Garrett Vickrey 3.20.16 Palm Sunday The Last Parable Luke 19:28-40 Woodland Baptist Church San Antonio, TX St. Francis of Assisi was walking along a road once on a pilgrimage, and he was singing. Someone asked him where he s going. He said, I m going to God. They asked him where he s coming from, and he said, I m coming from God. And why do you sing? they asked. Francis replied, I sing to keep from losing my way. That s good reminder for us today? Why do we celebrate Palm Sunday? Is it just Easter eve or is there something more? Palm Sunday is an active parable that shows us the way to walk with Christ in this world without losing our way. The parade of Jesus on Palm Sunday mirrors the life of the church. And the life of faith for every disciple Peter, James, John, Mary, you and me. Christian faith is meant to set us on a journey, guide us along the way, and give meaning to each step we take. On Palm Sunday Jesus shows us how to walk that path. Palm Sunday is included in all four gospels. Christmas didn t even make into all four gospels. Neither did the Lord s prayer or the Good Samaritan or the Prodigal Son. But, Palm Sunday shows up in all four. The church is beginning to take shape around Jesus, even before his death and resurrection. Even before we, his disciples, betray and ignore him, he is teaching us how to walk. How to walk together. He s teaching us how easy it is to gloss over the needs we encounter along the way as we celebrate the one who came to give us life. If we aren t keeping our ears tuned and eyes open, if we aren t singing as we go we just might lose our way. So what does a church shaped by Palm Sunday look like? The central profession of Christian faith is, Jesus Christ is Lord. Palm Sunday teaches us what kind of Lord he is. It says something about the kind of kingdom he brings. Throughout his ministry Jesus taught in parables, but towards the end we begin to see his actions as parables in themselves which teach us something about the kingdom of God. The word parable literally means to throw alongside. Jesus used parables to 1
throw images of the kingdom of God alongside life in our world. His entry into Jerusalem is a highly symbolic act that begins to make us think perhaps his whole life is a parable of God s Kingdom. The last parable Jesus tells before entering Jerusalem (at first glance) appears to be a troubling parable of judgement. However, it s a parable that is defined and explained by that first Palm Sunday. The gist of the story Jesus tells is this: a man born from a royal family went to a far away city to receive his kingdom and then return. He called together ten servants and gave each of them money worth four months wages. He said, Do business with this until I return. The citizens of his domain hated this man and sent their own representatives to this far away city to stop him from becoming king over them. Yet, the man became king anyway. When he returned he called the servants to find out how much they had earned him. The first earned him a return of 1,000%. The king replied, Excellent! You are a good servant. Because you have been faithful in a small matter, you will have authority over ten cities. The second servant earned a return of 500%. He was given authority over 5 cities. Another servant came and unwrapped a scarf and gave the king his money. He said, Here s your money; I kept it safe. I was afraid of you because you are a stern man. You withdraw what you haven t deposited and you harvest what you haven t planted. The king said, You are condemned by your own words, you worthless servant. The king said to his attendants, Take his money and give it to the one who has ten times as much. But Master, they said, he already has ten times as much! He replied, I say to you that everyone who has will be given more, but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for my enemies who don t want me as their king, bring them here and slaughter them before me. Is Jesus describing himself here? That king doesn t sound anything like Jesus; but, it does sound like Herod. Remember him? Herod went to Rome to be made ruler over Galilee. Herod was known to slaughter those he thought posed a threat to him. Maybe this isn t a parable of judgement as much as it is a parable of the way things are 2
under Herod s rule. This isn t a parable of God s kingdom as much as it is the reality against which Jesus proclaim s God s kingdom. In Herod s world you either work for the king or are slaughtered by the king to keep the peace. In God s kingdom peace comes through Christ, the prince of peace. Both of these version s of peace involve death. The peace of Rome pax Romana as it is called comes by killing off the opposition. The peace of Christ comes by dying to the self. Jesus tells this parable just before the march to Jerusalem where he becomes the last parable. Jesus wanted to remind them once again of the nature of God s kingdom. And so he picked a colt, a donkey, as his transportation of choice. Rome must not have been very concerned about this new king. It must have been a hilarious sight, this peasant parade. This was just one of many parades and festivities going on through out the city. Remember, it s almost time for the Passover. And pilgrims from all over the region would be making their way to the holy city. The place where they believed heaven and earth met. The city of God s peace, Jerusalem. It must have been like San Antonio during fiesta. Although, I believe they didn t have cascarones in those days. And no one at this parade on Palm Sunday asked to see the disciples shoes. As you know from Fiesta and the Rodeo, in citywide celebrations there needs to be a special presence of authority to keep things orderly. Passover was no different. So it s likely that on the same day Jesus makes his procession into the city, there is another procession on the other side of the city. A Roman imperial procession of troops and cavalry likely entered the city from the west, headed by Pilate. Their purpose was to reinforce the Roman presence near the temple for Passover, when tens of thousands of Jewish pilgrims filled the city. 1 There procession was a show of power. Strong horses. Men with swords. Crests emblazoned with the emperor s face. No smiles. Just tough-guy faces. They were there for business. Meanwhile, Jesus rides a young donkey; perhaps, his feet even dragged on the ground as he rode that donkey into the holy city. It s no accident that Jesus chose the donkey for this day. I think there s 3
