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Palm Sunday, 04/05/2009
Sermon on Mark 11:1-11, by Hubert Beck
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Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, "Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?' say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.'" And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?" And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!" And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
(English Standard Version, from which all quotes below are also taken)
BREAKING THE UNRIDDEN COLT
You know what I mean when I speak of an "electric atmosphere," do you not?
It is the five year old waking on her birthday, hyper-active, hardly able to contain herself in anticipation of the party that will take place that afternoon. In the midst of your preparations, the air is filled with excitement! It is "electric"!
It is the crowd gathered in a large stadium where two intense rivals are about to engage in a football or basketball or baseball or soccer match. The air is abuzz with tension. It is an "electric atmosphere."
It is the stress in the air at the Academy Awards gala as those assembled - and especially those nominated - gather to hear the results of the votes about to be announced. The atmosphere is charged. It is "electric."
It is just that kind of atmosphere that fills the air of our text. It is highly charged. It is "electric."
THE "ELECTRIC ATMOSPHERE" IN JERUSALEM ON PALM SUNDAY
According to Mark, Jesus has not been anywhere near Jerusalem since his baptism in the Jordan River. Even that was at a considerable distance from the temple city, however. Up to that time of his baptism, for that matter, nobody had identified Jesus as anybody special.
Even since then his ministry had been questioned. Matthew tells us quite openly that people, especially those of his hometown Nazareth, felt that he was overstepping his bounds. "Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" (Matthew 13:54-56)
Yet word of his marvelous works had preceded his entrance into Jerusalem of which we read today. He had given sight to a blind man as he worked his way to Jerusalem. Even more marvelously, according to John, he had raised Lazarus from the dead in Bethany, from which town we hear of his coming in the text.
An "electric atmosphere" of sorts always filled Jerusalem at this time of year anyway as throngs of people filled its streets in anticipation of and in celebration of the Passover. Undoubtedly many of them were Galileans, the area from which Jesus came and in which Jesus had spent the days of his ministry. They apparently had been told that Jesus would be among those visiting Jerusalem this year and they spread the word, charging that "electricity" in the air up to an explosive level. The scene was set for an uproar of a highly volatile nature.
Pontius Pilate, the Roman appointee to maintain order in Jerusalem knew about it, and undoubtedly had put his guard on double alert.
The religious authorities very likely were anticipating a real showdown as the shadow of Jesus fell over them, and they were ready to settle the furor that had settled around Jesus for some time now as his challenges from Galilee, a considerable distance to the north, had increasingly threatened the "final word" exercised by the Chief Priest and the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. They wanted to sequester him in some way, but "they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet." (Matthew 21:46) As the tension grew they knew that something had to be done. They also knew, however, that it must not be "during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people." (Matthew 26:5)
The entire citizenry of Jerusalem along with all the visitors were aware that a confrontation between Jesus and anyone and everyone else in authority was imminent.
The wise political advisor would have urged Jesus to settle the dust, to take it easy, to quiet the crowds lest real trouble should take place - trouble that would have upset the scruples of devout Jewish laypeople - trouble that would have erupted into open animosity with those in charge of the temple area, possibly leading to unnecessary violence - and, above all, trouble that would have threatened what little Jewish autonomy remained under Roman rule.
Jesus was not particularly interested in what political advisors would say, though.
THE "ELECTRIC ATMOSPHERE" IS ELEVATED
In fact, he deliberately elevates that "electric atmosphere"! He sends his disciples to obtain a colt for him to ride on. Moreover, the colt was to be "commandeered," so to speak. Had pre-arrangements been made? Was this an off-the-cuff moment? It is hard to say. Jesus certainly knew where the colt was, something about the owner to whom they were to address his needs, and his certainty that the owner would agree to let them leave with the colt. At any rate, just as Jesus had said, when the disciples were challenged as they untied the colt, its owner first questioned their actions and then agreed to let it go when they told him that Jesus had need of it.
This alone, you might note, would stir things up, for the owner must have immediately let it be known that this man Jesus was about to do something dramatic. Why else would he want a colt? The word spread as the disciples, leading the colt, drew near to Jesus. The atmosphere intensified.
"And they threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it." Never before and never after this do we ever hear of Jesus riding on an animal. This unique way of entering Jerusalem roused all the populace in the area even more. "And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields." It is hard for us to recapture how highly all this raised expectations of the people who observed all this.
Among other reasons why we find it so difficult to recapture that intensity is this: we are not nearly so familiar with the writing of the prophets as were those people who experienced these events. Around four hundred years and more before this scene unfolded the prophet Zechariah had spoken of a renewal of Jewish hopes that had rung in Jewish ears through the centuries since then. "Thus says the LORD: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain." (Zechariah 8:3) Glorious promises of this return of God's glory to the holy city were made throughout that chapter of the prophet's proclamations with which these people were well acquainted. . . and upon which the people of God had placed their hopes for the four centuries since they were first uttered.
To top all those promises off, Zechariah had written in high poetic language, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. . . his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth." (Zechariah 9:9, 10b) These words rang in the ears of those who "spread their cloaks on the road" while "others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields."
