ST. DAVID'S UNITED CHURCH: AFTER THE PARADE

March 20, 2016

Palm/Passion Sunday

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Philippians 2:5-11

(prayer)

It began on the eastern end of Jerusalem on a Sunday morning.

Coming in from Bethany (where he had spent the night before), they set up camp on the Mount of Olives, just east of Jerusalem.

Then Rabbi Jesus and a group of his students (disciples) began the Passover week with a visit to the Hebrew Temple in Jerusalem.

Coming from the east, they most likely entered the city through the Gate of Mercy right near the Temple (aka The Golden Gate).

It began with an impromptu parade. People cheered Jesus as he traveled into the city:

- tree branches were waved

- psalms were sung

The gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus spent time at the Temple everyday in the week that followed, teaching his disciples and anyone else who wanted to listen... and people listened intently to Jesus' teaching (hung onto his words - greek). He made an impact with his words and actions.

Clearly, many people liked what they saw and heard. And...

clearly, others had serious concerns.

The concerns probably began right after that palm parade on Jesus' first trip to the Temple of the week (from Luke 19): [Jesus] entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; and he said, ‘It is written,“My house shall be a house of prayer”; but you have made it a den of robbers.’ (vv45-46)

Parades are special. They are exciting. But they end. That's why they are special - because they end! Parades are only there for a while. If parades were perpetual, we would find the atmosphere routine. Parades would lose their ability to grab our attention and excite us.

In church circles, we call this time "Holy Week" - Palm Sunday to Easter.

The Sunday bookends of this week are joyfully and inspirational.

Hosanna and Hallelujah!

For Jesus, the Passover week began in a carnival atmosphere. And for his disciples, it ended with wonder and amazement.

But it is what happened after the palm parade and before the empty tomb that really warrants our attention.

Jesus acts against a corrupted faith in the Temple courtyard.

Jesus shares a meal of unity with those who would betray and deny him - even inviting the deny-er to join him in a garden of prayer.

Jesus accepts a kiss from his betrayer.

Jesus responds to a violent arrest with the call to put away your swords.

Jesus speaks the truth of the sovereignty of God right to the face of the person who embodies the Emperor's power and it leaves the governor unsure of what to do.

Jesus, whose kingdom is not of this world, wears a painful crown of thorns and a robe of mockery.

Jesus continues to teach about an 'eternal paradise in God' while fickle crowds wait for him to just die already.

In the decades that followed, people (caught up in the wonder of Easter) found new meaning in the old words of an exile-prophet: The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens — wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I did not turn backwards. I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting. The Lord God helps me... who will declare me guilty?

Jesus, the teacher, did not renounce the message of his words and actions - even if might have saved him from an imposed suffering.

Even when he was sentenced as a traitor to human power, Jesus knew that he bore no guilt in God's eyes.

Although emptied and humbled, Jesus was exalted.

Although the powers of human empire expected that the name, Yeshua ben Yoseph, would soon be forgotten, the power of heaven declared it to be a name above all names.

We have inherited this story of a palm parade and all that preceded it and followed it.

It is our story.

We are part of a long line of imperfect disciples who simply long to find meaning in the walk of this life.

We are invited to let follow the lead of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

We can't do that if today is only Palm Sunday.

It has to be Passion Sunday as well.

// end //