Sermon: Not the Messiah We Wanted

 Mark 11:1-10, 15:1-15
Not the Messiah We Wanted
James Sledge                          Palm/Passion Sunday                         March 28, 2021

 

Even if you are not a basketball fan, it’s hard to miss that March Madness, the NCAA tournament is going on for both women and men. No doubt some of you are following the progress or lamenting the failure of a favorite team. Even with fans limited because of Covid, it must be an exciting time for the teams that get invited to the big dance. For many of the players, it will be their only opportunity ever to play on such a big stage.

But if the tournament is a moment of excitement for many, its arrival opens a season of painful waiting for some of the coaches whose teams failed to make the tournament. A few coaches have already been fired, and I’ve read articles debating which coaches are or aren’t on the hot seat.

Coaches at college basketball programs, along with coaches in many sports, pro and college, typically are announced with great fanfare. This is the one who will turn things around, restore the program to prominence, take the team to glory. But big-time sports won’t tolerate losing. The new coach heralded as savior won’t last long if the expected success doesn’t materialize.

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On this day in the church year, we remember when Jesus was introduced to the city of Jerusalem, to the holy city of David. The parade for Jesus was in part a parody of the pomp that accompanied Roman rulers such as Pilate when they came into the city in their chariot, flanked by soldiers in glistening armor. But Jesus’ entry was also a grand affair in its own right. Here is the Messiah, the Savior!

People threw their cloaks onto the road along with leafy branches, recalling royal processions described in their scriptures, what we call the Old Testament. They shouted words from the Psalms. “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” The one who would save Israel was entering into his capital city. Hosanna! indeed.

Except it seems that Jesus didn’t work out as expected. By Friday Jesus was on trial, and no one was shouting “Hosanna!” They were shouting, “Crucify him!” It’s not clear that these were the same people who shouted “Hosanna!” on Sunday, but the crowds had been so enthralled with Jesus earlier in the week that the authorities worried about an uproar if they arrested him. Now those crowds have turned against Jesus. They were done with this failed Messiah.

It is easy to dismiss the crowds for their fickleness, but in their eyes, Jesus had failed spectacularly. They had thought Jesus might be the one to restore Israel, but he turned out to be just like all those other messiahs who had burst onto the scene only to be executed by the Romans. Clearly, Jesus was a phony.

Those crowds know nothing of Easter, of resurrection. All they know is that this one who entered the city in a royal procession hadn’t panned out.

You and I know a lot more than those crowds. Soon we will celebrate with shouts of “He is risen! He is risen indeed!” We’ll sing, “Jesus Christ is risen today,” and “Christ is risen, shout Hosanna.” We don’t care whether or not Jesus threw out the Romans. He conquered death itself. He opened the way to new life.

But that doesn’t mean we are thrilled with the sort of Messiah Jesus turns out to be. Resurrection sounds wonderful. Eternal life sounds grand. But Jesus insists that his followers abide by his teachings. We must love enemies and pray for those who would injure us. We can’t serve God and wealth. We must welcome the stranger.

Jesus rejects violence and insists that the good, the safety of the neighbor is more important than any individual rights. Jesus says that if the world hated him it will hate his followers, but I really want the world to like me. Jesus says to take up our cross, to willingly bear pain and suffering we could have avoided in order to further the work of the kingdom, but that seems a terrible plan.

As with the crowds in Jerusalem two millennia ago, Jesus isn’t the Messiah I was hoping for. I want him to make my life nonstop joy and fulfilment, to take away my pain, to give me a regular, spiritual buzz. But Jesus talks about suffering and crosses and self-denial. Fortunately, Jesus isn’t actually here. He’s not in the middle of things stirring up trouble like he was in Jerusalem all those years ago, and so I don’t need to get rid of him. I can simply ignore him.

That’s apparently a very popular option. In fact, in modern, American Christianity, it is possible not to look or act the least bit like Jesus and still be a “good Christian.” We needn’t abide by his teachings at all as long as we believe in him. We can be warlike, greedy, violent, and selfish. We can be enamored with guns or money or success. Many of us can enjoy the fruits of systemic racism that tilts the playing field in our favor. We can live comfortable lives of consumerism while others scarcely have enough to survive. Just have faith or be spiritual enough. 

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Just over a hundred years ago, a British, Anglican priest named Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy served as a chaplain during the horrors of World War I.  I don’t know what he had hoped to find when he returned to his church after the war, but he quickly became disillusioned. Perhaps the war had given him different eyes, but when he looked at British society, he was appalled at how it treated the poor, how they were invisible, ignored. Out of his disillusionment over how unlike Jesus his “Christian country” was, he wrote a poem about how “improved” the world was.

When Jesus came to Golgotha they hanged Him on a tree,
They drave great nails through hands and feet, and made a Calvary;
They crowned Him with a crown of thorns, red were His wounds and deep,
For those were crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap.

When Jesus came to Birmingham they simply passed Him by,
They never hurt a hair of Him, they only let Him die;
For men had grown more tender, and they would not give Him pain,
They only just passed down the street, and left Him in the rain.

Still Jesus cried, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do,"
And still it rained the wintry rain that drenched Him through and through;
The crowds went home and left the streets without a soul to see,
And Jesus crouched against a wall and cried for Calvary.

“Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” Here is our King, our Master, our leader, the one we have promised to follow. Here is the one who shows us the way, the way of life in all its fullness. Dare we trust him enough actually to follow?