Palm Sunday Sermon
Mark 11:1-11
When Jesus and his followers approached Jerusalem, they came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives. Jesus gave two disciples a task, 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. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘Its master needs it, and he will send it back right away.’”
They went and found a colt tied to a gate outside on the street, and they untied it. Some people standing around said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” They told them just what Jesus said, and they left them alone. They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes upon it, and he sat on it. Many people spread out their clothes on the road while others spread branches cut from the fields. Those in front of him and those following were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessings on the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest!” 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.
WORD OF LORD
It’s a choice. We get to choose. We get to choose what kind of world we live in. We get to choose what that looks like. We get to choose if it’s a peaceful, good world that honors and lifts up people. We get to choose if it’s a violent, angry world that dehumanizes and tears down other people. We get to choose that. The problem is we don’t think its our choice. We think it’s been decided by other people who somehow get to create the world they want. Because after all, which one of us sitting here on this beautiful Palm Sunday morning would choose a hateful, angry, violent dehumanizing world? And yet… And yet as we reminded yet again this week, that’s certainly what this world can look like.
I thought about listing the names of each school that has suffered a mass shooting this morning, but that list is about 180 names long. 180 educational institutions. Let that sink in for just a moment…
I get so angry and frustrated because it feels like there’s really nothing I can do and that the people who could actually do something… well… they do nothing. And then I spend time with my friends who are in the psychology field and listening to interviews with experts about the mental health crisis we now have of young men feeling completely alienated and disempowered or I think about my kids who were born into a post 9/11 world of hyper-security and fear, a generation who’s increasingly socially isolating themselves - partly because we tell them no place is safe, partly because of digital intoxication.
And of course, if they see what’s going on - that kids are getting shot up in schools - and they do see and they do know what’s going no matter how hard we might try to shield them from it - it just seems to add evidence to the notion that they aren’t safe and can’t ever be safe. And then of course, you take an increasingly isolated generation and add on a year or two of lock-down for the pandemic and there you go… Can we really wonder why this mental health crisis exists?
Which world have we chosen? What world did we create?
Today we’re celebrating and lifting up a man who entered a city in an act of political theatre. He strode into his capital city in what can rightly be seen as a parody and mockery of the Roman Empire. Instead of a warhorse, he comes on a donkey. Instead of legions of soldiers waving swords and spears, it was children and farmers waving palm branches. Instead of roses and flowers thrown at his feet, they threw down hay and jackets - the symbols of the working class and farmers rather than the urban cultural elite. It was a parade of the marginalized offering a very different vision of what a kingdom could look like. Instead of one that boasted of power and might that lifted up Military authoritarianism, it was one of peace and humility that lifted up the lowly and cast-aside. And the reason why Jesus did it that way is because he wanted us to see it’s a choice. We get to choose.
He was asking the people of his time the same question he’s asking the people of our time - which are we going to choose? He was showing them that they aren’t bound by empire. They aren’t defined, boxed in, or trapped by empire. He was trying to show them that the power this empire thought it had wasn’t real power. Their tactics of fear and assimilation, their boasts of security and unattainable prosperity were no real measures of success, no real path to fulfillment, no real hope of a better world. Instead it ends in pain and death. But it wasn’t the only game in town.
He was trying to show them a vision of the kingdom where children led the way singing songs and the people shouted “Hosanna” or save us now, save us we pray. A kingdom where the leader humbled himself and walked with the people not with an army and where weapons of war were replaced signs of peace.
I mean, what if he meant all those things he’d been teaching up to this point? What if God truly did care for people just because they were alive and existed? What if we really actually all are precious children of this God? What if this God was far more concerned with love than with the law? What if misfortune or poverty or suffering or struggle weren’t actually signs of God’s curse upon us but something with God’s love we could change - not just for ourselves but for everyone? What if violence really didn’t have any place in God’s kingdom but soul-force could actually overcome brute-force?
Well, it all sounds kind of naive some would have said to him - as many did. It sounds like you’d probably be killed, Jesus because we know that turning the cheek doesn’t stop a bad guy with a sword. The only thing that will do that is a good guy with a sword. Do you think as he was being nailed to the cross, there were those looking on who said to each other, “Told you so. We all want peace. We all like his vision of the world, but you can’t do anything against Rome or the elite. We just can’t fight them.” Do you think they just went on their way accepting the world they were in as it is and forgot about this vision of how it could be? And maybe that’s why no one was really there for the resurrection… because they resigned themselves to thinking that there really isn’t a choice. He asked them to choose and they chose something else because they didn’t know or realize what was about to happen.
