A Sermon Delivered by The Rev. John D. Painter
at Centenary United Methodist Church Metuchen, New Jersey
April 1, 2007 (Passion/Palm Sunday)

Texts: Luke 19:28-40; Philippians 2:5-11

After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They said, “The Lord needs it.” Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying,

“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” —Luke 19:28-40, NRSV
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death-—
even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. —Philippians 2:5-11, NRSV

Someone suggested that since this is not only the first Sunday in April but the very first day in April…and therefore, April Fools Day…that I ought to start out by reminding you that April is an important month—not just because of Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter—but because April is National Anxiety Month, National Humor Month and National Welding Month. In addition to being April Fool’s Day, today is One Cent Day and tomorrow will be National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day. (I know what I’ll be having for lunch tomorrow, for sure!) April 3 is Don’t Go to Work Unless It’s Fun Day. April 4 is Tell-A-Lie Day while, in sharp contrast, April 30 is National Hon-esty Day. Almost every day in April is designated as some special day or other, but let me close by sharing with you that April 13 is Blame Somebody Else Day and April 28 is Kiss-Your-Mate Day. You might want to keep that last one in mind…

He was The King nobody wanted. Those of you who have been around for a while may re-member that title from a book published over 50 years ago, in a series of Christian education mate-rials prepared for children: The King Nobody Wanted. Presbyterian Pastor Timothy Hart-Anderson remembers that, “Years ago, some seminary classmates and I had to use that book over and over and over again in a summer job, and we began calling it The Book Nobody Wanted.

“I read it again [recently],” Pastor Hart-Anderson says. “It tells the story of the life of Je-sus in simple language. The book describes how Jesus comes into this world as a baby hailed as a king, at least by the shepherds who came from their fields and flocks, and by the magi who came from the east. Even mighty Herod, the Roman ruler of that time, was concerned about the possibility of the birth of a rival king.

“It is no coincidence, then, that at the end of the gospel story we return to the royal theme. Only this time it is dripping with irony. ‘Look, here is your king, and see what a sorry sight he is.’ He’s the king nobody wanted.”

What does Jesus look like to you on this day, this fateful day when he comes into Jerusa-lem with his ragtag band of disciples? Jesus arrives in the capital city, not on a powerful war-horse, not in a royal entourage, but bouncing in on the back of a donkey.

His followers break palm branches, wave them as signs of welcome, hail him as King, but sometimes you have to wonder if they did so in comical irony. King? Some king, bouncing in on the back of a donkey. He looks, well, as one commentator has put it, foolish.

As you will discover in the next few days when you take your palm fronds home with you, the problem with palms is that once you cut the branches from the tree, they don’t live long. The problem with Palm Sunday is that the excitement of the crowd that hailed Jesus as a king soon faded, and by the time Good Friday had rolled around, many of the same voices who shouted “Ho-sanna!” on Sunday were now shouting “Crucify him!” Their love for the Lord was shallow and seemed based entirely on their hope of what exciting things he could do for them.

It’s hard to tell what Jesus is going to do as he approaches the city of Jerusalem. Some cheering for him hope he will drive out the Romans, and rescue the Jews from oppression. Others long for him to push out the corrupt King Herod, and become God’s own king—the Messiah! Ei-ther way, it appears some heads are going to roll.

But as he approaches Jerusalem, it becomes clear that Jesus has another agenda. He hun-gers to show the crowd humility, instead of arrogance—he enters the city as Zechariah predicted he would, “humble and riding on a donkey.” The choice of a donkey also sends the message that he is the bringer of peace instead of violence. If he had wanted to take down the Romans, he most cer-tainly would have entered the city on a mighty war horse. Looks like this king is more interested in reconciliation than revenge. Clearly, this Messiah is more focused on salvation than on slaughter.

Of course, not all is peaceful in the city of Jerusalem. The Pharisees are all shook up, right along with the people who are spreading cloaks and singing praises. “Teacher, order your disciples to stop,” scold some of the Pharisees. And Jesus, knowing that his kingship is beyond human con-trol, answers them, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” Jesus knows that his kingship is divine, and that God will assemble a cheering crowd to welcome this King—even if God has to use the stones of the city’s streets.

So Jesus enters Jerusalem, and shakes up the whole city. The shock waves continue as he weeps over the city, cleanses the temple, denounces the scribes and predicts the destruction of Jeru-salem. The chaos increases as Jesus is betrayed, arrested, sentenced to death and killed on a cross. We all know what’s coming. The shakiness and weakness we feel today only intensifies as we move through the events of Holy Week.

But what is the full impact of this day, Palm Sunday? What does it mean for us to live as followers of Jesus the Messiah—the king nobody wanted? When we follow our divine King Jesus, we are making this move out of love—not out of obligation. We follow Jesus because we find our-selves intensely attracted to his mission and his message, deeply drawn to his work of salvation, reconciliation, and peace.

“Love thy neighbor,” says this unconventional King. And then he says, “Love your ene-mies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:27-28)—this approach to life doesn’t necessarily fit the highly competitive and conflict-driven world in which we live. When we walk behind Jesus, we become more clear about where we should stand as Christians.

William Willimon, a United Methodist Bishop, tells the story of attending a General Con-ference session a few years ago. During that gathering, the delegates to General Conference de-bated a number of controversial issues, one being the question of whether Methodists ought to own handguns. During one of the coffee breaks, Willimon was discussing with a delegate how he had voted on the resolution. The man said, “Well, I voted in support of the ban against hand-guns.”
“How did you decide to vote that way?” Willimon asked.

“Jesus,” the delegate replied.

“Jesus?” Willimon asked.

“Well, sometimes I really wish,” the delegate continued, “when those soldiers came to ar-rest Jesus that night, he’d pulled out a gun and defended himself, or at least he would have let his disciples defend him with their swords, but you know, he didn’t.”

That’s how it is, concludes William Willimon. As Christians, we’re just “stuck” with Je-sus. “To be a Christian is to be about Christ, listening to Jesus, judging ourselves by him, asking for the grace to see him more clearly, follow him more nearly, and love him more dearly, day by day.”

Jesus comes to us as a King. He may be a king that nobody wanted that week in Jerusa-lem, but he certainly gives us clarity about what it means to be a Christian. He loves us, he in-vites us to love him, and he challenges us to focus on salvation, reconciliation and peace.

This day Jesus goes forth to do something—something final, decisive, world-shaking, and life-changing—on our behalf. For us and for our salvation he is going to do something foolish. Bounding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, hanging in scorned agony on a cross, he looks like a fool rather than the Savior of the world.

Will you welcome him—follow him this day—this King nobody wanted?
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PRAYER
Dear Jesus, on this day we welcome you into our lives, even as pilgrims welcomed you into Jerusalem; we follow behind you on your dangerous way, even as your disciples followed you to the cross. Give us the grace, Lord Jesus, to despise the praise of this world and to dare to walk with you. Make us willing to be foolish enough to follow you, confident that your cruciform foolishness is wiser than that of the world. Amen.
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