The Party and the Passion
Pastor David Hansen
Palm Sunday 2008 (Year A)
What a party today! What a celebration!
Crowds in the streets. Shouts of Hosanna. Clothing laid in front of Jesus, so that even his donkey didn’t have to walk on the dirt. What a joy-filled, wonderful party.
The city of Jerusalem normally had a population of around fifty thousand. Depending on who you ask, there were between two hundred thousand and two million people in Jerusalem that week for the celebration of the Passover. Now, there’s a big difference between those two estimates – but however you look at it, there were a lot of people crammed into the city.
And the Palm Sunday Gospel tells us that most of them came out to celebrate in the streets when Jesus came to town.
Can you imagine it? Everyone out there, crammed shoulder to shoulder, partying in the streets. It was like a carnival. It was like a first century Mardi Gras.
And all there to celebrate the arrival of the Messiah: The one promised in scripture, the one whom everyone had been waiting for, he had arrived.
Do you remember when you were a very little child, and your parents bought you a balloon?
We begged and begged and begged for it, until someone relented. They handed us the string, and at the end of the sting was the beautiful bouncy floating balloon. We were as happy as you could be. How did it float? We didn’t know – but it was the coolest thing we had ever seen. And we had it.
Until it slipped through our fingers and floated away.
It floated – above our parents’ heads … over the power lines … up and up and up, until it became the tiniest of specks, and then disappeared.
A moment of happiness, and then gone. We had it in our little hands.
A moment of joy and elation – and then the sadness of knowing that it is gone.
Or maybe one 4th of July you went to one of the fireworks stands, pulled out your saved up allowance and purchased the largest rocket you could afford. Do you remember that day? We were filled with excitement and anticipation. We couldn’t wait. And then, the sun went down that night, and we went out to the back yard … lit the fuse … run away and then turned … just in time to see the rocket unsuccessfully fizzle. A dud.
A moment of happiness, and then gone.
A moment of joy and elation … and then nothing.
I have often thought that Palm Sunday is sort of like that balloon, sort of like that dud firecracker.
Think of what happened on that first Palm Sunday. Jesus came into town, riding on a donkey, surrounded by the crowds. Everyone was sure that this was the Messiah. Everyone was sure that this guy would show those Romans what for, and become the true Jewish king over Israel.
And by the end of the week … he was crucified by the very Romans he was supposed to overthrow.
Fizzle. A dud. Slipped through our fingers. Unsuccessfully drifting away from us, taking all of our hopes and dreams for a conquering Messiah with him.
And think of our Palm Sunday services ever since.
We begin with the celebration. We join with the crowds, singing Hosanna.
And then almost immediately, we get to the Passion – the story of our Lord’s death.
Fizzle.
Honestly, most of us would rather stay at the party. Most of us would rather hold on to that balloon a little tighter, rather than have it slip away.
I have been at churches that have asked, why do we have to read the passion? Palm Sunday should be a celebration … and the passion story is so long and … depressing.
And then we go into the rest of the week. Maundy Thursday and Jesus’ last night with his disciples. Good Friday and the contemplation of the cross. How many of us would rather go straight from the celebration of Palm Sunday to the celebration of Easter Sunday? How many of us would rather go straight from the Palm Sunday Hosanna to the Easter morning Alleluia, without all that depressing fizzle in between.
And many of us in fact do – on average across the country, the people at Easter Sunday outnumber those who show up on Good Friday by about ten to one. Ten to one! That means that 9 out of ten Christians would rather stay at the party, would rather skip over the fizzle and the depressing passion.
And we can. No one can make us look on the cross. No one can force us to make the trip up Golgotha.
But there’s just one problem. If we want to stay at the party, we do so alone – Jesus has left. Jesus has left the party.
That first Palm Sunday, Jesus left the crowd behind and set out on the path toward his crucifixion.
If we want to stay with Jesus, if we want to follow him, that means that we cannot stay at the party … we have to include the Passion story … We have to include the quiet, somber reflection of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Because that is the path he laid out for us.
Look. I love a party as much as the next guy. I love to celebrate and have a good time. But I said I follow wherever Jesus led. Indeed, as a part of our Wednesday night services during Lent, we all said we would follow in the footsteps of Jesus wherever they led.
And today, this holy week, they lead us away from the party. They lead us away from the celebration. Today, the footsteps of Jesus make us let go of the balloon.
And so today – and for the rest of this week – each one of us has a choice.
We can stay at the party. We can keep on celebrating and having a great time. But if we do so, we do so without Jesus.
Or we can follow after him … all the way to the cross.
And, what about you my friends?
Will you stay at the party – or will you follow in the footsteps of Jesus?
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