Family… I’m tired of the consequences of the world we’ve chosen. It’s a world where some people are made to feel and actually told it’s illegal for them to exist in. It’s a world where people are marginalized and alienated to the point of extreme desperation. It’s a world where I’m told I constantly need to be afraid and suspicious of anyone I don’t know or who doesn’t look like me. It’s a world that’s trying to tell me that it’s better to sacrifice the freedom, independence, and creativity of my children for the illusions of safety, security, and control. It’s a world where people insist that what they want is more important than what anyone else needs, where privilege is mistaken for rights, where some are entitled and without responsibility, and where some people want me to believe that one life could actually be of more value than the lives of others.
And this world that we’ve somehow chosen and created… It’s not sustainable. It ends in disaster and ruin. It ends in pain and death - maybe not for everyone but for most of us. Because there are consequences for our choices. Whether we choose to claim responsibility for them or not, whether we choose to ignore them or not; there are consequences for our choosing this Empire over his kingdom. And I wonder when it is we will finally decide that those consequences are too high of a price to pay. I, for one, am tired of the consequences of the world we’ve chosen.
I want to choose his kingdom. I want to choose his world. I want to choose his vision. I want to be in his parade. And I don’t think it’s too late yet to choose that, but it may be soon.
You know, as we enter this holy week, as we gather for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services and all that they mean and all the feelings they evoke, I think back to that one moment when the man we call Messiah sat quietly alone in a garden knowing what was about to happen - knowing that the soldiers were coming to get him - knowing that he was about to be brutally beaten and mocked and tortured to death - and he prayed. He prayed that the cup would pass. He prayed that there was another way.
And of course, the cup would not pass. The soldiers would come. But he could have left. He could have gotten up and ran and put off the inevitable for maybe a few hours or few days… Who knows? He could have chosen to run. But he chose to stay. He chose to stay. And I think he did it because he knew that no matter how hard they would try to squash him and scare others into thinking the same thing would happen to them if they didn’t fall back in line, no matter how hard they tried to flex, no matter what they’d do to him - even if they killed him, they couldn’t kill the vision or the dream of the new kingdom he’d already shown the world. And while many would choose something different - whether out of fear or apathy or disenchantment - there would be a few who would choose his kingdom over that of empire - and they would choose his kingdom out of love and faith and hope… And you see, I want to be one of those people.
I want to be one of those people and I don’t think it’s too late to make that choice. And I’m aware that choices have consequences. I’m aware that only one apostle died of natural causes into old age. I’m aware that pursuing his kingdom comes with dangers and risks - mainly from those who’ve chosen empire. I know it can come with great personal cost and professional cost even for ministers. But when I look at my kids, when I look at the kids who come to our church and live in our community, and even when I hear Hudson yelling at me as I give sermons, I begin to understand why it is Jesus chose to stay and not run. I used to think it was courage. I used to think he was brave and trusted God in ways I can’t even imagine. Now I realize he stayed out of love. He loved us too much to let us go. He loved us too much not show us it’s the right choice to stay and work for the kingdom. He loved us too much to not complete the work and keep the hope of the kingdom alive.
And so the soldiers of the Empire came. And they arrested him. And they beat him. And they tried to humiliate him. And they tortured him. And they dragged him through the streets mocking him so everyone could see what the empire’s power looks like. And they tied him down and nailed him to a cross and hung him up to die in order to convince you that there’s no real choice - you bend the knee and take what you’re given and you say thank you and move along.
And maybe as he looked down from the cross, he thought they got one thing right - there is no real choice - not for him - not for the love he has for those people. And if only just a few of them would begin to realize just how much he and God loved them. If only just one or two of them truly understood what was being offered and what was possible in this new kingdom, if only just a few of them would choose the kingdom, then it would all be worth it.
Family… We’re given the choice. We choose which world we live. We choose which world we create. We can continue to choose the empire that kills the innocent, who refuses our best interest, who only serves itself through brute-force. Or we can choose the kingdom that lifts up the lowly, who cares for the marginalized and left behind, who serves all people as precious children of God through soul-force. We get to choose. We have a choice. And don’t let anyone convince you otherwise…