Apr 17, 2011
Everybody Loves a Parade
4-18-11
The Lenten Season draws to a close. Through 40 days and 40 nights, I have been trying to think of this traditional observance in non-traditional ways. We can do that – for instance by identifying with what Jesus “took up” in His sacrifice, as well as what He “gave up” by His sacrifice – and be faithful to scripture.
But on Palm Sunday, when I think of Jesus entering the gates of Jerusalem, I come, myself, to a dead end of this exercise. There are not too many fresh ways to see those events. We know that He entered in humble and even seemingly absurd ways, like riding a donkey, in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, verse after verse after verse.
We know that one reason Jesus was hailed by crowds was because some people hoped he would be a revolutionary leader to overthrow the Romans. Frankly, He had been preaching for three and a half years, so most people would have known that Jesus was an unlikely guerilla fighter, few of whom storm a city on a donkey. No, the exuberant reception probably was due more to buzz about this man who walked on water; created wine and lunches from nothing; healed the blind, the deaf, and the crippled; and raised people from the dead. The grumblers in the crowd knew – and resented – that He also was wiser than they about the law, and that He claimed in fact to be the fulfillment of the Law.
We know all that. And there are not many ways to bring new interpretations to the events of Palm Sunday.
…except if we try to imagine ourselves to be the people on the Jerusalem streets, waving palms and laying them before Jesus in honor. And if we can try to go BACK in time 2000 years, let us also imagine ourselves a few days later also, as this same Man we cheer is now in shackles, under sentence of death.
Palms, and an old robe or two, whatever the local traditions of honor, were the cheapest things possible to lay down before Jesus. So were shouts, even hewing to the literal meaning of “Hosanna” and references to the Messiah. “Talk is cheap.” If we really wanted to honor Jesus, if we really believed He was the promised Messiah, the proof was not showing up at a party-like parade, but acting like we believed it, later in the week. And we scattered. A few of us denied even knowing Him. Some of us even demanded that He be put to death. And enough of us joined in, laughing at Him, spitting on Him.
Palm Sunday, in those lights, seem like a cruel joke. Must it not have seemed so to Jesus? It’s not like the fans who were at the gates showed up at Pilate’s, defending their Savior, losing the Barabbas-vote by a slim margin. Those former fans were not there; or if they were there, their real beliefs finally were on display.
Are the people who were waving palms, and shouting for their Messiah – their “personal savior” – different than we are? What makes them different? What makes us different? It can’t be that WE know how the story ended: prophetic details were clear enough to those people. And Jesus claimed, and repeatedly proved, who He was, right to their faces.
No, Palm Sunday is one of the most difficult times of the year for believers. Not only for what was about to happen to Jesus, physically; but perhaps for what has NOT yet happened to our hearts, spiritually.
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Click: Hosanna
Here’s a point the writer, the storyteller in me, wants to explore: Imagine the mere seconds when Simon looked into the eyes of Jesus. He had to. He was taken from the crowd, an observer of a different parade, and commanded to carry the cross for the Christ. It only makes sense that in Jesus’ struggle physically, his being tied to the cross, and Simon’s directive to carry it, they had to have looked eye to eye for at least a second. Imagine what could have happened. Imagine staying at the scene of the crucifiction, now from curisoity and a desire to know who this man is. Imagine how humbling and life changing it was when he learned the man he helped is referenced in prophecy. I can see that just the moment when human corruption met, eye to eye, the perfection of God, there had to be a life-changing unsettling moment.
So true Rick. Sadly the world is no differant today. We all love heros, but if that hero is convicted of a crime whether guilty or not suddenly we turn on them and become one of the self righteous crowd. If we had been one of the crowd who had seen Jesus do miracles but now being condemed to a Roman cross we might have joined the crowd who said ‘he must have done something wrong’. As humans we are so quick to make judgements on others because we are so perfect ourselves. It seems that in 2000 years we have not learnt much especially as we look at the Christian church today.