SERVANTS of CHRIST United Methodist Parish Untie the Colt! A Sermon by Dr. Will Reed March 29, 2015 Palm Sunday Mark 11:1-11 Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 Isaiah 50:4-9a (Passion Text) Psalm 31:9-16 Philippians 2:5-11 Mark 14:1-15:47 All Scripture passages printed below are from the Common English Bible (CEB), 2011 Mark 11:1-11 11 When Jesus and his followers approached Jerusalem, they came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives. Jesus gave two disciples a task, 2 saying to them, Go into the village over there. As soon as you enter it, you will find tied up there a colt that no one has ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone says to you, Why are you doing this? say, Its master needs it, and he will send it back right away. 4 They went and found a colt tied to a gate outside on the street, and they untied it. 5 Some people standing around said to them, What are you doing, untying the colt? 6 They told them just what Jesus said, and they left them alone. 7 They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes upon it, and he sat on it. 8 Many people spread out their clothes on the road while others spread branches cut from the fields. 9 Those in front of him and those following were shouting, Hosanna! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessings on the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest! 11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. After he looked around at everything, because it was already late in the evening, he returned to Bethany with the Twelve. Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 118 Give thanks to the LORD because he is good, because his faithful love lasts forever. 2 Let Israel say it: God s faithful love lasts forever! 19 Open the gates of righteousness for me so I can come in and give thanks to the LORD! 20 This is the LORD s gate; those who are righteous enter through it. 21 I thank you because you answered me, because you were my saving help. 22 The stone rejected by the builders is now the main foundation stone! SC_150329_Palm Sunday Year B PV.docx, Page 1 of 6
23 This has happened because of the LORD; it is astounding in our sight! 24 This is the day the LORD acted; we will rejoice and celebrate in it! 25 LORD, please save us! LORD, please let us succeed! 26 The one who enters in the LORD s name is blessed; we bless all of you from the LORD s house. 27 The LORD is God! He has shined a light on us! So lead the festival offering with ropes all the way to the horns of the altar. [d] 28 You are my God I will give thanks to you! You are my God I will lift you up high! 29 Give thanks to the LORD because he is good, because his faithful love lasts forever. Philippians 2:5-11 5 Adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus: 6 Though he was in the form of God, he did not consider being equal with God something to exploit. 7 But he emptied himself by taking the form of a slave and by becoming like human beings. When he found himself in the form of a human, 8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore, God highly honored him and gave him a name above all names, 10 so that at the name of Jesus everyone in heaven, on earth, and under the earth might bow 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. UNTIE THE COLT. These are interesting words. Now think about it. The scripture says that Jesus gave two disciples a task and, essentially, this is what Jesus tells them. Jesus is telling two of his disciples to go steal a colt. Yes, go steal a colt. What is a colt? If you read Zechariah 9 you will realize that this is the young offspring of a donkey. SC_150329_Palm Sunday Year B PV.docx, Page 2 of 6
Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion. Sing aloud, Daughter Jerusalem. Look, your king will come to you. He is righteous and victorious. He is humble and riding on an ass, on a colt, the offspring of a donkey. Zechariah 9:9 So, yes, this is what Jesus tells the two disciples. Go, steal a colt. I need it. Now, how many of you, if one of your pastors told you to, would go steal a car for us? Wouldn t that be about the same? Transportation in Jesus day did not involve gasoline engines and four rubber tires. It involved the number four but they were four hooves and they were donkey hooves. The donkey was a beast of burden, primarily used to carry supplies. Donkeys were not regularly used for the transportation of people. Yes, we have the popular tradition that Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem with a donkey. But donkeys were primarily used for the transportation of goods. Now, if one of us asked you to go steal a car so we could ride in a parade through downtown Houston, would you do it? No, you wouldn t, and you would probably think that we had lost our marbles. But that is what Jesus does. Jesus tells two disciples to go steal a young donkey so he can ride in a parade. On the one hand, this is a familiar story. We have heard it many times. Some of you have heard 30, 40, 50, maybe even 80 or 90 times. We know the routine. So, we get an agreeable donkey and we re-enact the parade. There are hosannas and palm branches. It is a beautiful day and folks are happy. But, seriously, friends! What is going on here? This is strange stuff to the outside world. It is almost as strange sounding to outsiders as eating bread as Christ s body and drinking wine as Christ s blood. What is going on here? I did a little reading as I prepared to visit with you today. This is what I learned anew. According to New Testament scholars Marcus Borg and John Crossan, the Triumphal Entry was not a spontaneous event. Jesus was not the passive recipient of an impromptu adoration. Though worship might have happened, it was not the point. Instead, according to Borg and Crosson, Jesus' parade-by-donkey was a staged joke. It was an act of political theater. It was an anti-imperial demonstration designed to mock the obscene pomp and circumstance of Rome. In their compelling book, The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus' Last Days in Jerusalem, Borg and Crossan argue that two processions entered Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday. Jesus' parade was not the only Triumphal Entry. Every year, the Roman governor of Judea would ride up to Jerusalem from his coastal residence in the west. Why? To be present in the city for Passover the SC_150329_Palm Sunday Year B PV.docx, Page 3 of 6
