Tho Inesoapable Question
Matthew 21:1-11 :
Lpril 4, 1971, Palm Sunday

John WM. Bucnanan

I think there is no day in the Church year that so vividly portrays what
it moans to be a disciple of Jesus Christ as does Palm Sunday. Lt Christmas
wo reflect on the incredible idea that God loves us enough to come among USe
During Lont we xeflect on the suffering of Jesus Christ. At Baster we colobrate
his victory over death in which we participate. But today, Palm Sunday, is a
day that compels us toward introspection. We must, in honest observance of
this day, look deeply into our own hoarts and measure our faith, our commitment,
our discipleship in a setting that sounds vory real, very immediate and as
contemporary as today's newspaper.

But first there was celebration: a colorful, loud, happy festival, The
first order of the day is his triumphant entry, his welcome to the city of
David. We are inclined, I think, to regard the events of the day as Largely
accidental. He came: he was recognized; a spontaneous parade cruptod. ind wo
feol good about that because it seems as if once ~ this once = he received the
great out pouring of affection and devotion he deserved. But Palm aundelt is
more subtle than that: thero is more hore than an enthusiastic welcoming partye

He came to Jerusalem on the first day of Passover week. That, by itself,
was a rather normal thing for a faithful Jew to do, The ancient historian
Josephus estimatod that two million religious pilgrims visited the capital
city annually for Passover. The Passover, you will recall, is the yearly | Wat
holiday that romembers and celebrates Israel's liberation from Egyptian slavcrys
It is a deeply meaningful occasion for every Jow today. In the first century
it was meaningful because at that moment Isracl was again a captive people
this time on hor own soil.. i

The Roman authorities were rightly ngrvous during the Passovere So wore
their puppets - the temple functionaries. There had been violence in the past

during the Passover when the Roman suthorities had bluntly domanded official

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recognition of Cacsar. If there ever was a time for insurrection it was during
the Passover. The "feel" of the occasion can be compared only to a Fourth of
July Celebration in Washington, D. C. if this country were occupied by foreign
troops, with a puppet ruler in the White House,

Well, Jesus could have walked into the city like any other pilgrim;
celebrated the Passover inconspicuously, and gone home. But instead, he chose
a very curious pattern of behavior, He wont to considerable trouble to procure
an ass on which to ride ~ a strange thing to do in that the distance from
Bethany to Jerusalem is exactly one and a half miles, and nowhere else in the
Gospel narrative do we read that Jesus rode on a beast of burden,

He was, in fact, deliberately acting out a familiar and important prophetic
passage from the Old Testament; "Rejoice greatly 0 daughter of Zion! Shout
aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you: triumphant and
victorious is he: humble and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass."
{ Zech. 9:9]

That particular passage was close to the heart of oveny patriotic Jew.

The Jews had been waiting for a Mossiah for conturics: and the deep, historical
longing was sharpened to a fine cdge yearly during the Passever,. So he came,
and who could have missed the imagery? Who could have failed to perceive what
he was saying, and the claim he was making? The crowd knew: the moment had
come: hearts quickened: branches were stripped from the trees and cloaks from
their backs. "Hossana!" - which means "God save us!" filled the air, “The
whole city was stirred", Matthow records, asking "Who is this?"

If you were a disciple, it was a great momont, filled with wharisma and
potontial. _He could have, at the moment, launched a revolution. If you were
a governmental authority, it was an ominous momont, fraught with danger and
your mind would have been busily concocting the schematat by which this rabble
rouser could be eliminated. If you were an average Jerusalamite, it was an

ambiguous, difficult moment ~ in which you felt yourself being pushed into a

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decision you really didn't want to make. You had nothing against him; you
weren't particularly for him — you certainly didn't relish the prospect of.
taking a personal stand: you wanted nothing so much as for him, to go back
whore he came from so you could return to business as usual.

Jesus knew all of this as he made the decision to come to Jerusalem, He ae
knew opak his coming would do. He knew that he probably would not live through ts
the week. He paused a moment before entering Jerusalam and wept, and we know
in that poignant expression, that he was accutely aware of everything that was
about to happen. He came into the city, I believe, to provoke a confrontation.

His goal, I belicve, was clearly to'pose the question Matthew tells us the city Ree
did ask -~ "tho is this?" Ind in that question I feel the significance of this
day for you and for me, "Who is this onc who comes into our midst?"

