(Scriptures: Isaiah 50:4-9a Philippians 2:5-11 Mark 11:1-11)
And so, our Lenten journey draws near to a close. For 40 days, we’ve walked alongside Jesus in his earthly ministry as he has traveled throughout Galilee healing and preaching, driving out demons and proclaiming the in-breaking of God’s reign. Now Jesus is preparing to enter Jerusalem, the center of political power – at least on a local level – and for devout Jews, the center of religious faith and expression. Jesus is preparing to enter Jerusalem – not as a tourist or even as a religious pilgrim, but preparing to take on the civil and religious establishment, powers that be.
In preparing to take on the power that be, Jesus knows how to make an entrance! Expectations have been swirling around Jesus – is He the Messiah? Will he take on the hated domination of Judah by the Roman Empire? Will he win independence for the Jews? The Jews have very definite ideas of what this will look like, based on the words of the prophet Zechariah quoted in your bulletin – the king, a descendent of King David, coming in triumphant, yet with humility, riding on a donkey. Jesus and his followers act out this prophecy with a demonstration of a sort of street theatre, securing a colt – we’re told this colt had never before been ridden - and starting a processional march into the city.
I suspect that the “Occupy Wall Street” and “Occupy Philadelphia” demonstrations of the past year may give us a sense of what Jesus and his followers were doing in taking on the establishment. The Occupy encampment at City Hall this fall was a sort of base camp where members of many political and religious groups gathered, hung out together, exchanged ideas. They came from many different places, came with many different grievances, but they came together out of a shared sense that change is needed. From this base camp, members of Occupy set out on many different marches and processions – to protest against the exploitation of banks and financial institutions, to protest the seemingly unending wars in the Middle East, to march in solidarity and support of labor unions and students buried in school loans. The group that’s camping out by the Betsy Ross bridge formed as a spinoff from the Occupy movement. We probably still have pictures in our minds of what these gatherings and marches looked like – large groups of people, banners, signs, chants. Likely with the coming of warm weather, we can expect more to come in the weeks and months ahead. And these memories and expectations may help us understand what Jesus and his followers were doing on that Palm Sunday so long ago. Jerusalem, the center of power, had been co-opted by Roman oppression and corrupted by a religious establishment more interested in its own self-preservation than in ministry to God or the people. Perhaps we can think of Palm Sunday as Jesus and his followers staging an “Occupy Jerusalem” event. Their march, their street demonstration included Jesus riding on a colt – like the description in Zechariah’s prophecy, but like a parody of a Roman ruler riding in triumph – with his followers spreading palm branches and cloaks before Jesus as he approached, and chanting a song of triumph over Israel’s enemies. Mark’s account of the triumphal entry ends…not very triumphally: we’re told “Then Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.” Perhaps Jesus went to the temple to make plans for the next day, when he would kick off another demonstration by throwing the moneychangers out of the Temple. Having “Occupied Jerusalem”, they were preparing to “Occupy the Temple”.
Which brings us an opportunity to consider one other comparison with the Occupy demonstrations of the fall – eventually, the authorities shut them down. And for the Occupiers from this fall, none of this was unexpected; the protesters had made prior arrangements for legal representation in case they were carted off to jail – which indeed did happen to some. Our memories of the fall Occupy protests may include images of police blockading protesters, police clubbing protesters over the head, and police arrests. An Occupy protest at the University of California, Davis campus – a sit-down protest – drew national news coverage when a police officer casually walked by the group pepper-spraying them. Those in authority don’t like it when folks rock the boat, and they’ll do what’s needed, however brutal, to restore order. In Jerusalem, Jesus and his followers were very definitely rocking the boat, and the establishment in Jerusalem – Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea; Caiaphas the high priest – were not appreciative. They were willing to do what needed to be done to restore order. During Holy Week, Jesus’ throwing the moneychangers out of the temple set off an escalating series of confrontations, eventually leading up to the betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane, the arrest, trial, and crucifixion.
For the political and religious establishment in Jerusalem, the events of Good Friday were all in a day’s work. The Jews were always rebelling against Roman oppression – within a few decades, Rome would respond to ongoing agitation by destroying the Jerusalem Temple itself - and from Rome’s point of view, Jesus was just another protester, another loudmouth, another nobody claiming to be somebody. Rome routinely executed anyone who opposed the empire, and for Rome, the crucifixion of Jesus was just one more political execution. It is the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the letters of Paul and Peter and John and others that give us God’s very different perspective on the matter – that Jesus - not Caiaphas, not Pilate, but Jesus - was in charge; that in pretending to pronounce judgment on Jesus, Caiaphas and Pilate only succeeded in pronouncing judgment on themselves; that the actions they took to silence Jesus would instead spread the Gospel of Christ around the world; that the actions they took to kill Jesus, instead prepared the way for the resurrection of Jesus, and for eternal life for all who believe in him.
Some words which are said to have been found scratched on the walls of a cellar in Cologne, Germany where Jews were hiding from the Nazis – “I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when I cannot feel it. I believe in God even when He is silent.” The events of Palm Sunday, of Holy Week, of Easter, remind us that God’s ways are not our ways and God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. What looked like failure, God turned into glory. What looked like the end, was a new beginning. What was intended as death, God used to bring life – new life, abundant life in this world and eternal life in the world to come. To use language popular in the United Church of Christ, what human sin intended as a period, God turned into a comma. For God is still speaking – was still speaking even through the horrors of Good Friday, is still speaking through all the crosses and losses we experience in our lives. May we at Emanuel continue to open our ears and our hearts to God’s word for us. Even when we experience life at its worst, may we remember, in the words of an old sermon: “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming.” Amen.
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