Palm Sunday, Sermon by The Reverend Loree Reed |
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Luke 2: 5–11 |
| Lord, may we hear your voice in the words spoken in your Name. Amen. |
| Every year, on Palm Sunday I face the same dilemma. Do I preach Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem – with exuberant crowds excited and joyful, children racing ahead as they shout out praise, and all Jerusalem hoping that Messiah has finally arrived? Or do I tell the darker story — as we all know it looked — just five days later when the crowd’s mood had shifted and everyone was crying, “Crucify him!”? It’s a choice between “All glory, laud and honor”, where everything is celebration . . . and “There is a green hill far away, outside the city walls”, where three crosses pierce the skyline. The Church doesn’t make it easy – because she offers us both texts on the same Sunday. |
| But Luke, this year, does make it easier, because he tells the story from the point of view of the prophets, telling the story in the prophets’ own words. And prophets, it seems, take the long view of all that is to happen . . . as God keeps his promises to his people – maybe not in the way they were expecting, but faithfully, all the same. |
Take that donkey, for example, the foal of an ass that Jesus sent for
and then rode from Bethany into Jerusalem. It wasn’t the
mighty war horse that people were expecting an all–powerful
Messiah to ride in on. In fact, it was nothing like the war
horses the Imperial Roman cavalry rode when they took cities by brute
force. But it does fit the description the prophet Zechariah
gave back in the 4th century, BC when he prophesied to the people that
Messiah would come humbly and quietly:
Jesus chose that donkey — rather than the war horse — to show us that violence is not the way. Brute force is not the way. Hatred is not the way. No, humble love, unselfishly given is the way. ¹Behold your King comes to you |
Or, you can consider the words Luke tells us the crowd themselves
shouted as they watched Jesus pass by;
Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!Luke substitutes the word “king” for the word “one”, but otherwise this is a direct quote from Psalm 118, the psalm that exalts the stone the builders rejected, the one who will nevertheless become the chief cornerstone. And we are meant to hear those echoes. |
| But these aren’t the only words of prophecy Luke wants us to remember on this day. For then he paraphrases the angels on the night Jesus was born in that stable in Bethlehem: “Glory to God in the highest and peace to his people on earth.” Strong hint, once again, that this is no ordinary mortal passing by the welcoming crowd. This is the King whose strength lies in humility, the King whose glory is to let go of his glory so he can come among us as one of us and then serve as our merciful Servant–King. |
| And finally, when the Pharisees order Jesus to silence the cheering crowd, Jesus replies in the words of the prophet Habakkuk: “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would shout out,” he tells them. For it is not just his disciples or the admiring crowd that sees something divine in Jesus. The created world, created through the Son, is ready to bear witness too. |
| You see, as Jesus makes his quiet way down that road to Jerusalem, Luke wants us to remember the humble path Jesus has chosen from the very beginning of his ministry. He wants us to remember the Holy Spirit’s blessing that descended on Jesus like a dove when he waded out of the waters of the Jordan, after he’d been baptized with the same crowd he’d come to save. “You’re my child, my beloved,” the voice said. “And in you I am well pleased.” God’s blessing, you see, descended on Jesus after he’d made common cause with us sinners, after he had chosen that lowly path. |
| Luke also wants us to remember how Jesus withstood the temptations of Satan during his long fast in the wilderness. Do you remember how Luke ended that story? He said that after Jesus had resisted all Satan’s temptations – to turn those stones into bread, to put God to the test by jumping off some parapet of the Temple, to accept the Tempter’s offer of all the worldly glory he wanted – only then, he says, did Satan withdraw from him – ’til an opportune time. This lowly journey, this humble journey down to Jerusalem on the back of a small donkey – is exactly that opportune time. The Tempter, you see, hasn’t given up yet. If Jesus accepts the invitation of the crowd – to be that worldly Messiah, that fierce, warlike Messiah who will finally drive the Romans out of Israel – then the Tempter will have won. ² |
| But Jesus won’t do it. He won’t abandon his servant’s role, his vulnerability, his deep humility before one and all – just to satisfy the crowd. No, his gift to them — and to us — will be a much costlier gift. With much longer–lasting results. |
| Jesus became as we are, and then went to a place most of us are unwilling to go; he became a servant to all of humanity. When he completely humbled himself, he went from being everything . . . to being nothing. From being in charge of the whole universe . . . he then went to being in control of nothing. From being the agent of all Creation, he went to being de–created . . . and then to dying on a cross. ³ |
| And it’s by his sacrifices that we are inspired and empowered to find God. It’s by his willingness to follow that humble path to the cross that we finally find our own crosses . . . and turn to Christ. ⁴ For it is only when we finally give up our own pursuit of whatever worldly glory we’ve been after . . . that our hands are finally free enough to receive all God has for us. It’s only when we are willing to die on our own crosses that God will come to us. |
| That’s what we are doing this Holy Week. We are allowing ourselves to become more human, more fallible, more frail – so we can begin to follow the path our Lord Jesus Christ laid out for us. |
| For it is only when we begin to die with Christ that we will we rise with him as well. ⁵ |
Amen. |
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¹ Michael Curry Easter Message, 2017 ² Giuseppe Gagliano “Temptation of the Palms” sermon given at Day One on March 12, 2022 ³ Delmer Chilton “Living at Cross Purposes” sermon given at Day One on April 9, 2017 ⁴ Ibid. ⁵ Delmer Chilton “Living at Cross Purposes” Sermon given at Day One on April 9, 2017 |
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