A Sermon Preached by Rev. Jean Niven Lenk

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ²saying to them, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. ³If anyone says anything to you, just say this, “The Lord needs them.” And he will send them immediately.’ ⁴This took place to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,
⁵‘Tell the daughter of Zion,
Look, your king is coming to you,
   humble, and mounted on a donkey,
     and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’
⁶The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; ⁷they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. ⁸A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,
‘Hosanna to the Son of David!
   Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!’
¹⁰When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, ‘Who is this?’ ¹¹The crowds were saying, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.’

20 When it was evening, he took his place with the twelve;^* ²¹and while they were eating, he said, ‘Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.’ ²²And they became greatly distressed and began to say to him one after another, ‘Surely not I, Lord?’ ²³He answered, ‘The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. ²⁴The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that one not to have been born.’ ²⁵Judas, who betrayed him, said, ‘Surely not I, Rabbi?’ He replied, ‘You have said so.’

31 Then Jesus said to them, ‘You will all become deserters because of me this night; for it is written,
“I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.”
³²But after I am raised up, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.’ ³³Peter said to him, ‘Though all become deserters because of you, I will never desert you.’ ³⁴Jesus said to him, ‘Truly I tell you, this very night, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.’ ³⁵Peter said to him, ‘Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you.’ And so said all the disciples.

36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ ³⁷He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. ³⁸Then he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.’ ³⁹And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.’

47 While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; with him was a large crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. ⁴⁸Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, ‘The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him.’ ⁴⁹At once he came up to Jesus and said, ‘Greetings, Rabbi!’ and kissed him. ⁵⁰Jesus said to him, ‘Friend, do what you are here to do.’ Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him.

27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. ²⁸They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, ²⁹and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ ³⁰They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. ³¹After mocking him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

45 From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. ⁴⁶And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ ⁴⁷When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, ‘This man is calling for Elijah.’ ⁴⁸At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. ⁴⁹But the others said, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.’ ⁵⁰Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. ⁵¹At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split.

“Earthquake!”

A Sermon Preached by

Rev. Jean Niven Lenk

at the

First Congregational Church of Stoughton

United Church of Christ

Palm Sunday is a paradox. It is a day of celebration and rejoicing, as we recall how Jesus is welcomed into Jerusalem as a king, with the crowd waving palm branches and strewing their coats before him. And yet, even as we sing, “All Glory, Laud and Honor,” we know he is on his way to betrayal, desertion, torture, and a cruel death without honor. Five days after he enters the city gates to the cries of “Hosanna!” that same crowd of people calls for his death with the words, “Crucify him!”

So we call today both Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday. That is because the Christian Church, down through the centuries, does not want us to go directly from this to next Sunday’s celebrations without experiencing Calvary; you can’t get to Easter without going through Good Friday. And so, while our first Gospel reading this morning tells of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, our other Scripture lessons jump us ahead to experience in advance Jesus’ passion and death on the cross.

If we deny the realities of Jesus’ suffering, anguish, and torment, if we deny his followers’ disloyalty and betrayal, their regret and heartache, then we deny also the full grace and goodness of resurrection. Jesus goes before each one of us who has ever felt sorrow, torment, grief, and despair, leading the way to the cross -- and beyond. That is our belief and our faith. Through God’s grace, we have the courage to discover and experience the fullness of passion -- that of Jesus and also our own.

We invite you to participate in our services this week; on Maundy Thursday, we will have a service of tenebrae with communion, and on Good Friday, from 12 noon to 3 p.m., our sanctuary will be open for prayer, and I will offer a brief meditation on the seven last words of Christ, one every half hour. But just in case you can’t join us during the coming Holy Week and experience all that it means, you will at least receive it, to some degree, this morning. That is why, even though our worship began with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and such familiar hymns as “All Glory Laud, Honor,” and “Hosanna, Loud Hosanna,” the mood of this service changed after the reading of the passion narrative. That is why our hymns for the second half of this hour concentrate on Jesus’ suffering – “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” and “What Wondrous Love is This.” A that is why, instead of our usual peppy “Go in Peace” for our congregational response to the benediction, we will be singing the somber and haunting “Were You There?”

This Sunday begins with Jesus, acting out these ancient words of the prophet Zechariah: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of 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."

Zechariah also tells us of the expectations behind the crowd's cheering: "He will cut off the chariot ... and the war horse from Jerusalem; the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations.” That prophetic message is not lost on the crowd; Matthew reports they are shouting "Hosanna, O Son of David,” acknowledging Jesus as the king they have long been awaiting. The atmosphere is more than electric, it is tumultuous. When Matthew says "the whole city was in turmoil," he uses the Greek word seismos, meaning "earthquake.” Jesus has that impact – he causes not a minor stir, but instead shakes the foundations of the earth.

In that respect, not much has changed since Jesus' birth; when Herod learns that the King of Kings has been born, Matthew tells us "he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him." Later on, after his baptism, Jesus is sleeping in a boat on the Sea of Galilee when suddenly a huge wave swamps the boat. All the translations of the Bible call it a storm, but in the original Greek, Matthew uses that word seismos again. And we can imagine that an earthquake under the sea caused the waters to churn and engulf the boat – a tsunami, like the one in Southeast Asia.

