Palm Sunday: The Sermon That Should've Been

At my Bay Area church today Palm Sunday was also Youth Sunday, where the youth and college groups led the Sunday service.  This would normally be a good idea at my New York church, except the youth/college groups were already regularly involved with almost all aspects of the service that to have a separate "Youth Sunday" seems to be a moot point.  I, for one, think it is fun, but we must be careful; ideally, youths are integrated into the service regularly so that nothing special happens when they lead the worship.  It shows that they're as much of a part of the regular corpus of the church as the the older adults are.  But my purview has largely been around small churches, where this is easier done than said; at larger churches, the opposite may well be true.  I do not know conclusively.

But if one had to have a Youth Sunday, the one preaching should not be given a free ticket to misinterpret Scripture.  It seemed, though, that nobody really taught him that, or walked him through interpreting the text before us.  The travesty at today's service was what I would say is an eyes-wide-shut interpretation of Matthew 21:1-10, the story of Jesus' "triumphal" entry into Jerusalem.  When we read the Scriptures, selective reading is not in any biblical scholar's vocabulary.  One may take the Gadamerian road and argue that all reading is eisegetical; others may take the Traditional road and make exegetical claims.  But at no point does any self-respecting pastor or biblical scholar claim that selective reading is a good reading strategy.  Or, as I call it, "cherry-picking" the Scriptures. (Thus, the cherry picture.)

Selective reading is present in Matthew 21:1-10 if we read this passage in a Joel Osteen fashion; that this is a passage on self-worth, on self-affirmation, on "happiness."  No, there are other passages on the subjects, but Matthew 21:1-10 does not present that.  All signs suggest, rather, confusion and contradiction.  Jesus tells two of his disciples to send word ahead to the next city, asking for a white purebred steed with a flag of God and declaring, "Lo!  Your King has come!"

No, that was not the story.  Jesus did send two of his disciples to send word ahead to the next... village.  But that's being nit picky.  What is not nit picky was his choice of steed... a donkey and a colt.  What kind of King is Jesus?  Before you make judgments, the story complexifies.  Sure, there's a great crowd (ochlos) that were waving palm fronds and singing, "Hosanna!" At this point, if we excise verse 10, we can conclude that this may well be a story of great triumph and happiness.  After all, despite the contradiction of the King of Kings on a donkey, the Son of David is here!

Verse 10, however, throws the happiness enterprise away.  The verse goes, "When [Jesus] entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking 'Who is this?'"  This is not a picture of Messianic joy.  I picture Jesus driving into New York City from Skillman, New Jersey (??) with a 1973 Station Wagon, and maybe 500 people dancing and parading in front of him.  First, people would look at the sight and go, "What the heck?"  Second, the NYPD will arrest Jesus and the 500 paraders for actually disturbing the peace and parading without a permit.  The ochlos respond, "This is the prophet from Skillman in New Joisey! Haven't you heard?"

The standard New York answer: Nope.  Brooklyn: fuggedaboudit.

The ochlos are dangerous.  Crowds have a mind of their own.  They don't necessarily know what's going on, but together they have the power to effect shifts in power dynamics.  Just because a crowd is cheering Jesus on does not mean they're rationally choosing to affiliate with Jesus.  Jesus' charismatic ethos was unquestionable.  He has savoir faire, much like Barack Obama.  They command attention by virtue of a je ne sais quoi. (Imagine Obama when he gave his speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004, when it was virtually a nobody.)  But not every Obama supporter knows what they were getting into. (The same was true with Bush 41, don't you know.)  Thus, we can't read the ochlos as "getting it right."  They recognize him as "the prophet from Nazareth," but their picture of the ideal prophet was not Jesus's.  Let us not forget, crucifixion was not far away.  And it was the ochlos who brought him to the cross.  The crowd who loved Jesus now probably saw him as "Change we can believe in."  And when reality sets in - that Jesus was not here to kick Roman butt - the voters turned against him.

Jesus defies our imaginations. He defies those who want to put him in a box, to lift him up like a Golden Calf and parade him the way they want him to be paraded.  Jesus is frankly a confusing and uncomfortable figure.  But we should not be surprised, because God in heaven defies our imaginations as well.  The Godhead allowed suffering and prevented suffering, delivered and punished, extended grace and smote in great anger.  God is hard to pin down!  But that is why God can be so close to us!  Life includes suffering and blessings, deliverance and judgment, grace and justice and evil unpunished.  We cry when we see injustice unfold in the world and we can't do anything about it, as we should.  We cry when our loved ones die too young, when we would do all we can to keep them with us for just one more minute... We cry when - OH GOD WHY?!?

But that is why God matters.  God is complicated just as life is complicated.  And that's why to be in fellowship in God is to embrace and navigate the complicatedness of life.  It is to lift up palm fronds when we have no idea what's going on.  It is to condemn Jesus when we have no idea what's going on.  And it is to stand at the foot of grace when, by God's grace, we realize what went on.  And grace is what keeps us going, what keeps us sane, and what keeps us in the game as the world seems (at least on the news) to be flushing down the toilet as we speak.

Palm Sunday is not a celebration of self-affirmation.  It is not a celebration of happiness, unless by "happy" you mean absolutely confused and not sure what is going on.  It is a celebration of the confusingness of God.  Let us go forth and celebrate!