Palm/Passion Sunday
Alice M.C. Ling, Senior Pastor
Isaiah 50:4-9a, Philippians 2:5-11, Luke 19:28-40
It's all been building toward this moment. Way back in the 9th chapter of Luke, we were told that Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem. Now in our day, that might mean he programmed his little GPS unit, which by the way he called Jill, to get him to 100 Main Street in downtown Jerusalem; so that every time he reached an intersection, Jill could tell him to go straight, right or left. She could tell him to travel straight on highway 12 for 7.3 miles and then turn left onto route 303 east. But neither Jesus nor gospel writer Luke knew about GPS or canned mechanical voices named Jill. When they told us Jesus pointed his face toward Jerusalem, they were telling us he was headed for trouble. He was headed to that capital city where people seemed overly sensitive and highly political and had very little sense of humor – especially for one who was so doggone consistently honest and forthright and unwilling to strategize or posture or suck up. No, if Jesus arrived in Jerusalem with his entourage in tow, and neither he nor they had toned down any of the rhetoric, there was bound to be trouble. But once he set his face toward Jerusalem, there was no turning back. No steering him off course, no slowing him down, no distracting him into going a different direction. He was like a well trained retriever with its prey in sight. He set his face toward Jerusalem, and Jerusalem it was going to be. End of conversation.
I’m not one who believes that Jesus had looked at a blueprint of the week. I believe he knew in the depths of his bones that it wasn’t going to go well, and given everything he knew about life in the capital, he may have had some pretty strong hunches about what to expect. But I don’t think he had 20-20 foresight that told him exactly what was going to happen, when. I doubt that he’d planned it, but I also don’t think he was surprised when he hit some sort of wall when he saw all those moneychangers taking advantage of the piety and faithfulness of poor Jews. He couldn’t stand it for one more second, so without a second thought, he started overturning tables and telling the scalpers to get out of the temple! Needless to say, that didn’t go over well – and may actually have been the final nail in his coffin. But that didn’t make it any easier to listen to his disciples snore while he pleaded with God for an easier path. I can only imagine the size of the knot in the pit of his stomach when Judas and the soldiers showed up to arrest him. Even though he knew Peter didn’t have enough starch in his spine to withstand the pressure, it still tore at his soul when the rooster crowed and he knew that Peter had washed his hands of him. I think those acts of abandonment and betrayal hurt more than the whip and the thorns and the weight of the cross cutting into his bare shoulder and the nails. Knowing his friends had tucked tail and fled had to hurt the most. Even though he didn’t know all the details of all of that, I think he had a pretty good hunch how it was going to play out. And still, he climbed on that colt and rode his way into Jerusalem; still he said what needed to be said, still he did what he knew in his bones he had to do, still he held fast to who he understood God had called him to be. He didn’t want to go where he was about to go, but in midst of it all, he knew he couldn’t and wouldn’t avoid any of it, if to do so he had to turn his back on God.
I don’t know if you heard it or not, but the passage we heard from Philippians opened with the words, Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus… Sort of a haunting call, isn’t it? And even though I really don’t expect any of us to ever be nailed to a tree, so we don’t have to be ready to go there, I do think there’s a whole lot in the story that may be asked of: to speak unpopular truths, to be willing to offend powerful people for the sake of justice and love, to stand up and be heard when people are being taken advantage of or abused or belittled, to walk the path we believe God has set before us even if every one of our companions and cohorts falls by the wayside when the heat gets too high. Jesus walked knowingly, courageously, faithfully – toward Jerusalem and into Jerusalem and toward the cross up Calvary’s hill. And he asks us to walk with him – in faith and discipleship and love, wherever the road may lead. The question that’s left for us is how far we’ll be willing or able to walk with him in faith.
Reading:
“He Will Walk” from Stages on the Way: Iona Community Worship Group
Isaiah 50:4-9a, Philippians 2:5-11, Luke 19:28-40
It's all been building toward this moment. Way back in the 9th chapter of Luke, we were told that Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem. Now in our day, that might mean he programmed his little GPS unit, which by the way he called Jill, to get him to 100 Main Street in downtown Jerusalem; so that every time he reached an intersection, Jill could tell him to go straight, right or left. She could tell him to travel straight on highway 12 for 7.3 miles and then turn left onto route 303 east. But neither Jesus nor gospel writer Luke knew about GPS or canned mechanical voices named Jill. When they told us Jesus pointed his face toward Jerusalem, they were telling us he was headed for trouble. He was headed to that capital city where people seemed overly sensitive and highly political and had very little sense of humor – especially for one who was so doggone consistently honest and forthright and unwilling to strategize or posture or suck up. No, if Jesus arrived in Jerusalem with his entourage in tow, and neither he nor they had toned down any of the rhetoric, there was bound to be trouble. But once he set his face toward Jerusalem, there was no turning back. No steering him off course, no slowing him down, no distracting him into going a different direction. He was like a well trained retriever with its prey in sight. He set his face toward Jerusalem, and Jerusalem it was going to be. End of conversation.
I’m not one who believes that Jesus had looked at a blueprint of the week. I believe he knew in the depths of his bones that it wasn’t going to go well, and given everything he knew about life in the capital, he may have had some pretty strong hunches about what to expect. But I don’t think he had 20-20 foresight that told him exactly what was going to happen, when. I doubt that he’d planned it, but I also don’t think he was surprised when he hit some sort of wall when he saw all those moneychangers taking advantage of the piety and faithfulness of poor Jews. He couldn’t stand it for one more second, so without a second thought, he started overturning tables and telling the scalpers to get out of the temple! Needless to say, that didn’t go over well – and may actually have been the final nail in his coffin. But that didn’t make it any easier to listen to his disciples snore while he pleaded with God for an easier path. I can only imagine the size of the knot in the pit of his stomach when Judas and the soldiers showed up to arrest him. Even though he knew Peter didn’t have enough starch in his spine to withstand the pressure, it still tore at his soul when the rooster crowed and he knew that Peter had washed his hands of him. I think those acts of abandonment and betrayal hurt more than the whip and the thorns and the weight of the cross cutting into his bare shoulder and the nails. Knowing his friends had tucked tail and fled had to hurt the most. Even though he didn’t know all the details of all of that, I think he had a pretty good hunch how it was going to play out. And still, he climbed on that colt and rode his way into Jerusalem; still he said what needed to be said, still he did what he knew in his bones he had to do, still he held fast to who he understood God had called him to be. He didn’t want to go where he was about to go, but in midst of it all, he knew he couldn’t and wouldn’t avoid any of it, if to do so he had to turn his back on God.
I don’t know if you heard it or not, but the passage we heard from Philippians opened with the words, Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus… Sort of a haunting call, isn’t it? And even though I really don’t expect any of us to ever be nailed to a tree, so we don’t have to be ready to go there, I do think there’s a whole lot in the story that may be asked of: to speak unpopular truths, to be willing to offend powerful people for the sake of justice and love, to stand up and be heard when people are being taken advantage of or abused or belittled, to walk the path we believe God has set before us even if every one of our companions and cohorts falls by the wayside when the heat gets too high. Jesus walked knowingly, courageously, faithfully – toward Jerusalem and into Jerusalem and toward the cross up Calvary’s hill. And he asks us to walk with him – in faith and discipleship and love, wherever the road may lead. The question that’s left for us is how far we’ll be willing or able to walk with him in faith.
Reading:
“He Will Walk” from Stages on the Way: Iona Community Worship Group
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