PALM SUNDAY

March 28, 2010

St. Augustine Anglican Church

“Who…thought it not robbery to be equal with God.”

The Rev. Gerald Parks +

          We began this morning with a parade, minus the usual floats and bands, of course, but a parade still.  And a parade is just what today calls for; for it is on this day we celebrate our Lord’s joyous entry into Jerusalem.  He is King, and we acclaim Him with our palm branches and our cries of Hosanna, as did the crowds in Jerusalem on that day.  And if we had been there among the throngs that greeted Jesus in His triumphal march, we probably wouldn’t have noticed – as the people then didn’t notice – that not everyone was celebrating.  There were some in the crowd who didn’t smile or cheer.  Their stony looks, and perhaps their folded arms and their disdain, give a whole different atmosphere to the festivities.  And it isn’t long until the parade is over, and the people leave.  It also isn’t long before “all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put Him to death; and when they had bound Him, they led Him away, and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor.” (Matt. 27:1)

          But it is fitting that at least for the moment we feel the joy of this day: we see the palms and olive branches waved around Jesus; we smell the scent of spring floating forwards Him from the Mount of Olives; and we experience the spontaneous enthusiasm of the people as they greet Him.  For this is the way it should be when our Lord comes forth, even though we know, and He knew, that the celebration would soon turn to suffering and humiliation.  The heart of Jesus must have been heavy even in the midst of the happiness that surrounded Him.  Whole worlds must have separated the thoughts of the Son of God from the cheering of the crowd, as He prepared Himself for that which He knew would happen next.  But He intended this public manifestation of His steps on to the road of His suffering as a lesson to us.  Suffering is a burden, it hurts us; and sometimes it even kills us.  But Jesus shows us that it can be the source of immeasurable grace.  It “hooks us up” to the source of all graces, and we are enabled by it to endure any suffering and humiliation; and not to endure only, but to grow and to prosper in the love of God.

          The world does not understand this.  Man often degrades himself in his suffering by his impatience and mistrust of others; therefore, he tries to hide his suffering.  But Jesus calls the attention of the world to His suffering.  Man does not like others to see and know his humiliation; but Jesus openly shows everyone, and by doing so, attracts more and more souls to Himself.

          But as we said, there were others in the crowd.  How differently the Pharisees received our Lord!  They are angry and envious.  They are scandalized, and they curse, because in Jesus they see the ruin of the Jewish faith and people.  Their narrow ideas do not reach beyond the Jerusalem of their age, and our Lord towers above their unstable and low opinion of Him.  Jesus knows the people are led by goodwill, but it is a cheap and mindless enthusiasm, and their cries of Hosanna soon die away.  It may be mean and despicable of them–and for all the wrong reasons—but Jesus receives the homage gracefully, and by His example and sufferings, sees to it that the homage He receives will become deep, lasting and faithful.  “If these shall hold their Peace,” He says to the Pharisees, “the stones will cry out.”  It was a wonderful exciting time and people had a good time, but at the end of the day our Lord stood alone.  There was no human person there for Him, and He had come to the end of His preparation time.  He now must face the suffering and humiliation inflicted on Him by those very people who had praised Him as the Son of God.  And so He stood there alone in faith and in obedience.

          The words in Philippians 2:6, “He thought it not robbery to be equal with God,” could better be translated as, “thought it not a thing to be grasped at to be equal with God,” as it is in several translations of St. Paul’s Epistle.  The sin of Adam was that he thought it a thing TO be grasped at to be equal with God; but the greatness of God consists in this, that HE could think it a thing to be grasped at to be equal with the poor, tempted men and women in every difficulty, pain and temptation that we can know.  The prodigal son in the parable thought it a thing to be grasped at to have all his money to spend; Christ in His Passion thought it a thing to be grasped at to spend His life in revealing the love of God to sinners, and to spend it where He could most lavishly, upon the Cross.

          As many of us know, or are beginning to know, it takes courage to grow old, to see people suffer, to suffer oneself.  To whom shall we go, we ask, to keep us sane, brave and patient?  If we allow our minds to wander a little we can see a shape slowly beginning to emerge through the mist of the past–the outline of a hill in the distance of long ago.  On the hill are three crosses, and on the central cross hangs One who made of suffering and sorrow, and of faith and obedience, a shrine of worship, a crown of royalty, and a Gospel of Good News.  No doubt those who lived before Christ came received their help from God; but it is hard for us to conceive how they did it.  Surely, it was through some power that was granted to them by looking forward to Him by faith, just as we look back to Him by faith.

          For, there is no other to whom we can go.  Let us go to Him humbly, and consider first, that He died in the dark: it seemed the Father had forsaken Him, and the inner light was quenched.  Secondly, He died excommunicate: the religious consciousness of mankind failed to recognize Him.  Thirdly, the common people, those who shouted Hosannas and waved palms, threw Him over; and His disciples denied, forsook and betrayed Him.  Faith in a Father seemed futile; faith in humanity seemed futile; faith in the ideal of a Kingdom of God seemed futile.  And yet, today we believe in His Resurrection; we believe mankind may be trusted–indeed must be trusted–and we believe in a Holy and Catholic Church, founded by Him and to His glory.

          God’s answer is always the same: His answer is always love.  As our Lord stood there with His hands bound, and Pilate said, “Behold the man,” the multitude imagined they were looking on one who was a prisoner.  But He was the only free person there: they were looking on the liberty of the love of God.  He could not move one hair’s-breadth in the way of unholiness, and there was no end, no length to which He would not go in the way of love.  We know this by faith.  But faith is faith; it is not vision.  It is adventure: it is confidence in spiritual values; it is the great big thing which alone can take us anywhere.  As we enter into our Holy Week preparations for Easter, let us humbly go to the Lord of Calvary and pray to Him that our faith fails not, and that we may stand with Him in faith.