The Passion Parade Palm/Passion Sunday

Matthew 21:1-11, Philippians 2:5-11

Pgh 3/20/05

This Sunday we gather to begin the most holy week of the church calendar. A time when we take the journey with Jesus from the shouts of "Hosanna, blessed in the one who comes in name of Lord", to a last meal with beloved friends, to the aloneness of a criminal's cross, to the empty tomb of resurrection. We know the end of the story, we know the good news that death turns into the celebration of life eternal. But we can't skip the rest of the week. For it is the time leading up to Easter Sunday that we experience God's wondrous love for us. It is in this week that we can know that Christ has been there in the best and the worst of human life.

So I'm going to ask you to walk with me back in time to feel for a moment the journey that Christ traveled to get to Easter.

It began that week with a triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The city of Jerusalem was packed to overflowing with pilgrims who had traveled to celebrate the Passover. You couldn't move through the crowd without bumping into others. As you slowly make your way you run into the man with the withered hand who was now cutting down the branches and passing them out to others. The one who was deaf and mute is now leading the singing. Those who were called outcasts are now part of the parade. The woman who had been bleeding for years and had once fought her way through the crowd to touch the hem of Jesus' garment is now running alongside the donkey. There is the little girl who Jesus had raised from her deathbed, and she has brought her parents to the parade with her. Remember those people who Jesus fed on the hillside a few years ago they have brought food to share with others along the parade route. Jesus' mother and brothers are looking up and down the road realizing that all of these people are now part of Jesus' family. It was a day of celebration, a day to remember.

There among that crowd were also others who would be a part of the rest of the stow. A man named Judas who would betray Jesus for some money. Peter was there, even though he promised never to desert Jesus, later that week he would fall asleep when Jesus needed him the most and then say he never knew this man who had changed his life. There were others present - the followers who would run away when Jesus was arrested. The people in the crowd, who now yelled loud hosannas, would have other words on their lips calling for Jesus to be crucified later in the week. Some of the people would have their souls pierced as they heard the anguish in Jesus' voice as he cried out to God to save him on that fatal Friday. And the woman were there who kept vigil at Jesus' grave site out of the great love they had for their friend.

We must hear the whole stow; we must feel the whole stow to truly appreciate the great love God has for us. God took the road less traveled in sending Jesus the Christ to this earth. This shows the vulnerability of love. Jesus knew what it was like to live in a world that can be kind, and it can be cruel. Jesus experienced beauty and was appalled at the cruelty of one person towards another. God in Jesus Christ knew what it was like to be oppressed, to be an outcast, to be ostracized. Jesus knew the gentle touch of the human hand and the pain that one human being can inflict upon another. Jesus experienced the betrayal of a friend and the love a companion. Jesus knew what it was like when good things happen and it feels like heaven and when bad things happen and it feels like hell. Jesus knew what it was like to cry over the death bed of a beloved and what it was like to celebrate at a wedding feast. Quite simply and yet profoundly, Jesus knew what it was like to be human.

What I know about holy week is that Jesus has been where we have been. Nothing that we feel, nothing that we experience is unfamiliar to the One who loves us in all our humanness. When we success, Jesus knows the happiness. When we fail, when we make terrible mistakes, Jesus welcomes us back as the Prodigal Father did so long ago. When we cry, Jesus wipes those tears away with the gentle love of a mother's hand. When we don't know the way ahead, Jesus opens the door and leads us in the right path. When we can't understand the fighting and hate in our world, Jesus has been in the midst of that on our earth. As the song says: "What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul".

As the parade comes to an end Jesus chooses to walk into the rest of the week. Jesus chooses the road less traveled, to be willing to open him self to the way of love. The days ahead would encompass the depths of human feeling, human experience. And those who witnessed God's love in Jesus Christ also found themselves in a position of love that knows no end. The days after the parade were frightening and sad for the community of faith. They had given their lives to one who they believed was sent to save Israel. Did they believe Jesus had broken his promise when they saw him hanging lifeless on a cross? As C.S. Lewis wrote: "To love is to be vulnerable, to risk suffering. If you want to make sure your heart is not broken, you must give your heart to no one, to nothing. Then it will not be broken." Those who followed Jesus in the parade became part of the vulnerability of love. They could have taken there loved ones home from the parade and shut themselves off from the events of the rest of the week to protect themselves from the way of love. Yet to do so would have meant being cheated from the reality of God's love for them, being cheated from what it means to love one another.

This holy week calls us to join in the passion parade that leads us to Easter Sunday. To experience the depth of God's love. As we walk through this week may we realize that we are the rest of the story. We are the disciples of Jesus the Christ. We have the opportunity not to deny, not to run and hide. We are called to live a life of passion, to be willing to not just join in the parade, but to be faithful each and every day as we bring Christ's compassionate presence to our world. May our holy week be blessed as we experience God's great love for us as we prepare ourselves for resurrection joy. Amen.