a Sermon for Passion Sunday
Text: Mark 11:1-11 & Mark 14:1-15:47

must we choose?

We’re challenged with two gospels today. They are a natural juxtaposition. One is happy and the other is sad. One declares victory, the other demonstrates earthly defeat. We processed in joyously and we’re likely to walk out depressed. My natural inclination is to pick one, and a specific one: the first, the Triumphal Entry, because for no other reason than I will be preaching about the Passion twice later this week!

As I described a week ago, however, this story, which began long before, as Jesus set out to fulfill his ministry, is on a course, a trajectory. A course that challenged what people believed. And it challenges what people believe today.

We pick it up at this remarkable moment of approach. Jesus and His followers approach the Great City; tired, but ready. This is the goal, the end of a quest. They have arrived with The Chosen One, The Anointed. The scene is part King Arthur before a castle and part Wild West showdown. I half expect a tumble weed to roll in front of this motley crew. (And that whistle…)

And as they get closer, Jesus sends two followers ahead. They will find a colt right as they enter the city. They are to bring it back to Jesus. Which they do. This makes for a curious exchange, doesn’t it? Somehow Jesus knows about this colt and where it would be. But more surprising is that Jesus hops on and rides it in.

undomesticated

There’s an image of this moment that pervades my memory. Is it a stained glass window at Trinity, Alpena perhaps? But it is a picture of Humble Jesus on a donkey. Palm fronds on the ground, what looks like a red shall draped over his shoulders. Jesus looks so domesticated. Like my grandfather in a cardigan, who as a younger man was strong and tall. Every year at this time this image of Jesus returns.

And yet in Mark’s telling, Jesus asks for a colt, which as we discussed Wednesday could be a young male donkey or horse. I’m no expert on equine matters, but neither is an image of domestication. This is particularly true if Mark intends us to read this as a young horse: an image of viral and unbridled youth! An unbroken, non-neutered young horse, under four years of age. No human has ridden it. But Jesus saddles up.

So what do we make of this new image of Jesus for Palm Sunday, not the humble entry on a domesticated beast of burden, but one that is fraught with danger and unpredictability? What change does this make for us as we enter Holy Week?

My childhood image of the humble, slow procession to the cross is suddenly transformed to a provocative, daring march to confront not just the Jewish leadership, but Rome’s occupation.

Reading about this earlier has forever changed this moment for me.

confrontation

For the better.

That old image I had never squared for me with the Passion. Without confrontation, this story arc doesn’t work. Rome doesn’t get involved unless they perceive Jesus is dangerous to the Empire. The Jewish leaders don’t target Jesus unless they perceive him as dangerous to the established order. Jesus isn’t perceived as dangerous to the system, and executed for sedition, unless he actually represents danger to the system.

All that proceeds from the Triumphal Entry demonstrates how dangerous Jesus is to the status quo: he clears out the Temple and makes enemies of its leaders. He teaches a sequence of visual parables that publicly humiliate all of the Jewish leaders save one single scribe. He gathers His people and readies them for the confrontation.

Except that it is one Jesus has to do alone. Alone except for many of the women. The women were free to come and go and watch. They were invisible to this culture. Big mistake!

And then, for this world and these people, Jesus is crucified as a terrorist for the whole world to see.

And see the world did.

confronting ourselves

The vision of Jesus we have, that we cherish deep inside of us needs to be as complex and full of vitality as this story illustrates. Jesus was humble, for sure. He allowed himself to be anointed on Wednesday and to wash his disciples’ feet on Thursday. And yet he publicly defied Rome and the Temple authorities. And perhaps he rode a nearly wild beast as a visual rebuke of Roman expression of power and an expression of His.

And perhaps for us the biggest challenge is that Jesus seems to be denouncing the systems: all of those things we’ve constructed to keep things neat and orderly and comfortable. That Jesus is replacing them with himself. That following Jesus is something that is dangerous and unpredictable. But He can handle it.

This week we have the opportunity to be troubled and challenged by Jesus, as the systems He rejects may be our own. Let us not skip the hard work of confronting our comfortable faith. And give space for His voice to influence who we are and what we do.