a reason, and once again we must look at the context. Remember this parade had been building up for days. It stormed through Jericho on it s way toward Jerusalem. But, Jesus stopped along the way. On the road outside Jericho he heard a blind man by the side of the road call out to him. The man was shouting and the disciples at the front of the line sternly ordered him to be quiet. That s eerily similar to the request of some pharisees on the first Palm Sunday. But, Jesus stopped and went to the man and asked how he could help. Next, Jesus enters Jericho and looks up in a tree. And I think you know what he saw. A wee little man up in that tree. Zacchaeus, come down, he said. It s as much a theological statement as it was physical. Come down where your neighbors are and look them in the eye. Let s have lunch today. This parade is bringing transformation. The blind see. The greedy are generous. That s the kingdom of God. The expectations are building up. And Jesus wants to give his disciples another lesson this time on power. It s best used by the humble. And so after these great works of power healing the blind man and bringing the rich man Zacchaeus through the eye of a needle Jesus makes sure we don t lose our way in the celebration and wander off the path into celebrating our own power (by proximity). Perhaps, that s why he chose the lowly donkey over a mighty horse. He s showing us how to not get lost on the way. A Palm Sunday church recognizes the inherent danger of Christian faith, yet is led by Christ s peace. The destination we celebrate ultimately is a cross. The parade leads through a graveyard. From the Mount of Olives where Jesus sets off on the donkey to Jerusalem that path leads right through an ancient Jewish graveyard. Thousands of gravestones fill that area from the Mount of Olives to the eastern gate of the Temple. It was believed that that s the place where the messiah would come and so everyone wanted to be buried their so that they would be ready to rise and follow the messiah into the holy city on that final gettin-up morning. When some pharisees asked Jesus to restrain his jubilant disciples, Jesus tells them if they 4
were silent then the stones would cry out. Maybe he was alluding to those grave stones along his path. Christians need not direct their lives by the fear of death. The path we walk is in faith behind the One we believe is fundamental to human flourishing. Christ is the one who shows us the way of abundant life. And redeems the dead and lost. That s why we lose ourselves in celebration. The Palm Sunday church celebrates the way, and isn t driven by results. We are impractical people, and we should celebrate that. When we (the church) get too caught up in the ends we compromise the means. That s dangerous. How we get somewhere is just as important as the destination. That's why we (like Jesus) must always choose the donkey over the high horse. Mahatma Gandhi was the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement against British-ruled India last century. Gandhi based many of his methods on the person and activities of Jesus. Of this method he said, "First they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. By the time the British stopped laughing and realized the threat Gandhi posed, it was too late. He had already captured the hearts and minds of the people. Perhaps, Gandhi learned a little something from Palm Sunday. Where Jesus, through the peace he brings, had already captured the hearts of his people before Rome or the religious leaders in Jerusalem knew what to do. By the time they fought him, the seeds of his new creation had already been sown. And three days after they fought him the seeds of God s kingdom sprouted into victory over death. The seeds of God s new creation lie hidden in obscurity among the weak and outcast proud eyes are blind to them. In our weakness these seeds are planted in us. Just as the seeds of resurrection sown in the Godforsaken cross of Christ sprout into an empty tomb. So too our glory comes in weakness. Maybe that s what Jesus is trying teach us as he rides that donkey. The Palm Sunday Church recognizes the balance in it s identity. We play a critical role in God s work on earth, but the world doesn t rest on our shoulders. There s an old spiritual practice that Rabbis used to teach this idea 5
to their students. They would have them carry 2 slips of paper; one for each pocket. On one would be written, You are made in the image of God. And on the other, From dust you came and to dust you shall return. Self esteem is a fine line to walk in this world. We are made in God s image; we are dust. We are great and small. We are sinner-saints. The more we lay aside our own greatness, the greater we are. The more we take ourselves lightly the more God is able to use us seriously. We can be bigger, we can be a part of something bigger than ourselves when we walk the path of humble glory Jesus teaches us on Palm Sunday. George Mallory was the famed mountain climber who may have been the first person ever to reach the top of Mount Everest. In the early 1920 s he led a number of attempts to scale the mountain. However, he died on his third attempt in 1924. Before that last and fatal attempt he had said I can t see myself coming down defeated. Mallory was an extraordinary climber, and nothing would force him to give up. His body was found in 1999, well preserved by the snow and ice, 27,000 feet up the mountain, just 2000 feet from the peak. He never gave up. His body was found face down on a rocky slope, head toward the summit. His arms were extended high over his head. His toes were pointed into the mountain; his fingers dug into the loose rock, refusing to let go even as he drew his last breath. A short length of cotton rope broken was looped around his waist. When those who had set up camp for Mallory further down the mountain returned to England a banquet was held for them. It s said that the leader of the group stood to be applauded, and with tears streaming down his face, turned and looked at a huge picture of Mt Everest that stood behind the banquet table. And he said, I speak to you, Mt Everest, in the name of all brave [people] living and those yet unborn you defeated us once; you defeated us twice; you defeated us three times. But Mt Everest, we shall someday defeat you, because you can t get any bigger but we can. In 1953 two climbers, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzig Norgay, reached the top. 6
The way of Christ, the way of Palm Sunday, teaches us we can be bigger by making ourselves smaller. There s incredible power in humility and sacrifice that the Pilates and Herods of this world know nothing about. They scoff at the simplicity of this way that loving your neighbor might lead to transformation of the neighborhood they mock the peace of Christ. But this day as much as any other reminds us that we are great and small. We are sinner-saints on the road following the jester of peace. And we get bigger by making ourselves smaller. We find new life through a device of death. That s Jesus last parable throwing his life alongside ours. 7
1 Marcus Borg, Holy Week: Two Different Meanings, May 7, 2011, http://www.marcusjborg.com/2011/05/07/holy-weektwo-different-meanings/ 8