The Great and Terrible Palm Sunday Confusion

The Gospel according to John 12:1-18

Six days before Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. There they made him a supper; Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at table with him. Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was to betray him), said “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” This he said, not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to take what was put into it. Jesus said, “Let her alone, let her keep it for the day of my burial. The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”

When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came, not only on account of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus also to death, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.

The next day a great crowd who had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it; as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” His disciples did not understand this at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that this had been written of him and had been done to him. The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead bore witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign.

It’s Palm Sunday, and everyone’s confused.  We celebrate Palm Sunday here the same way we celebrated it in my Presbyterian church when I was a child.  We sing special songs, especially the ones that remind us of the children singing ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’  This one we sang every year, every Palm Sunday, waving our palms:

All glory, laud, and honor

to you, Redeemer, King,

to whom the lips of children

made sweet hosannas ring.

You are the King of Israel

and David’s royal Son,

now in the Lord’s name coming,                                                                                             

the King and Blessed One.                                                                                              

c.820-Theodulf, Bishop of Orléans

We think about Jesus’ riding on a donkey to the gates of Jerusalem.  We think about the disciples putting their cloaks and tunics in the road for the donkey carrying Jesus to walk over.  And we think of people cutting down palm branches and waving them as Jesus passes by, just as we are going to do.  And somehow you and I have it in our heads that this is a good thing.  That somehow you and I are meant to celebrate Jesus coming into Jerusalem for what will be the last five days of his life.  Somehow, we are meant to join in with the hosannas, with the cloaks and palm branches.

On Saturday, we celebrated Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.  On Sunday he comes the couple of kilometers from Bethany over the Mount of Olives, across the Kedron Valley and towards the massive Roman gates of Jerusalem.  The dead man Lazarus is alive and walking around and talking to everyone who is crowding around to see him.  Nothing like this has ever happened.  And now Jesus is going to Jerusalem.  Why is He going?  What is He going to do?

The disciples have never understood Jesus.  They have seen his miracles, his healings, they have heard his preaching and his teaching.  But they’re still fighting over the money.  They’re still arguing over who’s first and best.  And if that wasn’t enough, they still think that Jesus is, after all is said and done, going to overthrow the Roman occupation and set up the kingdom of God right here and right now.  And they get to be the first in line when Jesus divides up the spoils!  When Jesus tells them to love their enemies, however, they don’t get it.  When Jesus tells them that the greatest among them must be the one who serves, they don’t get it.  When Jesus says not to be like the Gentiles who lord it over everyone else, they are pretty sure that they actually want to be like those Gentiles, they think that lording over everybody else is a pretty good idea.  So as Jesus rides the donkey into Jerusalem these disciples are pretty excited.  They’re thinking, ‘Finally, Jesus is doing what He’s needed to do all along.  Now we’ll see some real action.  Bring on that Kingdom, Lord!’  The disciples may be leading the cheers for Jesus as He draws near to the city, but they don’t know what they are talking about.  They are trying to make Jesus fit into their agenda.  They are so very confused.

The ordinary people that are thronging around Jesus, rushing to get a glimpse of Lazarus, wanting desperately to get a picture of a miracle, or even better, get a selfie with Jesus, they aren’t doing any better than the disciples.  They are drawn by the spectacle, they are drawn by the excitement; but really, they’re there because of what they think they are going to get.  They remember when Jesus fed the multitude with a few loaves and fish.  They all know someone who has been healed of this or that.  And they’re here now because they think Jesus is going to do something really big, and they want to be there when He does.  These people are all crowding around Jesus, they’re all following and watching and listening to Jesus.  But they don’t have a clue who Jesus really is or what Jesus really is all about.  A big crowd of people looks impressive enough.  But these people are trying to make Jesus fit into their agenda.  They are so very confused.

And the children are running around shouting ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’  They think Jesus is going to be king.  But Jesus is not riding into Jerusalem to take up some earthly throne, to become some earthly SOMEBODY.  He’s coming to be rejected by His own people.  He’s coming to be handed over to the Gentiles.  He’s coming to be crucified as a criminal.  These children running around and shouting, they are so very confused.

