The Week that is, that was, that will be
(sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Terry Hidichuk)
Palm Sunday
Text: Mark 11:1-11, 14:1ff                                                          

 

It all started with a bang.
It was a parade and don’t parades start with a bang?
The clash of symbols
The swirl of the bagpipes.
The screaming crowds.
It started with a bang.
At the gates of Jerusalem.
The start of Passover.
At the start of Holy Week
On Palm Sunday.
As Jesus enters Jerusalem.
That is the way some of us envision the parade on Palm Sunday.
Not with bagpipes, that is only wishful thinking for some of you.
But with celebration and noise.
Shouts of hosanna.
The waving palm fronds.
That is how we remember it.
But others will tell you that more than likely Jesus entered Jerusalem surrounded by a small group of followers.
Not leading a parade
but rather performing a parody.
A little guerrilla theatre going on while most of the world hustles and flows their way through the Passover holiday.

 

Jesus enters the East Gate Jerusalem, carrying with him baggage of Jewish hope and promise.
In first century Palestine, the people desired a king,
A liberator
A hero
A Messiah
Palestine was occupied territory.
There was for hunger to shake off the chains of Roman bondage that suffocated the people.
There was a thirst for someone to come and restore the majesty of
David’s kingship.
Jesus comes to the gates of Jerusalem with all of that
swirling in the air.

 

He enters the city riding on a donkey,
surrounded by a cadre of companions saying to all the world a king is coming.
A king alright…
Jesus riding a donkey…
Those in the crowd would get it.
They would know what Jesus was trying to show.
The prophet Zechariah refers to the Messiah entering Jerusalem on a donkey.
Those in the crowd, steeped Judaism would see the Messiah on the donkey…
Jesus was king.

 

Different kind of king that what most people wished for.
Jesus riding on a donkey
Is a way of saying Jesus is a donkey king.
Taking our burdens upon his shoulders.
Serving not being served.

 

They wave palm branches, these disciples do.
The waving of palm branches was a sign of military victory for the Roman occupiers.
The crowd would this king surrounded by the palm branches and they would see a message to Rome: not your victory,
not your glory,
not war but peace.

 

The message of the Palms is enforced by shouts of hosanna, blessed is one who comes in the name of God.

 

All a way of saying Jesus is king
But a different kind of king.
This Jesus.
A servant of God bringing healing to sick,
Justice to the poor
Equality for all.
A different kind of king.
A king of peace.

 

We find ourselves there, with the crowd watching, wondering, getting glimpses of the drama being played out.
Some of us start to catch on.
The little theatre was developing an audience.
With a crowd we are waving our branches
Shouting hosanna.
Getting swept up in it all.

 

But like those in Jerusalem on that spring morning, we realize who he was and who he is…
And the shouting stops.
All glory laud and honour easily segues into that other Palm Sunday hymn.
The one we will sing later.
Ride On, Ride On in majesty,
ride on in lowly pomp to die.
That is how seamlessly the atmosphere changed.

 

A palm-carpeted passageway leading to a royal throne, takes a turn up a narrow stair case into an upper room.

 

And we follow, the motley crew up the stairs.
There was more than a shift in geography.
In that room
behind those doors
around this table
the church was conceived.
And we were all there, too.
A loaf was broken and
was offered to Peter and to James and to John.
It was even offered to Judas.
And they took it and they ate.
Then bread was offered to us too.
And we took and we ate.
Finding ourselves swept up in the drama of the story.
Not as bystanders, nameless voices in a nameless crowd but now we are leading characters.
Playing out roles once and forever.
That was our night,
the night he took bread,
blessed it
and broke it
and offered to us.
And on that same night
after we had eaten
He took cup filled it with wine
Blessed it
Offered it to us.

 

It is traumatic, it always will be.
It is never a casual act.  
Because in the celebration of the Eucharist the whole church is present
and the barriers of both time and space
have been transcended.

 

Wherever and whenever this celebration takes place
the church for that moment is the pilgrim church arriving at the East gate of Jerusalem,
waving our palm branches and whispering our hosannas, walking up the stairs to the upper room
because we recognized King Jesus.

 

It is in this act of remembrance that the whole church is present or, again as Hebrews would say, we are surrounded by "so great a cloud of witnesses"

 

So we take our places about the table.
And we hear the words again….
Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.
And with everyone in the room, we shout in one voice…
Surely not I?

And we all turn to Judas.

 

We look at Judas first because he is fascinating and he is safe.
Not because he did the will of Jesus
Because we need a scapegoat.

 

Or not
Judas is not all that different from the face in the mirror I see when I ‘m shaving.
He is like us
And it is not because we are so horrible:
nor was Judas,
the political activist, so horrible.
In the same night that Judas and you and I betrayed him
he took bread and blessed it
and broke it and
gave it to us.
And we ate.

 

And then there is another shift in this guerilla theatre production.

We sing a hymn.

 

Then knowing the stuff we're made of he tells us to bring along our money-bags and our swords and accompany him to the garden.
How he knows us better than we know ourselves!
We must have our money and swords;
for these are our crutches,
these are our ego.
These protect us from ourselves.
They build our ego and we need them lest we face the awful truth of who we are.
But we don't use them for a while.

 

On the way…
Peter makes his vow of fidelity.
And in looking at Peter he looks deep into our eyes,
as he will later on from the balcony;
Before the cock crows you will deny you even know me.

 

And with Peter we say to prison and death we will go.
He knows it’s lie when he hears the words.
We know it too.
For there are too many priorities
Too many things to do
And places to go.
He knows all of this.

 

We go with him into the garden and he invites us to watch and pray while he goes off alone himself to pray.
He asks us to be friends with him
as he goes himself into the totality of loneliness "Remove this cup from me"
His loneliness is accentuated when he returns to find us asleep.
He asked us to be with him
for him,
and we all fall asleep.
The future now becomes clearer.
The soldiers and the priests and Judas came.
And Judas kissed him.
And Peter denied him.
And we forsook him.

 

And it all begins today.
At the gates of Jerusalem.
It begins with bang.
Amen.