March 23, 2013

• Hossana Crucify

  On Palm Sunday, we celebrate a critical point in Jesus’ earthlyministry.  Jesus has set his course forJerusalem knowing that his presence in the seat of Judaism will spark aconfrontation with the religious and political leaders of his time.  I am not convinced that Jesus, the human,fully understood the plan.  God may nothave revealed the plan to Jesus any more than God reveals the whole plan tous.  Jesus was sent to teach us throughhis life how to live as people of faith. Faith means we trust God without having the whole plan for our livesrevealed to us in advance.  I believeJesus knew this was the time for God to demonstrate God’s power over humanfears; the time for God to prove we have nothing to fear if we trust inGod. 

   

  About three years earlier, Jesus had made another change of coursein his life.  He went from an unknowncarpenter to miracle worker, teacher, and vocal opponent of the religiousoppression of the people.  Jesus startedhis ministry with forty days in the wilderness without food or companionship.  His forty days of preparation compares to ourforty days of Lent.  We are called tomake sacrifices and focus ourselves on the meaning of approaching HolyWeek.  I doubt that most of us make thetype of sacrifice that Jesus did in the wilderness nor do we confront thedemons in our lives as Jesus did. Perhaps it is because of the lack of genuine sacrifice and focus onidentifying what must be confronted in our lives that we do not fullyappreciate the events from Palm Sunday to Easter morning.

   

  Jesus came to the earth as the suffering servant, as God humblytaking on the form of humankind, and obediently serving God and humankind.  Christ gave up the privilege of being of theGodhead to become human.  Jesus gave upthe comfortable and safe life of village carpenter to become a homeless itinerantholy person.  The ministry of Jesus wasto reach out to the people, to bring them healing, to teach them of God and ofGod’s love for them, and to challenge the religious leaders to serve the peoplerather than to exploit them.  Theministry of Jesus gave the people hope and a vision of a better world.  They embraced Jesus for what herepresented.  Jesus had to resist theirattempts to make him king.

  When Jesus entered Jerusalem on that Palm Sunday, he was at theheight of his popularity.  The crowdslined the streets to shout their Hosannas. The religious leaders saw his presence as a threat.  There is good reason to believe that both thepeople and the religious leaders expected Jesus to lead an insurrection againstthe Roman occupiers and restore the monarchy of David.  I have heard it suggested that Judas acted ashe did to sell Jesus out to the religious leaders because he thought Jesus wasmoving too slowly in establishing the new world order.  He may have believed the arrest of Jesuswould force him to command the overthrow of the Romans and the religiousleaders that conspired with the Romans. Jesus’ only act of revolution was to throw the money changers and theshopkeepers out of the temple to restore it to the house of prayer for allpeople.  It may have been his failure tooverthrow the occupation of Jerusalem that caused the people to change their “hosannas”to cries of “crucify him!”

   

  It is easy for us, two thousand years later to judge them for beingfoolish and shortsighted.  We marvel athow they could have turned on this righteous person who had spent three yearshealing, teaching, and encouraging them. He had come to bring them hope and a vision.  How could they demand his crucifixion andeven accept the consequences not only for themselves but also for theirchildren.  I believe they were able to dothis because the hope and vision that Jesus brought them required them tochange, required them to sacrifice, required them to treat each other asequals, and required of them hard work. They wanted a messiah that would make it all happen while they sat onthe sidelines and cheered.  They didn’twant to change, they didn’t want to sacrifice, they didn’t want to treateveryone as their equals.  They wanted anew order where they were the privileged ones and where everyone else wasrequired to be like them or to be outcasts. They didn’t want what Jesus required of them to bring in the new order.

