This week, some very learned clergypeople were having a facebook discussion, and they talked about the idea, the notion, that there were two crowds in holy week. This was sermon Kryptonite. This was a disaster for me. It was a disaster, because I'd based not only my sermon for the week, but also my entire understanding of Palm Sunday on the idea that people turned on Jesus within a week.
The way I'd understood it was that the Palm Sunday story is about us. It's about Christians, Christians who welcome Jesus into our hearts as he approaches in humility on the back of a donkey. We who welcome Jesus in every week as a humble servant who comes towards us. We welcome him in, and delight in his presence. But Jesus has a nasty habit of not staying where we want him to stay. He has a nasty habit of breaking out of the bounds we put him in. If we want him around in our lives, he will intrude into every area, he will poke and prod around to make sure that our hearts are a fitting dwelling place for him. And we don't want him to do that. We want Jesus to stay in a small box where he can sit and not bother anyone. We want a crucifix around our necks, or a cross on our walls, or a Bible on our shelves, but we don't want said Lord to actually interfere with anything too much. It bothers us when Jesus begins to speak about specific issues that we'd rather he'd butt out of. It's sort of when Jesus goes from talking about how people should be nice to talking about how YOU should be nice. Or the difference between talking about how charity is good, to talking about how YOU should be more charitable. And this ends up being reasonably equivalent to Jesus being welcomed into the holy city by Jackie Chan.. You see, the people want him to be involved in some things, but not in everything. They want him to be the leader, but a leader who does what he says. But Jesus, being God incarnate, doesn't do that. He interferes in everything, grabs a hold of every aspect of life, and points out the righteousness that probably isn't there. That's why it's always a little suspect when you run into someone who says that they're a Christian, and that they love Jesus and all that, but don't really let him interfere too much in their lives. the cheering crowds, and then following that up with kicking over the tables in the temple like he's
Most of us who welcome Jesus on a Sunday will end up resenting him by Friday. He says so many difficult things, so many things that push us in a great many ways that we don't want to go. And so the only solutions are to either ignore him, or seek his crucifixion.
And so that's the way that I have perpetually seen the Palm Sunday story, that we are in the crowd, who love Jesus and then who resent him. I say this because I myself go through alternating times of loving and resenting my Lord, too. It's real life for me.
But then the thought came up that there were two crowds. One crowd who supported Jesus, and another crowd who despised him. There were two crowds, and one of those crowds consistently supported Jesus. As pastor Alex Klages told me on social media:
Palm Sunday is likely mostly Galilean pilgrims who, at about 6am on Friday morning, would likely all be a little sleepy still from the Passover feasting the previous night. The crowd on Good Friday was likely mostly hired guns of the chief priests/Sanhedrin crowd.
So there's the notion that the crowd on Palm Sunday was supportive, the crowd on Good Friday was not supportive, and that there wasn't necessarily overlap. You can have crowds who are favourable to Jesus of Nazareth, and crowds who call for his death, and those might not be the same crowds. And this was a huge revelation for me. It was a huge revelation, because I honestly didn't understand the point of the story after that. I didn't understand the point of the story if it was a crowd that was consistently supportive of Jesus, loving him all along. And then my mind raced to the natural conclusion, which was to ask which crowd am I in? Have I consistently supported Christ in everything he's ever said and done?
No. No I have not. I have not been universally supportive of Jesus of Nazareth. I have not given him my best. I have not called for his release, I have chosen Barabbaas. I have turned my back on Jesus and fled. And this fills me with trepidation, as I think about the distinct possibility, then, that I'm in the other camp, that I'm calling for his death. I wonder if I can muster up sufficient will, sufficient love for Christ, to be in that crowd in which I can consistently shout loud hosannas.
But after all this obsessing, I realized something. I realized something important. I realized that I was missing the point. I was missing the point in the same way so many people have before me. I was spending so much time thinking about me in this story, that I hadn't actually considered Christ.
You see, this whole notion of there being one crowd, or two crowds, or five crowds, or ten crowds, it's really getting in the way of the most important thing, which is that there was one man, and one cross. One Lord. If you dwell on the crowds, as I had been doing, you'll miss the man in the middle of it, and he's the most important part. What he does on Palm Sunday is to ride into town, to take up his cross and to die for the world. To die for one crowd, two crowds, or as many crowds as there are. He went to town to die for Pilate, Judas, Peter, Mary, Caiaphas, Stephen, Lazarus, Mary, Martha, and everyone else that there was or would ever be. The sins of the world were laid upon his shoulders, and he carried them to the cross.
In that sense, though there may have been two crowds, there was only one crowd really. And that crowd is all of humanity. We are all in that one crowd. And the death of Christ is for all of us. And we all say the same thing about it. Hosanna, meaning 'God save us' is the frequent refrain on Palm Sunday, and for good reason. The people are calling out, begging for salvation. And the refrain on Good Friday is 'crucify him!' People seeking the death of Jesus. Two crowds, but both saying the same thing, whether they realize it or not. People call for salvation. How is that salvation accomplished? Through the crucifixion of Christ.
We can spend a lot of time wondering about the crowds, worrying about which of those crowds we are part of, worrying about which of the groups we are in, are we fickle or steadfast, waffling or noble. Or, we can realize that however many crowds there were, there was one Lord who dies for those who love him, and those who hate him. He dies for everyone, lays his life down for all the crowds who may or may not be there. If you only greet those who greet you, what reward do you have? Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. The death that Jesus died, he died for all. Sinners, righteous, those who think they're righteous, the crowd of supporters, the crowd of deniers, whether those were the same people or not. He died for everyone. And he died for you.
My difficulty with Palm Sunday was trying to work out where I fit in, what this story says about me. Maybe it doesn't say anything about me. Maybe it just talks about the suffering servant, his final trip to Jerusalem, and his death there for me. And maybe that's what's important.
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