Sermons

Palm Sunday

Sunday 16th March at 8am and 10am

Maureen Williams

Readings: Philippians 2.5-11, Passion Narrative

When you first visit places like Hongkong or China, one of the most obvious things to strike you is the enormous number of people around, jostling and crowding together often in too close a space.

Josephus, the Roman historian, has written that every year over a million people went to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. That is a lot of people even by today's standards, to say nothing of the thousands of sheep that would have been taken there for the sacrifices. It was a place to avoid if you do not like crowds!

So when Jesus entered Jerusalem, he was just one of the million other Jews doing the same thing. Going to Jerusalem for the Passover was something they had been doing for hundreds of years - something his parents had done when Jesus got lost at the age of twelve and they had to come back to look for him. It was in obedience to the Jewish law, as well as part of God's plan, that Jesus had gone to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem - but that year it would be different.

It would be different today. Someone coming from Bradford or Bolton would have no problems in getting to Jerusalem this Easter. But starting from Bethlehem, they would not be allowed to make the journey to join the procession of Christians into the Old City on Palm Sunday. From Bethlehem today, they would be turned back at the security wall and military checkpoint. As we worship here this morning, perhaps we can give time to remembering our fellow Christians there who are not allowed the freedoms we take for granted.

Eight years ago was different for me when I was in Oberammergau for the Passion Play. It was an amazing experience and Palm Sunday one of the most memorable scenes. Not a million people, but surely the whole community had crowded onto the stage to welcome Jesus - there were older people with sticks and the very elderly being helped to hobble along, adults and tiny babies, children hopping and skipping in and out amongst them. No one was too old or too young to take part; difficulties and problems were set aside.

Was it a crowd like this who greeted Jesus? Is it a crowd like us who greet him today?
The story of Palm Sunday makes sobering reading. We can celebrate the happiness and exuberance of Jesus' disciples and supporters but we also see the stark contrast of Jesus weeping as he accepts that Jerusalem is not going to recognise him and that it must face the consequences. Sobering reading in the contrast outside the city, where the Passover pilgrims shout to praise him and inside where the crowd will soon demand his execution.

People are fickle. Perhaps none of us are very different. Our commitment can be superficial and short lived. Only too easily we can make wrong decisions or say things we later come to regret. Judas bitterly regretted his decision to betray Jesus and paid for it with his life. Peter wept over his decision to deny Jesus, not once but three times. We are all vulnerable.

And into the clamour and excitement, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. A Roman emperor would have ridden in a chariot or on a war horse. A politician would have been surrounded by security guards. A religious leader would have kept the 'unclean' at a distance. But Jesus, borrowed a donkey and rode - the first time we hear that he did anything other than walk. He rode among the crowds, at their pace, and did not shrink from anyone's touch. Jesus identifies with us and we are called to identify with him and with those around us.

Just one of a million other Jews doing the same thing, yet Jesus knew he was making a statement, a deliberate claim. Zechariah had foretold the coming of a Messianic figure riding 'on a colt, the foal of a donkey.' Zechariah 9:9. Jesus came on a donkey like the judges of the Old Testament rode; he came as a judge to confront the religious authorities. He came on a donkey as kings rode when they were on missions of peace, because he came in humility and peace. He was greeted by words from Psalm 118 - the pilgrims' psalm. But the meaning was transformed because now, they were recognising the man on the donkey as the Messiah, the promised one. 'The whole city was thrown into uproar,' says Matthew. Matt 21:19 Suddenly, Jesus is more than just one in a million.

The people broke branches from the palm trees, waved them in the air and spread them on the ground. The last time Israel had been independent was a hundred years ago when Judas Maccabeus had led them to victory. He adopted the palm branch on his coins and had them used in temple ceremonies to celebrate the victory over Rome. When the crowd rush to get palm branches, it was not just because they are convenient.

The problem with palms is that once you have cut the branches from the tree, they don't live very long. The problem with Palm Sunday is that the excitement of the crowd soon faded away. When Good Friday arrived, was it the same voices who had shouted 'Hosanna!' who then shouted, 'Crucify Him?'

Today, as we receive our palm crosses, let us keep them where we can see them to remind us who Jesus is and remember his sacrifice for us. That Easter, if Jesus was one in a million doing an ordinary thing, the ordinary had turned into the extraordinary. Just as Jesus was no ordinary Jew, we are called to be no ordinary people.

We may feel we cannot influence what happens around us in the world, that whatever we do is not going to have any visible effect. But that is not what God calls us to or promises for us. He calls us to do ordinary things and speak ordinary words, but just as when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, we can trust that through him extraordinary things can happen.

When the people asked, 'Who is this,' and the crowd replied, 'This is Jesus,' Matt 21:10,11 they thought they were making a simple statement of fact. They did not realise they were speaking with voice of God.

It may well be that what we say or what we do this week will not be as amazing as the events in Holy Week. But perhaps, in the ordinary things of our life, we can become that one in a million person for someone else, in our ordinary words speaking God's word and in ordinary ways doing his will - because through him, the ordinary can become the extraordinary.

 

© St Edmund's Church, Roundhay