Luke 19:28-40
March 24, 2013
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
We have a pretty good crowd today. Combining our two English services together in joint worship, we have filled the sanctuary. With our baptisms, we have more family and friends in attendance. And if you have come because it’s Palm Sunday around the world, you have joined a big crowd in the universal church today.
It is not surprising to find Jesus surrounded by a crowd in the gospels. Crowds flocked to hear Jesus’ sermons. Simply touching Jesus healed a woman in a crowd of people. Sometimes the crowd was so thick, that Jesus’ own family couldn’t reach him. When that happened, Jesus said that all of them were, in fact, his family.
There were times when the crowd was thinned out because Jesus told them a truth that they were not ready to hear. Even still, Jesus’ teachings and miracles were always sure to draw a crowd.
As we begin Passion Week today, what is perhaps more surprising is how quickly and dramatically the role of the crowd shifts and changes.
At the beginning of the passion story, the crowd gives Jesus a hero’s welcome into Jerusalem. Luke says there was a “multitude of disciples” who cheered perhaps until their throats were raw as Jesus enters the city on a young colt. Quoting Psalm 118, they cried out, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”
What is surprising is that Jesus’ arrival looked nothing like what one would expect from a visiting monarch. If you were in the midst of that crowd, you probably would have been disappointed. Where was the image of the warrior-king and savior whom the people of Israel expected to be their Messiah? Where was the polished armor and sharpened swords? Where was the army?
The crowd saw Jesus coming into Jerusalem wearing a carpenter’s homespun robe, riding on a borrowed colt while teaching peace and non-violence. Yet, even though he’s not what people expected, the crowd still sees in him the promised Messiah. The crowd cheers, throwing down their cloaks in the colt’s path as a sign of their respect. The throng of disciples is joyful because of the deeds of power they had seen.
Jesus may not look like the king they were seeking, but they know he has power. He can change things. He can do things. The crowd who cheers Jesus on knows that first hand. Perhaps, Jesus healed some of them, freeing them from life-threatening or crippling illness. Perhaps Jesus welcomed some of them when no one else would, and the simple act of friendship changed their lives. Perhaps some of them heard Jesus’ teachings, and realized a truth about themselves or the world that made their lives different and better.
Whatever the miracle, the crowd has seen something in Jesus, and—in welcoming him into Jerusalem—they celebrate their own personal miracles while hoping to experience more.
Why Are You Here?
Today when you entered into the sanctuary, we gave you a palm leaf so that you can be a part of that crowd cheering Jesus on the Palm Sunday procession. Perhaps, if we had lived in Jerusalem two thousand years ago, we too would have stood at the gates of the Old City and welcomed our Savior as the Son of God, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”
We are not so different from that crowd. We are here because we have seen something in the person of Jesus. Not the idea of Jesus, but the living person of the Son of God. He has touched us or transformed us in some way that was so important that we’re willing to give up a beautiful Spring day to gather and worship and being a part of the crowd.
Why are we here? Why are you here? What has Jesus done in your life that makes coming here worth your time to give up such a nice day in the Bay Area? For Alex Lee, Sierra Shackelford, and Curtis Ung, they know why they are here. Each of them professed a personal relationship with the living Christ in their lives. Christ has touched their lives and they want to proclaim it to the whole world by saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” This is so important to them that they were willing to give up a beautiful Spring day and invited each one of us to do so too!
What has Jesus Christ done in your life that makes coming here worth our time? For me, I can think of some pretty frightening times in my life when I knew Jesus was there for me. You know that during the Vietnam War in the 1970s, I became a conscientious objector; that means that under no situations, I would be able to take another person’s life based on my religious faith. Based on my Christian conscience, I can only object to war. I was an anti-war protester. The presence of God in Christ as the peacemaker came to me in such a way that I knew that God was with me in my decision.
That’s good enough for me to get out of bed on Sunday morning. It’s good enough to make me want to be part of the crowd that called Jesus “Blessed” and welcomes him as King and Lord. And I have followed this crowd ever since.
Following the Crowd
After Jesus triumphantly enters Jerusalem, he cleansed the Temple of its greedy vendors and jousted with the pious teachers there. He gathered his disciples for the final Passover meal in a rented, upstairs room. Afterwards, he took them to a private garden to pray, although none of the disciples stayed awake.
It is in the garden that he encountered the crowd again. This crowd led by Judas has come to capture Jesus and take him to his death. At this point in the story, I think we would all like to opt out of the crowd; but we don’t have the luxury to do so. Even Jesus’ most committed friend Peter chose to pretend to be a part of the crowd to avoid Jesus’ fate.
There are only two roles in the story of Christ’s passion: the Savior and the crowd. And the first role is taken. The crowd, like it or not, is us. When push comes to shove, when following Jesus went from sharing in Jesus’ power to sharing in Jesus’ bloody execution—the crowd makes a decision. They decide that whatever Jesus has done for them in the past, it’s not worth dying for.
So, if we are part of the crowd, we must ask ourselves that same question. Is what Jesus has done for us worth dying for? Are the things that brought you into this church this morning worth dying for? I don’t mean are they worth Jesus dying for. He obviously thought they were, and just about any of us would be willing to let someone else die for us.
The question is, are the things that Jesus has done for us worth giving up our lives for? Not next year or in 50 years, but right now—with all of our unfinished business and our unfulfilled dreams and our loving friendships all cut short…is it worth it?
