Everybody Loves a Parade
David C. Myers
April 5, 2009
Palm Sunday
Matthew 20:17 - 19
Mark 11:1 - 11
Text: Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, . . . . . . Matthew 20:18
Everybody loves a parade! The excitement of lining up along a parade route an hour or so early to get a good spot. The balloons. The clowns. The music. The animals. The excitement of something special happening, something out of the ordinary: the circus coming to town, the heroes welcome, commemorating a Holiday. It is a special time for a community! A parade spreads a contagion to many people. Happiness spreads throughout the air. Everything is all right in the world.
And the parade into Jerusalem was no exception.
Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey colt, certainly not as a King or a great hero, who would have come in a much more royal and suitable means of travel. Yet Jesus still received a hero's welcome with shouts of loud hosannas and exclamations of great praises. Jesus, the hero, the Messiah, the King, rode into Jerusalem leading a joyous parade we still join each year, even 2,000 years later. And yet somehow the events of that day and the following week led people to change their tumultuous cheers and hosannas into betrayal and jeers and cries, crucify Him, crucify Him! And nearly 2,000 years later we still participate in that part of the parade as well.
Because Jesus predicted it. In Matthew we read these words when Jesus took aside His disciples and said to them: Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and there I will be betrayed to the chief priests and other religious leaders, and they will hand me over to the Roman government, and I will be mocked and crucified, and the third day I will rise again.
Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem.
No matter that Jesus knew that He was going to be betrayed, defiled, mocked and crucified.
Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem. And that is what Palm Sunday is all about.
But there is something else that we need to explore and that is why Jesus' entry into Jerusalem so important, and what does it mean to us and to our lives
We might even find ourselves asking the question, Jesus, why did You go to Jerusalem knowing full well that you would face opposition, be tortured, defiled, humiliated, and killed on the cross? Jesus, why did You go to Jerusalem?
Such thinking even raises more questions: if Jesus had avoided Jerusalem He might have lived longer, been able to teach us more, and given us more certainty to our faith. What if Jesus had been able to minister another 20-30 years, or live a normal lifetime, ministering all that time? Wouldn't Jesus have been more valuable to His followers, and to ourselves as the present day disciples had He lived longer?
But Jesus wasn't about building a longer life. Jesus whole life was a journey filled with a purpose, a journey unencumbered with excess luggage. Jesus, as typical of his entire ministry, didn't avoid anything, lest of all His imminent death, even as He triumphantly rode into Jerusalem. And perhaps by that very example we learn: 1.) something very important about the ministry of Jesus; 2.) what is expected of us as Christians; and, 3.) most importantly, why we join both the hero's parade and later on this week, the mobs that crucified Him.
1.) We learn something about Jesus. Jesus didn't measure His success by our human standards. Jesus was not interested in prolonging His life to answer all the questions for people. Jesus did not want to set down a series of rules or laws for us to follow. That had already happened; and, for the Hebrew people it had not worked.
Jesus came to set us free from the legalism of the religious beliefs and customs of that time. Jesus came to offer us freedom, which in turn allows us to be creative by responding in love to the situations we meet in our everyday lives. Jesus' ministry was to show us how to return to a right relation with God. He didn't come as a master teacher to build His own success and glorify Himself, but came instead to help us overcome our separation from God; to help us understand better what life is all about; and to help us live the true life that God has created for us.
The statement, Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem illustrates to us that we are to live our lives with intention and not avoidance. That way we can live our lives as if we are on a symbolic, but very real, journey, able to be on the grow, not hindered and held back by excessive baggage. Like Abraham, who went our not knowing, Jesus was more than a wanderer, but was always on a journey. Jesus' journey had a purpose, to fulfill His life and the meaning of all life.
Like Abraham, Jesus lived in symbolic tents, always able to uproot and move on to fulfill His destiny. Jesus would not be trapped or restricted by problems and trouble-spots in His life, He would meet them head-on so as to resolve them and then be freed to move on, not looking back, not encumbered by the past, but being clear that He desired something better.