And all those religious people, those Pharisees and Synagogue leaders and priests and the Temple hierarchy, they are too busy making people to be religious like themselves.  It’s about keeping rules, it’s about doing all those things they say God wants us to do.  But when Jesus shows up, they don’t know what to do with him.  He keeps putting people first.  He keeps reaching out to prostitutes and collaborators and tax collectors.  And he keeps focusing like a laser on their hypocrisy.  He keeps saying things like, You people are really good at shining and polishing who you are on the outside, but inside you are filth and rotting corpses.  Your words are sweet, but your heart is bitter and corrupt. They know what to say, they know how to pose, but they are bankrupt of the hard currency of character, of true godliness, to make them anything other than hypocrites.  Jesus catches them out, and so many of them are really angry at Him.  They feel like they deserve more respect.  Sure, there are miracles, sure He’s a powerful preacher, but He’s overturning our little game. He has become dangerous.  Jesus is fulfilling all the Scriptures they say they believe.  But they don’t want to change. So they close their eyes, they close their ears.  And as Jesus makes this entrance into Jerusalem, the very ones who should have recognized His coming, who should have understood and been the very first to repent, they refuse because Jesus won’t fit their agenda for him.  They are so very confused.

Some of us are like the disciples this morning.  We want Jesus to serve us.  We want to be the powerful ones here in this church, the ones in control, the ones that everyone else serves. We want to put those people we don’t like in their place.  We are waving our palm branches like everyone else, but we have never understood that it’s our heart that Jesus wants to ride into and conquer.  We’re too busy trying to make Jesus fit our agenda, our plans, our purposes.  But we are just as confused as the disciples.

Some of us are the people crowding around.  We are here this morning not because we want to follow Jesus, not because we want to give our lives to Him and love Him and serve Him with everything we have.  We’re here because of what we think we can get, either from Jesus, or the priest, or other faithful.  But Jesus and church are not about what you and I can get.  It’s about knowing Jesus and loving Jesus and being transformed in how we live our lives by Jesus so that we become more and more like Jesus.  No wonder so many of us this morning are so confused.

And lastly, some of us are like the religious leaders that Jesus tried again and again to talk to.  We think that making a show of being religious is what it’s about.  We come to church on all the special days, we learn the right gestures, say the right things and think we are somehow being good Orthodox Christians.  But Jesus doesn’t care about how many signs of the cross I make; He cares about what’s going on in my heart.  Jesus doesn’t care about how many prostrations I make; He cares about what I just said or thought about my neighbor.  He doesn’t care that you gave this much at a harambee or that much in the offering; He cares if you have surrendered everything you have and are over to Him and if you are using everything you have and everything you are for His glory.  It’s not about religion; it’s about Jesus.  No wonder so many of us this morning are so confused.

Who are you this morning?  Are you like the disciples?  Are you like the ordinary people who gathered around?  Are you like the religious people.

Some of these same people who are so happy today, in just three days they will be conspiring to betray Jesus to His enemies.  Some of these same people, in just four days, will be abandoning Jesus to His fate, denying that they ever knew Him.  Some of these same people shouting praises today will be shouting ‘Crucify Him’ on Friday.  And many of the crowds that surround him today will disappear as soon as they see Jesus carrying His cross.  They are only here for what they can get, and the last thing they want is a cross.

So Palm Sunday is actually a tragedy. A farce. Because nobody understands who Jesus is. Nobody understands what Jesus is doing. Even today.

As Jesus comes up to the gates of Jerusalem this Palm Sunday, He’s actually coming up to you.  He’s coming up to the gate of your heart.  He wants to come in. He wants to clean out what’s wrong.  He wants to heal what is hurt inside.  He wants to mend what’s broken.  He wants to make alive what’s dead.  And He wants to fill you and change you and transform you with His love. That’s why he has come to Jerusalem this morning.  Will you open your heart to Him?  Or are you still confused?

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit!

A sermon preached this morning at Sts Anargyroi Orthodox Cathedral in Nairobi, Kenya.