Year C Palm Sunday Bluegrass Mass April 2022 Is That It?

Year C Palm Sunday Bluegrass Mass, 10 April 2022

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Is That It?”

Luke 19:28-40

After telling a parable to the crowd at Jericho, Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, "Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it.'" So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" They said, "The Lord needs it." Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying,

"Blessed is the king

who comes in the name of the Lord!

Peace in heaven,

and glory in the highest heaven!"

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, order your disciples to stop." He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out."

When I think of this triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem I have to think “what’s going on here” because we don’t have full context here.   The prophet Zachariah said that God would come riding in, not on a stallion, or war horse (just like Pilate would have done), this mighty white steed.  God isn’t like that.  He comes in humility and Grace. 

Jesus comes in on a donkey.  It is almost a mockery of the triumphant entry that Pilate would have had.  Jesus doesn’t have a saddle.  He uses someone’s coat. As he rides in, he doesn’t have the pageantry of soldiers marching ahead of him. He has his disciples and followers flinging off pieces of clothing, like us ripping off in triumph our ties and scarves.  They even grabbed leaves off the trees and waved them, anything they could find, shouting “Hosanna to God in the Highest!”   

It is a mockery of the political powers that be, but I don’t think Jesus is there to make a squabble with the Romans.  Now they had their beef with the Romans, sure, but if you go back and look at your history they were trying to get rid of the Greeks who had come in after Alexander the Great who had conquered everything in the known world.  But the Greeks were bad. Read the stories in the Apocrypha. But then they thought, “Hey!  Let’s invite the Romans.  They’ve got to be better right?”  Yeah, they weren’t. They learned their lesson there.  

As you look at all the history, we see that Jesus is not there to conquer any political system, but to conquer the empire of death itself.  To overthrow the sin of Adam that brought death in, and to show us that God loves us and wants to call us, all of us, hom.

Now Jesus had predicted what would happen to him this week. He knew he had to go to Jerusalem where they kill their prophets. He knew he would be killed and rise again on the third day. Repeatedly he tells his followers this and still they were surprised. 

This morning, if you were with us, we did something unique on Palm Sunday.  We have permission from the Bishop and I think it works really well. We stop the gospel reading once we get to the part of the story when they reach Golgotha. Then we have a sermon, have communion, and then literally as we are walking out the door, we stop and we tell the story of Good Friday. 

Miriam, our Formation Director, told me just before the service the kids said “Is that it? Is that all? Is it over?” Boy, that is the sermon! We see the name and it is almost a mockery calling it “Good” Friday.  As we enter into this week, we see all these paradoxes, these juxtapositions between good/bad, high/low, life and death itself and is that all? Is it over?  That’s a question we all have to answer for ourselves.  Is Easter really what we say it is or not? And if we do say that, how will that make a difference in our lives? We can sing Hosannas loudly, raucously.  

We can call for the overthrow of kingdoms, but if it doesn’t change our hearts, is it anything at all?  Make this week Holy.  Decide for yourself how you will live your life. Is that it? Is it over?  Is there something more? It’s up to you. Amen.