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Sunday, March 20, 2005 (Palm Sunday)
Sermon: “Victory at Last”
Scripture: Matthew 21: 1-11
Reverend Larry Gerber
The “Performing Animal Top Star of the Year” on Palm Sunday had a critical role to play. We should take notes.
Background animals.
They used to be thought of as cheap and disposable props on the movie sets of Hollywood. As films were being made, horses were shocked, tripped, and forced to run into trenches. Wires were strung around their ankles and then yanked by the rider to make the horse fall on cue. Six horses were killed during the filming of Ben-Hur in 1924, and 25 were killed or euthanized during The Charge of the Light Brigade in 1935.
Then an organization called “American Humane” got into the act and opened a Hollywood office to enforce standards for the protection of animals.
In the ’50s, they sponsored the first of an annual PATSY award ceremony. The “Performing Animal Top Star of the Year” is the Academy Award for animal actors. Francis the Mule was the first PATSY winner in 1951, and later winners included Roy Rogers’ horse Trigger and Arnold the Pig from “Green Acres.” In 1973, an Animal Actor’s Hall of Fame was established, and Lassie was the first inductee.
If the “Performing Animal Top Star of the Year” award had been around in first- century Jerusalem, the animal who carried Jesus certainly would have been a winner.
This donkey is a PATSY.
Matthew tells us that Jesus sends two of his disciples into the village of Bethphage to fetch a donkey and a colt. This is to fulfill what had been spoken by the prophet Zechariah, “Look, your king is coming to you,” said the prophet, “humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Matthew 21:5; Zechariah 9:9).
Jesus enters Jerusalem as Zechariah had predicted, and a large crowd spreads cloaks and branches on the road in front of him. They greet him as their king, shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” (21:8-9).
It’s a Hollywood spectacular.
As for the donkey, she plays her role as intended.
We can learn a lot about serving Christ from this one animal.
After all, the disciples are not particularly good Palm Sunday role models for us. They may stand with Jesus now, but in a matter of days one will betray him and another will deny him. Their argument as to who would be the greatest in the kingdom was still ringing hot in their ears (20:20-28). In fact, this whole trip made them nervous, what with Jesus talking about death and suffering, and with visions of regime change disappearing like a mist in wind. They’re falling off the bandwagon faster than a blind roofer.
They had seen a lot, done a lot, listened a lot — but in the end, when Jesus gives them the faith test, the final exam, it turns out they’re not much more than guru groupies with not too much of a clue. They followed Him, worshipped with Him, ministered with Him for 3+ years, and they have no clue as to what is really happening on this first Palm Sunday!
Could describe a lot of us. We’ve followed Jesus for years now. We’ve sat in church, we dropped coins in the plate, we’ve taught a class here and there, we’ve done our part.
Although some of us no doubt have made it to the cross, and some of us have endured the fires of suffering and embraced the faith test and passed it convincingly, too many of us either don’t know what it’s like to follow Jesus into the storm, or we’ve bailed out as the storm approached.
The disciples are not the role model we’re looking for.
Nor are the crowds. They’re worse than the disciples. They’re curious, but not committed. In fact, their loyalties can be bought and sold. They’re shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David” today, but soon they will reject Jesus and call for his death (27:20-23). New Testament scholar Eugene Boring points out that the members of the crowd know the truth about Jesus but they cannot bring themselves to do the truth. They are like college students who make an A in a course on ethics ... but still flunk life.
Jesus can still attract a crowd. His picture is on the cover of Time and Newsweek twice a year, Easter and Christmas. People will flock to what Rex Miller, in his book The Millennium Matrix, calls “celebration” churches, where people can see a show —choreographed and stage-produced.
Perhaps we can turn to our religious leaders.
That’s a laugh. They were corrupt, mean-spirited and jealous. When Lazarus was raised from the dead, they conspired to put him right back in the tomb — where he belonged. They offered and took bribes. They solicited false testimony. They created a bogus trial. They sent an innocent man to his death.
Today, 95 percent of the pastors and priests and rabbis in this country are without doubt caring, committed people. But it’s the other 5 percent who’ve abused children, who fill the television screens asking for donations — many of which come from fixed-income viewers — and use those donations to pay for lawsuits, or sleek jets, palatial mansions and a fleet of cars. These are the false shepherds whom someday God will strike down, and who in the meantime cause unbelievers to scoff.
So what’s left?
Nothing, except this patsy, this “top performer,” this donkey.
This animal can teach us a lot, because she is the creature who carries Christ into the world.
And that’s what it’s all about. Carrying Christ into the world.
The donkey was a Christ-bearer, or a Christopher (derived from the Greek Christos combined with pherein “to bear, to carry”).
Today is an opportunity to take the name Christopher (Christophera, feminine) as our own. By doing so, we commit to bearing Christ to the world.
Being Christopher means:
• Serving Christ. Being a faithful servant can be a burden.
• Serving Christ humbly without caring who gets the glory.
• Following Christ’s direction; being willing to go where he wants to go, not where we want to go.
• Not getting spooked by the crowds, the noise, the attention.
• Taking Christ into enemy territory.
• Never asking Christ to “get off our backs.”
• Being willing to shed the “hero” image people wanted to pin on Jesus.
• Being obedient to the will of the One who holds the reins.
As we carry Christ into the world, we are challenged to do a particular kind of work, and to show a distinctively Christian lifestyle.
This means letting love be genuine, hating what is evil, holding fast to what is good. It involves rejoicing in hope, being patient in suffering, and persevering in prayer. To live in this way means that we are going to contribute to the needs of the saints, extend hospitality to strangers, and even go so far as to bless those who persecute us (Romans 12:9-14). It means that when our whole city is “in turmoil,” as Jerusalem was on Palm Sunday, and the people around us ask “Who is this?” (21:10), we’ll be able to give them an answer that shows them the way to everlasting peace and salvation.
If we can pull this off, and model our lives on the one character in this melodrama that deserves emulation, we will discover the joy that comes from carrying Christ.
We’ll know the glory of hearing hosannas, the thrill of close contact with Jesus, the excitement of accepting a challenge and the deep satisfaction of knowing that we are walking in the way of God.
There’s no better role we could be asked to perform. So, lift your palm crosses high this morning. Sing Hosannah!! Praise the Lord of Lord’s! Carry the Christ with you into the world. Witness to Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth! Shout it from the mountain tops!
Victory at last. The Passover has ended. Communion has been served. The entry into Jerusalem is complete. God’s plan is being fulfilled.
We will quietly go about our business this week. We will witness the Last Supper on Thursday. We will listen to our Choir, as they perform the beautiful masterpiece: The Requiem.
We will remember the pain and agony of Good Friday, yet we already know that “The Victory” has already been won. Victory at last. Halleluiah. God’s victory is won. Yet, we must go through Maundy Thursday and Good Friday every year, lest we forget the suffering that lead to victory.Amen. Let us pray……….
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Sources:
Boring, M. Eugene. “The Gospel of Matthew.” The New Interpreter’s Bible [Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995], 404.
Orlean,
Susan. “Animal action.” The New Yorker, November 17, 2003, 92ff.
Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766