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Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday
Almighty and everliving God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Scripture citation(s): Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-18; Philippians 2:5-11; Matthew 21:1-11
A Sermon by
The Rev. Elaine Farmer
on
Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-18; Philippians 2:5-11; Matthew 21:1-11
✛
“Touching the Mystery”, a Sermon Series for Holy Week 2023 Preached by the Rev. Elaine Farmer —
The Journey Begins: Tears at the Heart of Things
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audio_file: 314230
O LORD CHRIST,
call us, who are called to be saints, along the way of your Cross :
draw us, who would draw nearer our King,
to the foot of your Cross :
cleanse us, who are not worthy to approach,
with the pardon of your Cross :
bring us, in the fellowship of your sufferings to the victory of your Cross:
o Crucified Lord;
who with the Father and the Holy Ghost
lives and reigns one God almighty, eternal, world without end.[1]
In his 1994 novel, The Vicar of Sorrows, English writer A.N. Wilson says “the terrible truth about human life … [is] the fact of evil, the difficulty of virtue, the fickleness of one’s own heart”.[2] Evil. Virtue. Fickleness. Words that go straight to the heart of things this week, and particularly on this confused day of contradictory images. Palm Sunday, the beginning of Jesus’ last days, his Passion, and our Holy Week journey with him. This day when we encounter Jesus on a donkey, entering Jerusalem with his straggly band of followers. And we encounter the Jerusalem crowd, excited, pushing and jostling, watching these strangers entering their city. They hear the people with the man on the donkey shouting, “Hosannah! 0 save!” but wonder how could this be? This was the cry they used to acclaim a leader! Intrigued, gawking and straining to see, the crowd yells, “what’s going on? who is this man?”“This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee,” shout the man’s companions, their voices full of excitement and pride. Then they wave palm fronds in the air, singing, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven! “[3]
If we join the crowd waving palms in the air in celebration at Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem and sing, “hallelujah!”, will we join the Good Friday crowd too? Will we, like them, throw our palms down and laugh and jeer and scream, “kill him; crucify him”? There are choices to be made this day, and this week, and evil and fickleness will jostle with virtue to win our hearts.
Jesus’ Passion. The drama at the heart of the story of God, and here beginneth once more, on this day, the great encounter between God’s story and our own. The Passion begins with Jesus entering Jerusalem; it will reach a bloody climax with his crucifixion. It is a story where we are either participants or spectators. Where we either confess our complicity in the events of the Passion, or we do not. Where we face our responsibility for our involvement or we hide. It is a story in which we have to face Jesus’s words to those who had come to arrest him … when those words are directed at us: ‘this is your hour, and the power of darkness!” [4] This is our hour.
The difficulty with stories we know as intimately as we know Jesus’s Passion is that intimacy becomes overfamiliarity and can tum them into tableaux. Like pictures in a story book. And the Easter glow on the far horizon of Holy Week can soften ugly details. But if we settle for the tableaux and the soft glow we are mere spectators and we will not encounter the Christ. It’s tough. For there are no pretty pictures in this story. The story of Jesus’ Passion is about plotting and evil intentions. And about chaos, power, political and religious thuggery, disloyalty, weakness, betrayal, mob violence, hooliganism, torture and killing.
It’s also a story about authority, and not just the authority of the religious leaders, or of Herod, or of Pilate, or of Rome. It’s Jesus’ authority that impresses. Strong, deliberate, firm authority. It’s a story about injustice and conspiracy. Jesus knew he was numbered with the transgressors [5] by both Israel and Rome and that, in a confrontation with them, he would die. It’s a story about Jesus’s deep understanding of the ways of God and of humankind and he knew that the means of his capture would be brutish, dishonest, and utterly human: betrayal. ‘The one who betrays me is with me, and his hand is on the table … woe to that one by whom [the Son of Man] is betrayed! ‘ [6] And Judas, who betrayed him, said, ‘Surely not I, Rabbi?’ [Jesus] replied, ‘You have said so. ‘ [7]
There’s something else in this story: fear. Cold, smelly fear. Luke tells us the chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to put Jesus to death. [8] They were afraid of Jesus. They’d seen the ecstatic reaction of the people when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that donkey. The bellowing and singing of praises, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord” [9] And the Pharisees had said to Jesus, “make the people stop!”, but he’d said, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out”. [10] And the chief priests and the scribes could see the violent potential of the people and they were afraid of them too, Luke says.