On that first Palm Sunday, Jesus’ presence once again sets Jerusalem in turmoil. The crowd is in a frenzy -- and who can blame them? How long have they been awaiting this one foretold by Zechariah, the one to bring justice, righteousness, salvation and peace, not just to Jerusalem, not just to God's people, but to all nations? But Jesus arrives riding not on the stallion of a king, but on a humble donkey. He comes not as a powerful, conquering hero to bring revolution to the structures of political, economic and social structures of the day, but as God’s son, to break the power of all structures of oppression and hate and death by dying on a cross. The crowd that cheers Jesus' arrival does not understand any of this. They take this Jesus at face value, as a conquering king, and do not understand that Jesus is redefining the concept of the Messiah.

The tumult is not what Jesus expects or has predicted about his arrival. He has regularly announced that Jerusalem will be the place of his rejection and death. But now the city is welcoming him in victory. How tempting it might be to abandon the course of action which he has long planned and, instead, respond to their expectations of a Messiah. How tempting to acquiesce to the crowd’s wishes and lead a military uprising to liberate the city from Rome’s rule. By whose expectations is he to live? Should he abandon his passion for the reign of God which has caused him to move steadily through the constant controversy which has surrounded him every step of the way? Should he abandon the life he has lived day by day, turn from his servanthood, his role as prince of peace, and his vision of God’s kingdom to seize a peace through violent means? That is what the crowds are expecting of him, the reason for their triumphant cheers. How much easier it would be to live by their expectations rather than follow God's call. But Jesus has never taken the easy route.

As the week unfolds, his preaching will become more pointed, his words and actions more radical. Jesus will overturn the tables of the moneychangers in the Temple, threatening the powers that be, and his actions will unite the religious and business leaders against him. He will make the temple a house of prayer for all people; he will proclaim God’s acceptance and life-changing love to the blind and lame; and he will welcome the tax collectors and prostitutes into God's reign ahead of the priests, scribes and Pharisees. Jesus will fail to live up to the expectations of the crowd and, in response, it will turn on him. Slowly at first, and then with increasing rapidity, the cheers will turn to jeers.

Jesus will stand silent amid trumped-up charges, first before the council and then Pilate, as he is mocked and beaten. He could have turned from his path of radical obedience to God’s will, from his self-giving love of us. Right until the end he could have avoided suffering and death – having been abandoned by his followers, he could have abandoned us; having fought the good fight and labored long and tirelessly to bring a prodigal people back to God, who could blame him for calling it quits on those who had quit him? And yet, Jesus chooses to endure it all so that we might know the full height and breadth of God’s love for us, a God who would stoop to take on our common lot and endure what it means to be human -- right through to the end, a God who would model for us radical obedience and self-giving love.

And how about us? Jesus rides into all our Jerusalems like an earthquake, causing a stir, creating upheaval, and throwing our lives into turmoil. Even though we might profess our faith, many of us would like to tone Jesus down, to make him a bit more accommodating to what we want to do and how we want to live. Although we love to dwell on Jesus' love and inclusivity, we would just as soon not talk about Jesus' tough side, his penchant for calling us to repent and put aside sinful ways, to let go of our grudges against neighbor and family member, to ease up on our tight grip of possessions and money.

We love the images of the little babe born in the stable and the gentle shepherd cradling a lamb, but we would rather not face the Jesus who storms into the temple, overturning the tables of the moneychangers. We praise Jesus the ethical teacher and prophetic preacher, but we would prefer to close our ears to his call to pick up our cross and follow him in his path of service and self-giving love. We feel superior to those bumbling disciples who kept getting Jesus wrong and who ultimately abandoned him, forgetting that all too often we get Jesus wrong and daily abandon him by the way we desert others in our society, particularly those for whom Jesus had a special care, the poor and the oppressed. To receive the joy of discipleship, we must also understand its cost.

On the cross, Jesus looks humanity’s brutality and cruelty square in the face and says, “I forgive you.” Even as we pound the nails into his palms and feet, Jesus says to us, “Nothing can separate you from my love.” Even as we throw dice for rights to his bloody clothes Jesus promises to clothe us with radiant garments fit for a heavenly court. Even as his arms are stretched out wide on the cross-beam, Jesus freely offers to us an embrace of eternal love. When Jesus breathes his last, there is another earthquake -- the earth splits in two, just like our hearts.

Palm Sunday seems to be the beginning of the end. Within a few days, the story will seem to be over. But it is not the end – it is just the beginning. But first, we must travel through this week with Jesus, for without his suffering and death, the triumphs of Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday have no meaning. You can’t get to Easter without going through Good Friday.

But once we willingly enter the cloud of pain and confusion, once we are willing to pay the cost, to take up our cross and follow him, then the stone rolls away, the sun rises, the light breaks through, and God is God.

Let us rejoice then that our king has come! Let us join the parade and welcome him. Let us also go with him to the Upper Room and Gethsemane. Let us stand at the foot of his cross. And let us know in our lives the power of his resurrection, the joy of new life in Christ. Amen.