Year A

Matthew 26:1-27:66

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

The Paradox of the Palms

Today is a serious Sunday, rich in paradox. The paradox captures the truth about us humans. We humans are a fickle lot. We like to listen to speakers to hear what they have to say to us, not about anybody else. We want our politicians to tell us things that are going to make our lives better, not necessarily things that will improve the world. We want professors to teach us things we want to learn, not necessarily things they want to teach us. We want priests and pastors to tell us we’re doing good things and that we are headed in the right direction and not necessarily the truth. We can be a rather fickle lot and no different from the people standing along the roadside that day on Palm Sunday so many years ago. They didn’t want to hear the truth either. They were willing to follow Jesus only if they got something in return.

As long as it appeared that Jesus might be the one to set them free from the dreadful Romans who occupied their land, they followed him. In the Palms, we see the glorious reception for Jesus with the crowds singing Hosannas to the blessed one. But as soon as he was tested, and failed their test, he was abandoned. In the Passover meal on Maundy Thursday, we see the act of betrayal by Judas who was close to Jesus. And in the crucifixion story, we have the crowd becoming the key in bringing about the death of Jesus. In the Palms, we are seeing the good and celebrating the good but by Holy Thursday and Good Friday, we are betraying the good and cursing the good. Humans are deeply fickle.

Jesus didn’t give in to the temptation of the palms. He didn’t budge an inch off the course his Father set for him. Yes, he could have. He could have taken the throne that the crowd that day wanted to put him on. He could have led Israel to worldly domination by defeating the Roman Empire with the mighty hand of God. He could have healed the nation of disease and fed all the hungry of the world. He could have eradicated evil from the face of the earth and set up his kingdom right then and there. But he didn’t. He didn’t because he was Jesus and that was not what his mission was all about. Yet, that’s what the people wanted. So they celebrated him one day and condemned him the next.

Jesus never was what people expected of him. Not then and not today because he was always obedient to God. Even to the point of death on a cross. He resisted the temptation of Palm Sunday and because he did, he was able to fulfill his purpose on earth. As a lamb sacrificed on the altar, he was given over to his enemy and died for our sins—crucified for us that we might have life everlasting with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And God exalted him as we read in the book of Philippians, and gave him a name that is above every other name. God made it so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bend, not just on earth but under the earth and in heaven as well, and every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord.  

In each of our lives, a time will come when we are driven to our knees. We are being driven to our knees right now as we plead with God to help during this time of fear, sickness, and death. I don’t believe I have ever not been able to be in church to wave the Palms on Palm Sunday, or walk the road to Golgotha through Holy Week, or experience the empty tomb on Easter Sunday. The question at such times as this is not, are we strong enough to bear the pain? We are not! The question is; are we willing to give our lives and wills over to God? Our own resources are inadequate. We are utterly defeated.

Abraham Lincoln said, “I have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that I had absolutely no other place to go.” Faith is seen in relying on God in these, the lowest moments of our lives. Hope is born in discovering that indeed God is with us. Love flows from our grateful hearts and gives us the strength to face tomorrow. God was with Jesus, and because God was in and with him, Jesus had the strength to keep focused, always, on the ultimate goal. He came into our world for one purpose. He achieved that purpose by giving it up for us. “Though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God something to be exploited,” Instead, he emptied himself for you and me.

So let us wave our Palms today, whatever they may be, and walk the road to the cross this week with Jesus from the safety of our homes, remembering that he took the worst for us fickle people, then and now. He did this for you and me because “Truly this man [is] the Son of God!” The only thing, we can do right now, is fall to our knees, empty ourselves, and pray that God will come quickly to help our world, and by living a life that shouts the name of Jesus in every kind act we do, and every caring word we speak. That’s what the cross has done for us fickle people. It brings us back to God and calls us to confess always and forever that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God our Father. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!”