Homily – 4/9/17
Palm Sunday. What a roller coaster ride this day is. We start outside, which is unusual all by itself. But even more, we create a big parade up and down the sidewalk, waving palms and singing songs. Everyone gets in on the fun, not just the ministers but the young, the old, even the church school kids. We know that we do it every year, but why is it important?
The entry into Jerusalem is the beginning of the end. From here, everything takes a decidedly dark turn. But before we get there, we have this triumphal scene where Jesus is hailed with loud Hosannas! We remember this every year at the beginning of Holy Week to remind us of how quickly everything changed. This Jesus who is hailed as a hero on Sunday will be arrested on Thursday, tried, convicted and crucified on Friday.
We take the place of the crowd, hailing the entry of Jesus by waving palms and singing songs of praise. Later, when the parade is over, we hear the passion narrative, and we again take the place of the crowd. But this time we are not cheering. No, this time we are yelling “crucify him”. Palm Sunday is a visible, audible, and sensory reminder that the same crowd who cheered Jesus on Sunday was calling for his crucifixion by Friday.
Each year, when it is our time to speak the words, I get a sour feeling in my stomach. As a child, I couldn’t do it. I would sit quietly, terrified that I may have been the reason that Jesus was killed. As an adult, I can participate, but it still affects me. And I think that is the point.
We force ourselves to take this uncomfortable role in the passion play to remind us that it was people just like us who both hailed him as a savior and screamed for his death.
How does something like this happen? How can otherwise good people turn on someone so quickly and completely? Think again about some of the gospel lessons we have been reading. When Jesus healed the blind man, the powers and authorities scoffed. They couldn’t accept that a sinner such as Jesus had done something so miraculous, so they scolded him for working on the Sabbath. When they were standing at the tomb of Lazarus, the Jewish authorities grumbled among themselves saying, if this man who healed a blind man had been here, Lazarus would not have had to die. It seems that every time you turn around, there is somebody running down Jesus, telling us that he is not what people say he is.
The one thing those in authority want more than anything else is to stay in authority. The powers and authorities of that age, indeed of any age, fear anything that they perceive as a threat to their own power. And when people fear something, the first tendency is to vilify it. So they never missed a chance to tell people what a liar, a charlatan, a blasphemer this Jesus was. The court of public opinion, then as now, was strong, but was open to manipulation.
The people were told again and again that Jesus was bad, and after hearing it enough times, they began to believe. So much so that when Pilate offers to release a prisoner, they shout not for Jesus, but for Barabbas. When Pilate asks what he should do with Jesus, they shout Crucify him. His blood be on us and on our children. It would seem that the rabble rousers had done their work well and the crowd had turned on Jesus, just as they hoped it would.
This passage has been used for centuries to blame the Jews for the death of Jesus. Jews have been called Christ Killers, even to this day. What was necessary to fulfill the scripture has been used as an excuse for anti-Semitism and violence against Jews for no reason other than they are Jews. Lest you think this is ancient history and we have become so much more aware since the holocaust, we have seen many examples even in the last several months. We have similar examples of hatred and violence toward Muslims, simply because of their faith.
These are nothing more than the same thing that took place in Jerusalem during holy week. People with an agenda attempt to court public opinion by seeking to divide folks into an us vs. them situation. In that way they can manipulate the people into doing what they want and thereby preserve their own power.
So as you watch the news or read the paper, remember what it felt like today to shout “Crucify him”. I hope that you had a visceral recoil against it, and that you will keep that feeling with you going forward. For Jesus didn’t come to die for us so that we could be divided. He came for each and every one of us; Christian, Jew, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, and atheist alike. Only when we recognize that can we truly claim to be working toward the kingdom of God.