They were equally well known, and undoubtedly rang equally loudly in the ears of this man who mounted the colt! It was a deliberate raising of hopes and expectations among people who had only heard of him at a distance, but now were seeing him personally entering Jerusalem - as the one of whom Zechariah had spoken!!!
In light of all this, is it any wonder that their cry as they saw Jesus moving toward Jerusalem riding on a "donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey" became "Hosanna! [which means something like "save now"!] Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!" They sensed that Zechariah's celebrated promises of a renewed kingdom was about to take place. They could hardly contain themselves! Rather than dampening their spirits, Jesus raised them to still more elevated heights if that were possible.
Had he ridden a war horse into Jerusalem, Pilate would have had his soldiers take him in an instant as a Roman challenger.
Riding a donkey, the religious authorities knew what Pilate did not know - namely, that this was a promise of insurrection in accord with Jewish nationalistic ambitions. They also knew that it was explosive enough that they had better take care of this man in a hurry, for there was no hope of success before the redoubled presence of the Roman army Pilate had brought to Jerusalem. The only thing this could lead to was an intense crackdown of Roman power and the end of whatever Jewish self-government, political or religious, that was left to them.
The scene was set for those events rehearsed on Passion Sunday as the week before us is already now unfolding before our eyes. We read it today before it happens so that we can, with greater particularity, follow it in the week before us with greater attentiveness. It is no wonder that it is called "Passion Week," for passions flow on every side - not the least, of course, being the passionate and loving willingness of our Lord to suffer in our behalf, giving himself into death for the sins of the world..
WHAT ABOUT THAT DONKEY?
We have paid no attention whatever to a small phrase easily overlooked in the account we have been rehearsing. "You will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it."
Why does Mark - or Jesus, for that matter - go out of his way to tell us that this colt had never been ridden? Neither Matthew nor John tell us that . . . although Luke also records it! Why even mention it?
Here we enter the world of guess-work, of course. But precisely because they say nothing more than this, we can do some speculating without damaging the text - and, hopefully, perhaps even interpreting the text.
An unridden colt, by definition, is an unbroken colt. It is neither used to having a human placed on it nor does it have any sense of the way a human might direct it. It is still, in many ways, a "wild animal" accustomed only to doing what it wants to do. It is far more likely to "throw" the human than it is to permit the human to ride it.
Yet it succumbs to its first rider, Jesus of Nazareth! It shows no reluctance at carrying this newly placed burden and, in fact, it is willing to let him direct it as he wishes in whatever fashion he chooses.
Do Mark and Luke have some underlying message to give us when they include that tidbit of information?
Jesus was clearly riding into "alien territory," the place where enemies surrounded him on every side. The Romans had the power of life and death over him. The religious authorities had the power to take the sting out of his teaching by undermining the authority of his ministry. Pious Jews saw him as a threat to everything they have ever stood for. The nationalistic hopes of many were the only thing - along with those accounts of his considerable powers over sickness and even death - that supported him as he entered this "alien territory." Those who were supportive of him were undoubtedly many (we hear their cries of support in the text), but they were not the powerful ones. All the power lay in the hands of his enemies - and he was riding into the very center of the storm!
Those were the things that were evident to the eye of all those who lined the streets that day.
But far more formidable foes were at hand of which nobody there was in the least aware - enemies of humankind that were unseen; demonic powers that deceived even the most devotedly godly among the people, hiding from their eyes the fact that in their every attempt at reconciling themselves to God from whom they had become separated by sin, they were, in fact, separating themselves even further; forces that were manned by the same Satan who had encountered Jesus in the wilderness immediately after his baptism, tempting him to take alternate courses of action in his ministry rather than the one that was now coming to its climax here in Jerusalem. His most dominant and potent foes were sin and all that accompanied it - and death itself, the final word that sin exerted over the world.
These were the real "unridden colts" of the text! Throughout human history efforts had been made to tame this colt of sin. Many and well-meaning were the efforts at taming this colt by means of intense self-control of will, sacrificial offerings, severe self-denial - efforts of every kind had been made. All to no avail. Humanly speaking, these efforts had literally come to a deadend.
Failing a power no less than God's own intervention all was lost! Humans, left to themselves, were helpless.
"Hosanna!" "Save now!" the people shouted, hardly knowing what they were saying! For them, the "saving" was hopefully from the Roman heel placed so ruthlessly on their necks. Little did they know that Jesus was riding the unbroken colt of sin and death as a new master! Although he would literally dismount this colt and send it back to its original owner, he would ride the unbroken donkey of death to its bitter end on the cross as the ultimate way of salvation. "Hosanna in the highest!"
THE WAY TO THE CROSS IS ESTABLISHED
"And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve."
