Brothers and sisters,
Pay attention – heed my words
Our story comes – through rhyming blurbs.
It all started with an ironic parade
With colt and cloak and shouts of praise
A worship band and with hands raised
Here comes the king
Let’s sing his praise
He blessed comes – to rule and reign
And we will win and glory gain (pause)
And all our foes will be subdued
Our national shame will be removed
These Roman invaders – crushed and killed.
We’ll sing and dance, a Patriot’s thrill
For it’s either us or them – us or them – us – NOT them. (pause)
But now here comes a troubled few.
Who worry rightly of this political brew
Shut them up – these leaders say
For you are not king as your disciples pray
Shut them up – for the Romans may hear.
Shut them up – a riot we fear.
Shut them up – this heretical cheer.
For politics doesn’t belong
And you are not our king. (pause)
And then he stops – this would-be king
And he finally speaks: If they didn’t sing –creation would croon, the rocks would ring – for I am (pause)
And he rode on, this donkey king
And came upon the city in Spring
With peasants working, markets churning, children playing, old men praying, soldiers marching, new life starting, elderly dying, people striving, people stirring, people – so many people - trying
And then . . .
And then it says in verse 41 . . .
Brothers and sisters, Jesus cried.
He bawled. He wept his bitter tears. He sobbed and coughed, face smeared, eyes red
We worship. He weeps.
Some want a king to conquer foes. He weeps.
Some want no part, fine with the status quo. He weeps.
And here I want to pause, to ponder,
to wonder in silence, to let our minds wander.
Take a moment – which person are you? (pause 30 seconds)
We worship. He weeps.
And whispers gently – You do not know the way of peace.
You do not know though you have heard
You do not see you think it absurd
That the king is here
And love is law
Forgiveness policy
Nonviolence the operation of shock and awe
And the platform that God is not against you, not against them, not mad at you, nor partisan for them
So which one are you?
Which problem do you have?
Do you want a kingdom without a cross? (pause)
Are you like the crowd? You want to win, to vanquish foes, to bless only kin, to drop the bomb, to wield the woes, to chant the slogans, and deal the blows –rejecting suffering, without love for enemies. You refuse - to be shattered.
Or do you want a cross without a kingdom? (pause)
Are you like the pharisees? You want a religion nice and tidy, with rules and order from the Almighty, redemption for yourself but without pity for those who languish in the city – without justice or public contention. You refuse - to shatter things.
Brothers and sisters, white and of color, this Palm Sunday,
Reflect on this
Jesus declared himself to be king of this world.
And not some petty tyrant to tyrannize with law or hate and without grace
He came to establish God’s kingdom of peace, allowing himself to be shattered and battered, worn and torn. He is the shattered king.
So that finally God might be understood: God is love – willing to suffer what he should - and cry.
Let us not act as if his story is private - for it’s about cities, factories, mentalities, everything – do you see?
Let us awaken to the reality - that this week brings.
We worship. He weeps.
He is the shattered king.
Why is it important to lean into this story every year? We need to because it’s so easy to forget: to forget that Jesus is more than savior but declared himself king, to forget that the gospel is a kingdom for the present not simply a heaven for the future, to forget that the cross doesn’t simply belong in our hearts but in our streets, in our mouths, in our politics, to forget that disciples who worship Jesus can still misunderstand him. Luke goes to great lengths to reveal that the disciples don’t get Jesus – in vs.11 of ch. 19 he tells us that they thought the kingdom of God would immediately appear and be the destruction of Rome. Even after Jesus talked about turning the other cheek, taking up one’s cross, they thought that spilling Roman blood would save them. They believed that military might would be God’s glory but in AD 70 Jesus was proven right as the Roman General Titus destroyed Jerusalem.
Palm Sunday reminds us that our God often doesn’t live up to our expectations. We struggle to understand why God doesn’t act as we would want Him to, behave the way He is supposed to. Palm Sunday reveals that those who praise him are also quite willing to betray him when we encounter something that we don’t like – that cuts across the grain of our personal beliefs, our political hopes, our own ethical visions. Jesus himself was aware of this – in vs. 14 he cryptically describes his hearers, the disciples, no less, as citizens of a country who “hated” the one sent to them saying, “We do not want this man to rule over us.”
Friends, Jesus doesn’t betray us but sometimes his message can feel like betrayal. It grates against a desire to define ourselves by our nation, by our kinship, by our own vision of peace and prosperity. But he has declared that there is only one side for peace, one side for salvation, only one who is King. Jesus rides in on a donkey and tells us that there is no side but mine – and then he weeps. And yet, while he may weep, he will not stop. Will you join him?
