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TURN THE DONKEY AROUND: A Palm Sunday Sermon

(~) TURN THE DONKEY AROUND

A Palm Sunday Sermon

by Thomas R. Henry

St. Pauls United Church of Christ, Chicago

April 9, 2006

Texts: Psalm 118: 24-29 / Zechariah 9:9-10 / John 12:12-19

In the Gospels, we are presented with information about Jesus: what he did, what he said, and who he was. But we are given very little information about what he pondered in his heart. One exception is the forty day period of temptation in the wilderness at the very beginning of his ministry…the forty day period we now call the season of Lent. The other is his last night of life in the Garden of Gethsemane…a night in Holy Week we now call Maundy Thursday. In the wilderness at the beginning and in the garden at the end we get a glimpse into his pondering and his prayers. In the wilderness, we hear him respond to his hunger by saying that there are things more important than meeting immediate needs: One does not live by bread alone. In the Garden, he hear him pray for permission to run away: Father, let this cup pass from me.

In the wilderness, he was developing physical and spiritual discipline, bulking himself up for what lay ahead. In the garden, he was fervently praying for a way out of what lay ahead. Yet, in between the wilderness and the garden we are pretty much presented only with his authoritative teachings and his decisive actions. But what if all that time he had kept a journal? What do you think would be in Jesus own journal that would be different from the words written about him in the Gospels? Do you think Jesus would admit to himself and to God that on Palm Sunday he might have been greatly tempted to turn the donkey around and to go the other way? I know that there have been many times in my life when I have wanted to turn the donkey around. Have you? Have you ever wondered if you were going the right way or the wrong way?

My most gut-wrenching wrong way experience was in Washington D.C. I was driving and in the midst of a lot of heavy traffic, I got confused and actually turned the wrong way onto a busy expressway. Just like on Palm Sunday, there were crowds of people. But they were all in their cars. And they were not shouting, “Hosanna!”

Just talking about this now still gives me an icy feeling in the pit of my stomach. For I had not only put my own life in danger that day, but the lives of my wife and my children. And they were not shouting, “Hosanna!” either. I had made a mistake. Jesus had not. He knew what he was doing. But that does not deny the fact that he, too, might have had an icy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He was putting not only his own life but the life of his followers in danger. He knew what he was doing, and some of those followers must have wished that he would turn the donkey around and return to the relative safety of his teachings.

We mostly relate to Jesus as God, but he was also human. That is what makes him

GOD-with-US. Today imagine with me what he must have pondered and prayed about as he rode into Jerusalem, knowing, or at the very least strongly suspecting, that the people who were cheering would later be jeering. We now read this story as a story of the betrayal of Jesus, but people then believed that he had betrayed them. That he had gone the wrong way. Yet, they were also fascinated by him. Some of the pharisees were rightly concerned when they said, “Look the whole world has gone after him.” Those pharisees would have been happy if Jesus had turned the donkey around and ridden off into oblivion.

The people were fascinated with Jesus on Palm Sunday as he rode like a king into the city. For it was tradition then that when a king came in peace, he would ride a donkey. The people were also fascinated with Jesus on Good Friday as they gathered like an audience at a daytime television talk show to watch him be crucified. Today, we continue to be fascinated with him. Even the centuries themselves are measured by Jesus, backwards and forwards from his birth. And yet, with all of the continued fascination with Jesus, do we, even we who are churchgoers, really know who Jesus was? Who Jesus is? Was Jesus the incarnation of God or an admirable man? A gentle shepherd, or a good teacher, or a political organizer? For most people, for most of the time, it doesnt seem to matter much, that is, until they face a crisis or death, or another Holy Week and Easter. Then the question mark appears again, standing stark before them and before us like the old rugged cross on that hill far away. Who is Jesus?

Jesus is fully human and he is fully divine. That is what the creeds all say. That is the faith of the Church. He was called the Son of God and the son of Mary and Joseph, and as I have said a couple of times before, he looked just like all of his parents! He was and is the one who makes it perfectly clear that God is with us; that while God is above and beyond us, God is not above and beyond being hurt by human weakness and evil.

Jesus is the one who was so trusting of his heavenly parent, that he could ride through the adulation of the palm-waving people without being diverted from Gods purpose to their purpose. They wanted a miracle worker who would cure all their diseases and raise them from the dead; they wanted a larger-than-life hero who would overthrow Rome. They wanted a way out of it all. He knew that you had to go through it all.

Jesus is the one who could have his last supper with his friends, knowing they would deny him and betray him. He is the one who could hold fast to his faith and conviction even during humiliation as the crown of thorns was placed on his head.

Jesus is the one who could go to his death praying for those who put him on the cross: Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

Yet, he had moments of doubt and agony that week. On Palm Sunday, following the parade, Luke says that he wept over Jerusalem, and maybe for himself. On Thursday in the Garden of Gethsemane, his sweat fell like great drops of blood as he prayed: Father, let this cup pass from me. But, nevertheless, not what I want but what you want. The struggle expressed by these words was an internal struggle. What was facing Jesus was both what he wanted and what he didnt want. He wanted the outcome. He didnt want the process. Sound familiar? Feel the fear from one of your own past or present experiences: some critical decision you have made or have yet to make; some gut-wrenching experience you have gone through or are going through. Feel that icy fear in the pit of your stomach if you really want to know who Jesus is and what Holy Week must have been for him.

By Friday, his death was certain. On the cross he cried: My God, why have you forsaken me? But in the end he said: Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. From Palm Sunday through Good Friday, we watch God at work. That is why this week is a paradigm week. We all have holy weeks, although they may seem more hellish than holy. We can see the parallels in our own lives as we go through the week with Jesus. Holy Week is Gods week and it is also our week. Holy Week is the ultimate experience of being of good courage, holding fast to that which is good, and returning to no one evil for evil.

Jesus had the power of trust and concentration; of reliance upon the faithfulness of God to work for good in all things for him and with him. I believe that Jesus was not predestined to do what he did. Yes, he was brought to Palm Sunday by God. Through his very close relationship with God; through the earlier decisions he had made in his life; through the experiences he had with people who affected his life; and through his own sense of purpose and calling. But I believe he could have made a last minute change of plans. He could have turned the donkey around. If he had done that, he would have relieved his immediate anxiety and would not have had to sweat blood in the Garden later that week. Instead, he chose differently. He had prepared himself way back there in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry. And he saw it through to the end.

Jesus made his decision to ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, pretty much knowing what lay ahead, at least as far as Friday. It was in his riding on, and not turning back, that he made the day of resurrection possible. He was given Easter and eternal glory by God. He was given Easter. And because of that, we are given Easter. Now we know more than 2000 years later, that we, too, can be of good courage, hold fast to that which is good, return to no one evil for evil, and live through it all.

Riding on. Riding on with that icy feeling in the pits of our stomachs. You see, that icy feeling may not be just our human fear. It may actually be a God-given sensation. That icy feeling may be that which tempers an attitude of arrogance which would keep us from questioning whether or not we should keep going in the direction we are going. Arrogance and cowardice have something in common. So, questioning is necessary. We dare not ride on blindly or arrogantly, staying a course that should not be stayed. Questioning we must, as Jesus did, in prayer, with discipline, in order to know if we are going the wrong way or the right way.

Jesus knew he was going the right way. He would not turn the donkey around. On the other hand, I knew I was going the wrong way. What those people in those cars were waving were not palms. I had to get my car turned around in order to be going the right way. But the icy feeling didnt go away, and it still hasnt as I ride with you into another Holy Week. .

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