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“Broken Hosannas”
Reverend Lynne Taylor Clements
Palm Sunday, April 9, 2017
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Charlottesville
Who doesn’t love a parade?
Who doesn’t arrive early to get a great view of those coming down the road,
clutching an extra blanket or coat, maybe a cup of something warm?
Who doesn’t love the anticipation, the excitement that builds as moments pass?
Who doesn’t feel the energy surging as the people gather and the crowd grows?
Who doesn’t jostle and jockey for the perfect spot?
Who doesn’t join the multitude with shouts and cheers when the one who everyone
has come to see approaches?
Who doesn’t wave wildly as a gesture of respect and excitement and awe?
Who doesn’t stand along the edge hoping for eyes to lock and the chance to make
this public moment personal?
Our parade this morning invites us to recall and indeed reenact an event in
Jerusalem, the setting of our texts this morning, a city well known for its festivals
and the place to be when it came to celebrating a Jewish holiday. Today, we have
come to the Holy City for the Feast of the Passover, that high holy time marking the
Israelites’ miraculous deliverance from bondage and slavery in Egypt and their
salvation from death. We have gathered with others from far and near and to join
with the population of the city to get ready to watch the parade. We have shouted
“Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest!” to Jesus.
Jesus.
The One who comes in the name of the Lord.
Jesus.
The One who has healed the sick, cured the blind and lame, fed the multitudes,
called men and women to ministry, spoken truth in love and preached about a new
kingdom.
Jesus.
The One who is going to bring the nation of Israel back to its former glory of King
David.
Jesus.
The Messiah.
Jesus.
Jeshua.
The One who saves
Listen now to the word of the Lord from the Gospel of Mark:
When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the
Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the village
ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her;
untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this,
“The Lord needs them.” And he will send them immediately. This took place to
fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,
‘Tell the daughter of Zion,
Look, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’
The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the
donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very
large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the
trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and
that followed were shouting,
‘Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!’
When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, ‘Who is
this?’ The crowds were saying, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in
Galilee.’
Palm Sunday is a day of celebration, one of parades and processional hymns. Like
the people who gathered alongside the road leading into Jerusalem, we too gather
here to glimpse the Son of God. Our excitement about the triumphal entry still
energizes us. We come with our coats and our bags, we have found our way to our
favorite spots, to stand with others who also want to shout praises for the One who
comes in the name of the Lord. Like the people lining the roadside, we waved our
branches.
We shout out Hosanna – a word with many meanings.
Hosanna! Save us.
Hosanna! Deliver us.
Hosanna! Liberate us. Set us free.
Hosanna! Be victorious.
Hosanna to the highest!
We have come this morning, believing that all is well, that this parade and this
celebration is great, that our shouts of Hosanna are sincere,
but we have a problem.
Our Hosannas are broken.
By broken, I mean flawed. I mean flimsy. I mean limited. Broken by our own desires
and wishes, by our selfishness and short-sightedness.
We shout out for Jesus to save us and deliver us, but we have no intention of leaving
behind whatever has bound us.
We say we want Jesus to lead us, yet we really want him to follow our will.
We shout out for Jesus to liberate us, but we kind of like the things that aren’t good
for us.
We shout out for Jesus to be victorious, yet we benefit from and are complicit in the
power structures of the world.
The parade ends and the shouts fade.
The excitement has gone.
The crowds have thinned and begun to drift away, leaving behind all the debris that
marks what has been.
Abandoned coats.
Trampled blankets.
Broken palms and broken hosannas.
The road to the cross is littered with them.
We realize that Jesus has passed by, on his way into the city.
On his way to an Upper Room where he will meet his disciples for the Passover feast
and say, “This is my body, broken for you.”
On his way to discover one of his own, from his closest circle has betrayed him,
choosing his own way rather than the way of his Master.
On his way to face another crowd who will shout a very different set of words.
As soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and
scribes and the whole council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him
over to Pilate. Pilate asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ He answered him,
‘You say so.’ Then the chief priests accused him of many things. Pilate asked him
again, ‘Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you.’ But
Jesus made no further reply, so that Pilate was amazed.
Now at the festival he used to release a prisoner for them, anyone for whom they
asked. Now a man called Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had
committed murder during the insurrection. So the crowd came and began to ask
Pilate to do for them according to his custom. Then he answered them, ‘Do you
want me to release for you the King of the Jews?’ For he realized that it was out of
jealousy that the chief priests had handed him over. But the chief priests stirred up
the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. Pilate spoke to them
again, ‘Then what do you wish me to do with the man you call the King of the
Jews?’ They shouted back, ‘Crucify him!’ Pilate asked them, ‘Why, what evil has he
done?’ But they shouted all the more, ‘Crucify him!’ So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the
crowd, released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to
be crucified.
The crowds that had earlier greeted Jesus with such joy and excitement have turned
on him. The hosannas of Palm Sunday have become the crucifixion cries of Maundy
Thursday.
We cannot help but ask in wonder and disbelief: How did this happen? How could
this happen?
The men and women in that crowd were not any different than us. We all stand at
the roadside, excited to see Jesus and ready to follow where he leads. We all wave
our palm branches and shout Hosanna to the highest. We all think that we don’t
betray our Lord. We can’t imagine that we would turn on Jesus.
But it happens every day, brothers and sisters, when we choose to stand anywhere
other than alongside the One who came in the name of the Lord.
when we side with the powers that be, rather than the powerless.
when we choose just us, rather than justice.
When we neglect the poor and ignore the alien in our midst.
when we call for someone to save us without any sacrifice on our part.
We cannot deny that just as loudly as we have shouted Hosanna, we are in that
crowd who shouts, Let him be crucified!
While Palm Sunday begins with the parade in to Jerusalem, the way forward leads to
the foot of the cross. The palm you have in your hand symbolizes both the joy and
darkness of this day – your desire to follow Jesus and your brokenness that keeps
you from doing so. You are invited to come and lay that palm down at the foot of the
cross while we sing, Beneath the Cross of Jesus. An act of confession and a claim of
Jesus’ wondrous love.
Before we can celebrate the joy of Easter, we must endure the darkness of Good
Friday. In the shadow of the cross, at the darkness of the tomb, we wait in silence –
we have no words to shout now.
Yet do not despair.
The final word is God’s.
God is at work despite our broken shouts of, “Crucify him!” Jesus will rise from the
tomb. He will conquer death. Despite our broken hosannas, God through Jesus the
Christ has saved us and liberated us from sin’s eternal hold.
The time is coming when we will shout again,
The time is coming when we shall gather with one another to once again look for
Jesus.
And when we do, we shall clamor for a view not of a parade, but of an empty tomb
we shall lay down not our outer garments, but our hearts,
and we shall call out, not “Save us!” but “Hallelujah!”
But those are for another day –
Today, we stand silent.
Today, our hosannas are broken.
Let the same mind be in you that was* in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
7 but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
8 he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
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