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SERMONS

Palm Sunday
April 9, 2006

Today we would make Him a King, with glory, laud, and honor, waving palm branches with joy and happiness, as though all of this religious “stuff” finally makes sense. All this cheering would seem to say that this man Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph and Mary, is precisely the Messiah for whom the world has been waiting.

As Jesus enters Jerusalem, it is as though the sunlight is finally breaking through the clouds, and a ray of hope from another world is shining down upon the world. The children of God, the people of Israel, are turning over a new leaf.

But the time is not yet ripe. As the scriptures say, “ . . . the grass withers, and the flower fades.” The great rush of cheering and enthusiasm for Jesus fades from the streets; it fades as the day turns to night. Even as the daylight turns into the darkness of night, the crowds fade away and fall silent, and Jesus is left with the very ones with whom he began: The Twelve.

In His ending, Jesus returns to His beginnings: a wandering rabbi with a handful of faithful followers.

You see, there is no easier time to follow a king than when everyone is cheering for him; there is no easier thing than to pledge ourselves to the allegiance of the crowd. And although Jesus enters the holy and royal city as a king, he is taken in the night as a thief. Jesus shows us exactly how quickly our fortunes might change in the world.

Even The Twelve scatter like dust tossed into the breeze. Only Peter, the rock, is left to follow Jesus at a distance. Notice that he follows at a distance, not too close, neither wholeheartedly nor half-heartedly. Peter is caught in the middle; he musters neither courage, nor falls into cowardice. Now that danger has descended, Peter is trying to move safely in the shadows while his friend and Lord is dying.

The problem is that Peter is too curious to simply leave, or to be sensible like Pilate, and wash his hands and conscience of the whole affair. And yet, on the other hand, Peter is too frightened to regain the day’s glory, laud, and honor, so that he might come out of the shadows and defend the king of kings.

He has been the rock. When the danger descends, Peter is a man on the fence, caught between darkness and light, between cowardice and courage.

He is spotted in the shadows.

“Certainly you are one of them for you are a Galilean!”

When he can no long straddle the fence, Peter falls before the cock has time to crow a second time. “Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me thrice,” Jesus had told him.

The days of Lent and Holy Week are intended to bring us down from the fence, and out of the shadows. We all find ourselves in Peter’s shoes. We find ourselves trying to protect ourselves from the truth and the love that the Gospel insists upon in this world; we protect ourselves from the price the Gospel invites from us. The power of a living God to tell the truth to us, and to love us, will always remain an unwelcome visitor to the powers and principalities of this world. The desire for power, prestige, and position will always work under the cover of darkness when the Gospel is present.

Jesus never lived on the fence. With a steady gate Jesus walked the path of truth and love, which brought down upon him unspeakable humiliation and physical pain. Jesus never postured and was never dramatic. He was simply consistent, which threatened all of the inconsistencies of the world.

Jesus did this so that we might not have to hide in the shadows of life, so that we might not have to remain paralyzed on the fence. He did this so that we might stand courageously for truth and love.

We all find ourselves in Peter’s shoes. We have all hedged our bets, and tried to live with a foot in two kingdoms, and serve two masters. We have all found that it is easiest to follow a king when everyone is cheering for him. We sing another song when it is dark, when the crowd has faded, when the danger descends, and the king stands as a criminal.

Like Peter, we may have pledged ourselves as rocks, yet find ourselves crumbling.

If we have chosen to remain safely in the shadows; if we find ourselves in the shoes of Peter on this darkest of nights; then these events have something to tell us. What we can see in the light of day, what we can know in no uncertain terms, is that another human being looked into the face of death, when we lacked the courage to do the same. Another man died for God’s truth and love, while we remained safely in the shadows. He carries for us the burden that we are not able to carry for ourselves, so that the tears of our fear and denial become the tears of our second baptism.