It is interesting to speculate what would have transpired had he not come:
or had he ani quictly. Galilee was quict and safe. We have no reason to
believe that he could not have continued his ministry of teaching and healing
in the small villages around the lake. We have no reason to believe that he
could not have lived to a ripe old age, slowly building his following, gradu-
ally establishing his people. Think of the good he could have done; think of
the sick who could have been healed. He lived just 33 years.

He chose not to be practical. I believe, because the very essence of
his life and ministry is precisely that confrontation between his claim and
both the individual and the social, political and economic structures of society.
He came into the city because Galilee, given its quiet comfort and security»
was on the periphery. The city was where the decisions were made. In the
city the cconomic rules were established, In the city the integrity of
Judaism was affirmed or denicd. The city, their as now, was where the action
wase The city, and all it symbolized, was the place where the question had to
be asked and answered: "Who is this?" .

There is a hard lesson in that, which mon have been notoriously reluctant xe

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to learn. Our Lord marched right into the capital city, claimed the rights tc
Kingship, overturned the tables in the Temple, and still the vast majority
of Christians wish that the institutional Church would keep its ceclessias-
tical nose out of the controversial, life and death, social Tem. : of the day.
Our Lord marched into a crowded capital, bursting with two million visitors,
and before he was done everyone in the city had beon forced to make answer
to the question; "Who is this?" ind still the vast majority of Americans
sourry under the umbrella. of Christianity without ever considering what it
means to follow this Lord.

He marched into what is a classic revolutionary setting ~ and refused to
be used for petty political gain. He would not be the tool of the zealots
who wantod armdd insurrection against Rome; nor would he be exploited by the
Establishment for the purposes of preserving law and order and the status quo.
ind still people try to use him, Still the right and the left dare to invoke
his name in support of their causes. My, I'm weary of right wing politicians
making Jcsus Christ the symbol of Americanism; and somehow claiming that our
cause in South Hast Asia is his cause, I'm equally weary of propoganda from
the loft that portrays hims as a first century Che Gueverra leading a people's
revolt against the imperialists.

We are notoriously reluctant to learn the lesson of Palm Sunday because
we prefer to use him - on our terms ~ for whatever reason suits us. "Who is
this?" How do we answer?

Fow have the courage to say that he was a fraud, or an imposter; that
his claims are arrogant and ludicrous; and that his movement must be crushed.
Few have that courage but many act in a manner that accomplishes the same end.
Let us not forget thot the good, respectable people of Jerusalem would pre-
ferred not to have been involved. Let us not forget that neutrality about
this man was a luxury he eliminated on this day. Let us apply that to a —

nation that calls itself Christian and then ignores the Church of Jesus Christ.

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Let us apply that to the majority of the people whose names are on the rolls of
churches and who behave as if that belonging has no significance whatever. ‘iho
is this? How do we answer?

Jesus has always had a good press. People are fond of him, He was a good
man who lived a noble life. He was a great teacher, a shinning moral cxample
for all to follow. That is how many would answer today. lind it is how
Jerusalem would have answered had he not amarched in as Lord and King. The
Jesus of opopular piectyiis a good man, but harmless: a sentimental, fairy talo
figure whose momory may be toyed with on certain days of the year. He is
certainly not a Lord whose will is to be obeyed in the decisions - we make every
day. Jesus is OK for most people - at good, safe arm's length. But keep him
out of my political convictions and the economic polity that determines how I
spend my money and the personal prejudices that I harbor toward my fellow man.

That's how the question is answered. We still want Jesus to stay in
Galilee — out there on the safe periphery of life; or, perhaps more to the
point, seourcly ensconsed in the church, a mapsbve of beautiful buildings and
stately rituals and pious cliches that mean nothing te anyone. But that
answer won't do because of what happened on this day. He will not remain on
the periphery of life in general, nor on the periphery of your life and mine.

George Macleod has said it rather well: “I simply argue that the cross be
raised again at the center of the market place as well as the steeple of the
church . . « Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but
on a cross, between two thieves: on the town garbage heap: at a crossroad
s0 cosmopolitan that they had to write his name in Hebrew and in Latin and
in Greek. . . at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse =
and soldicrs gamble. Because that is where he died and that is what he died
about. ind that is where churchmen ought to be and what churchmen should be
about."

A year or two ago there was a popular song entitled "Who Will {nswer?"

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