You Know the Story

Sermon-Palm Sunday-March 28, 2010
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
You all know today’s story, right? Jesus rides into Jerusalem, is captured, tried, convicted, and killed. You know this, right?
A year and a half ago I went on sabbatical. Kyle, our son, and I, flew to Ireland August 2, 2008. Our second day there, I had planned for us to climb Croagh Patrick, a mountain several miles north of Galway. Deborah and I almost climbed it in 2000, but we ran out of time. It was supposed to be a leisurely stroll-according to the guidebooks. So Kyle and I start off and the weather couldn’t have been worse, drizzle, cold, windy. And pretty soon a dense fog settled in and you couldn’t see more than 20-30 feet in front of you. Which was probably a blessing, because if we had seen the trail going up I doubt we would have continued. It was really a tough climb, lots of sharp rocks and unsteady surfaces. And you couldn’t see what was ahead! And the fog was the densest AT THE TOP. So much for the great view.
We had started down, and I fell for about the 4th time-really hurting my dignity and pride, when the clouds parted and you could see all the way to Clew Bay a couple of thousand feet below. I had climbed a steep mountain, unsure of where I was going, blind on the trail, and frequently falling. We’ve all been there. You know the story.
Jesus starts the week with people wanting to make him king-and ends the week being made to carry his own cross. He entered Jerusalem a hero. By the end of the week, he was traded for the criminal, Barabbas. He had begun the week surrounded by crowds and groupies. And he ended the week abandoned, alone, and dying in between petty thieves.
Not a week goes by that we don’t see some famous person fall from the heights-Tiger Woods, John Edwards, Kwame Kilpatrick. We’re used to it. Heroes fall everyday. We all know the story-the lies, the rumors, the denials, then the confessions, the “therapy”, the rehabilitation. It happens all the time. You know how many messiahs had marched into Jerusalem expecting to be crowned king of the Jews?
v The Maccabees a Jewish rebel army who liberated parts of the Land of Israel from the rule of the Seleucid Empire. They founded the Hasmonean dynasty, which ruled from 164 BCE to 63 BCE, reasserting the Jewish religion
v About 44 CE, a man named Theudas appeared, claiming to be a prophet. He urged the people to follow him with their belongings to the Jordan, which he would divide for them. According to Acts he secured about 400 followers. Cuspius Fadus sent a troop of horsemen after him and his band, slew many of them, and took captive others, together with their leader, beheading the latter ("Ant." xx. 5, § 1).
Simon of Peraea (ca. 4 BC), a former slave of Herod the Great who rebelled and was killed by the Romans.[2]
Athronges (ca. 3 BC)[3], a shepherd turned rebel leader.
v An "Egyptian" is said to have gathered together 30,000 adherents, whom he summoned to the Mount of Olives, opposite Jerusalem, promising that at his command the walls of Jerusalem would fall down, and that he and his followers would enter and possess themselves of the city. But Felix, the procurator (c. 55-60), met the throng with his soldiery. The prophet escaped, but those with him were killed or captured, and the multitude dispersed.
v 70AD- Menahem ben Judah (?), allegedly son of Judas of Galilee, partook in a revolt against Agrippa II before being slain by a rival Zealot leader. Menahem ben Judah Menahem ben Judah, the son of Judas of Galilee and grandson of Hezekiah, the leader of the Zealots, who had troubled Herod, was a warrior. When the war broke out he attacked Masada with his band, armed his followers with the weapons stored there, and proceeded to Jerusalem where he captured the fortress Antonia, overpowering the troops of Agrippa II. Emboldened by his success, he behaved as a king, and claimed the leadership of all the troops. Thereby he aroused the enmity of Eleazar, another Zealot leader, and met death as a result of a conspiracy against him. He is probably identical with the Menahem ben Hezekiah mentioned in the Talmud (tractate Sanhedrin 98b) and called "the comforter that should relieve".
v Simon bar Kokhba (?- ca. 135), founded a short-lived Jewish state before being defeated in the Second Jewish-Roman War. With the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem the appearance of messiahs ceased for a time. Sixty years later a politico-Messianic movement of large proportions took place with Shimeon Bar Kokhba (also: Bar Kosiba) at its head. This leader of the revolt against Rome was hailed as Messiah-king by Rabbi Akiva, Although some doubted his messiahship, he seems to have carried the nation with him for his undertaking. After stirring up a war (133-135) that taxed the power of Rome, he at last met his death on the walls of Bethar. His Messianic movement ended in defeat and misery for the survivors.
Moses of Crete (?), who in about 440-470 convinced the Jews of Crete to attempt to walk into the sea to return to Israel; he disappeared after that disaster.
The Jewish crowds were used to it-it’s why they could be so fickle. One day a messiah, the next week you are hung on a cross. Ho hum. They knew the story.

Last fall we started a group here at Trinity called Education for Ministry-EfM. We get together every week to talk, share, study scripture together-and then we spend a little over an hour doing something called-Theological Reflection. The purpose of this theological reflection is to try to understand life in a different way. Our goal is to see how God is acting in our lives. It is not easy. We struggle with this. But we realize that understanding the Bible, without seeing God present today is just interesting reading-it has no power. Our lives would be unchanged. And that’s the point-can our lives change if we understand? Can we see things in a different way? What if the fog clears and all of a sudden I realize why I climbed the mountain? What I experienced, what it means?
When today’s story ends, there are only two words that really fit this story-defeat and failure. That’s how this reading concludes-no victory, no therapy, no rehabilitation, no reconciliation. Just defeat. Just failure. No salvation, no redemption. No way out. We’re supposed to listen to this story and see ourselves at our darkest moments. This is how it feels-alone, abandoned, hurting, empty, defeated, failed. We all know that story. We want something more from life than that-but there are days, sometimes longer than days, when that is where we are-blind, unsure, falling, and lost.
Every week of the year in church we tell the story of redeeming, the story of how God saves, liberate. But not today. There’s no redemption in this one. We don’t see any hope when this gospel ends. It just feels-over. Up until the 15th century there was very little interest among Christians in the resurrection-it was all about the crucifixion. This is what was important. There were 2 reasons why-one, because Jesus took on people’s sins and mitigated the pain of hell and judgement, but secondly, because people lived hard brutish lives and because of this week, this suffering, this passion, the people believed that Jesus understood what they went through. They believed that God really did understand their lives.
We don’t live lives that are brutish or short, but we know what it is to be lost. We know what it is to be betrayed. And we know what it is to fail. In other words, when we hear today’s gospel we may not feel filled with hope-but we know by the end of the story that God has been where we are. God knows what it is to be defeated, and God knows what it is to suffer.
So when today’s story finishes we may not be lifted up, we certainly don’t feel inspired -but we know we’re not alone. And that is where we stop today. Not with victory, but remembering what Jesus was called at his birth-Emmanuel, God-with-us. That is how Palm Sunday, the Sunday of the Passion, ends. A good man is killed. A life is cut short. People die unjustly, and disappointment happens. Jesus, a man like us, suffering and dying. Like us.
You all know the story. We’ve all lived the story. But the story isn’t over.