aPalm Sunday ~ March 16, 2008 ~ A sermon preached by The Rev’d Erl G. Purnell at Old St. Andrew’s Church, Bloomfield, CT

Liturgy of Palms ~ Matthew 21.1-11

Isaiah 50.4-9a; Psalm 31.9-16; Philippians 2.5-11; Matthew 26.14-54

The Liturgy of the Palms contains a reading from the Gospel according to Matthew. Matthew tells his version of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem “mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Even though the writer is a bit confused about the actual critter carrying Jesus—Was it a donkey or a colt or a foal of a donkey or both?—Jesus is cheered by the crowd following him: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

And then, little noticed by most, Matthew writes, “When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, ‘Who is this?’ The crowds were saying, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.’”

What is little noticed is the description of who Jesus is. He’s not the carpenter. He’s not the Teacher/Rabbi. He’s not the healer. He’s not the miracle worker. He’s not the parable-teller. He’s not the King of kings. He’s not the King of the Jews. He is NOT the Messiah. Rather, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

This is the prophet Jesus! According to David Noel Freedman, “Prophets of the Bible claim to be both foretellers and forth-tellers and base their claims upon their private access to the God of Israel, who is the ruler of history—past, present, and future. Prophecy, as an essential part of Israel’s theo-political structure, and the prophetic movement, as an actual historical phenomenon, had [its] beginnings with Samuel and his band of followers in the eleventh century B.C.E.”[i]

Doesn’t it seem striking that Jesus is characterized during his ascent to Jerusalem as a prophet and not the Messiah? Why isn’t he recognized and acclaimed as the Messiah as Peter had named him back in Galilee?

Prophets begin their careers with a divine call and then a commission to accomplish something. Prophets have a message to convey to “others and especially for the nation, its leaders, and the people generally.”[ii] Many Prophets—Moses, Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha to name four—are miracle-workers. Some prophets accomplish a lot—Moses and Samuel for example—while others—like Elijah, Isaiah, and Amos—have only spotty success. No matter what, prophets stand on high moral and ethical ground. They serve as “custodians of the covenant and community” to use Freedman’s words again. And finally, a prophet is the voice between God and God’s people.

Later in Chapter 21 (verse 46), Matthew says, “They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.” But, the other seventeen references in Matthew’s Gospel to prophets all refer to the Biblical prophets of Israel’s history, not to Jesus. Only in Jerusalem is Jesus called a prophet.

One easily missed characteristic of prophets is that they are all human. They may be from God and representatives of God, but they are very human. Could Matthew be holding up Jesus’ humanity by saying, “This is the prophet Jesus of Nazareth in Galilee”? Maybe. Or, is it the expectation that prophets get killed, especially in Jerusalem?

Another image is prominent in the Palm Sunday liturgy. It’s the image of the King. In Jesus’ day, who was king? Caesar! Make no mistake, Caesar was king and Caesar was the son of God! Everybody knew it and everybody said it out loud, especially in the presences of the Romans.

But, our liturgy begins by my acclaiming, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.” To the citizens of Jerusalem, that could only have meant Caesar. Later, after we hear the Matthew piece, I, as Celebrant, also pray, “On this day [Jesus] entered the holy city of Jerusalem in triumph, and was proclaimed King of kings by those who spread their garments and branches of palm along his way.” Oops. I think that might be a mistake. Didn’t we just say the people identified Jesus as “the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee”? and, according to Matthew, didn’t the people shout, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

When we read the Passion, Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus responds, “You say so.” Then, after Barabbas is set free, we—the bystanders—ridicule Jesus, shouting, “Hail, King of the Jews!”

Well, confusion abounds, doesn’t it? Donkey or colt or foal of a donkey? Prophet or king? King of the Jews? Messiah?

The Palm Sunday liturgy and worship are filled with confusion. This story line is also filled with irony. At first things go well for Jesus. Then, suddenly, everything comes unglued. Jesus is betrayed and arrested. The once friendly crowd appears to turn on Jesus. “Let him be crucified!” they shout. And, HE IS CRUCIFIED!

We can never know for sure what happened to Jesus of Nazareth that week in about 33 of the common era. What does seem evident is that he died cloaked in an irony that has set his life apart ever since. On the one hand, Jesus was the peasant prophet from Nazareth who openly mocked Caesar by riding up to Jerusalem from the south on an ass just as Caesar’s representative, Pilate, paraded into the city from the north on a huge war-horse amid crowds hailing Caesar as King and Caesar as son of God.

On the other hand, the followers of Jesus experienced him ironically as the true king of the Jewish people. Acclaimed a prophet in Matthew’s Gospel, certainly Jesus was a truth-teller of extraordinary character. He modeled himself on the suffering servant of Second Isaiah and called the Jewish people to humble themselves and become servants of God. He challenged the oppressive domination system of both the Romans and the Temple elite. His parables and teaching turned conventional wisdom upside down. He said the last should be first and the first should be last. What a crazy, confusing, mixed-up story this is!

The irony is that, these many years later, Jesus of Nazareth, the prophet from Galilee, the son of David, the one who comes in the name of the Lord, is, for all the world to see, the servant who has outlived Caesar and Pilate, high priests and Ciaphas, the chief priest. The servant king of the Kingdom of God lives. The juxtaposition of power and service that characterizes this Jesus stands right smack in front of us still. We would do well to spend some of this week asking ourselves, “Who is this Jesus?” Of course, the quick answer is, “Jesus is the Christ.”

But, between Palm Sunday and Easter, a lot happens. How might we use that to understand who Jesus was real-time and what his extraordinary life and teaching means to our own lives today?

         Amen.