Scripture: Mark 11:1-11
I’ve often talked about Palm Sunday as being one of the greatest moments of mistaken identity in history. Jesus, after his long journey (both geographically and narratively) to Jerusalem, has finally arrived. He’s here! His reputation as a teacher, a worker of miracles, as fulfillment of prophecy, has preceded him. Everyone is excited. The king has come at last!
A king like David. A king like the people had of old. An unbeatable warlord. A just judge. He’s their King Arthur. He’s a figure of legendry come back to life. He’s everything they’ve wanted, everything they’ve needed for generations and he’s come at last.
But, of course, that’s not who Jesus really is. They wanted a worldly ruler, a liberator who would free them from the power of Caesar and his legions. What they got was something quite different.
There’s a part of me that finds this all quite funny. They got it so wrong. Of course, Jesus is a king, but the king of a heavenly kingdom. Of course, Jesus is precisely what they need, but in a way no one really understood. In fairness to those crowds waving palm branches and singing Hosanna that day, most of them weren’t with him for his teachings. They didn’t hear the talk of “loving your neighbor” and “blessing your enemies.” They didn’t see the miracles performed on those society would have regarded as unworthy of such an honor. They didn’t hear the call to follow even to the cross. They witnessed none of that. They simply did not know who he was.
They’d heard the stories, and many of those were likely mistold or misunderstood by their tellers, and they filled in the blanks with their own desires.
Jesus was doomed to disappoint.
In fact, I would argue that he would have disappointed those crowds no matter what he did on that first Palm Sunday. Sure, we all know he passed by the Antonia Fortress to go on to the temple. We all know he did nothing to the Roman garrison, to the soldiers and their commanders. We know he did nothing to Pilate in his palace. He left all that alone, left it all in place. But what if Jesus hadn’t? What if he had come and became the king they wanted him to be?
Of course, for the long-term fate of the whole human race, that would have been an unmitigated disaster. No cross. No empty tomb. No sacrifice, once for all, for our sins. No salvation. But setting aside all that for a moment, if Jesus had strayed from that course, would the people have been satisfied?
I doubt it.
Alright, Jesus becomes a worldly king. He kicks out the Romans. He becomes the reincarnation of David, just like the crowds want. Now what? Well, he rules. Will he rule justly? Will he rule kindly? Will his every decision be met with universal support? What happens if the land does not prosper? What happens if he doesn’t do what I want him to do?
Ooh! There’s a sticking point. What does happen if King Jesus doesn’t do what some person or persons want? What if he rules against the Pharisees? What if he does something that upsets the Sadducees? What if he tells off the rich? What if he doesn’t give the merchants the tax break they want?
Sooner or later, someone is going to get mad at King Jesus. Someone, sooner or later, is going to do whatever they can to get him out of power. Why? Wasn’t this what they wanted on that Palm Sunday? No, it’s not really what they wanted. They thought they wanted a king to get rid of the Romans. They shouted hosanna to someone they thought would do that, but that’s not what they really wanted. What they really wanted was someone who would do exactly what they said.
They didn’t want a king like David. They wanted a king like Herod, a puppet on strings, dancing to their tune. And how do I know that? Because that’s what we all want deep down. When the serpent came to Eve in the garden, he tempted her with one thing and it was all he needed. “Eat and you will be like God.” You will be in charge.
That’s still the worst of all temptations: to run the show, to get the whole world to dance to our tune. That’s still what we want. Atheists declare they’ll abolish all religions so everyone will dance to their tune. The Religious Right seek to destroy religious freedom so everyone will play the game by their rules. ISIS murders everyone different than they are so everyone will be too afraid to be anything but just like them. All over the world you see it. Everybody wanting to rule the world.
And along comes Jesus, along comes the Son of God. He can either dive into that muck, be a king as the world has, and alienate people because he doesn’t follow their line of thinking. Or he can stay above it all and do what he came to do. Either way, he’s going to disappoint. Either way, they’re going to kill him.
Friends, this world is broken. It is broken by sin and the idea that somehow we’re going to fix all of this by our own ingenuity and strength is wrongheaded and misguided. It won’t work. Yes, we can solve symptoms of our fallen reality. We can fix the corruption in our government (for a time). We can help the poor and downtrodden (for a while). But it won’t be long before someone with what they think is a better idea comes along, and there’s a debate or a fight, and the whole thing falls apart all over again. That work is never done because we can never truly fix what’s really wrong with our world.
But Jesus can. And that’s the choice before him on that dusty road heading into Jerusalem. Do what the people want and be the king they think they desire, play by the world’s rules and yeah, he could fix things for a little while. But soon the madness would return and everything would fall apart. Nothing would last because nothing would be fixed. Sin would remain.
Far better then to fix the real problem. Far better then to die for the sake of all those broken people waving those palm branches and complaining about the noise, each one convinced in their own minds they’ve got the best plan for saving the world. They don’t. God does. One that will not disappoint. One that will not fall apart with the passing of the years. One instead that is eternal and universal. One that will fix the real problem of the world. One that will destroy sin and death forever.
But to do that requires a cross, not a throne. Amen.
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