Sermon preached by The Rev. Richard Marsden
Palm Sunday
Many of you know that Gail and I do a bit of historical civil war reenacting. As time permits we go away on a weekend to live in tents, sleep on cots under blankets—sleeping bags when it’s cold—but sshhh—that’s cheating–cook over a fire, no cell phones, no computers, no TV or radio, and no showers or flush facilities for three wonderful days.
Gail dresses in numerous layers of various garments about doubling her weight, capped by a beautiful long dress and bonnet of some sort.
We soldiers wear uniforms as exact to the period as possible, carry heavy rifles and equipment, practice the combat drills of the period and then run through swamp field and wood in period leather soled shoes, charging, shooting, retreating; even dying, –doing all the things that would have happened on a particular civil war battlefield at a particular time to the particular people involved.
Many wonder why we would want to do this. Some would attribute it to insanity or a touch of masochistic behavior. –point taken! Others would attribute it to some type of childlike regression—to which I would reply—is not!
But for someone who has an interest in history—to do this opens up a whole new vista of understanding beyond anything you would read, or see on the TV about the event and time you are attempting to know about.
When done right you can feel for moments as if you were transported into that very time and place. You in some sense vicariously participate in that event –you smell it, see it, hear it, experience it as no book or movie could allow.
You come to understand a lot of the particulars about the people involved –what they experienced—what they felt, saw, heard—what they are thinking. It gives you a visceral feeling for that event in history.
Later-transported back to the present reality-you are somehow affected by each event, you see the present differently—in light of the events of the past.
Today is a bit like that in the church.
It is a day that brings into focus the crux of the gospel of Jesus Christ, –transporting us back to vicariously experience—to participate at some level in the events that affect our very lives and salvation.
It is a day in which we experience the joy of welcoming Jesus the Messiah into Jerusalem.
And it is also a day in which we are plunged into the despair of Jesus’ suffering and death.
It is this day which brings into stark, brutal contrast who we really are as fallen and corrupted human beings, and just who this Jesus is.
We begin with the triumphal entry of the messiah into Jerusalem. All of Jerusalem standing there lining the side of that rough dirt road that descends steeply down from the Mount of Olives into the Kidron valley and up the other side into the gates of Jerusalem itself.
All of them standing there proclaiming: “Hosanna in the highest, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
The liturgy today puts us there on that roadside; full of joy and expectation. We look up the road and see Him –the Messiah! We wave our palms.
He is mounted on a colt, just like the prophets said He would arrive. You have heard the stories about Him:
He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind,
Why, He even raised a man from the dead!
Surely this is He! The one who will change everything! The one who ushers in God’s very presence to us. The one to make all things right!
He is coming right past you. You shout your hosannas and wave your palm branches in celebration of this new king. As He passes by maybe you even reach out and touch Him-
-maybe He looks right at you — eye to eye– and His soft smile touches your heart.
We then find ourselves abruptly transported into another crowd three days later–just as excited–just as expectant.
Except now, instead of shouting “hosannas”, you are shouting “Crucify Him, Crucify Him!”
With just as much conviction, with just as much emotion– “Crucify Him, Crucify Him”
How could this be?
How could this complete reversal have come to pass? What could possibly have happened to have so utterly changed our hearts toward this Jesus, this Messiah, in a matter of three short days?
Well, maybe we should consider that our hearts did not change. Maybe the same heart is completely consistent, completely congruent on both of these occasions.
When I put myself into this scenario, I would like to think that I would have been a part of the Sunday crowd, waving my palms and shouting my hosannas
But I would like to think that I would never have been a part of the Friday crowd –
-and if I happened to be there in that Friday crowd–I would be one trying to convince those around me that they were wrong about condemning this Jesus.
Most of us would like to believe that, — that we would be part of the Sunday crowd, but not part of the Friday crowd.
Yet, the truth be known, we all would most probably have been there on both occasions, shouting hosannas one day, and crucify Hims the next.
The people in the gospel accounts were not evil people, they were folks just like us here today, sinners, fallen human beings just like us–no difference at all.
You and I would have been there on that hillside welcoming Jesus the Messiah-
— my Messiah, believing that He would meet all of my needs, that He would take care of my problems, that He would make my life easier.
Probably thinking that since He gave sight to the blind, healing to the sick, even raised the dead,
-that He would surely better my life. He would get me my pay raise, ensure justice in my claims against others. He might even get me a new car- new home –new job—take away all my problems
— with Jesus as King all my troubles are over!
But when it was clear that He was not what I wanted Him to be, when his messiahship called me to pick up my cross daily, love my enemies, to turn the other cheek, to give up everything, even myself, to suffer injustice gladly for his sake, and that my reward would not be attained in this world — well then, everything changed.
Most of us want Jesus’ messiahship, his lordship according to our terms-
We want redemption without a price; because we don’t want to take responsibility for it.
–sanctification without repentance; because we really don’t want to admit our sin, or our need to change
–new life, without death
We desire the blessings that Jesus offers but in accordance with our terms, to fit our purposes,
And our problem, and the problem of those lining the road that Sunday morning,
-is that He is not that kind of Messiah
And though in reality, the blessings of His lordship far outweigh any cost we might have to pay to possess them,
-we are blinded and deafened by our own selfish needs and desires,
-we want charge of our own lives, and without a struggle we will make no room in our lives for another lord.
And so in today’s liturgy—and in the liturgy of the three days this week, we do find ourselves in both places, one day shouting hosannas to the Messiah we want, and in the next moment, shouting crucify Him to the Messiah we need, and the one our Father sent.
As we continue our worship –as we reenact the most significant events of history–this day and through the rest of Holy Week– let us contemplate this truth:
That while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
He gave us the ultimate gift of God’s love, when we least desired—when we least deserved it.
Let our participation in these events move us to confess our rebellion against Him, our desire to be our own lord, and to witness what Jesus gave for us that we might be saved.
May our participation in these events so move our hearts and minds, that upon completing reenacting them, upon reentering the present– it will be our very lives that have become living hosannas, lives yielded and submitted wholly to Jesus that proclaim He is my Lord, He is my King; He is the lamb that was slain for my salvation.