Passion/Palm Sunday April 1, 2007
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Pilippians 2:5-11
Luke 22:14-23:56
Well, here I am. I have climbed up into this pulpit today, as I normally do, to preach the sermon you expect to hear from me. But if you are like me you have probably heard enough Palm Sunday sermons in your life. So I have decided I am not going to preach a sermon this morning (move away from pulpit, then turn back). Well, Happy April Fool’s Day!
Did I really fool you? And do you feel a little foolish for being fooled. Well, don’t feel bad, you are not alone. Our passion gospel today makes Jesus look a little foolish as well. In fact, it should make each of us sense our own foolishness in following him in our own life, particularly this week as we journey with him to the cross. For as St. Paul reminds us in his epistles that to follow Jesus, to really live his gospel message is foolishness to the world. But we know that. Just about every sermon we hear on a Sunday morning shows us how foolish we really are to follow the example of One whose life was so counter-cultural, at least by the world’s standards. Jesus is always showing us how to love in a world of hate, to be generous in a world of greed, to be peace-makers in times of war, to accept people for who God made them to be, especially when they are not like us, and to care for people no one else cares about. The list goes on…
Why would we want to follow the example of such a One like Jesus, especially in a world like ours. Why would we allow ourselves to be ridiculed, mocked or even scorned by the words we say and the actions we take to right the wrongs of this world. Why would we suffer being used and abused by political and economic and social systems for their own purposes. Why would we risk being condescended to by people who regard our faith and our work as beneath them. Even worse, why would we risk being ignored by the disregard of so many who haven’t even a clue who Jesus is and don’t care. Why would anyone willingly suffer such consequences and pay such a price for being a fool for Christ.
I am certain we will not find the answer to that question on April Fool’s day, but today is not just any April Fool’s day. This year it falls on a Sunday when we read the passion gospel of Luke. And an opportunity like this does not come around very often. Given our three year cycle of scripture readings in the church, and given that April Fool’s day will come only once on a Sunday over seven years, reading Luke’s gospel today presents a rare opportunity for us to talk about Jesus as the fool that he is. A fool whose foolish life will bring him to a foolish and untimely death. Because only a fool would live and die as Jesus did. Only a fool in love. A fool so much in love with the world that he will do anything for the sake of that love, including die for it.
This first day of April is made for fools in love. In many early cultures April 1 was considered the first day of Spring. Winter was over and the ground was ripe for planting. And people were ripe for love. It was a day for celebrating all things new, especially new love, renewed love and even unrequited love. People have celebrated love as a springtime phenomenon for centuries before modern science only recently was able to show us why that is true. As the earth softens, and the sun rises higher in the sky their warmth invites planting for new life. Human hormones seem to respond in the same way at the signs of spring. We should not be surprised, then, that so many poets and playwrights write of new love and passionate love as a springtime event. Nor should we be surprised that for Christians our celebration of Easter is a springtime event, even if you live in a southern clime without experiencing the change of seasons. Winter sacrifices herself in death for the sake of the new life which will come of it during spring. And when spring comes she breaks forth in all of her foolish splendor, we can’t get enough of her love. And we will be fools for love of her.
This is where we find Jesus in our gospel account today. And this is where we find ourselves any time we follow his example in our life. Jesus is a foolish lover. A fool for love. A lover who will do whatever needs to be done to show us how much he loves us. He will even make the ultimate sacrifice anyone can make for love. He will die for love. Now how foolish is that. But Jesus will also die IN love with a world which so rudely rejects him. And so much in love will Jesus be with us that he forgives us for our killing him because of the ways we misunderstand his love. And no matter how many times we reject him, Jesus will always forgive us because he always loves us. How very foolish. And how foolish is a love which always engenders the hope that we will love him back. That we will learn to love as he loves so that we might walk in his love as he loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God. But we know how foolish it is in this world to walk in such love. Love can make a fool of us. It can betray us and cause us much pain. It can even cause us to die, many times before our death. Only a fool in love can survive such love.
