I’ve always struggled to preach on Palm Sunday. Over the years I’ve done a lot of improvising when it came to how, when and where I preached on this day. It seems like simply listening to the Passion Gospel is enough. Maybe the Quakers have it right, just listen to scripture and sit back and contemplate the words.
I think part of the problem is that we don’t want to get stuck on what is about to unfold in the next couple of days. We can handle the betrayal, denials and even the sham trial that Jesus faced, but we don’t want to focus too heavily on death. Save death for funerals or make it a metaphor for things that disappear from our lives, like bad relationships or a job that seems to zap the life out of us until we move on.
I think that’s why Easter is so popular, especially compared to Palm Sunday or Good Friday. I think we want resurrection, no doubt, but not the death part that seems to haunt us. Death is too big a deal and those of us who have experienced such loss, well it seems like we would be better off just dealing with it as quickly as we can. Sweep it under the proverbial rug before we have to come to terms with not just mortality of others but also our own.
I was reading this past week about how we have seen changes in the way we do funerals in the Episcopal Church since the liturgical renewal movement that led to the 1979 BCP. “There were black vestments; lots of gloomy hymns; sermons about how the loved one had just gone on to another place (as if death were no different than moving to Kansas City); “too much talk about the immortality of the soul and in general, according to this author, very little comfort for anybody with the wit to recognize that the corpse they were burying as a person they were going to miss like mad.” The author argues that the church had pretty much lost its Christian nerve on the subject of death.
I would agree and suggest that despite the fact the prayer book changed the way we do funerals, we’re still stuck in a desire to push death as far away from us as possible.
When I was growing up, I had no idea that there was a Holy Week. My church had no services, we just jumped from Palm Sunday to Easter. In fact, I don’t even remember Palm Sunday as a thing. It was just a regular Sunday and the next one was Easter. No gloom and doom for us. No death, just resurrection. Of course we knew Jesus overcame death and the grave. So why focus on the part of the story that seems so troubling, after all we know how it all ends. It’s kind of like taping your favorite sports team on TV and then replaying it only after you know the results. Great way to watch a game, isn’t it? There’s no suspense, no drama, no concern or anxiety, especially if your team won. You can sit back, casually watch and let go of all the concerns that the other team might make a comeback.
I think that’s how we handle the Passion. Jesus is handed over to the authorities, he must go through a sham trail, is convicted and sentenced. Yes, there’s the humiliation of being stripped and hammered to a tree to die a slow excruciating death but you know, even though it’s Friday, Sunday’s a comin’. All this is happened but don’t worry, we win in the end.
If that’s our attitude, we miss out on so much. The whole story of the crucifixion has always been a stumbling block for those hearing the story. Remember Jesus was executed as a criminal by the Empire (Rome) and it appeared that Jesus was not powerful enough to resist Roman power. Many of those in the first century found it almost impossible to reconcile all this with what they had been told about Jesus, that he was the Savior of the world. If you look at it from this viewpoint, it’s no wonder that they couldn’t get their mind and heart around what they were being told: Jesus was the Christ, the redeemer of the world sent from God. Fine, they might have said but why couldn’t he have saved himself? Paul would address this in his letters to the church and the Gospels themselves would unpack this but that was a generation away. It’s not hard to imagine that this theological issue presented a hurdle that some folks couldn’t jump over.
This very real problem might not enter our thoughts when it comes to the passion and holy week. We do know how it all turns out but if we skip over the week the whole story of Jesus life, death, resurrection and ascension will become just a part of a nice story, a fable if you will, that has little or no power to help us when we face loss in our lives.
We have to confess that Jesus suffering, humiliation, betrayal, denial and crucifixion is not only uncomfortable and troubling, it stands in the way of a theology that suggests that life well lived and blessed by God is a life that holds suffering and loss at bay. To follow Jesus, with that mindset, guarantees a life of ease, privilege and creature comforts. That kind of theology would have us believe that Jesus came down from heaven to make our life easy. As I participated in the Magdalene IV Stations last Sunday evening, I thought about the power of the passion in our lives. It is in the power of the passion that reveals God to us when “we see people overwhelmed by events or situations beyond their control; or we face the chaos, noise and distractions of life; or when we look upon people with disdain or annoyance that we tolerate only because we feel forced; or when the call comes in the middle of the night, or the doctor asks us to sit down for the test results, when it seems certain that we most dread; or when we find ourselves fighting back tears because we think they are signs of weakness; or when we make ourselves less able to understand be compassionate toward ourselves, and therefore to others as well; or when we stand among others who have been shamed or mocked; or when we avoid persons suffering from injury or illness or age because they make us uncomfortable; or when all seems lost, when we feel absolutely alone, completely drained, unable to even pray; This doesn’t help us much when we are holding the hand of our loved one when the news from the doctor comes and what we feared is what we hear. It doesn’t help us when we face discrimination and rejection based solely on our skin color or who we love.
The innocent suffer and the tragic destiny of all truth leads to attempts to either snuff it out or to quiet it. God is most manifestly present with those the world rejects. Responding to violence through peaceful means seems impotent and so, despite the lessons of the Passion, we respond to violence with violence, continuing the cycle of death, destruction and devastation. But the story of the passion holds all that in its arms and suggests that despite what was expected, God moved in a powerful ways. And still does. Love indeed is more powerful than death. Despite our desire to just skip over the difficult parts, the Passion shows us that even in the midst of despair, hope is found.