They were afraid of the people! That’s us! We’ll get to Peter and weakness and denial on Maundy Thursday, and we’ll talk about Judas and betrayal throughout this week, but this is the people’s day. Our day and not such a good day! The easiest thing in the world would be to stay a spectator. To Hide. Hiding’s easy. You just have to keep quiet and lurk in the shadows. Peep around the corners. Mingle with the mob, hat pulled low. There are ways and ways of hiding from complicity and responsibility.
The soldiers at the high priest’s house hid. They blindfolded Jesus, so he couldn’t see who mocked, insulted and beat him. [11] Herod hid. He couldn’t get a straight answer from Jesus so he joined with his soldiers [treating Jesus] with contempt and [mocking] him … he put an elegant robe on him, and sent him back to Pilate. [12] Peter hid. ‘/don’t know him! ‘he cried out, hiding, cowed by his fear. [13] ‘/don’t know what you are talking about!‘ [14] The soldiers at Golgotha hid. They protected themselves by bully-boy gang power, brutalising Jesus, stripping him … and forget the discreetly draped loincloths of religious art. Crucifixion was about humiliation as well as cruelty; there are no polite fig leaves here. They taunted and ridiculed him, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’ [15]
One way or another, they all hid. Among themselves. Or behind walls of their own weakness or power. They hid from their complicity in this dreadful story, and from their responsibility for their actions. Luke says Herod and Pilate became allies after that day. Perhaps they shared a glass or two as evening fell, convincing themselves that, well, it was a bad business but, you know, it just had to be done. To keep the peace. And the others? Who knows? Perhaps they turned on each other. And the soldiers? Perhaps they drank too much that night. Perhaps they were so hardened by violence they didn’t care.
But Peter did. He cared. Peter realised his contribution to the death of his friend. He knew his own responsibility … and he wept bitterly. [16]
Because he’d suddenly realised an awesome thing. Jesus had asked him, ‘who do you say that I am?’ And Peter had answered, ‘The Messiah of God.‘ [17] If he truly believed that, then this dreadful story was God’s story! If he were to proclaim Jesus as Messiah then he couldn’t just want to be part of God’s story. He had to take part in it!
And we? Do we hide as spectators, or risk taking part? Getting involved? Accepting responsibility for ourselves? We know the struggle. “The terrible truth about human life … the fact of evil, the difficulty of virtue, the fickleness of one’s own heart”. Evil is a harsh word. We prefer to keep it for the really nasty bad antisocial types. Sin’s not nice either but it’s a kinder word. Easier to hide behind. Much easier to feel penitent and mildly humble when we don’t talk about evil but beat our breasts and use lovely mellifluous words such as the Confession in The Book of Common Prayer:
We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us.
Is there health in us or does our sin, our fickleness, win the day as we struggle for virtue?
Perhaps it’s all about Wl1 forgetting that God’s story embraces our story – each of our stories. Like Peter, we cannot say Jesus is Messiah, the Christ, unless we agree to take part in God’s story. Not hide. It is our encounters with the story of God that will answer the troubling questions of our souls but, if Jesus’s Passion teaches us anything, it is that we are not to expect simply soft starlight and the sweet songs of angels. Not yet anyway; Easter is not yet. We must first think tomorrow about that time in Bethany and an anointing, and hints of holiness. We must face doubts about Jesus’ demands on us. We must wonder about Judas and how like him we might be. We must climb to that upper room to listen to Jesus speak of service and love. Still clutching our palms, we must trudge the dusty streets of Jerusalem, and go beyond its walls to Golgotha to be appalled.
It will break us, this story, if, as disengaged spectators, we tum away from its invitation. If we make this spiritual journey this week, and risk encountering God in the darkness, we will find the light of a new world. And we will hear Jesus say to us, as he said to the one at Golgotha who did not mock, or betray him, the one who faced up to his own sin, the good thief on his cross, “Truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’ [18]
[1] Adapted from Eric Milner-White, A Procession of Passion Prayers, Lighting Source UK Ltd, Milton Keynes UK, Prayer ‘Approach to the Cross’, p.l
[2] A.N.Wilson, The Vicar of Sorrows, Penguin, 1994, pp.286-287.
[3] Matthew 21:9
[4] Luke 22:52-53
[5] Isaiah 53: 12, rendered by Luke at 22:37 as he was counted among the lawless.
[6] Luke 21-22
[7] Matthew 26:25
[8] Luke 22:2
[9] Luke 19:38
[10] Luke 19:40
[11] Luke 22:63-65
[12] Luke 23:11
[13] Luke 22:57
[14] Luke 22:60
[15] Luke 23:34-37
[16] Luke 22:62.
[17] Luke 9:20
[18] Luke 23:43