What foolish love we find in Jesus. And what a model Jesus is for showing us how to walk in it. A model Luke shows us in his passion account beginning with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem to the foolishness of his death on the cross. In Luke’s account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem we notice some important differences in Luke’s story from the other gospel accounts. First of all, there are no palms. Did you notice that? And did you notice that there is no grand entry for Jesus into Jerusalem. Palms would indicate a grand entry. In many Middle East cultures of the time palms were symbols of celebration fit for a king. Waving your palms was the highest salute you could give to honor someone. But in Luke’s account there are no palms. Neither are there throngs of people waving them, and there are no children shouting hosannas to their “king.” In fact, the liturgy of the palms we celebrate today will bear little resemblance to Luke’s account. If it did, we would not be carrying palms and waving palms as we enter the church; we would be taking off our coats and laying them along the sidewalk as we go. We would not be singing “hosannas,” especially to anyone we might call a king. That is because Luke would regard a red-carpet celebrity entrance into Jerusalem the height of foolishness for One who will not go there to be a king. One who is not seeking political office or gain. One who does not live for glory and power on this earth. Instead, in his passion account, Luke wants to show us a Jesus whose mission is much different, much larger than any earthly king. And much more foolish by kingly standards.
That is the Jesus Luke shows us as he enters Jerusalem. While you might imagine kings and princes who would ride into Jerusalem on a horse, we need to imagine Jesus mounting a donkey for his not-so-grand entry. Unlike a horse which needs to be tamed and controlled, a donkey is a gentle beast of burden. Unlike a high horse, a donkey’s head hangs down and his body is low to the ground. It is easy to imagine Jesus’ out of proportion body sitting low on this gentle beast as his feet scrape along the road. The few people gathered around him are mostly his disciples and what they throw down before him as the donkey ambles along are their thin outer garments, called coats. The people who cheer him as he moves along are mostly his disciples who hope to gather a crowd who will recognize their own foolish intent; they are still convinced that Jesus is going into Jerusalem to bring down the political and religious leaders so that he can become their king. The only other people who take notice of this event seem to be Galileans who know Jesus and can recall some of the healings and miracles he performed. Unlike the other gospel accounts of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, Luke sets a scene which looks silly, if not a little desperate. Appropriate to a fool in love, going to his foolish death.
The question is, why does Luke’s gospel account characterize Jesus in this way? What does Luke want us to understand about Jesus’ passion and death? What is he saying to us as followers of Jesus? The answer is simple, I think…and profound. But today I will give you what I believe is the simple answers, because a simple answer is all we need to know why anyone would be a fool for Christ. Why any one of us would follow his example by the life he lived in this world.
The simple answer is that Luke is doing a “new thing” by writing his gospel. Luke is inaugurating a new church in the world. A church which will move beyond the borders and boundaries of Judaism to welcome gentile nations into its midst. Luke knows that anyone who reads this gospel, especially gentiles on the outside of the story, will conclude that this man is a fool. But that is precisely the point. For Luke this is the very reason and purpose for following Jesus. Because he is a fool, a fool in love. He was born from love and he will live in love and he will die for love. And love is the highest principal by which we can live our lives. It is also the most difficult. Because love challenges all that we say and all that we do which are not said and done in love, by love and for love. Love is capable of turning our lives around and taking us to a new place, a place we might want to live in for the rest of our life. A place which takes away our fear of living it. Because love cancels fear. And fear is what the world thrives on.
The problem with Jesus is that he is not willing to play the fear games of this world. Through his whole life there is no one who can bring him to fear. Not even Pilate can make him fear the violence that he will suffer or the death which will bring his life to an apparent end.
This is Luke’s message for his new church. This is the message for us. Look at what fear does to our life. Look at the way fear limits our choices; look at the way fear keeps us from risking anything; look at how fear keeps us from enjoying what we have and sharing it with others. Look at how fear breeds hatred and violence, revenge and retribution. Look at how fear makes us. The list goes on.
But Luke’ gospel shows his church another way to live in this world, a more foolish way by the world’s standards. It is the way of Jesus. It is the way of love. Luke would have us know that only fear can keep us from following Jesus in the way of love. The fear of being made a fool. A fool for love. Happy day of April Fools. May our life be filled with them.