A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, IL; Sunday, April 5, 2009
Mark 11: 1 – 11a; Isaiah 45: 21 – 25; Psalm 22: 1 – 11; Philippians 2: 5 – 11; Mark 14: 32 – 72; 15: 1 – 47
“What’s God doing?”
This is always a question we ought to be asking whenever we hear a text from Holy Scripture.
Closely allied to this question is this one: “What does this text tell us about God, His nature, and the way He acts?”
We ask these questions because we do not read Holy Scripture like we would the newspaper. You see, when we read a newspaper, we read to learn some factual information about an event that’s happened, or is about to happen.
When we read a textbook, however, we often read to learn something about the nature of the subject at hand. For example, when we read a textbook on chemistry, we might learn about the table of the elements, for example, or about how various chemicals are used to meet the needs of humanity in one way or another.
Similarly, the Bible is the “textbook about God”, and its purpose is to tell us about God’s nature. And, like chemistry, where the nature of various chemicals is known by their properties and behaviors, God’s properties are often seen in the behaviors and actions that we see as God works in human lives and in human history. The Bible is the God-inspired, written account of God’s acting in the lives of His saints.
So it is with the account of Jesus’ last week in His earthly life, a week now known as Holy Week, that period of days that stretches from Palm Sunday through Maundy Thursday to Good Friday, to Holy Saturday, and then to Easter.
And we have before us today Mark’s account of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on what is now known as Palm Sunday, and then we have also Mark’s account of Jesus’ trial and execution.
So, what can we learn about God? What can we glean as information about God’s nature and God’s acting as we hear and consider the accounts before us today?
And, as we consider how God has acted in times past, in the person, work, life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, how might we expect God to work in our lives today (realizing that, for God to be God, God has to act in consistent ways throughout history)?
Let’s make some observations, then, may we, applying them to our lives today.
The Triumphal Entry: It seems odd to us today that Jesus would ride into Jerusalem on a colt. (Other gospel writers seem to be clearer about the animal that Jesus rode….Matthew (21: 2 – 11) tells us that the animal was a donkey.)
Why wouldn’t Jesus ride into town on a white horse? That’s the image we would expect to see. And, quite possibly, it was also the image that the people who cried out “Hosanna! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!” also expected to see.
But, if we look at the background of the choice of animal, we see two threads emerging:
- Jesus as the successor to David: We read in I Kings 1: 32 – 40 that Solomon, as he was coming to be anointed king, rode on a mule. Perhaps the symbolism here is that Jesus is, indeed, the successor to the great David, the one to whom the crowds referred in their acclamations of Jesus.
- A king, but a humble one: Here Matthew is more helpful than Mark, for it is Matthew who draws the connection to Zechariah 9: 9 – 10, which reads, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you, triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Did you catch the incongruous words that follow one another in Zechariah 9: 9? Here they are again:king – triumphant – victorious – humble.
Here is our first point-of-learning from Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem: He comes as king, victorious and triumphant, yet in humility.
St. Paul picks up on this theme, as we hear it in Philippians 2: 5 – 11. Hear these words again: “Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted Him….”
The trial: Pilate seems to be quite interested in the matter of kingship. In fact, we might be safe in saying that the issue of Jesus’ identity as a possible king is the only issue pertaining to Jesus, His teachings and His actions, that Pilate could have understood.
Notice the questions posed to Jesus by Pilate: “Are you the King of the Jews?” “Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”
Notice also the inscription of the sign that was placed above Jesus’ head (we need to note here that crucified criminals often had the crime of which they were accused placed above their heads, partly as a warning to others who might consider doing the same sorts of things), which read, “The King of the Jews”.
Then, we need to note the response of the crowd, who, standing at the foot of the cross, taunt Jesus, saying, “He saved others, he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.”
Here then, is our second point-of-learning: Jesus’ kingship isn’t immediately obvious, nor is His power to save immediately seen. For, when viewed from the perspective of the crowd who was taunting Him, Jesus looks much more like a helpless victim than a victorious and triumphant king.
Hidden victory and triumph: Here, we begin by taking note of the remark of the Centurion (perhaps the one who was in charge of the detail of Roman soldiers who had actually carried out the crucifixion), who said, “Truly, this man was the Son of God.”
Why could this Roman soldier (who was, perhaps, a veteran of many hard and difficult battles already in his military career) see what the others couldn’t? After all, most Roman soldiers probably regarded the victims of crucifixion as the slaves, the nobodies, that most of them were (if we consider their social status).
Perhaps it was Jesus’ actions and words during the time He was nailed to that cross that made the difference. We don’t know.
Yet, we know how this story will end…..We know that Jesus’ death ends in victory on Easter Sunday morning.
If we don’t know how this story ends, then we are, as St. Paul said, “Among those who are most to be pitied,” if there is no resurrection from the dead.
Now, to make application of all of this to our own lives, perhaps we can draw the following conclusions:
- We serve a God who seeks us out: Just as Jesus comes, emptying Himself (as our reading from Philippians makes clear), He comes seeking our own welfare, not His. That’s an essential message of Good Friday and of the Cross: that Jesus sets aside His kingship, His divine power and prerogatives, in order to seek us out, seeking to better our own selves.
- God seeks us out by entering our human condition: Another point to be made, closely connected to the first one, is that the basic Christian message differs from all other religions in the world in that we maintain that God not only takes the initiative, but God cared enough to send Himself in the person of Jesus, the Christ.
- God’s victory often looks a whole lot like defeat, at first: Consider the plight of those first disciples, those who fled when Jesus was arrested….They must have felt that all was lost, and that they, too, would suffer the same fate as Jesus had. (Indeed, Jesus had told them, “Take up your cross and follow me.”) Jesus’ death didn’t look a whole lot like the kingdom that people had proclaimed only a few days earlier. It looked more like defeat, abject, total defeat. But that’s often the case with God, as He works in our lives: oftentimes, in the midst of the pain, trouble, rejection and sorrow that are an inescapable part of our lives in this life, God is already crafting His victory and His triumph. Moreover, the victory that He ensures is much more durable than any trouble or difficulty we might encounter along the road of life.
Thanks be to God!
AMEN.
