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March 16, 2008 Palm Sunday John 12:12-16
What Kind of King?
Rev. Kyle Segars
Imagine the scene in Jerusalem that day; in fact, please close your eyes and imagine with me that you are a pilgrim that day. You left your hometown a few days ago in order to make it to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. And now you’re here and it’s like a carnival, a circus, a parade. What a day! Thousands and thousands of pilgrims jammed into the holy city, jammed into the narrow, claustrophobic streets. Shoulder to shoulder. Arm to arm. You can hardly walk without bumping into people on every side.
It’s Passover and the city is jammed with pilgrims excited and festive, shouting loud praises to God in the face of Roman soldiers. Pilgrims courageous with their faith simply because there are so many of us. We could do anything! You imagine briefly what it would be like if the Romans weren’t here, if the Davidic King ruled instead of Herod who bows and scrapes to the Roman governor. And then you turn a corner and there are vendors everywhere in the market square, “Lambs for sale. Lambs. Turtledoves.” It is a myriad of voices, a mad house of dirty streets and dusty mules, and it is your city, your capital, it makes you feel proud to be one of God’s chosen people. You hear camels baying off in the distance, fellow pilgrims chanting their prayers, children running and laughing with all the commotion. But you turn another corner and you see some Roman soldiers riding back and forth amongst the crowd, keeping an uneasy eye on all the people in the streets. And on everyone’s lips is the name of some Galilean prophet named Jesus who has continually been preaching about the Kingdom of God coming upon the nation even now! And he has raised someone named Lazarus from the dead?! No, that can’t be true, can it? Is he the one? And he has healed two more men of their blindness? Where is he, this Jesus of Nazareth? You want to see this mighty healer, see him for yourself, see him with your own two eyes.
I hope that helps you picture that day and the many different people there and their differing desires and hopes for Jesus. For it was like that on the first Palm Sunday. There were people clamoring to see the miracle worker they had heard about in action. These were the people who said, “Lord, if you give me a miracle, then I will believe.” Then there were some who wanted something much more politically serious. They were looking for a revolution to ignite amongst all these people jammed into the streets. After so many years of political oppression and exile, finally there might be a chance with this Jesus who so many are proclaiming King. There was a rising, nationalistic fervor amongst the people milling about – time to throw off the yoke of Roman rule!
Many years before, Pompey, the Roman general, had conquered the land and the people were no longer masters, but slaves after 100 years of relative freedom. Later, after Herod the Great had rebuilt the temple, a Pharisee named Zadok led a revolution in and around Jerusalem and 2000 of his followers were killed. Two thousand dead men hanging on crosses - for all the world to see. And when Jesus came riding into town, the Romans were nervous, jumpy as they kept a close watch on all the people in the streets. The city was ready to blow up with any spark.
And when the people following Jesus met up with the people already in the city who had heard about him they started to chant louder and louder so that all of Rome could hear – “Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna to the Son of David! The King has come!” Now, that is from the perspective of the people surrounding him, but the important question is – what was Jesus doing? What was Jesus doing with this mass of humanity jostling around him? Was he standing up on the back seat of a chariot and waving to the crowd? Was he pumping them up with dynamic rhetoric in order to get the revolution moving? Here in this craziness, Jesus didn’t say a word. He rode in silence. Many in the crowd wanted him to grasp a sword in his hand and wave that sword to show what he and his followers could do to the Romans. Many wanted him to give enflamed speeches to inspire them; they wanted to hear the shouts of the soldiers drowned out by their own voices. But Jesus didn’t say a word. Not a word as he rode into the city.
There are two times in the Gospel of John where the crowds try to force Jesus to be the king they want him to be. Once, in chapter six, when Jesus had fed the 5000, they wanted to proclaim him king, but the Bible says Jesus would not - and he withdrew into the country. The second time is here after Jesus has raised Lazarus and is entering the city. But he refused to be what they wanted him to be here, as well.
Eventually, later in the week, when Jesus was brought before Pilate, he asked him pointedly, “You are Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews, are you not?” Jesus replied, “You have said it.” Pilate persisted with him: “Are you King of the Jews? Do you declare yourself so?” What kind of king are you? That was the question on everyone’s lips then and on ours today – what kind of king was this Jesus of Nazareth? Because, if we are honest with ourselves, I think we are in the same place as those many people long ago that thronged the streets of Jerusalem pinning our hopes, our dreams, our desires, upon this Jesus of Nazareth. And it is hard to recognize this king because he doesn’t act like a king. He doesn’t look like a king. He doesn’t behave like a king.
Can you imagine a king getting down on his knees and washing the feet of his disciples? Can you imagine a king doing such a thing? Or what kind of king is it who builds benches and chairs all day long, who is engaged in such plain and ordinary common labor? What kind of king is this that is like a rejected father who waits expectantly every day for his son to come back to him – and when he sees him, ignores all dignity and runs to hug him up on the road? What kind of king is this who searches for his lost citizens like a shepherd searches for his lost sheep? What kind of king is this who wants to rule our hearts; who doesn’t want duty, but hearts that are filled with doing the will of his Father? What kind of king is this who wants to rule our habits, our homes, our marriages, our jobs, our time? This king wants us to freely embrace his rule in everything that makes us who we are as human beings. What a strange kind of king!
On that first Palm Sunday, many people proclaimed him king, but few recognized his own definition of that word that he had lived out through his teachings and through his life. And no one on that day recognized that here was a king who rules from his cross, whose cross is his throne, who rules through suffering, self-giving love and servanthood. Much later, his disciples would recognize what kind of king he was through the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives and provide for us the witness to his true kingship. But the question for us today is will we take to heart what kind of king he was and still is and truly live like the disciples he calls us to be in the world? For what kind of king he is will show us what kind of servants we are to be. So, on this day as we enter Jerusalem with Jesus, Hosanna to the King, but this kind of King only. Amen.
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