What a let-down! The people were hoping for a showdown - and all Jesus did was dismount, look around as though he were little more than an interested tourist viewing the temple grounds . . . and went back to his place of lodging! Nothing more! He left the people high and dry. He left Jerusalem, returning to Bethany. Instead of addressing the high hopes of all those welcoming him to Jerusalem, he seemed to disregard the high acclaim they had bestowed upon him. Had he "chickened out"? Had he not recognized the possibility of the moment? Had he snubbed his nose at those who had heaped praises on him? Was he a fraud - a deceiver - a coward - a weakling?
One must sense all these questions arising out of the account of Palm Sunday if one is to understand that curious course of events following this day narrated in the longer reading for this day of Passion Sunday. Those events were not mere happenstance. They were all orchestrated by this man who had entered Jerusalem riding an unridden colt!
He knew full well what he was doing! The crowds were no more in charge of the course of events that now followed than were Pilate or the religious authorities - or even his disciples, themselves! They returned to Bethany with him - perhaps as miffed at what was happening as were the crowds they now left behind. It was Jesus, himself, who was "in charge" of all that had happened from the time he sent his disciples to obtain this unridden colt through the time when the nails were being pounded into his hands and feet.
From this time forward he controlled the scene. The disenchantment that followed his dismounting of the colt and return to Bethany was only intensified as, during the week following, he increasingly challenged every attempt at "taming" Jesus in the same way that he had "tamed" the colt! Jesus was not to be "tamed"! He increasingly established an "electric atmosphere" by thwarting every attempt at cornering him by argument or force - until he, himself, was willing to be "cornered." Then - and only then - would those around him have their way with him. But only because he had established the course of events himself. All whom he encountered from this time forward were frustrated by him until Pilate, out of utter exasperation at Jesus' unwillingness to cooperate in every attempt Pilate made to "justify" this man before the increasingly demanding crowds, handed him over to those who held the hammer and nails in their hands, washing his hands over the whole matter. No - it was not Pilate or Caiaphas or Annas or the soldiers who crucified him or any of the other protagonists in this matter who controlled the course of events.
It was the one who knew that it was only through his "obedience to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:8) that the unridden colt of sin would be tamed by means of this obedience to his Father's will. He had to ride it to the bitter end in spite of every effort on the part of those around him to stop that very course of events from occurring in the time and place that it did. On the day we know as Palm Sunday he, himself, set the wheels in motion that inevitably led to the cross. He died in the context of the Passover, for in the Passover one discovers the true meaning of what was taking place.
It is the blood of the Passover lamb placed on the doorposts and lintels of our lives that causes the angel of death to pass over us! We call it faith - this glad willingness to have the blood of the Passover lamb placed over our doorposts and lintels. The Lamb sacrificed in our behalf is our hope and our salvation.
But if the story were to end on the cross, the unridden colt would have finally thrown its passenger at the very time he seemed to have broken it! The glory of this riding, however, lies in the fact that this death was the death of only one thing, and one thing only - it was the death of sin and the death of the death that follows hard on the heels of sin. It was the gateway to life, in fact . . . life as only God can give it to one.
THE "UNRIDDEN COLTS" OF TODAY
On what "unridden colts" of your life does Jesus offer to ride?
Is it an "unridden colt" of sins lamented, burdening your conscience? Is it an "unridden colt" of worry and concern about your future? Is it an "unridden colt" of a broken relationship that you long to have repaired? Is it an "unridden colt" of doubt bordering on despair? Is it an "unridden colt" of an addiction that controls your life? Is it an "unridden colt" of temptations that you feel unable to deal with? Is it an "unridden colt" of pride that you find difficult to curb . . . or a sense of inferiority that immobilizes you, making you feel unable to move confidently in any direction?
There are ever so many "unridden colts" in life - in every life! Jesus sends his people to untie each and every one of them, bringing them to him so that he may break them by his riding on them. When we try riding them on our own they will inevitably throw us, for they are stronger by far than our ability to break them. They will eventually throw us into the grave if left to nothing other than a struggle between them and us.
When Jesus rides them with us, however, he guides them through the valley of doubt and despair, of uncertainty and darkness, of weakness and temptations . . . even through the valley of sin and the death to which all sin leads . . . to the far side of resurrection and new life. When he rides them, he rides them straight into the death of everything old, you must note. In other words, his riding them with us is not to provide a "protected fortress" from the evils that surround us or dwell within us. He rides them with us through the darkest nights and the fiercest storms. But if it is he who rides with us, we know that the "unridden colt" cannot throw us. It is tamed by him who rides with us, and it is guided by him who rides with us out of the darkness into the light, out of the terror into the safety of the Father's house.
It is he who rides on the waters of our baptism, uniting us to himself and his death and resurrection. He does not keep us from the dark valleys - not even the dark valley of dying - for he, himself, has traveled that way. But he feeds us as we pass through those places on the same body and blood that was shed in our behalf on the way to the far side of death - to resurrection and life on the path that this Jesus of Nazareth alone knows the way.
When he rides with us on these "unridden colts" of life we are confident that he knows where those colts should go and he will break them in such a way that they cannot throw us off, no matter how much they wish to.
So ride with him. He will take you safely to lands unexplored, to places unanticipated, to joys unknown, to hope beyond our wildest imaginations, to life beyond death!
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.