Luke 21:1-11
Welcome to Palm Sunday, which has become the day when Christians celebrate that Jesus is King. I love waving palms and singing Hosanna! It’s a great festival, and we should enjoy it. And we should unpack and understand that this isn’t what Jesus is about.
Yesterday many of us stood on the street to declare NO KINGS! That’s a very American statement, stretching back to our founding revolution. There were signs declaring “No Kings but Jesus!” Those of us who consider Jesus Lord can identify with that, although it’s problematic as a political statement in a country built on religious freedom and no state religion. We’ve recently been paying attention to Christian nationalism which wants to establish Christianity as the national religion and give power to those who claim Christianity as theirs. So we should probably clearly say a few things:
Jesus wasn’t Christian, he was Jewish. The teachings we treasure from him are consistent with the theology and the values of the Hebrew scriptures he knew, taken to their most loving and inclusive extreme.
Jesus did not claim to be king and never aspired to be king. His movement was all wrapped up in politics and religion, which have never been truly separate things, but he was not trying to lead an uprising, and he didn’t aspire to political power.
Jesus himself and the movement he initiated were nonviolent. There was a movement advocating for war with Rome in his day. They were called the Zealots, and while Jesus would have been in conversation with them, he wasn’t a Zealot. He was unarmed and the changes he called for in society, while wide-ranging and profound, were nonviolent, starting with “love your enemy and do good to those who persecute you.”
Recent scholarship paints an important picture of Palm Sunday, a picture people of faith across the country are going to use to protest our government this afternoon when they call on people to take their palms home from church and into the streets. Jesus was coming to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. All Jews who were able traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover each year, so the crowds in the city were massive. Knowing the potential for trouble, the Roman presence in the city was also massive. Roman soldiers were marching into Jerusalem from their fortresses near the coast where the weather was better. They would have been led by officers on mighty war horses and they would have marched in formation, several men across, so that when they entered the streets they pushed the gathering crowds out of the way. They carried shields and swords and spears, and they looked dangerous because they were. They were there to give a clear message that no trouble would be tolerated.
Jesus and his followers would have been part of the gathering crowd, coming into the city from the east, opposite the arriving army. They traveled on foot, although at the end of a long journey an exhausted Jesus may well have borrowed a donkey to rest his tired feet. They were unarmed. Jesus’ reputation as a teacher had spread, and it’s quite possible people recognized him. Looking for some excitement, they called out to a religious teacher to “save them” from the oppression of Rome. Surely some of the people who didn’t know Jesus well wondered if he might lead an insurrection. Honoring him like an approaching dignitary gave them a nice diversion on a hot day. Fifty years later when this story was written down, the authors make the most of the contrasts – Rome vs Jesus, military might vs the power of love, those able to murder him vs the teacher standing up for what’s right. We will never know if Jesus himself staged this day in those confrontational terms, although knowing what we do of his teaching, it’s unlikely. But the juxtaposition of values we treasure and those we oppose is striking to those who follow Jesus today. It’s why the story is at the heart of this afternoon’s protests. And it’s why on this day, when we celebrate this story, our word for the day is courage.
Jesus was a prophet and a teacher with a message of reform. He wanted people to change the way they understood God – as love – and the way they treated each other – with compassion and justice. So he surely welcomed attention from the crowds in Jerusalem as a way to expand his message. But welcoming attention was dangerous. In his lifetime he’d witnessed many executions by crucifixion. He had to have been afraid. Some of our secondary readings remind us that courage isn’t the absence of fear, but the determination to continue in fear’s presence. Jesus had the courage of a message he believed with his whole heart. It was a message of hope that had the potential to transform life for everyone. It was the salvation of the people, and he was willing to proclaim it in the face of danger, in the face of almost certain arrest, torture, and execution. Because he was brave, others were brave with him. After he died for that message, they kept right on sharing it. In some ways it has transformed the world, and it still can.
Christian nationalists hold up our current government as God’s way and celebrate its actions as the fulfillment of God’s blessings for our country. But Palm Sunday reminds us that governments can be challenged with faith and Jesus is a bearer of God’s message. It takes courage to stand with Jesus and say “no” to government when they violate God’s way. So we say, “no” to mass deportation and violating the rights of immigrants and refugees. We say “no” to war which kills innocent people, even as we acknowledge that some rulers in this world do not deserve to govern. We say “no” to ending programs which provide medical care, food, education, and life to people in our country and around the world in order to enrich a few folk. We say “no” to anything which isn’t loving and kind and just. And if being loving and kind and just isn’t the way of power, then we will say “no” to power, but Jesus shows us that the power of love overcomes in the end.
Who has courage today? Peaceful protestors. Soldiers who uphold their oath to the constitution even when they are forced into unnecessary wars – and who ask if orders are lawful. Judges who rule fairly, often at the risk of their lives and the lives of their families. Immigrants who believe in the American dream in spite of new dangers. People who buy extra groceries and give strangers rides to work or school and continue to set up refugee apartments. Donors who support independent media and legal aid. Ordinary folk who continue to love their neighbor, even if they disagree…to love their families, even if they disagree. People who speak up in the face of hateful remarks, particularly those who do so quietly and respectfully.
Courage looks like folk who undergo difficult medical treatments in hopes of a better tomorrow. It’s friends who sit beside those who are dying so they won’t be alone. It’s teachers who show up every day, hoping that the most troubled student will have a bit of success. Tell me what courage looks like to you….
“Courage does not always roar, sometimes it’s the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.’”
– Mary Anne Radmacher