably the one which scared the Pharisees the most.
Jesus had
another side, the politician. He did not fear the religious authorities, or the
Roman authorities. He spoke out, and to large crowds, about the hypocrisy and
corruption of the leadership of Israel. During the first days of his ministry,
in the synagogue, on the sabbath day, he took up the scroll of Isaiah and read
this quote: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to
bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.”[18]
And then, in a manner we’re unaccustomed to with our own politicians, he went
out and started actually doing it.
The Gospel of
Matthew records a series of blessings, from the Sermon on the Mount, but there
is also a series of “woes,” almost a tirade against the scribes and the Pharisees,
which comes after the entrance to Jerusalem. “Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For
you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them.”[19]
“You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel! Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of
the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.”[20]
Pretty strong stuff. You can imagine Jesus using his fire-and-brimstone voice,
and the crowd, at first stunned, soon cheering him on. It’s no wonder they
wanted to get rid of him, yet they were afraid of the crowds.
Who do we say
that he is? Christ, Son of God, Savior. The people may have expected him to be
a conquering hero; that’s likely what the procession into Jerusalem was about.
For the Pharisees, that may have been their great fear. He would incite
rebellion, and bring down the heavy hand of Rome upon them all. But Jesus
didn’t come to be served, but to serve. He told them in many ways, “The
greatest among you will be your servant.”[21]
He even went so far as to wash the feet of his disciples, just to drive the point
home.
So, who is he?
“When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, ‘Who is
this?’ The crowds were saying, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in
Galilee.’”[22]
Some say he was an outlaw, a poet, a sorcerer, a politician. He is all of those
things, and much, much more. This is the Messiah of God, the one who has come
to make all things new. He is our loving, forgiving God, revealed in the flesh
of a human being, and he has overcome the world. Amen.
[1] The
scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard
Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of
the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] John
11:57.
[3] Mark
14:48.
[4] Matthew
12:1-2.
[5] Mark
2:7.
[6] John
5:18.
[7] Luke
7:34.
[8]
Larry Norman, “The Outlaw” on Only Visiting This Planet © 1972 MGM.
[9] Matthew
5:1-2.
[10] Matthew
15:32.
[11] Matthew
13:34.
[12] Mark
11:18.
[13]
Mark 4:37-41.
[14] Matthew
14:25-27.
[15]
Norman.
[16] John
2:1-11.
[17] John
11:43-44.
[18] Luke
4:18.
[19] Matthew
23:13.
[20] Matthew
23:24-25.
[21] Matthew
23:11.
[22] Matthew
21:10-11.