   

  How much have we changed in two thousand years?  Regardless of your political persuasion youcannot deny that the campaign of Barrack Obama five years ago brought anintense level of excitement.  People whofelt they had been excluded from full participation in this country saw newhope.  People who despaired for thefuture of this nation saw a new vision for how it might be.  People of privilege and power saw a threat totheir privilege and power.  On January20, 2009, the nation was alive with both excitement and dread.  People looked forward with great anticipationto see what our new president would do. And this is where it seems to have unraveled.  People wanted to sit on the sidelines andeither watch President Obama singlehandedly change the culture of the countryand the world or they wanted to sit on the sidelines and snipe at his everyeffort to effect change.  People quicklybecame disheartened and they began to criticize the slow pace of change.  Others set about to create as many obstaclesto change as possible without actually making any constructivesuggestions.  We heard the message thatchange wasn’t going to be quick or easy and we didn’t like it.  We heard the message that we would have to bethe change we sought and we didn’t want to change.  We were asked to make sacrifices and we feltthere were others in a better position to sacrifice.  We were asked to think of others as our equalsand as partners and we preferred to see ourselves as special or at least moreequal than others.  The hope and thevision diminished for lack of will on our parts to do what was necessary tobring them to reality.

   

  Itmay seem presumptuous to some for me to compare President Obama to Jesus but Ibelieve comparing others and ourselves to Jesus is exactly what we are supposedto do.  To identify the ways in which ourthoughts and even more our actions reflect what Jesus modeled for us.  I believe on this Palm Sunday we are allcalled to identify how our words and actions shout “HOSANNA!” and how theyshout “CRUCIFY!”  Amen.

  Sacred text sources:

  Isaiah50:4-9a

  ⁴ The Sovereign God has given mea well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary.
  God wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen likeone being instructed.
  ⁵ The Sovereign God has opened my ears; I have not been rebellious, I have notturned away.
  ⁶ I offered my back to thosewho beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
  I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.
  ⁷ Because the Sovereign God helps me, I will not be disgraced.
  Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will notbe put to shame.
  ⁸ The One who vindicates meis near.  Who then will bringcharges against me?  Let us face eachother!
  Who is my accuser?  Lethim or her confront me!
  ⁹ It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me.  Whowill condemn me?

   

  Philippians 2:5-11

  ⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the samemindset as Christ Jesus:

   ⁶ Who, being invery nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be usedto advantage;
  ⁷ rather, Christ made himselfnothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in humanlikeness.  ⁸ And being foundin appearance as a human, Christ agreed to be humbled by becomingobedient to death—even death on a cross!

  ⁹ Therefore God exalted Christ to the highest placeand gave Christ the name that is above every name,
  ¹⁰ that at the name of JesusChrist every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
  ¹¹ and every tongueacknowledge that Jesus Christ is Sovereign, to the glory of God the Creator.

   

   Mark 11:1-10

  11 As theyapproached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives,Jesus sent two of his disciples, ² saying tothem, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as youenter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untieit and bring it here. ³If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it andwill send it back here shortly.’” ⁴ They went and found a colt outsidein the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, ⁵ some people standing there asked,“What are you doing, untying that colt?” ⁶ They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the peoplelet them go. ⁷ Whenthey brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it.⁸ Many people spread theircloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields.⁹ Those who went ahead andthose who followed shouted, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of God!”  ¹⁰ “Blessed is the coming dominionof our ancestor David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

   

  Luke 23:13-24

  ¹³ Pilatecalled together the chief priests, the rulers and the people, ¹⁴ and said to them, “You brought me this man as one whowas inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined him in your presence andhave found no basis for your charges against him. ¹⁵ Neither has Herod, for he senthim back to us; as you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death.¹⁶ Therefore, I will punishhim and then release him.” ^[17]

  ¹⁸ But the whole crowd shouted, “Away with thisman! Release Barabbas to us!” ¹⁹ (Barabbashad been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city, and for murder.)

  ²⁰ Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed tothem again. ²¹ But they kept shouting, “Crucifyhim! Crucify him!”

  ²² For the third time he spoke to them: “Why?What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the deathpenalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him.”

  ²³ But with loud shouts they insistentlydemanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. ²⁴ So Pilate decided to grant their demand.²⁵ He released the man whohad been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they askedfor, and surrendered Jesus to their will.

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