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ETWEEN

UDGMENT

AND

ORROW

ARCH

28, 2010P

ALM

UNDAY

UKE

19:28-40

Focus: The surreal picture of Jesus entering the city of Jerusalem on a puny animal comes between two other stories which are bookends to Luke 19:28-30. The first bookend is Judgment.The second one is Sorrow. In between them both is the Christ.

Introductory Comments

When I was young boy growing up in Salt Lake City, Utah, I attended, with my parents, WasatchPresbyterian Church. Among my many memories of that time are powerful memories of me, asthat young boy, anxiously taking a big fat, palm branch from one of the Sunday School teachers,so that I could wave it, along with the other kids, to the powerful, moving strains of the openinghymn, which was the same one we sang here this morning, “All Glory, Laud, and Honor.”All glory, laud, and honor to Thee, Redeemer King! To whom the lips of children madesweet hosannas ring.And then later, in the second stanza:The people of the Hebrews with palms before Thee went; Our praise and prayers andanthems before Thee we present.I remember taking the branch home, waving it around in my room, the wonderful sounds of thehymn echoing in my mind. It lasted until the leaves of the branch eventually died and fell off.This is my 39

Palm Sunday. And it wasn’t until many years after this recollection that I beganto understand the disturbing truth of where Jesus was traveling

, which is the Cross. It wasn’tuntil years later that I understood that this fantastic parade was framed, in Luke’s account, withstories of judgment and sorrow.Luke’s report is interesting because of what it

doesn’t

say about Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. For example, there are no palm branches, not even the leafy branches mentioned in some of the other gospel accounts. Instead, people spread their cloak along the road. There are no shouts of hosanna, either. There are no children running alongside the procession. Instead, those proclaiming, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” are, according to Luke,only those who were his disciples. What picture, then, is Luke trying to paint here, about thisstory, which is so often called, “The Triumphal Entry.” Was it so?

Exposition

In order to better understand the image Luke is portraying, it’s really important to know wheretoday’s text sits in the larger context of this gospel. This reading sits between two very dark accounts. One of wrath and judgment, and the other of great sorrow and judgment.Copyright © 2010 by Christopher Donald Drew

Right before we begin today’s reading, Jesus tells a famous parable about a King who was aboutto leave to take possession, “to receive for himself,” a kingdom. Before he leaves, he gives tenof his servants 10 minas, one apiece. A mina was a large amount, probably something on theorder of three months’ wages for a typical worker. Before leaving, the ruler instructions to hisservants to use their wisdom to deploy the capital they have been given in various businessventures. Then the King departed. Upon his return, he queries the servants about how they usedthe money. Nine of the servants put their minas to work, earning a return for the king. But thetenth man did nothing. He hid the mina in a handkerchief, pleading his fear of the king as hisexcuse for failing to put the mina to work. For that, the king pronounces judgment against thetenth man, takes his mina and gives it to the most productive servant. But there’s one more verseto go at this point, and in this last verse the king reveals that he has enemies who opposed him becoming king, at which point the king orders the enemies to be brought before him and killed.And then we get to verse 28 of today’s reading:And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.The cries of the disciples during Jesus’ ride now become understandable. Would they not havethis image of a powerful, political king delivering destruction upon his enemies in mind as Jesusrode onward? Indeed, this is

very

likely. And so they cried out, rejoicing and praising God andsaying:[38] Blessed is the

King

who comes in the name of the Lord!Jesus, who always knows the mistaken hearts of his disciples, decides to counter their expectations. He chooses a means of transportation to Jerusalem that was designed to counteractthe mistaken impression that Jesus was around to bring forth some kind of immanent, violent, political action. So he chooses a colt to ride on, something small. He could of chosen a mightysteed, a stallion fit for a king. Instead, he rides an animal small enough that it is possible that hisfeet might drag along the ground along the way, trampling over the hodgepodge of clothes of people have thrown along the way.So that’s the first of two dark bookends to this text.The next dark bookend comes immediately after our reading today. Jesus, having come close tothe city, begins to weep. Why? He is weeping over Jerusalem, blubbering that they do not knowthe disaster that will befall them. Can you imagine the reaction? Can you imagine how thedisciples, who having

just

proclaimed this man a mighty King, a warrior King who would do his people justice, now blubbers about Jerusalem’s destruction, which would in fact a happen in 70AD, within the lifetime of many who knew Jesus. Moreover, this destruction would come, saysJesus, because the people “did not know the time of your visitation.” It would come because the people will fail to recognize their true King and his mission that would make for peace.During confirmation classes a few weeks ago, I played a video of a so-called “Red Carpet,”event, where the most prominent question asked is usually, “Who are you wearing?” We want aCopyright © 2010 by Christopher Donald Drew

red carpet, multimedia, socially-networked, sophisticated, stylish, political activist Jesus. Wedon’t want the Jesus who does whatever he can to look like a small person, riding on a puny,meek animal. Neither to we want a Jesus who cries. What happens when the star of a party suddenly beginsweeping? What happens when the superstar on the red carpet starts wailing with tears, sayingthings like this? What happens is that the party is ruined, the optics of the “who are youwearing” crowd are irreparably marred. Folks are left confused and discouraged. Some mighthave even wanted turn away, embarrassed for themselves for having hitched their hopes on sucha weak person.

Doctrine

What is Luke trying to tell us about Jesus, then? Here is what I think is the most likely answer tothat question:The world is obsessed with fame, glory, success, money, prestige, and manipulative and strong-arm politics. This was as much the case with the ancient world as it is in our own contemporarylives. But we see in this reading is that these things are not anything Jesus is particularlyinterested in. Instead, Jesus is interested in enacting complete, total, radical obedience to hisFather’s will for him, which will take him, as Jesus is certainly aware, to the darkest place of all,his own persecution and torture and death.Indeed, this is what the scriptures said he would do, as we read earlier from the prophet Isaiah50:[5] The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. [6]I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hidnot my face from disgrace and spitting. [7] But the Lord God helps me; therefore I havenot been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.In light of this, one gets the impression, from the reading, that the disciples are trying very hard, perhaps too hard, to make their view of the Messiah a reality by crying out their praise all thelouder. But Jesus dismisses the attempt with his tears, setting his face like a flint, facing towardGolgotha.So on Palm Sunday, we should be very careful to not make the same mistake the disciples did asJesus rides the colt to Jerusalem. I like what Scott Hoezee says about this text:The more we turn Palm Sunday into some pre-Oscar red carpet celebrity gala, the morewe forget that following Jesus is supposed to lead us away from the red carpets of thisworld as we follow a man most don't want to follow down a path most believe is a deadend going nowhere. Like the servants in the parable who received riches from the king,so we have been given the riches of the gospel. We dare not squander it or bury it under some spiritual mattress. But likewise we dare not try to turn the gospel treasure intoCopyright © 2010 by Christopher Donald Drew