Apr. 02, 2023

Two of my favorite hymns are Go to Dark Gethsemane and Come to Calvary’s Holy Mountain.  One of my mother’s was also a Good Friday hymn…Glory Be To Jesus.  I’m not certain how many opportunities we might have here at Timberville to sing songs like that and honestly I was tempted to make one of them the closing hymn.  There is a bit or irony to me that the beautiful window here behind the altar that has provided inspiration to many including your current pastor and to your most recently former pastor…depicts a moment in scripture that we may not touch on often seeing as we typically do not have a Good Friday service.  That does make some scheduling sense after all, since the night before we are invited to be here for a very meaningful service and sharing of the Love Feast.
 

On this Palm Sunday we typically think about Palms and joy and those loud Hosanna’s and the responsive reading and singing we did at the beginning of the service is traditionally what the Pastor preaches on the week before Easter.  We, just speaking about this congregation, can go about our typical schedules where one week Jesus is riding into town on the back of a donkey with waving palm branches and the next he is rising from the dead.  It’s great isn’t it?  We get all the Glory, Laud and Honor and none of the Old Rugged Cross.

For guys like me who like to follow the suggested readings, there was a smorgasbord of choices.  There were seven in total.  There are typically four, with half of those being a Psalm and an Old Testament reading.   There I was, all set to use what I think we would all…myself included, the traditional Palm Sunday text, but it was included in the responsive reading and singing we did to kick off the service this morning.  So, what else are they suggesting I thought to myself.  There was a very pretty reading from Philippians, the reading from Isaiah was very nice and one of the Psalms was especially complementary to what we came in singing and reading and what we all might expect from this joyful Palm Sunday.

So what does your Pastor decide to do?  Pull a Debbie Downer.

The sad truth of it is, that not long after the echoes of the Hosanna’s were bouncing off the buildings in Jerusalem, the echoes the angry crowd were deafening and then the echo of “It is Finished” not only reverberated off the walls, but they brought some of them tumbling down.

It was difficult to read all the texts for today and not to think about the opening phrase of Charles Dickens classic Tale of Two Cities.  It has been a long time since I have been in school so the only thing I could really remember was the original line “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”   while I think that opening line it's fitting perhaps so is the rest of the complete opening sentence of the book which reads:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair...”

My, my, doesn't that say a mouthful?  Some of the best of times for us as a Christian are because of the worst of times Jesus had to endure.  The human race did its worst and God repaid us with his best?  That hardly makes sense, yet that is the God we serve.  

It is hard to separate in our minds what is happening and what is about to happen.  We need to at least for a moment transport ourselves to that triumphant entry and put ourselves in not the shoes but the mindset of the twelve.  Jesus has no doubt what is about to transpire over the coming week.  I don’t have that same confidence in the disciple’s understanding.  Yes, they comprehend danger as we heard last week, but we know from Peter’s actions in the garden during the arrest that among at least some of them, there was a thought that Jesus need not be put to death.   What did they make of this moment?   Did they think that Jesus and they along with him have finally “arrived?”  That now the ministry of Jesus will be not only accepted but heralded?   What a difference between we’re going to Judea to get killed to entering Jerusalem with shouts of Hosanna.

Like any good rollercoaster, please remain seated until the ride comes to a complete stop.  Not sure how many of you have ridden a rollercoaster or enjoy them, but when you finally get to the top of that first hill there is a brief moment where all is calm.  You can usually see the entire amusement park and in some cases beyond.  The air is fresh and despite being on a ride and being surrounded by thousands of people, there is a quietness and a stillness.   That deep breath moment is then erased in quick fashion as you hurtle down the couple hundred foot drop and possibly into a full loop that has you upside down at some point.

I imagine the disciples with their eyes closed at the top of the hill breathing in that fresh air and for a moment feeling like things were going to be alright.  Then the real ride begins and turmoil ensues.  This is likely a surprise to them despite Jesus repeatedly trying to warn them.  This may be a rollercoaster ride of a week for the disciples, but it is more of a business trip for Jesus.

What is Jesus thinking on this donkey ride?  We cannot pretend to know, but we can certainly wonder.

Matthew would have us understand that at least in part, Jesus is thinking about the Old Testament writings, the prophesies, with a full comprehension that there are certain things that must be done so that some will come to believe…and to back up what he said in the sermon on the mount that he was not here to abolish the law or the prophesies but instead to fulfill them.  

As we discussed in our adult Sunday School class several weeks ago, Matthew gets a little overzealous in trying to underscore this part of the mission for us as he has Jesus somehow sitting on both a donkey and a colt.  Despite the circus riding act described by Matthew, the point is that for Jesus this ride into Jerusalem is to serve a purpose as was his entire life on this earth.

As the palm branches are being waved and the cloaks are being tossed on the roadway, do the disciples remember what Jesus had just told them?  In Matthew chapter 20, right before we get the story of the triumphant Palm Sunday entry into the city, Jesus tells the 12 for what is now a third time that he is going to Jerusalem to face the cross.  I wonder if the disciples in this moment of revelry and excitement on Palm Sunday might be thinking to themselves that perhaps Jesus got this all wrong and that things will turn out much differently?  Perhaps we at times listening to God and hearing or watching his plans unfold wonder if he’s gotten in all wrong?  We can fool ourselves into thinking that our plans are the right ones.

The big dose of reality is coming.  We had paper palms coming into the church today and they’re likely sitting right beside you in the pre right now.  They are fake as far as palms go…just as the triumphant entry was a bit of a fake out for the disciples.  “Hosanna” was the chant from the crowd.  You may know that it meant at the time “please save.”  The words being spoken are right, but the expectation is a little off.  As we know, the type of king the crowd is hoping Jesus is and the type that he truly is won’t match up and that’s going to be a hard pill for them to swallow.

Jesus knows all of this and as I mentioned earlier he has tried to prepare the disciples for the inevitable and for all that this Holy Week will hold.  Liz Bidgood Enders has done such a magnificent job with her Lenten Devotional this year for the Church of the Brethren and I want to jump off a point she made this week in a devotional titled “Watch where you’re going.”  The hosanna’s are raining down, but so is a cautionary call from Jesus to the disciples…He knew the path that he was taking and where it was leading, but the twelve were missing it every time he tried to tell them…and unlike last week when he first said that Lazarus was sleeping, he used very plain language telling them he would be crucified.  It’s pretty plain in Matthew with little commentary from the Gospel writer, but in Mark chapter 10 we are told that the message left the disciples amazed and afraid.

Amazed and afraid…if we’re honest about it those are appropriate emotions when we talk about the majesty of God and the mission that Jesus carried out for us here on earth.  I’ll end my message with Liz’s parting words of the devotional.  She writes: “Jesus’ words to his disciples and to us are to continue to pay attention to what lies ahead, trusting that he goes before us.  As we face wonders and fears, we are challenged to keep our focus on Christ, who leads us from death into life."