Palm Sunday – April 8, 2012

Mark 11: 1-10 "Save us... from ourselves!”

Today we celebrate what in Russian is called a "Willow Sunday” which in other countries is a Palm Sunday. This celebration is to remind us about Jesus’ entering into Jerusalem a week before his death and being greeted by people who were waiving palm branches and threw their clothes to line his path.  Because it’s hard to find palms in Russia, Christians here have traditionally used willow branches because it’s the first tree that comes back to life in the spring. That’s how we ended up with a "Willow Sunday” when both kids and adults cheerfully wave and decorate their homes and churches with willow branches. The following Sunday Christians celebrate Easter – the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the death, and churches are usually pretty full compared to the rest of the year.  However, most of the celebrants from these two Sunday will not attend any services in between, services that commemorate the events of Jesus’ Passion Week that took place before Palm and Easter events. Most people will skip the suffering that stands right in the center of those two events and are mistaken thinking that Christianity moves from celebration to celebration and that Easter somehow "erases rather than vindicates the cross” (F. Craddock). The Gospel of Mark more than any other gospel underscored the depth of Jesus’ suffering and his loneliness in the midst of that exuberant applause on that day in Jerusalem.  But today, beginning with this entrance into Jerusalem I am calling all of us to follow the whole journey with Jesus, all the way through the passion week, not skipping the suffering, all the way to the cross and only then to the empty tomb of Easter. For celebrating Easter without the cross in nonsense!

Have you ever wondered why a crowd that was pretty much deifying Jesus when He entered into Jerusalem that day, changed their attitude towards Him in no time? How is it possible that those hoarse from the shouts of joy and seemingly ready to give their lives for Him, the people with eyes glowing with enthusiasm, people who found their Hero in just a few days will look at him with eyes burning with hatred, shaking their fists with threats and cursing Him, condemning Him to death with their "Crucify Him!” The main reason of such a tragic change was a false direction of Israel’s basic hopes and convictions. This remains to be the main problem for us today as well particularly in our spiritual lives – our falsely directed convictions and hopes. Way too often we think about God in accordance with our needs and expectations.

The tragedy of the last week of Jesus' life was not so much his suffering and death as the unfulfilled expectations of those who were disappointed in God because He did not fit their picture of Him! Christ was born, lived, preached and ministered in Israel, among the people chosen by God many centuries before in order to reveal God's glory and truth and to be the light to all the nations of the earth. "I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth." says the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 49:6). In order to accomplish this goal the Lord saved his people many times but they were inclined to regard those acts of God's salvation as something designed exclusively for them and for their own benefit. But God’s people have always been the people looking to the future, the people of hope, because what God has done before he could do again (divide the sea, bring them out of slavery, save them from the hands of their enemies).

They lived by the promise of God who made a covenant with them, and that meant that God knew their suffering and just like he saved them in the past, He can save them again. And they searched the Scriptures and waited for the Messiah, for the One "who is to come." However, over time they began to understand the role of the Messiah as the one detecting what threatens their lives and eliminating that threat. Such words as in Psalm 2 were taken literally: "I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain. Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them to pieces like pottery.” And that gave rise to the hope of Messiah the color of which changed depending on what was considered to be a problem at the moment.

At the times of Jesus, the Jews believed their main problem to be the occupation of their land by the roman army (the gentiles) and they prayed for a messiah who would head up a military overthrow of the romans. And if messiah refused to comply with this image, he was useless and was considered an imposter.  How did they come to such a false idea, how did they manage not to hear their own prophets who time and again reminded them: your real problem that is destroying your people is not some other nations, but their own idolatry, violence and selfishness! But they were not listening. And here came Jesus, the Messiah, but not the Messiah they have been waiting for – and it was the biggest problem that Jesus faced. People had false expectations because they didn’t understand their deepest problem of sin that God was talking to them about through His prophets.

