Luke 19:28-40; Philippians 2:5-11
A Victory Parade
James Sledge March
24, 2013 – Palm/Passion Sunday
Did
you ever wonder who held the very first parade? We know they’ve existed since
ancient times. They are in the Old Testament and other ancient writings, but
where did they start? Perhaps it was a spontaneous thing. The hunting party is
coming home after a successful hunt, carrying the game they have caught. As
they get close, children run out and join the procession, excitedly celebrating
that there will be ample food for a while.
Or
perhaps the group was a war party, returning home in the wake of a successful
raid. They bring with them captured,
spoils, perhaps even captured prisoners.
And here too, people from the camp run out to greet the procession, creating
an impromptu victory parade.
Victors
still have parades. The Baltimore Ravens had one after winning the Super Bowl,
and Barack Obama had an inauguration parade. Mitt Romney didn’t get a parade. The
losers rarely get parades.
Parades
are almost always upbeat, celebratory affairs. Maybe that’s why Palm Sunday
became a favorite over the years. We get to have a parade! Children march in waving
their palms, and the adults join them, although sometimes a bit half-heartedly.
I’ve
noticed over the years that while children will wave, even thrash their palms
with gusto, adults are usually more subdued. My previous church handed out
palms for everyone, but some adult worshipers would refuse them. And some who
took them barely raised them to shoulder height, moving them almost
imperceptibly.
Maybe
this is simply the inhibition we gain as we grow older and leave the freedom of
childhood behind. Or maybe it is because we aren’t quite sure what this parade
is for. What are we celebrating? This is the start of Holy Week, when Jesus
comes to Jerusalem to die. He’s been telling his followers and us that for a
long time now. No one should be surprised when Jesus gets arrested and
executed. So why the parade?
Luke’s gospel leaves little doubt that
this is a royal procession. It’s a bit like President Obama coming down
Pennsylvania Avenue as supporters wave and shout. Jesus’ supporters yell, “Blessed
is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” But it is doubtful that
they understand the sort of king Jesus is. Very often, neither do I. I’m ready
to run from this parade to the Easter one, not fully comprehending what happens
in between.
Like
many in Jesus’ day, we expect kings and heroes and saviors to rush in and save
the day, to get the bad guys, to set things right. But Jesus simply goes to
die. He
humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a
cross. What kind of hero or king is this, who doesn’t charge in, guns
blazing? Quietly, silently, obediently, he goes to die. Clearly there is some
sense in which he has to die. He must die.
We
modern Christians, especially those of a more progressive or liberal slant,
don’t quite know what to do with this. We cringe, correctly I think, at the
notion that God had to punish someone, and Jesus took the bullet for us. That
seems to say God is unable to forgive without first satisfying some formula.
I’m all for rejecting such notions. But still, Jesus has to die.
I
think a lot of us find that profoundly unsettling, this idea that something is
so amiss that it requires such a radical thing. Surely Jesus doesn’t need to
die for us. All that is needed is a better explanation, some clearer spiritual
teaching to illumine us. No one needs to die.
Kathleen
Norris laments such thinking in her book Amazing
Grace, speaking of it as “the vapid theology of evil that pervades our day:
be nice, mean well, and unpleasantness will vanish, wars will cease.”[1]
But
Jesus goes to die. Jesus must die. Things are so askew, with the world, with
us, that Jesus must die. He must die to break our neatly ordered theologies and
ideologies. He must die to show us the face of God that does not conform to our
religious or cultural expectations. He must die to shatter our notions of power
and strength. He must die in order to get our attention! To let us see beyond
the sin and brokenness that blinds us! To open us to the possibility of
something new and wonderful that we cannot see or find otherwise!
Jesus
must go to the cross. It is the cross that allows us to say, “Jesus Christ is
Lord, Jesus Christ is God.” It is the cross that lets us see who God truly is.
It is the cross that allows us to have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus,
to know the mind of God.
But
of course, that changes and reorients everything. It invites us into radically
reordered lives that begin to reveal the face of God to others, that reveal Christ
to the world. It gives us a new identity as God-bearers. It gives us a true
calling, a deep and abiding purpose that would risk anything, risk everything,
so that others might see the love of God that explodes all conventional notions
of God.
And
that makes Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem – even this lowly, humble entry that is
part of his journey to the cross and death – a true victory parade. Blessed is
the king whom comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest.
Thanks
be to God!
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