Year C

Luke 22:14-23:56

The Rev. Denise Vaughn

God’s Love or Empire Power

We gathered this morning in the narthex clutching the palm branches we were handed and we began to imagine ourselves in a similar crowd almost two thousand years ago on a road outside Jerusalem. With great excitement we watched the prophet from Nazareth enter Jerusalem to begin a week destined to change the whole course of human history. It was a week that began on a note of triumph; or so it seemed to those who welcomed Jesus like a conquering hero back to free his people from Roman oppression. Freedom had to be on the mind of Jesus also. But it was a very different sort of freedom. It was a freedom that had shaped his vocation from the beginning as the suffering servant, as the one who bears the grief’s and carries the sorrows of humankind. Not exactly the sort of freedom those who lined the dusty street with palm branches waving were hoping for.

On that spring day in the beginning of the week of Passover, the most sacred week of the Jewish year, Jesus processed from the east on a donkey down the Mount of Olives cheered by his followers while on the opposite side of the city from the west, Pontius Pilate and all his military might marched into Jerusalem. Jesus’ procession proclaimed the kingdom of God; Pilates proclaimed the power of empire and these two processions will clash in a week that leads to Jesus’ crucifixion.             As a Jew, surely Jesus was not unmoved by the urgings of those who had hailed his coming to Jerusalem as an opportunity to overturn the imperial rule of Pontius Pilate. And Pilate himself was not unmindful of the threat which, now, had been brought to his very doorstep. Tyrants and bullies, like Pontius Pilate and Herod, never were very comfortable with Jesus.

Yet, as quickly as the palm branches had browned in the dust of the street, so had it become clear that Jesus would confront the Pilates and the Herods; yes, he would indeed confront all the bullies who have ever darkened the pages of history but with a very different kind of power. It would be a power of love; a love so encompassing, so enduring, so sacrificing, so holy that it would leave its mark on the world forever in countless ways. It would be the power of love so divine it is etched on a cross; a cross that has a way of getting under our skin and changing lives. So if we do not want our lives to be changed; if we do not want to feel the transforming influence of Jesus pulling at our hearts; if we do not want to be aware of the sin of injustice and our own inhumanity to each other; then, we would do well to get off this road and be somewhere else during this coming Holy week.

For if we decide to make this journey with Jesus, we will experience a very costly grace; we will experience anew God’s salvation as we stand at the foot of the cross and then at the empty tomb. Standing before the cross, we will feel ourselves being pulled toward a kingdom that is the kingdom of the Lord Christ. We will resist but deep down we know that this is where we belong for indeed the cross has gotten under our skin and into our hearts. And no matter how confused we may be about our faith, about God’s love, we know and proclaim to the world with conviction, that at the foot of the cross we see the transforming power of God’s love.

For two processions entered Jerusalem on that day; one proclaiming God’s love and one proclaiming the world’s power. As we all know, the week ends with Jesus’ execution by the powers who ruled his world. Holy Week is the story of this confrontation and before us is the same question, the same alternative that has faced all the faithful through the generations. Which procession are we in? Which one do we want to be in? This is the question of Palm Sunday and of the week that is about to unfold. With people all over the world and with generations past, let us begin this journey with Jesus.