Sermon - April 17, 2011Year A - The Year of Matthew - Palm Sunday
Matthew 26:14- 27:66
The palms, shouts of joy, and the cheering of the crowd are now a faint memory lost in the angry voices of the mob now shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
The shout of an angry mob is the sound of a world turned upside down. The King of kings, the Judge of all mankind has been put on trial before Rome’s puppet King Herod and the Roman governor in Jerusalem, Pilate.
More than once in history crowds have been known to turn against someone they once cheered. The mob wanted Jesus to be a King, and then they wanted him dead. Jesus did not live up to expectations. Jesus came to Jerusalem; the name of the city means “foundation of peace.” Jesus arrived on a donkey as the King of Peace. There were hosannas that day, but the crowd did not want peace. They wanted an army to take away Rome, Pilate, and Herod.
When Jesus did not act in the way they wanted, when he was not a king on the terms desired by the crowd, they turned him over to the very people they wanted overthrown.
On Palm Sunday, Jesus rode on a donkey as the crowd shouted Hosannas and cried out, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord,” so much for the crowd's patience.
In Matthew’s Gospel, Pilate is particularly reluctant to put Jesus to death. Perhaps this is because of his wife’s dream. Perhaps it was because Pilate had already put many Jews to death. He learned that it is best not to incite the crowds during a festival. With Jerusalem’s population swelled by all who came to the capital for the Passover, this was no time to excite an angry mob.
Pilate offers a choice. Following his custom of letting one prisoner go free, he asks whether that man should be Jesus, who is called the Messiah, or Jesus Barabbas. The choice in the Aramaic of the time is stark. “Barabbas” is not a name but something like revolutiony’s nickname. It means “Son of a Father.” The dramatic irony is that we are to see the crowd choose Barabbas, the “son of a father,” instead of Jesus, the “son of the father,” our father in heaven.
When given this choice, the mob shouted even more, “Let him be crucified!” Pilate abdicates to mob rule, hoping that the anger of the mob will end with Jesus. Pilate literally washes his hands of the matter, hoping the mob will leave him and his palace in peace.
In the gospels, we read of an innocent victim. Even though the whole world on that day seemed to be set against him, the one man, Jesus, was still right. It was possible for everyone – every person against him, every follower of him, everyone – to be wrong and for Jesus to be right.
It is still true. So often, Christianity is judged by the ways Christians act. It is hard to separate Christ from Christians. However, we may all act wrongly, and the truth of Jesus remains true.
There would have been voices on the edge of the crowd. People who wanted to speak remained silent. There would have been voices of reason in the angry mob – voices silenced by the shouting crowd, by fear. Many in the mob that Good Friday did just that.
As the sky darkened that noon when Jesus hung on the cross, there would have been those who felt foolish to have ever proclaimed Jesus as a King. Some had waved palm branches and shouted at the tops of their lungs. Now wished they had remained silent. From the joy of that Sunday entrance, to the darkness of Good Friday, the crowd went from praise to hatred. When Jesus failed to vent their anger at Rome, the violence turned against the son of David.
By three o’clock, the darkness of that day is complete, and Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It was time for the crowd to go home. The promise of hosannas now crushed into dust.
The earth shook, and few heard the words of the centurion as Jesus died, “Truly this man was God's Son!” The only voice of hope to be heard until Jesus own feet stepped on the dust of the garden three days later, proving that love could conquer even the anger of the crowd and the sting of death. Amen.