I’ve always found Palm Sunday a difficult day to define…traditionally, the proper title for this day is “Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion” and the reading that is used as the gospel is not the selection from John 11 that I read, but rather an account of the passion of Christ from one of the other gospels. In that way -- as in real life -- the crowd that first acclaimed Jesus as king and messiah in their midst, later calls out for his death.
It’s hard, coming through this season of Lent; a season that call us to remember our baptism and all that it means, to remember that Jesus comes to us as a servant. And that as we read in Isaiah today, that Jesus comes to us a suffering servant; suffering because it was seemingly demanded and foreordained by God that it was good for him to do so.
And that’s a hard row to how. But Jesus, as the servant of us all, shows us that it is not the accolades, success, or prosperity of this world that shows our worth and value – but rather that true worth is shown through obedience to the purpose God has for us.
What does it mean to be a servant who comes in love, reaches out to those marginalized in society, opens the eyes of the blind, and restores the dead to life – but is then spit upon, beaten, and nailed to a cross? It seems almost capricious, that God would visit the worst punishments upon God’s own son, so that we would be spared the soul-torturing reality of the death that is brought upon us by sin.
But there’s often disconnection between understanding the difference between a plan and a purpose. The Israelites – John refers to them as Jews in the gospel – knew that a messiah was coming. God had promised it. But they didn’t know what the messiah would do. They thought they did; they thought they knew exactly what God’s plan was – to restore the kingdom of Israel through power and might, throw off the Roman oppressors, and let them oppress everyone else around them.
In other words, they believed God’s plan to be exactly what they would do, if they were God. But they missed God’s purpose, which was to reconcile the world, to heal it through a mightily stubborn love and free gift of grace that brought light to a dark world. In Jesus, God's purpose was to bring the whole world to God…but the world didn’t like that very much – and neither, really, do we.
Like the Israelites, we want to see a great, monolithic, written-in-stone plan of God. Preferably, we want a plan that involves the smiting of our enemies and those who don't agree with us – while we watch, and gloat, since that's how we would it. But like the Israelites, we miss God's purpose.
I've noticed that when I talk with people who like to use the phrase `God's plan` usually use it to separate `us` from `them` -- to keep the people who agree with what they think in one category, and those who disagree in another. So that rhetoric creates an angry, wrathful, spiteful, vengeful God – and then creates Jesus as the heroic older brother who saves us from an abusive parent. Is that how we want to think of God?
Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s purpose; a purpose that was shown forth when the crowd welcomed him into their midst in
And Jesus lived in obedience to the divine purpose of his earthly life…and we, too, have a purpose here in life. It’s not as grand a purpose of reconciling the world from sin, but it is important nonetheless.
We are the people of God, and through our baptism God brings us in to be part of God’s purpose for humanity: to live in community, to gather life, strength, and hope through Jesus Christ. We can never know God’s plan – no matter how much we might think we can, we cannot think like God – but we can acknowledge God’s purpose for our lives and our participation in that purpose.
In our baptismal liturgy we announce that purpose clearly: to “profess faith in Christ Jesus, reject sin, and confess that faith of the church…renounce the devil and all the forces that defy God…and to renounce the ways of sin that draw us from God.” That’s God’s purpose for our lives. When we began this journey of Lent I asked you to consider what it meant to be human, and to remember whose we truly are – and if we are created by God, then we are part of God’s purpose.
And when that little corner of us then demands “but what do I have to do to be part of God’s purpose” we can turn around to is, and recite that purpose, and then ask “is this really just a mental commitment? Or am I to participate in this purpose with my whole body, soul, and strength?”
It was humankind’s rejection of that purpose that led to the crucifixion – Caiaphas’ knowledge that one man dying for the people would be better than the whole nation dying. Nations exist for the people and the systems that form them – and Caiaphas was afraid of
Because as far as Caiaphas was concerned, he knew God’s plan. He was High Priest – this was not a easy job. He knew the right answers. He was a good theologian, a good pastor (being a good pastor is easier when you just tell people what they need to do or believe). But in his myopic vision of God’s plan, his human eyes failed to see the purpose.
There are ways that we embrace that purpose, and ways that we reject it…we reject it by making choices that harm our relationships with others, that are selfish or self-serving rather than godly. In fact, usually if we think that we know God’s plan for our lives, or start feeling that what we’re doing is what God plans for us (and we know this because we feel good about it)…then we should probably approach the world from a different angle…like down on our knees.
If we live our lives trying to deduce God’s plan for us, then we are condemned to become part of the crowd, and just that. One minute acclaiming Jesus as Lord and Saviour, and the next minute rejecting him and calling for his death because he doesn’t look or act how we expect and want him to; he hasn’t saved us as we want to be saved. Instead of pointing to our enemies and declaring their faults, Jesus welcomes them and eats with them, and then reveals our own hard-heartedness as a more grievous offense. But then, even worse, he still welcomes us, as well.
But when we live for God’s purpose, we become part of his church, the Body of Christ…and we become part of the great narrative of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. In reality, we become a living thread in the fabric of God’s kingdom; fulfilling our purpose and being one part of many.
Living to God’s purpose is not always pleasant – as the cross shows us, it too often involves suffering and pain. But because God understands this life – and the great Christian claim of God in Christ proclaims that God truly does understand – God also knows the purpose is greater.
Living God’s purpose for us gives us a glimpse of the world to come, so we understand that it is not an easy life, or the cheers of the crowd that give us worth – but like our saviour, obedience to the divine purpose of our God.
And if you doubt that, that God’s purpose for you is that you live eternally, then walk through this coming Holy Week. Come, imagine your saviour washing your feet and feeding you on Maundy Thursday. Come and be witnesses to his execution on Good Friday.
And then, on that great feast of Easter Sunday, come and see that God loves you so much that more than being willing to die for you – your God is willing to live for you.
Let the people of God say amen.
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