Jesus was God’s Messiah who came to solve the greatest human problem – the problem of sin but He was not "their” Messiah, for the power, which He demonstrated wasn’t military power they expected. On that day people greeted Him as the "son of David” but their understanding of what it meant was formed by such words as in the Psalm of Solomon: "Behold, O Lord, and raise up unto them their king, the son of David, And gird him with strength, that he may shatter unrighteous rulers, And that he may purge Jerusalem from nations that trample (her) down to destruction. He shall destroy the pride of the sinner as a potter's vessel. With a rod of iron he shall break in pieces all their substance, He shall destroy the godless nations with the word of his mouth” (17:21-24) Of course, when people fed their hearts with such images how could they recognize their Messiah in Jesus? They were expecting a king who would shatter, purge, trample down, destroy and break into pieces what and whom they thought was the problem of Israel. But when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey He crushed their expectations and hopes.  When an earthly king triumphally rode into the city, he did so in a mighty chariot or on a white horse, crowned with a golden crown, leading the train of captives and carrying his loot. But Jesus entered upon a donkey like in a time of peace, in simple clothes, with no winner’s crown (in fact soon He will be crowned but with a crown of thorns).

Jesus will never be a warrior type of Messiah that people expected to come because His Kingdom is not that of an external greatness. His Kingdom is of the Spirit and its greatness is in its internal beauty and holiness. He proclaimed that wherever He went but the shouts of that Jerusalem crowd show that they still didn’t get it right. "Hosanna!” "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” "Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” "Hosanna in the highest heaven!” (11:9-10) "Hosanna!” is often understood as "Praise!” or "Glory!” but it actually means "Save us!” Those who were shouting "Hosanna!” on that day were not praising Jesus; their greetings were not for the King of Love but for a Conqueror who will save them by destroying the enemies of Israel! And blinded by their false expectations they missed their "salvation”.

And what about us? What are our expectations of God, what hopes guide our lives? Too many believers expect that God in response to their faith will make them wealthy or healthy, will give them special grace, or success, a blessing or His special protection. But if we are greeting Jesus we need to greet Him as the One who is coming to die for our sins and not as the One who came to make our lives glorious. My must accept Him as the One who is giving His life for the sake of the Kingdom of God rather than establishing some earthly Davidic kingdom. The crowd is shouting "Hosanna! Save us!” and we are shouting together with it thinking that Jesus must save us from our enemies, from the source of our problems. But in reality what we need saving from most of all is ourselves. I am and my heart marred by sin is my worst enemy. Human nature and its ambitions have not changed much since the times of Jesus and the events of His entry into Jerusalem show that just like the people of Israel the people today still need saving from at least three things.

Just like the people of Israel we need to be saved from our petty nationalism, which tears the world apart into tiny enclaves that are fighting against each other. God’s plan has always been to bring the nations and the people together in unity under His Lordship.  And it is for this purpose that He chose His people Israel but instead of being that connecting bridge and the light to the nations, His people became proud and hedged off from others. Jesus came not to fulfill anyone’s political ambitions. And being the Judge He can judge also our political and national ambitions just like He judged Jerusalem and the Temple that His people were so proud of.  After His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple, looked it over and left. But the next day He arranged a crackdown, chasing out everyone who was selling or buying, or exchanging money. Mark says that Jesus would not let anybody carry anything through the court of the Temple.  Why? Because all the sales were happening in the Temple Court – the only place where gentiles could come to pray to the God of Israel, the One Living God. Jesus chases everyone out saying, "My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.” In other words: "You yourselves do not honor God with your lives but you think that being in the Temple you can amend for your sins and to turn the wreath of God away! But you prevent gentiles’ access into the presence of God occupying the only place where they can pray to God. Do you think you can get away with this if you just continue being religious?

And what are we doing today? Don’t we continue to drape Jesus in political flags and believing that He certainly supports our nationalistic convictions? I am always ashamed for Russians who claim to belong to Christ but who continue believing that the main problem of Russia and of Moscow in particular is the immigrants that "occupied it”! I am ashamed of such beliefs among Christians! Nationalist groups claiming to be Orthodox and standing in the streets with signs "God is with us” will turn their backs on Christ at no time if they realize that Christ actually died for the black people and the Tajiks and the Azerbaijanis whom they are trying to chase out of Russia or even kill. Wasn’t it just such "immigrants” that the people of Jerusalem were asking Jesus to "save them” from when they shouted "Hosanna”?  But Jesus came to Jerusalem as the King of the whole world who will die for all nations! His people will not be constituted by just one nation and His sacrificial love will cross all national and racial borders. And if we are singing "hosanna” today, may we mean "Lord! Save us from our nationalism, which blocks other people and nations from coming to You, the only One and Living God! Forgive us and save us!”.