Jewish festival that swelled Jerusalem's population from its usual 50,000 to at least 200,000. The governor would come in all of his imperial majesty to remind the Jewish pilgrims that Rome was in charge. They could commemorate an ancient victory against Egypt if they wanted to. But real, present-day resistance was futile. Here is Borg and Crossan s description of Pontius Pilate s imperial procession: A visual panoply of imperial power: cavalry on horses, foot soldiers, leather armor, helmets, weapons, banners, golden eagles mounted on poles, sun glinting on metal and gold. What did they hear? The marching of feet, the creaking of leather, the clinking of bridles, the beating of drums. They also experienced the swirling of dust and the eyes of the silent onloookers, some curious, some awed, and some resentful. It's important to remember that according to Roman imperial belief, the emperor was not simply the ruler of Rome; he was the Son of God. For the empire's Jewish subjects, Pilate's procession signaled more than a military threat. It was the embodiment of a rival God. It was heresy on horseback. This is the background, Borg and Crossan argue, against which we need to frame the Triumphal Entry of Jesus. That Jesus planned a counter-procession is clear from St. Mark's account of the event. Jesus knew he was going to enter the city on the back of a donkey so he made arrangements to procure one and as Pilate clanged and crashed his imperial way into Jerusalem from the west, Jesus approached from the east, looking ragtag and absurd. His was the procession of the ridiculous, the powerless, the explicitly vulnerable. Jesus rode "the most unthreatening, most un-military mount imaginable: a female nursing donkey with her little colt trotting along beside her." Jesus was drawing on the rich, prophetic symbolism of the Jewish Bible in his choice of a ride. As I shared earlier the prophet Zechariah predicted the ride of a king "on a colt, the foal of a donkey." He would be the nonviolent king who'd "command peace to the nations." Did the crowd understand what was going on? Did they get the joke? Did they catch the subversive nature of their king's donkey ride? Jesus chose an animal that had never been ridden before. Was he telling them that his kingship, his Way, was a new and uncharted way? A risky way? Did they hear him? I don t think they did. What they got instead was a parade of misfits. A comic donkey-ride. A dangerous joke. But the world was forever changed. So what can we learn from this? Well, first we need to learn to - Untie the colt When we are invited by Christ to engage in special duty, we need to say yes to the invitation. It is important work. Whatever Christ calls us to do or say, we need to say it or do it. If it means we must untie the colt, then that is what we do. We untie the colt. SC_150329_Palm Sunday Year B PV.docx, Page 4 of 6
But even if we have not been asked to do the hard stuff, Jesus invites each of us to - Join the Parade All of us are called to be followers of Jesus Christ and often that means we head down a wholly different path for our lives. It sometimes means that we must confront the gods that the world worships. Sometimes these are the gods of prejudice and exclusion. Sometimes they are the gods of excess and consumption. But, being a follower of Jesus Christ means that sometimes we must confront those gods and offer mercy to the ones whose lives have been taken over by those gods. Then, as we do that, we must. - Know the consequences I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that Jesus' political joke hastened his crucifixion. Jesus was no fool; he knew exactly what it would cost him to spit in Rome's face. Like all good comedians, he understood that real humor is in fact a very serious business. At its best, real humor does more than entertain. It points at truth the kinds of truth we'd rather not see and the kinds of truth some will kill not to see. Jesus was killed because many did not want to hear the truth. So, if we are going to join Jesus parade, we need to know the consequences. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor in the 1940 s, was imprisoned by Hitler s regime in World Way II because he was willing speak up against Hitler s evil. What did he get? He was imprisoned and he was executed by hanging two weeks before the liberation of Germany by Allied forces. One of his most famous books is called The Cost of Discipleship. If we are going to be followers of Jesus Christ, we must know the potential consequences. But here is the good news in all of this. - God will give you strength for the journey God gave Jesus strength for the journey through that difficult week that he began on that day he rode a donkey into Jerusalem. It was not an easy week. But God gave Christ strength for the journey and God will give you strength for the journey as well. God will be with us as we share last meals with friends and family. God will be with us as we pray in our own Gardens of Gethsemane. God will be with us as our lives as we know them are dying on our own crosses. Yes, my friends, the good news on this Palm Sunday is that God will give you strength for your most difficult times ahead. SC_150329_Palm Sunday Year B PV.docx, Page 5 of 6
I visited with a friend earlier this week whose husband has colon cancer. He was given the diagnosis in December on the same day that his officer through him a retirement party for his retirement at the end of 2014. He has been through radiation and he has been through chemotherapy. The cancer has slowed. But, in a few weeks, much of his colon will be removed and he will have a colostomy bag for the rest of his life. My friends, his wife is so grateful that they caught this when they did. She said, He might have already been dead. As difficult as it has been, she confidently shared with me earlier this week that God has been with them on this journey. God will be with you on your journey as well. AMEN The Takeaway: Jesus told two of his disciples to go untie a colt steal it from its owner. Jesus knew what he was doing and intentionally created a parade. Was it to mock the Roman authorities? What does it take for us join Jesus parade? What are the consequences? It is much easier for us to wave palm branches and shout Hosanna than it is to face up to the challenges of discipleship. The Challenge: The challenge for us is to recognize and acknowledge that if we join the parade and follow Jesus, there will be consequences. Discipleship is costly. How: Wave the palm branches, shout Hosanna, but also acknowledge and understand that the road of discipleship is sometimes difficult. At the same time, know from the Palm Sunday and Holy Week story that God will uphold you and give you strength for the journey ahead. Assignment: Pray the praise prayer of the Psalmist adapted from Psalm 118 (see Prayer for the week) at the beginning and end of each day this week. Prayer for the Week Lord, You are my God I will give thanks to you! Lord, You are my God I will lift you up high! O Give thanks to the LORD because God is good, Lord, you give me strength for the journey ahead, For I know your faithful love lasts forever. AMEN SC_150329_Palm Sunday Year B PV.docx, Page 6 of 6