Flash mobs like this are exhilarating. They grab out
attention because they are dramatic moments where the mundane meets the
magnificent. They’re Handel’s Messiah in a Food Court where cheap food and boredom
meet surprise, bafflement, even joy. When we experience them they feel sudden,
surprising, they knock us into a new awareness, a new time, but we know that
they don’t just happen – that they are well-planned and prepared requiring
creativity, scheduling, practice and, more practice. But when done well – they
create a context for spontaneous wonder that leave us feeling breathless.
Today, I would like to introduce you to Jesus’ own flash mob, his triumphal
entry, where he dramatically portrays himself as king. I pray that his creative bit of street
theater invites you to share in the wonder, participate in the joy, and inspires
you to plan and demonstrate his kingship in surprising ways. Friends, welcome
to God’s house where there is only good news for you today.
Sermon:
READ Mark
11:1. When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany,
near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 2. and said to
them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it,
you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring
it. 3. If anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' just say this,
'The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.'" 4. They
went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they
were untying it, 5. some of the bystanders said to them, "What are
you doing, untying the colt?" 6. They told them what Jesus had said;
and they allowed them to take it. 7. Then they brought the colt to Jesus
and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. 8. Many people spread
their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in
the fields. 9. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were
shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
10. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the
highest heaven!" 11. Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the
temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he
went out to Bethany with the twelve.
Presentation matters. We all know that the best food is not
simply what tastes good but also what looks good (rose radishes in a salad or the aesthetic of food highlighted in the documentary Kings of Pastry). The gospel and the truth of God’s kingdom are no
different. Proclaiming the love of God at 5 am with a bullhorn might have great
content but it’s not effective. It’s presentation doesn’t work. In fact, we
understand that it misses the content – recognizing that the method, means, and
the hows can be just as important.
Today’s story is one that many of us know so well. That Jesus
dramatically enters Jerusalem proclaiming himself as the messiah, the king, is
good Christian content. But as I read Mark’s version I found myself
delightfully surprised – not by the content, but the method, not by the message
but the means. So this morning, I would like to turn our attention to Jesus’
triumphal entry NOT simply as a claim to messiahship but as a model for
ministry, as a way for us to embody the reality of Jesus’s teaching and his
claim to be the One who would liberate us and save us from our sins. Jesus
demonstrates to us that presentation matters.
When we pay attention to our text as a model for ministry, a
model for being followers in the world, a number of things jump out as being
important:
- For ministry, Jesus always encouraged his disciples to practice the buddy system. (Go together)
Our text begins with Jesus sending two unnamed disciples to
retrieve a donkey. Like always, Jesus sent disciples in pairs. The buddy-system is Jesus’ plan for prayer,
ministry and mission. The Ministry of Jesus is a communal and mutual
experience. He sends the twelve out in
pairs (Mark 6:7), claims that where at least two are gathered he’s present, and
encourages at least two to go correct a wayward brother or sister (Matt.
18:19-20). Who is your ministry buddy? Who does Jesus send you with? Who do you
have when life falls inward, when something needs to be done, when something needs
to be celebrated. Why not send only one? I’m not sure but I do know that in all
the gospel accounts the only two people who are acknowledged as going alone are
Peter and Judas – and they both betray Jesus.
I believe that is not simply that we cannot bring good news
on our own but that we should never do any ministry on our own. That’s because
the whole purpose of ministry is replicating and expanding God’s rule, God’s
reign and that requires team work. I’ve discovered that it’s hard to be truly
faithful to Jesus when I am alone. I need brothers or sisters to pray with me,
to speak with me about the spiritual task at hand, and to challenge me to stay
pure in mind, heart, and body. We need to welcome one another, to share our
lives together not because we should be nice or because we want to be liked but
because the ministry of Jesus depends upon it, because our lives in him depend
upon it. Because I don’t want to be one who betrays.
- To express God’s activity and His own mission, Jesus often prepared carefully and developed a plan. (Be prepared)
When I first read this text I was struck by how it ends – “Then
he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was
already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. This “looking around at
everything” caught me by surprise. It made me realize something very important
that I had missed. Jesus was a planner. Don, rightly remarked that we attribute
to Jesus “anger” in the temple cleansing, which the text does not say. I also
realized that I assumed it was a spontaneous event. But more than that I
recognized that I often believe that being led by the Spirit is always sudden,
swift, and unrehearsed. But if Jesus plans and prepares then we need to also.
We need to be people who prepare and plan to demonstrate the gospel.
How and what does Jesus plan? He plans out the colt. His
plan was steeped and informed by Scripture. He takes up Zechariah 9:9 as the
text to enact, but also Zech. 6:12-13 for cleansing the temple, he was politically
astute and strategic – he picked Passover (a feast of liberation in which a
lamb was slaughtered and Jerusalem and the temple would be filled with people),
he offered a counter-procession to demonstrate what his was and what it was not
– Two processions entered Jerusalem on that day: One on the western side of the
city, was the procession of Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Idumea,
Judea, and Samaria, who entered Jerusalem at the head of a column of imperial
cavalary and soldiers, a frightful sight of leather armor, helmets, weapons,
banners, golden eagles mounted on poles, drums – an awesome spectacle for sure,
whose sole purpose was to remind the Jews who held the power and to make sure
that on their feast of liberation they didn’t get any bright ideas. The other
procession entered from the east, led by Jesus of Nazareth with his followers –
it was a planned counterprocession of one who was claiming an alternative
vision, a different rule – the kingdom of God that would bring “peace to the
nations” (Zechariah 9:10). This didn’t happen by chance, wasn’t some
spontaneous coincidence but reflects a well-thought out plan steeped in
Scripture and the political realities of the day.
