"Would we shout both Hosanna and Crucify him?" - Luke 19:28 - 40; Luke 23:13 - 25
Palm to Passion Sunday
April 10, 2022
Luke 19: 28-40 // Luke 23:13-25
This week, more than most Sundays, our scripture readings are made for the movies. Liam read the familiar story of the parade to Jerusalem. From Luke’s account, we hear about Jesus instructing two disciples to bring him a colt, and then Jesus rides this humble colt from the Mount of Olives down to Jerusalem. I bet you can imagine the scene—slowly panning the crowds, shouting their praises. Cloaks and coats of different colors and sizes cover the road. Children and teenagers gather in groups and run alongside Jesus, their thumbs uploading selfies #theGOATonaColt #Hosana. Adults are smiling and waving. And the disciples are soaking up this moment when they have successfully followed directions and the people are cheering. Jesus rides at a slow and steady pace, making eye contact with the people on both sides of the road. In every culture across the globe, people love a parade to welcome a hero. Still today, we line up along the road for parades to celebrate a championship-winning team or a newly elected candidate, a high school’s homecoming court, or certain holidays. Parades are festive and fun, full of hope and rejoicing. Such joy is the kind of scene we want to hold on to—it’s the kind of formative memory we will share for years to come.
But the parade is not the final scene of this movie-like story. Jesus is not the kind of hero, or the type of Messiah, his disciples and followers expected. There’s a plot twist. Instead of riding into the city on the back of a white horse fit for a warrior or king, Jesus shows up on a colt, a colt that hasn’t been ridden before. Instead of spreading a message of power and prestige, Jesus taught his disciples they must serve and care for those in need. And this isn’t the first or the last plot twist. From his birth, Jesus has upended expectations. From the very beginning, Jesus wasn’t born into royalty or wealth like you would expect for the Son of God. He was born to unwed parents, on the road, and first celebrated by smelly, working-class shepherds. From the beginning of his ministry, Jesus has surprised his disciples by the depth of his grace. He has frustrated the religious leaders by the audacity of his mercy. Jesus has surprised the people by paying attention to children, talking with women, eating with tax collectors, touching lepers, and healing on the Sabbath. Jesus is the master of plot twists in all four gospels. Jesus is not the Son-of-God or Messiah anyone was expecting. Only God could have written this script.
And God keeps the plots twists coming throughout the stories of Holy Week. We know the parade is not the final plot twist of the gospels. After Jesus turns over the tables in the temple, after Jesus shares the Passover meal with his disciples, after Jesus predicts that one of his closest friends will betray him, after he warns Peter that he will deny him three times, Jesus is brought before the chief priests and scribes. They bring him to Pilate, who tries his best to pass Jesus on to Herod for his ruling. But Herod sends Jesus back to Pilate after Jesus refuses to respond to Herod’s questions and taunts. We pick up the story here, from chapter 23 of the gospel of Luke, from the NRSV:
13 Pilate then called together the chief priests, the leaders, and the people, 14 and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was perverting the people; and here I have examined him in your presence and have not found this man guilty of any of your charges against him. 15 Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us. Indeed, he has done nothing to deserve death. 16 I will therefore have him flogged and release him.”
18 Then they all shouted out together, “Away with this fellow! Release Barabbas for us!” 19 (This was a man who had been put in prison for an insurrection that had taken place in the city, and for murder.) 20 Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again; 21 but they kept shouting, “Crucify, crucify him!” 22 A third time he said to them, “Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no ground for the sentence of death; I will therefore have him flogged and then release him.” 23 But they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified; and their voices prevailed. 24 So Pilate gave his verdict that their demand should be granted. 25 He released the man they asked for, the one who had been put in prison for insurrection and murder, and he handed Jesus over as they wished.
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
No major surprises in this part of the story. We are all too familiar with murder and mayhem. How quickly they show up in the Biblical story. It only takes until the third chapter in Genesis for power, fear, and jealousy to lead to murder between brothers. Sadly, humanity doesn’t have a great track record throughout the Bible. There are plenty of stories of death and the denial of justice. And these aren’t just biblical issues, stored away in these ancient stories. After reading the news this week, we see reports that people are still crying out against one another today. Yesterday my ninth-grade neighbor told me about his basketball teammate who was shot twice Friday night in Henrico. The evening news described the children killed when a train station was bombed, as they tried to flee a warzone with their families. The people are crying out in Yemen and Afghanistan, in North Korea and Philippines, in Haiti and Honduras, in Sacramento and South Richmond. Today we watch as leaders use fear and division to hold onto power. So, it’s not surprising that the religious leaders and the Roman authorities used fear and fake news to amp up the crowds for their own agenda. It’s not a new storyline that an outsider who disrupts the status quo would threaten the powerful, so much that they would plot against him. When we stop to think about it, it’s not shocking that some of the same people who were at the parade shouting Hosana! could easily have been there with Pilate days later, shouting Crucify Him!along with that crowd. We know public opinion can shift as fast as the weather changes in the spring in Virginia. The shouts of the crowd aren’t that surprising in either story, really. So that’s the question for today: Would the same people shout both Hosana and Crucify Him in the same week? Would we be there, with both crowds? Would we be surprised to find ourselves at the parade and before Pilate?
Jesus is the one who surprises us, even today. Even when we know how the story ends. Even when we have come to church for Holy Week for decades. When we focus on the main actor, Immanuel, then we are amazed by grace and glory, and left speechless by an empty tomb. The more I researched and read in preparation for this service, the more God’s love surprised me. The more I thought about how Jesus cried for Jerusalem, how Jesus cried in the garden, how Jesus cried on the cross, the more the peace Jesus passes on to the disciples made a difference.
This year, I have a different perspective on Holy Week. After two years in a row celebrating Palm Sunday online, I have been eager for a parade. And yet, my heart can’t stay in that moment for very long. Suffering is too familiar and too close to keep rejoicing or long. This year, I need to remember the anguish and heartache of the fullness of Holy Week. Only when I really go the distance with Jesus, to the temple, to the table, to the garden, through the trials, only when I join the crowds at the parade and before Pilate, only then do I grasp a glimpse of the extravagance of God’s love. God loved us so much, that God sent his Son to move into the neighborhood, as Peterson puts it. God sent Jesus to live with us and to show us how to love God and how to love our neighbors. God sent Jesus to remind the pious and the powerful, the outcasts and the outsiders that there was a better way, a more compassionate way, to be in community. God sent Jesus to love us so that we could love like God loves. After Moses and Elijah, after David and Solomon, God sent Jesus for the ultimate plot twist. To prove that God can conquer even death. God can respond to humanity’s worst with love and peace. Let me say that again, God does respond to our worst with love and peace.
Today we are invited to continue the storyline, to start the next chapter of God’s people showing up and serving. Today, we began with a parade. We were part of a crowd; we sang and prayed, we smiled and filled the street. We shared a glimpse of the first part of the story. As we follow Jesus through the stories of this Holy Week, we are invited to fully experience the extravagance of God’s love. Through the betrayal and the denials, through the trial and the taunting, we journey with Jesus through the depths of suffering. And through it all, we hold on to hope, that God’s love has the final word. God’s love is the Alpha and the Omega. God’s love will see us through this week, just as God was with Jesus then. Because of Jesus, we trust that God’s love was with those shouting Hosana!, and with those shouting Crucify Him!, and God’s love is with us today. God’s love is that surprising, and that steadfast. No one has ever written or scripted a better love story. Thanks be to God.