We also need to be saved from our fickle faith that leaves Jesus at very first signs of trouble. Jesus does not enjoy joyful greetings of those who are not ready to be with Him and pray with Him in the darkness of Gethsemane and who are not willing to walk with Him through even a thicker darkness of Golgotha. What use is there from Christians who show up to see Him once a year only in the midst of the joyful Easter celebrations? He needs those who will be with Him from beginning to the end, even in the midst of His unspeakable sufferings. But the crowds are inconsistent and many people who used to be with Him, who were His disciples, who listened to Him with passion and were ready to follow Him wherever He went, then turn away from Him. And this fickleness is also directly related to false expectations. If we believe that following Jesus will give us answers to all questions and a special blessing, the solution to all problems, freedoms from all our enemies, we will soon be disappointed and will leave the Lord whom we consider either non-existent or indifferent towards our destiny. But when we look at the lives of faithful Christians we realize that their consistent faith and firmness in their serving God is solely based on their love for God the Creator and for the pure truth of the Gospel. They are free from any personal expectations and ambitions. Jesus’ followers follow Him as He is, not as they want Him to be. They follow Christ to the end even when all the circumstances are against them because they trust the promises of God and they know – only Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life even when the whole worlds is calling to join it to search for its own desires and its own good. And we are singing "hosanna” today, let it mean "Lord, save us from our fickle faith, from selfish faith, and may only or love for Your and the pure truth of the Gospel be our motivation and our guide”.

And we also need to be saved from our silly and blinding desire for glory, so that we can see God’s power manifested in the cross. The Jews were expecting a Messiah but Messiah without the cross. And truthfully we all would prefer some superhero (a Mr. Fixit or sorts) that would just solve all the problems that we bring before Him, who would always be in the heat of glory (and we with Him!) The nature of that human ambition can be recognized in the fact how hypnotically the figure of one of our known political figures effects our people. This person with one signature or with one visit (in the light of the cameras, of course) solves the problems of different villages and cities of our huge Russia… Just like in the times of Jesus even today people waited and are waiting for "a savior” who would just solve all their problems and free them from their sufferings because in sufferings they see no sense. In sufferings people often ask the wrong questions: "how did we deserve all that?” and are not able to get away from an immature and unsound position that is based on the so called "theology of ambush” that sees God as being sits in ambush and waits for us to make a mistake, so He can punish us for breaking the law and enjoy our humiliation. But so often a person suffering has done nothing wrong that God would be angry with him, on the contrary His most faithful disciples are often suffering the most.

Jesus came into Jerusalem that day knowing that this way will lead Him to die on the cross. Jesus didn’t give us simple answers to all our "why” and "what for?” relating to sufferings and problems.  He simply became one of us so that we could hear Him. He came not to eliminate suffering but to go through them with us and to remain faithful to God.  He showed that the way to glory lies through suffering, just like the way to life goes through the cross, through death.  Accepting the way of suffering He showed that even the bad news can be transformed into the Good News in the lives of those who truly accepted God’s Messiah.  But there can be no real glory, no real consistency in faith without firm belief in the ultimate triumph of good both in personal and social life. If we don’t believe in the triumph of good we won’t be able to make a single step forward in our spiritual life because everything becomes meaningless. But that doesn’t mean that we must certainly expect that triumph in our lifetime. And if we are singing "hosanna” today, may we mean: "Lord, save us from our vane desire for glory in which we forget that the way to life passes through the cross that not only Jesus the Lord died upon but He also called us to carry by being faithful to Him in any circumstances”.  

On that day people expected from Jesus something other than what He came for. And what do you expect from the Lord? Do your expectations match those of God? What kind of kingdom do you desire? What are you asking the Lord to save you from? Hosanna! Save us, Lord! Save us from our sin, save us from ourselves, from our petty nationalism, from our fickle faith, from our desire of glory and live free from suffering! We desire nothing on earth but You and Your truth of the Gospel! Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!