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Palm / Passion Sunday, 03/28/2010
Sermon on Luke 23:20-24, by Steve Saxe
Working the Crowds
John 12: 12 the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!"
Luke 23: 20Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, 21but they kept shouting, "Crucify, crucify him!" 22A third time he said to them, "Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish and release him." 23But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed. 24So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted.
Do you enjoy being in or working among a crowd? Should you happen to be a law enforcement officer, teacher, politician or celebrity, working with crowds is a routine part of your job. The skills required for self conduct or control when in a crowd are very different from the skills needed for managing an individual or a small group of people. When politicians and celebrities are in a crowd, you may observe how a large group of people influences their behavior.
Relating to crowds and large groups of people requires special social skills. Such skills help public officials and business leaders learn how to conduct themselves in a crowd; an activity called "working the crowd."
It is worth noting that both Gospel readings for the observance of Palm and Passion Sunday include crowds of people. Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem involved a crowd of one sort, while St. Luke's account of Jesus' Passion and death involves another crowd of an entirely different kind. Thus we hear about an enthusiastic crowd of people welcoming our Lord as he entered into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and an equally enthusiastic but hostile crowd intensely focused upon Jesus of Nazareth less than a week later; and the latter crowd is entirely different from the former! For that crowd would see to it that Jesus left the holy city of Jerusalem for the last time!
Less than a week had passed between Palm Sunday and Good Friday, and Jesus had not changed. Yet between His coming into and His going out of the city of Jerusalem, the disposition of the crowds surrounding Him had shifted.
So we hear about two very different crowds on this day, but the same Christ. The juxtaposition of the Gospel readings for this Palm Sunday & the Passion of our Lord tells us much about our humanity and about the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ.
It is telling that that in all four Gospel accounts describing Jesus' Palm Sunday "triumphal entry" into the city, none but Luke's gives us any indication that Jesus worked the crowd. Matthew, Mark and John's Gospels, give no evidence of how Jesus responded to the acclamation and excitement of that crowd.
St. Luke alone tells us that Jesus engaged a small part of the Palm Sunday crowd: the Pharisees. They wanted Jesus to rebuke His disciples for their loud display of palms and praise. Luke also includes an additional detail about Jesus' weeping as He approached the city. The other Evangelists are strangely silent about Jesus' response to the Palm Sunday multitude. They present a Jesus who makes no comment and appears unmoved by the popularity parade that heralded His entry. All of which suggests to us that Jesus, unlike the media-massaged public figures of our own time, didn't do anything to encourage the adoring assembly. Beyond his riding on the donkey's colt and going along the show, we are left with the impression that He went along with it all or perhaps simply tolerated it. Perhaps Jesus knew how fickle crowds can be?
Still, the Palm Sunday crowd considered Him the man of the hour! St. John tells us why:
The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign.On the Sunday of Palms, Jesus was heralded as he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!
Yet within one week, another crowd would gather and come to a very different conclusion about this
same Jesus of Nazareth, and how the mood of that crowd would contrast with Palm Sunday's! "Crucify, crucify him!..." they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed. The crowd and their cries had changed, and so the One acclaimed as blessed and the King of Israel by the Palm Sunday throng, would, at the demand of another crowd, be crucified on a cross with an inscription: "This is the King of the Jews."
Yet Jesus had not changed. He had been consistent and pursued His mission in carrying out the Father's will. He had spoken words of eternal life, and those words became deeds in the crowd He had to face. Luke's Gospel mentions several associated with Jesus Passion:
And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him.
And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals... And the people stood by, watching
And so it was the Good Friday crowd that prevailed. Silent before His accusers, Jesus finally spoke from the cross, where He worked that crowd.
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
"Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
"Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!"
In Luke's account of the Passion, Jesus speaks more from the cross than He does in His own defense before Herod or Pilate. No less than 3 times does our Lord speak from His cross, which is where His best work is done! Suspended between heaven and earth on the hard wood of the cross implanted upon a mount called Golgotha, Jesus, the Christ of God worked the crowd indeed! He who is God in human form gave Himself over to death
"Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!"
And the crowd responded. Luke tells us about that when Jesus breathed his last.
all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts.
That crowd was moved by the spectacle of a public execution of a criminal by crucifixion, but we are left with no certainty that the crowd ever understood the work that He did.
Yet Luke tells how some within the crowd at the cross respond. There is the one repentant thief who says, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And how Jesus worked! He said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." With the thief, a Gentile Roman centurion observed and praised God, saying, "Certainly this man was innocent!" And there was also the man named Joseph, from the Jewish town of Arimathea... (who) went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. All three had all been a part of the crowd at the cross and had seen Jesus at work!
What they saw and heard made them stand out from the crowd, for they saw God at work in His speaking, dying, forgiving and giving of Himself! All of it worked out on a cross
We all know what it means "go along with the crowd." We gather on this day and claim our allegiance with that Palm Sunday set described by John. We are among those who hail Jesus as our Lord and King. But how easily do we identify with those other crowds; the crowds that surrounded Jesus in His Passion? Do we ever see ourselves as part of that hostile Good Friday group before Pilate in the Praetorium shouting "crucify Him?" Or are we among the neutral spectators along the Via Dolorosa (Way of Sorrows) that Jesus walked as He exited Jerusalem to His final destination?
Perhaps we aren't sure which crowd we belong to. Truth be told, most of us probably belong to all of them from to time. But what we can be sure of is that as Jesus worked the crowds of Holy Week, so He works for us as well! As He went into and came out of Jerusalem, He is here to work this congregation as well. His Word and way accomplishes God's will. Forgiving us when we do not know which crowd to follow or what we do. Assuring us of a place with Him today, by giving Himself unto death so that we may live as part of that great company of witnesses who repent and believe unto life eternal.
Glory to Jesus Christ, who still works crowds!
Amen
Bemerkung:
John 12:12-13