I have to be honest. While you might think that I being a conscientious objector may reflect my strong character, if faced with that decision now or two thousand years ago I’d probably say, “No, it’s not worth it.” There’s nothing more amazing in my life than the love and presence of God, but—if I’m really honest—I’m just not brave enough to die for my faith. I’m simply not as strong as Jesus.
Thankfully, I don’t need to be. There are only two roles in the Passion story, and “Savior” is already taken. As weak and fragile human beings, we belong in the crowd—when it worships Jesus and when it leads him to his execution. Jesus has already died for our sins and that salvific act means that we don’t need to anymore. But building our lives upon Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we are no longer just to be a member of the crowd. We can’t just spend the rest of our lives following the crowd.
Passion Politics
When pastors develop their messages on Palm Sunday, we say it’s the most politically charged Sunday in the church year—politics as defined by Jesus Christ. If we say that Jesus Christ is Lord then other competing “lords” are not. Politics is about power, power to do good, power to change the world. As Christians, we claim that in Jesus Christ, we have seen the peculiar power of God at work, the claim of God upon the world.
I know it sounds strange to say “political” in church and saying it with Jesus. He never held public office, never did “politics” as we define the word. But pick up today’s newspaper and you would read about politicians, powerful people who know how to get power and how to use power. Luke said the crowd was praising God with a loud voice for they have seen deeds of power. That’s power—Jesus has political power.
But what we see in our political system today is that it has become our primary means of security, our protector from cradle to grave. And if Washington was less stymied in gridlock, more can get done. Do we follow the power in Washington, D.C. or the power of God that we have seen in Jesus’ deeds of power?
In Luke’s passion story in 22:36, Jesus points to the coming violence by declaring that the time for vulnerability is over and asking the disciples to buy swords. The disciples tell him they have two already. Jesus concludes, “It is enough” (22:38). When Jesus is arrested in the night, in the time of the “power of darkness” (22:53), the disciples ask if they should use their swords, and then one of them strikes off the ear of the slave of the high priest. Jesus ceases the violence with “no more of this” and heals the ear (22:49-51).
This is by all accounts a strange interlude of violence. Perhaps it is a forecast of the coming violence when the kingdom arrives. Perhaps it is Jesus’ final rejection of violence, declaring that violence does not belong to the kingdom of God.
My challenge for us today is gun violence in our country. We can follow the majority of the crowd and have no opinion as long as we don’t become the victims. We can follow the crowd thinking of gun enthusiasts or gun control advocates. We can even follow whatever the crowd decision that might come from our elected politicians. But in the end, will you follow Jesus who said, “No more of this”?
Worth Dying For
When it came to choosing Jesus or following the crowd, the crowd allowed Jesus to be taken by the chief priests where he is mocked and beaten, then to Pilate to be mocked and beaten again. In the end, they killed the Messiah. Jesus dies an excruciating slow death by suffocation, carelessly thrown among the refuse of society. At the moment of his death, the sun is snuffed out and the veil in the temple that kept the priest from encountering the full presence of God is shredded by God’s own death.
Stunned and horrified by what they had done, the crowd leaves the site of Christ’s murder beating their breasts in grief. They have made a grievous mistake, and in their fear and shallowness they have put God, the very same God who loved and healed and touched them, to death.
They decided that he wasn’t worth dying for, so they let him die for them…for us.
At the place that they called, Golgotha or “the skull,” there was a thief who was crucified with Jesus. He is dying too, facing a fair punishment for his crimes. While the thief knew that he deserved what he was getting, he also knew that Jesus was blameless. At that moment of remorse, having nothing to lose, the thief asks to follow Jesus into his kingdom. Jesus turned to the man and whispered, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Whether we realize it or not, we too have nothing to lose. As surely as the men next to Jesus died, so will we. Our money, our success, our education, and all the comforts and conveniences of our lives will mean nothing when that day comes.
When that day does come, would we be like the crowd leaving Golgotha, realizing that we made some terrible mistakes and choices. Will we beat our chests in grief over our silly priorities? Will we regret the foolishness of forgetting that Jesus as the Son of God should be the center of our lives?
Let us not just follow the crowd. We can speak up against gun violence and as Jesus said, “No more of this!” We can choose to follow Jesus Christ as Alex, Sierra and Curtis did and Jesus would say, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Truly I tell you, the crowd we have here today that paradise awaits every one of us.
Today, we won’t be silent or let the stones to shout out for us because we will praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power we have seen in Jesus. Today, we faced the dark truth that we seem to follow the crowd as our role since the other role of Savior is already taken. We are only human, and the one perfect human to ever live…the only one who was fully human and still fully divine…he has already died so that we don’t have to be as perfect as he was.
Today we faced the dark truth about ourselves, so that on Easter Sunday we can celebrate that hope with our Risen Lord. Today we draw Lent to a close, because we will not need to observe Lent in heaven. Today we remember our mortality, so that next Sunday we can touch the scars in his hands and remember that death is not the end of our stories. Today we say, rather than following the crowd, we follow Jesus!
Let us pray.
Dear God, we thank you for the grace and mercy that you give to us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Forgive us when we just follow the crowd or hide in the crowd so that no one notices. Give us that courage to stand up for what is just and right and according to the teachings of our Lord. Guide us during this holy week as we look forward to the promise of the resurrection and a new day. In Christ we pray. Amen.