From Palms to Passion

From ‘Hosanna’ to ‘Crucify’

Palm/Passion Sunday

Matthew 21:1-11                                            Rev. Todd B. Freeman

Bethany Presbyterian Church, Dallas                                     March 20, 2005

It has been three years since I’ve preached on this particular Sunday. That’s because for the past two years the choir presented Mozart’s Requiem. And that was just fine with me because this is a particularly difficult Sunday to decide what to preach (as hard as that may seem to believe). Part of the difficult comes with the fact that a full 1/4 of the entire gospel story is contained between the events of today (Palm Sunday) and next week (Easter). In the gospel of Matthew, seven of his twenty-eight chapters are dedicated to this last week of Jesus’ life.

So for instance, if I were to preach only about Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem this Sunday, and then preach about the joy of the Resurrection next Sunday, then we would miss all the stories such as Jesus cleansing the Temple, the Last Supper, the agony of the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus’ arrest, betrayal, trial, denial, and of course the Crucifixion itself.

In order to better deal with all this material this particular Sunday is also now known as Passion Sunday (in addition to the more familiar theme of Palm Sunday). Passion Sunday helps us to remember that between these two joyous Sundays there is a cross and a brutal death.

You will notice, in fact, that the liturgy from the start of today’s service of worship to the close will have a very intentional movement from the exuberating emphasis of Palm Sunday to the somber focus of Passion Sunday.

It’s kind of like the opposite of the Monopoly board game where you can just pass go and collect $200. We can’t skip over the reality of the events of this week, especially Good Friday, and go straight to Easter. For if we do, we risk missing the full joy and impact of the meaning behind the story of the Resurrection.

There is a way, though, to tie all the events of this week together. I think this can be done by looking at the issue of expectations. What has come to be called “Palm Sunday” is a celebration of the expectations that the Jewish people had for this teacher and prophet named Jesus of Nazareth. What were the expectations of the crowd outside the gates of Jerusalem that day, when they threw down their coats and tree branches on the road in celebration of the coming of Jesus as he approached riding upon a donkey?

The author of Matthew reveals that they were expecting a messiah. The common understanding of a messiah was that this person would rescue them from the oppression of the Roman Empire, which had dominated ancient Palestine for over a hundred years by this time.  The Jewish people had become intensely nationalistic and understandably had a strong desire for political and religious independence. They had waited and waited and waited for someone to come along and free them, much like Moses had done for the Israelites enslaved in Egypt. The people who shouted “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord” were cheering the person they believed would become their long-expected king, the one who would take political power and drive out the Romans; the one who would restore them to the glory of the days of King David. They expected someone who would lead a rebellion. And since politics and religion were so closely intermingled, this triumphal entry was seen as a religious event as well.

The major thrust of Matthew’s entire Gospel was to show time and time again that Jesus is indeed the one who fulfilled the ancient Hebrew prophesies for a messiah and savior. Upon this Jesus of Nazareth they had placed their hopes, dreams and expectations. And they had great expectations! And that’s when the trouble begins, for Jesus did not fulfill, nor had any intention of fulfilling, their expectations. This should give us pause to reflect upon the possibility that some of our expectations of Jesus, of God, and even of the church, may also be somewhat misplaced.

Reading the Palm Sunday story, and knowing what will happen by Friday, is like seeing a movie that did not end the way you think it should have ended. But there is no other ended. Every year we read this story and it always ends up the same way. They welcomed Jesus. They recognized him as one who came in the name of the Lord. He disturbed them and they rejected him. They arrested him, tried him, crucified him. It will not come out differently.

Rev. Dr. Hugh Eichelberger, a retired Presbyterian minister living in North Carolina has an interesting approach to Palm Sunday. He asks:

When we sit before this [Palm Sunday] moment in time do we simply hear it as a particular and peculiar moment in history OR is it an event that happens again and again?

I understand that Good Friday was an actual day – the day on which Jesus was crucified, but I also see Good Friday as a way of thinking about all the tragic, senseless, unjust experiences that come in life, that defy understanding, and make the love of God look like a mockery. In every life there are Good Friday days where all good hopes seem to die and there appears to be no justice. In the midst of our Good Fridays we wait, and hope and long for Easter. Is the same true of Palm Sunday? Are there Palm Sundays in every life?

I believe there are. I believe that we often have as much difficulty welcoming those moments in our life as did the crowds of long ago who first welcomed Jesus and then turned on him. What is Palm Sunday? It is an intrusive moment. Jesus has quit preaching and gone to meddling. Palm Sunday began to go bad when it became clear that Jesus was a threat to the way things were organized in the city of Jerusalem [and to its organized religion].

On Palm Sunday it becomes clear that when God enters our lives God not only blesses, heals, teaches and leads, God also confronts and disturbs. Palm Sunday is the moment when it becomes clear that God is concerned not only with our spiritual health, [but with every single aspect of every day of our lives].

Palm Sunday happens when we discover and hear that God has not entered our lives to help us do our work, but that God has come to call us back to do God’s work. Palm Sunday happens when something takes place that disturbs the normal commerce of our daily lives. It happens when the spirit of God challenges the way our faith has entered into partnership with our pocketbook and our religion into the service of our national interest [something that is happening with ever-increasing frequency]. Jesus was welcomed because it was expected that he would be of service to the city and of service to the national ambitions of the Jews, but instead he called the city [and the religious leaders] to repentance. Whenever our lives are disturbed in that way, Palm Sunday happens.

It is always disturbing when God enters our lives. We can respond to that disturbance with hostility and rejection [as the crowd does later on in the week] or we can welcome Christ as liberator and life giver as one who comes in the name of the Lord. Over and over again in the Bible the initial response of people to the intrusion of God is a response of fear. But over and over we hear God’s gracious words, “Be not afraid.” The only reason we need to fear in the presence of God is if we are more committed to keeping things the way they are than we are open to welcoming God into our lives.

And, I would add, into the life of our congregation. Palm Sunday, with its unmet expectations, leads to Passion Sunday. From “Hosanna” to “Crucify”. Palm Sunday is an unpleasant intrusion into an otherwise ordered life. So perhaps the real question for you and me is: How do you respond to disorder, and threats to the way things are currently organized? How do you respond to unmet expectations? “Hosanna” or “Crucify”?

The whole reason for Lent has been to get somewhere. Up to today there have been happy ending stories. Lives have been transformed, like the woman at the well, and the man who was born blind. But today there is not a happy ending, and we are reminded that if we are to find our way through the dangerous and difficult passion events of Holy Week to the far side – to Easter and to new life – then we must face how we respond to our expectations of God, our expectations of the church, our expectations of others, and our expectations of ourselves.

How we deal with these expectations will determine, to a large part, our ability to cope with life: our jobs, our church, and our relationships.

Holy Week isn’t meant to be easy. So thank God there is an Easter on the other side – which is where the story really ends.

Amen.

Resource:

“The Quintessential Pilgrim” by the Rev. Dr. Hugh L. Eichelberger (PCUSA).

Day 1/EMC, Inc.  www.day1.net