Palm Sunday: Even the Stones Cry Out

Luke 19:28-40

 There are certain choruses from rock songs that seem almost timeless. They stick with us perhaps because they get at some kind of truth that really resonates. When the Beatles wrote “All you need is love…” A whole lot of us would forever be able to finish the sentence.  Aretha wrote, R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Elton sang, “someone saved my life tonight,” Journey sang “don’t stop believing.”  And then you have the Rolling Stones, “You can’t always get what you want…”

Those crowds on the outskirts of Jerusalem that ancient Palm Sunday didn’t get what they wanted. Let me explain: Everyone went wild as Jesus approached the city.  This was it: the moment they had been waiting for!  There they were, on their way to Jerusalem for the Passover feast of liberation and all the old songs and prophecies were flooding back to them. They cheered and sang and the energy pulsed through everyone as they laid their cloaks down. Other gospels tell us they waived palm branches.  The people cried out and “praised God joyfully for all the deeds of power they had seen!” It was electric! “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna!” 

It takes some chutzpa to shout out “blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord” when Pilate, the Regent himself was parading into the other side of the Jerusalem at that very same moment. He was, indeed, processing in with a mighty military parade, flanked by the cavalry, and his soldiers with enormous crowds gathering to see him in all his finery. (He and his entourage always paraded into the city with the Roman military for these religious festivals like Passover).  

Back by Jesus on the other side of the city, the people were bringing to life ancient scriptures. They were crying out words from Psalm 118, which was a part of a collection of psalms called the Hallel that was always sung during these Jewish festivals, Calling out Hosanna, Lord, save us!

Pilate’s informants were everywhere.  And this move of hailing Jesus as “King” was not exactly going to go over smoothly with the Roman authorities. The people with their palms and cloaks were cheering because Jesus made them think of those monarchs of old of ancient Israel: the glory days, the ones who sat on thrones,  the ones who ruled with wisdom and justice, the ones who could make things right.

But Jesus had a deeper, more enduring kind of liberation in mind when he rode into the city. He doesn’t ride in on a warhorse, but a donkey. His liberation is not one of vengeance or domination but of peace. Jesus spent his life as a healer and teacher who welcomed tax collectors, outcasts and those who were banished. He was not the kind of warrior or king the people might expected.

Many of the people there surrounding Jesus would have wanted to topple roman rule, they would have wanted victory and glory but Jesus’s kingdom, as he would later tell Pilate, was not of this world. His power is not in that of tanks and fighter planes, landmines, and supersonic missals.  All we have to do is check the news about Ukraine or Yemen or Somalia these days to see where the grip of that kind of earthly power can take us. Jesus power was a different kind of power and glory. The kingdom wasn’t coming in the aggressive way the crowds may have wanted or imagined or in the way anyone predicted. But as Jesus said, “I tell you, if these people were silent, even the stones would cry out” and as some of the—ah--Stones themselves suggested, the crowds didn’t get what they wanted, but as it turns out, they got what they needed.  

What those crowds needed then and what we need now is a savior. That earthly power of sin and death are ancient and poisonous enemies.  This kind of evil makes us believe that some people are more valuable than others. It teaches that certain people are exploitable and expendable because they don’t have a lot of money or because of the color of their skin. It teaches us that money and might are more powerful than mercy and grace. That the self is more important than the neighbor. This kind of sin and evil works hard to break folks and squeezes the life from people.  And, by the power of God, this is the enemy that is defeated through Jesus’ death on the cross.

Today on this final Sunday of Lent we step into Holy Week.  Today, we are invited to join Jesus on the via dolorosa, on the way of suffering, as he rides into Jerusalem.  Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a big one for dwelling in suffering.  I don’t think I’m alone in this.  A lot of us run from suffering. In some cases where we are longing from healing from sickness or something like that, this is understandable. In other cases, We’ll do anything but have the hard conversation. We avoid painful things.  We hold up our comfort as something desirable and something to protect.  And while, there is nothing wrong with being comfortable, at some level, today, we are invited to be willing to be uncomfortable as we head into Holy Week.  

As you walk with Jesus into Holy Week today, I ask you: what are the things you’d be willing to suffer for?  What are the things you’d be willing to protest? Or endure public humiliation for?  Or be uncomfortable for? I ask you this not suggesting that we must suffer in order to be saved.  Some folks in society, like brown or black folks, sometimes women, sometimes others are wedged into a spots in the world where they suffer on behalf of others. But, Holy Week is an invitation to all of us to look around and identify where would we stand?  What would we be willing to suffer for? What are the values we cherish? And how is that reflected in how we live? In lent there is a call for growth and even change. 

I mentioned on Ash Wednesday and I’ll mention again that James Baldwin said, “not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” And facing the heartache, pain, sin and evil of the world is not comfortable. But there is no resurrection without the tomb.

The crowds that hailed Jesus as he rode into Jerusalem said, wanted glory and triumph.  Those same crowds would see the hope and life of the world, arrive, rise and then fall. But he would rise again, for the way of servanthood and love will not be defeated.  “You can’t always get what you want but if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need.”