But, just because it wasn’t spontaneous doesn’t mean it
wasn’t a surprise, or dramatic – a gospel flash mob. To usher people into the presence of God,
into the awareness of His work in their lives – whether they be children,
friends, coworkers, or peers – we need to be prepared, watchful, mindful
looking for opportunities to express the extravagant love of God.
- To demonstrate the truth of the gospel and the kingdom of God, Jesus regularly used interactive drama and creative symbols. (Act out)
He “acted out” the Scriptures in visual and striking ways. He was not content to use words alone but embodied
the truths of the gospel imaginatively – riding a donkey to reveal his rule of
peace, washing feet, a stalk of wheat held in his hand or a piece of torn bread.
He would show it an old woman with two coins, point to flowers or warm sunlight
as evidence of God’s compassion, he would place a little child in the midst of
a crowd as a sign of the kingdom, and point to a tree that wasn’t bearing fruit
as a sign of judgment. He regularly offered theological object lessons of grace,
forgiveness, and love – “do you see”, was a constant refrain. “Pay attention”,
he would often encourage.
It’s recognizing that he could have done things differently.
He could have preached another sermon which revealed why he should be followed
as the messiah. But he didn’t. He performed some street theater instead.
We need people like Jesus who behave as theological
pranksters, Biblical actors, holy story tellers who dramatize grace, animate
forgiveness, inhabit scripture and embody truth creatively and thoughtfully.
People who provoke a sense of gospel wonder in our workplaces, neighborhoods,
schools, and homes. We need people this Thursday who will go to the Veteran’s
Memorial building and declare the good news by washing the feet of those who
society has forgotten.
What does such planned
drama look like? How can the Bible and theological truth be dramatized in our
daily lives?
Vignette One: The Ice
Cream Gospel
True Story: A father is going to take his 6 year-old-son for ice cream
but gets delayed resulting in a six-year-old tantrum - a sort of miniature nuclear meltdown
resulting in destruction and mayhem. Well, you know what happens next? The
father tells the son that there will be no ice cream and sends him to his room
but then he has a different idea – one that he had been planning and waiting
for the right moment to enact. He bundles the son into the car, takes him to
the ice cream parlor, lets him pick the biggest ice cream sundae in the whole
place which he doesn’t have a prayer of completely finishing and then asks the
question, “Do you deserve this gift? No, the kid replies. "Then why did you get
it?", the father asked. And the son, who every week had been going to Sunday
School, finally understood what the teacher had been telling him. He answered, “It’s grace.
Grace is why I get ice cream.”
Vignette Two: A Body
God Loves
When my daughter Lea was young I wrote a bathing ritual on
3X5 cards that I laminated to make them tub friendly. Every evening as I would
bathe parts of her body I would ask the question, “What did you do with your
(arms, hands, feet, tummy, mind) today? And she would tell me how she swung on
the jungle gym, painted a work of art, solved math problems. And as she would
tell me those things I would respond, “Oh, God loves it when you use your arms on
the jungle gym.” “God loves it when you eat good things.” In a world where we
advertisers alienate us from our own bodies by describing them as always
lacking, always in need, this was a way to embody and dramatize the truth that
our bodies aren’t bad, horribly broken, but created and loved by God. We can say those things but we must also demonstrate them.
Vignette Three: A
Dress Full of Prayers
The theologian Stephanie Paulsell writes of the devastating
event on the day after Christmas of having a miscarriage. She found herself
screwed to the bed with depression, unable to work, read, or pray. She was,
however, able to talk on the phone and day after day, she writes, wore out her
friends, especially her friend Kay – to whom she cried on the phone daily. “I’m
so depressed, she cried, that I can’t even pray. I try to pray, but I can’t.” A
few days later, a package arrived from her that contained a simple beige jumper and a note that read, “I have prayed
in this dress every day for a year. You don’t have to pray. Just wear it. It is
full of prayers.” So Stephanie wore the dress, wept in it, and cried out “Why?”
to God in it. She let the prayers of friend in that dress pray for her when her
mouth was dry and full of ashes. When she became pregnant again she wore the
spacious dress which she said was spacious enough, to gather up her fear and
grief and anger. I was naked in my grief, she writes, and my friend clothed
me. Clothing others is a Christian
obligation, to be cultivated in every area of our lives. No one must be left
naked.
Vignette Four: A Life
for Ours (intro. for Communion)
On the night he was to be betrayed when he was betrayed he
took a loaf of bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This
is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he
took the cup also, after supper, saying, “this cup is the new covenant in my
blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often
as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until
he comes.”
