Today we stand at the edge of a week of remembrance in which we relive the last days of Jesus’ life.  At the beginning of this Palm Sunday worship service, you were all given palms to celebrate his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  But in addition to this being Palm Sunday, it is also Passion Sunday, and in addition to receiving palms, you have also been given stones.  Now, I can imagine some of you are thinking to yourselves, “What is Jean up to now – does she have rocks in her head??”!  But did you notice – in Luke’s telling of the Palm Sunday story, which served as our Gospel call, palms are not even mentioned! 

 

What are mentioned are stones.  The religious leaders in Jerusalem feel threatened by Jesus’ presence in the city and the “hosannas” that greet him.  To quell the crowd’s enthusiastic cries, the authorities tell Jesus, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.”  But Jesus responds by proclaiming that the stones on the ground will still “cry out,” even if the people are silenced. 

 

I hope in the coming week you will use the stone in your hand as a “touch stone,” if you will, a tangible and touchable way for you to make a connection between the events of that first Holy Week and your life today.  I hope, in the coming week, you will keep your stone with you; stick it in your pocket; put it someplace where you won’t forget about it, so you can use it to remember and meditate on the final week of Jesus’ life. 

 

We began our worship this morning with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem when the crowds shout out “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” [v. 26].  These words come from Psalm 118, which also proclaims “the stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone” [v. 22].  The Apostle Paul will later echo these words in his letter to the Ephesians, proclaiming “Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone” [Ephesians 2:20].  Thus, we begin our journey through Holy Week with the stone of Christ, the cornerstone of our individual lives, and our life together in this family of faith. 

 

But we also hear in Psalm 118 words of rejection; listen again to verse 22: “the stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.”  Jesus is all too aware of the rejection he is about to experience in Jerusalem.  Although the crowd cheers his arrival when he enters Jerusalem’s gates, Jesus himself weeps over the city he holds so dear, and he predicts that, because Jerusalem will soon reject him, the city is ultimately doomed: “Your enemies will crush you to the ground,” he laments, “and they will not leave within one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” 

 

Earlier in his ministry, Jesus is threatened with stoning by the religious leaders [John 10:2-39].  Although he is able to escape imprisonment that time, the results will be different this coming week.  The tide of public opinion will turn against him, and he will be rejected.

 

And so, the stone of Christ becomes a stone of rejection.  And just as people rejected him then, people reject him now.  What about us?  Do we follow Jesus’ commandment to love God and neighbor?  Do we follow his model of loving the least, the lost, and the forgotten ones?  Or do we reject his message, following instead our own rules for living?  As you hold your stone in your hand, I invite you to meditate for a moment on what your stone cries out.  Does it cry out rejection?  [Moment of silence.]

 

Jesus is rejected by the religious and political authorities because his teaching is radical and threatening.  And so to silence him once and for all, they devise a plot to arrest him [John 8:1-11].  The Pharisees present to him a woman, explaining, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.  Now what do you say?”

 

Now, the Pharisees don’t care about the woman or the law or truth.  What they want is to entrap Jesus into making a decision that will turn his supporters against him.  If he chooses the law, then he will lose the people; if he chooses mercy, then the religious leaders will have a basis for accusing him.  And so, full of condemnation, the Pharisees stand ready to stone the woman to death.

 

But Jesus refuses their options.  His choice is always truth, forgiveness, and mercy, no matter the consequences.  He says to them, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her," and one by one, his critics slip away. 

 

When people fall short of God and God’s purpose for their lives, Jesus calls not for condemnation but for repentance.  Jesus calls for love, forgiveness, and acceptance.  But what about us?  How might we have reacted to the woman caught in adultery?  How do we react to people now, people who may not look like us, act like us, or do the things we would not choose?  As you hold your stone in your hand, meditate for a moment on what your stone cries out.  Does it cry out condemnation?  [Moment of silence.] 

 

Every Sunday during the Lord’s Prayer, we say together “Lead us not into temptation.”  Temptation pulls us away from God’s intention for our lives, away from our own best selves.  Jesus too was tempted.  When he was hungry in the wilderness, the devil tempted him to “turn a stone into a loaf of bread.”  And this week, after his Last Supper with his disciples, Jesus will go out to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane.  In our church lobby, there is a reproduction of Heinrich Hofmann’s depiction of this scene.  The artist has Jesus leaning on a large stone as he prays to God, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” 

 

Giving into temptation would have pulled Jesus away from who he really was.  And so, in the wilderness, Jesus resists temptation and says to the devil, “One does not live by bread alone.”  And in the garden of Gethsemane, he resists temptation and says to God, “Not what I want but what you want.”

 

And what about us?  Do we follow God’s intention for our lives, becoming our own best selves, or do we give in to temptation?  As you hold your stone in your hand, meditate for a moment on what your stone cries out.  Does it cry out “temptation”?  [Moment of silence.]

 

After Jesus leaves the Garden of Gethsemane, his identity is revealed to the guards by Judas, and he is arrested.  Meanwhile, the disciple Peter denies to three different people that he knows Jesus.  Peter denies his Lord out of fear.  In Jesus’ great hour of need, Peter is afraid – afraid to be associated with him, afraid for his life, afraid just like the time he stepped out of the boat onto the water toward Jesus, and – full of fear -- sunk like a stone.  Peter had been named Simon until Jesus had called him, giving him a new life and a new name: from petros, the Greek word for rock.  But Peter’s fear overtakes him. 

 

And what about us?  Of what or whom are we afraid?  Fear can come in many forms, shapes and sizes.  It can lead us into an unfamiliar wilderness, driving us to do and say and think and feel things that are out of character for us.  It can also paralyze us, so that – like Peter -- we unable to be the person God calls us to be.  As you hold your stone in your hand, meditate for a moment on what your stone cries out.  Does it cry out fear?  [Moment of silence.] 

 

Today we stand at the edge of a week of remembrance in which we relive the last days of Jesus’ life.  He will experience rejection in Jerusalem, rejection which will lead to his arrest, conviction, and crucifixion.  He who embraced those condemned by society will himself be condemned to the cross.  He could choose not to carry out God’s purpose for his life, but he resists that temptation and faces Calvary.  And although his closest friends will, out of fear, desert their Lord to save their own skins, Jesus will courageously face the cross to save the world.

 

This coming week, I invite you to journey with Jesus, the cornerstone of our faith and our lives, and relive his passion and crucifixion.  Journey with him by holding your stone in your hand and listening for the cries of rejection, condemnation, temptation, and fear that echo during this week -- the very stones that seal Jesus’ fate and close him in the tomb.  Amen.