2.) What we can learn about ourselves. Taking Jesus' example, we are not to avoid problems; instead, we are to face them head-on. Jesus said, Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, . . . and in the same sentence forecast His betrayal by the religious leaders, being turned over to the government, being mocked and crucified. No matter. Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem. He knew also that He would not be able to fulfill His ministry and His life, unless He went to Jerusalem. Jesus knew that in order for him to set the example to all of us that displayed God's intentions for our lives that He had to go to Jerusalem to fulfill Himself and to live His life to its fullest. And that is why He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane later in the week, Father, if You will, take this cup from Me. But not My will, but Yours be done.
Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem.
Behold! Do you love the parade?
Are you going to your Jerusalem? Where is your Jerusalem? What are the troublespots, the unresolved issues of your life? Where do you experience pain emotionally? Is there something you know you have to do, but haven't the courage, strength, or resolve to do it? Is there something you have avoided; yet have never fully worked out because of that avoidance? The teachings of Jesus are plentiful when it comes to giving examples of facing life's little or big problems. For example, Jesus said, If you are about to bring your gift to the altar and remember that your brother or sister has something against you, you are to leave that gift at the altar and go, make amends with that person, and then go and gratefully present your gift at the altar. (loosely paraphrased) The message is clear: do not let your grudges, or your differences, or your fears of inadequacy grow; instead share them and resolve them, as you go to your Jerusalem.
3.) Why we participate both in the Palm Sunday parade, and then a few days later participate in the betrayal and the crucifixion. Jesus showed us by His entry into Jerusalem amidst the waving of palms that we might have to face some pain, some humiliation, and perhaps even face the cross of death; yet, that is how God intends our lives to be to live out our faith, to travel to our Jerusalem, fulfilling our lives with the freedom and the faith for which God created us.
Where is your Jerusalem?
Our history is filled with examples of persons who have traveled to their Jerusalems, living out their faith with sincerity and resolve. Martin Luther sacrificed his life to bring a meaningful faith to the people of Germany. Sir Thomas More gave up his life in England rather than take an oath of allegiance to a King who wished to have religious faith given to him. Martin Luther King sacrificed his life so that the oppressed in our society might have equal rights with all people regardless of race, creed or economic condition.
Where is your Jerusalem? Where can you fulfill your life in today's world? I doubt any of us will have to be as dramatic as the previous examples. We don't all have to find physical death at the cross, but in order to be resurrected to new life perhaps we need to experience a symbolic death to an old life has to be felt. It is the pilgrimage to meaning, to new life that is our Jerusalem. Maybe your Jerusalem is to work for social justice for the oppressed and the imprisoned. Maybe it is to comfort the sick and those in pain. Maybe your Jerusalem is to help people be aware that two-thirds of the world suffers from malnutrition, unsafe drinking water, pain and the early but agonizing death of starvation and hunger.
Or maybe your Jerusalem might be to discover again that Jesus message is one of love and affection, one that does not condemn, but loves and empowers us to take charge of our lives. Your Jerusalem might be to become more aware of who you are and what you can do to better yourself; and perhaps your portion of the world and make it more happy, and more loving.
But don't think that Palm Sunday was not triumphant.
Jesus' entry into Jerusalem was and is triumphant! It is a great celebration for Jesus to enter Jerusalem. It is extremely worthy of waving palm branches and singing loud hosannas! But, in light of the events of the following week: Judas' betrayal, the communion of the Last Supper, Peter's denial, the trial, the Crucifixion, and then the triumphal resurrection of Easter that brings us to the promise and possibility of new life. In light of those events Palm Sunday couldn't be a celebration at all. For Jesus never would have fulfilled Himself, or His ministry. We cannot experience the power of the resurrection and new life until we have had the experience of the cross and its death.
And that makes Palm Sunday all the more exciting for us. For when we decide that we will go to our own Jerusalems, then our lives take on an added excitement of knowing that our lives have meaning, freedom and that the Spirit of Jesus is alive inside us, saying, Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem!
Everybody loves a parade! Especially a parade that fulfills our lives and defines who we are.
Where is your Jerusalem?
And the answer? . . . Let's hear it in song.
Ride on King Jesus!
If you want to find your way to God
The Gospel Highway must be trod.
Ride on King Jesus!
No one can-a hinduh me!