Thursday, April 06, 2017

The Rev. Charles Barebo, Deacon

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday has been a day of excitement as long as I can remember. As a boy, it was the great sword fights when the palm fronds and the eager anticipation of next week’s egg hunt and candy. Today’s gospel tells us about this unexpected and triumphal entry of Jesus entering the Jerusalem. People thronging along the roads, placing their cloaks on the roads, waving palms, singing hymns, there was a festival feeling in the air. Their excitement was only matched by their expectations for this new Messiah or prophet. It’s easy for us to underestimate the emotion that was in the air.

I’ve been through a Palm Sunday much like the one Matthew describes. We were in Kajo Keji on our annual inspection trip about 9 years ago. The parallels between that first Palm Sunday and that Sunday were remarkable. Their new bishop had been elected but had yet been enthroned. The entire diocese was at a fever pitch. The country was voting on independence that month, New Hope had completed three buildings at the college and our first two primary schools. Samaritan’s Purse had committed to building 80 churches in the diocese. In fact, the new bishop was making a visit that Sunday to consecrate and open the first of these new churches. For the first time in over 50 years it appeared that God was bringing his full blessings on His people and they were rejoicing.

From five miles, out people were walking along the road to the village. About two miles out they were lining the road, waving entire palm branches, covering the road with palm fronds, jumping up and down, carrying banners, playing guitars and drums, singing hymns and shouting. A half mile from town the road was completely packed with celebrating people. We got out of the car, and walking behind a tall cross, drummers and hundreds of singing people paraded to the new church began.

Wherever Jesus went the kingdom of God was at hand. And that steamy Sunday morning in Kajo Keji I tell you the kingdom was at hand. I felt it stronger and closer than ever before or since. The spirit was palpable, it was oozing.  The Kingdom is the place we aspire to; it is the place where we want to be. It is indescribably right, so different than what I dreamed for or expected. It is a place of pure joy, peace knowing you are in the presence of God. The Kingdom was at hand on that Palm Sunday.

Like the people thronging on the roads to Jerusalem, the people in Kajo Keji had a different set of expectations for Jesus and the Kingdom than Jesus held for himself. James, John and their mother had a set of expectations for Jesus. Their expectations were about place and power. The people want their new Messiah to be a great military leader. One like Judas Maccabees who will have military victories and cast out the Romans, Herod, the chief priests. But the meaning Jesus attaches to this triumphal entry is quite different from the meaning the crowd has for their messiah.

People turn to God when things get bad. Give us peace now, heal my diabetes, protect my pension, don’t let it rain on our vacation. Give me a job tomorrow. Jesus intends to answer these and all our prayers. He doesn’t wait for us to become pure and able to look him in the eye. He has come to rescue the sick and poor and the lost. It’s not the healthy who need the doctor but the sick.

Jesus answers the people dreams in his own way. The people are asking for a messiah but a messiah on their terms. Jesus will tell them that Jerusalem is under God’s judgement. They want an enthroned messiah but this one will be enthroned on the cross. They want to be rescued from evil and oppression but Jesus will rescue them in full measure not by merely rolling back the Romans and Herod. Jesus will say yes to their prayers at the deepest level. But it will look completely different from what they imagined.


When you invite Jesus to help he will do so much more thoroughly than what we imagined, more deeply than perhaps what we wanted. We may not recognize at the answer to our prayers at first. The story of Palm Sunday is the story of Jesus surprising triumphal entry is a lesson in the mismatch between our expectations and God’s answer. While the people will be disappointed at a surface level the moment Jesus arrives is the moment that salvation is at hand. To learn that lesson is a growth in faith. Let’s relish the feeling of God’s Kingdom entering Jerusalem that Sunday. It is a taste of what heaven will be!

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