It is only a matter of days, less than a week now, until we
will take up our palm branches. What do
we call it: Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday?
It is hard to properly name this day of such stark contradictions.
Luke tells us that as Jesus approached the city of
Jerusalem, the crowd of disciples began praising God joyfully with a loud
voice. Matthew tells us that the crowd
spread their coats and palm branches on the road before him. We can envision this noisy parade as Jesus
approaches the city for the biggest Jewish festival of the year. The city would already be jammed with
tourists and pilgrims. The Roman
soldiers would be on high alert with such a large crowd. It was like New
Orleans during Mardi Gras, the Temple precinct like Bourbon Street. Palm Sunday is a good name for this
day.
But as Jesus reaches the top of the Mount of Olives and for
the first time can take in the city, Luke draws the camera in close. The sound of the crowd breaks off raggedly,
and we hear the strangest thing. As he
came near and saw the city, he wept over it (Luke
19:41). Jesus is crying;
the ground beneath his colt is damp with the tears of the Son of God. We realize that we are
standing on holy ground; the sound of the parade around us fades away. We might want to turn away, act as if we
don’t hear him. But we need to pause
here and see what his sobbing can teach us.
The crowd sees the sun glistening off the golden dome of the
Temple, the commerce in the streets, the happy families, and old friends being
reunited after a year apart. Life is
good. It is morning in the land. But Jesus sees something quite
different. He sees a city that will
make a terrible choice in the coming days.
He knows the violence that waits in the wings; he knows this parade will
be short-lived. He knows that those who
cry “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord” within the week
will cry “Crucify him.” He knows
where it all will lead for him and for these people. He laments:
"If
you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!
But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43
Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts
around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. 44 They
will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will
not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the
time of your visitation from God." (19:42-44).
Passion Sunday is a good name for this day that
introduces a week that races toward betrayal, desertion, and death..
This Sunday opens our eyes to the tragic choice those people
will make, how quickly their happy enthusiasm will dissipate in disappointed
fearful betrayal. We become aware of
the tragic fearful choices that we, too, are prone to make in our lives. We, too, are often oblivious to those things
that make for peace; our eyes are blind to the visitation of God.
One Sunday, I was standing at the rear of the sanctuary
greeting people as they left the service.
A woman paused as I shook her hand and said, “Dr. Kelsey, sometimes when
I leave here I’m not happy. Worship
should make me happy.” I felt
disturbed. I didn’t want worship to
depress people. I wanted worship to
encourage and strengthen people. I
thought about what she had said for several days. I felt I owed her something, perhaps an apology. After some reflection I came to a
realization. I called her up and told
her that I hoped she found encouragement and joy through her participation in
worship, but I went on to say that the primary purpose of worship is not to
make us happy; the primary purpose of worship is to make us holy. I wanted us all to be happy, but there was a
higher, nobler purpose to what we were doing: holiness. The path to
holiness sometimes involves challenge and loss; at some pints we are called to
make painful changes in our lives. It
is not always a happy holiday at the beach.
Parades are fun, but the Christian life is not primarily a
parade; it is a pilgrimage. The journey
demands some things of us along the way; we have to leave some things behind
that we should like to retain. As we
travel, the journey changes us; we are being made more into the image of Jesus
Christ.
As we journey through Holy Week, we are on a pilgrimage to
Easter Sunday. On the way to
resurrection, we pass through some difficult days. This is no parade, but at the end lays renewed and greater life.
May you be changed in the week ahead.
Jim Kelsey
Executive Minister
American Baptist Churches of New York
