Once
I participated in a YMCA Boot Camp. It
was a five-days-a-week 6:00 am class, in which I had to do all kinds of things
I don’t like to do. Run, push-ups,
sit-ups, run. On the last day of boot
camp, we celebrated: we got t-shirts.
That was our prize. That was our
celebration. If you stuck it out and had
no absences, you got a boot camp t-shirt.
It wasn’t much, but that was the reason I hung in there. I just kept thinking about how I wanted that
t-shirt.
I
don’t even like t-shirts. I rarely ever
wear them. And I think that particular
t-shirt went in the next pile of stuff we took over to the Salvation Army. But at the time I wanted that lousy t-shirt
so bad. It meant that I had accomplished
something. It meant that I had done something hard and I succeeded.
The
psalm we heard today prays for success.
The psalmist writes, “Lord, save us; Lord, grant us success!” And we wondered a bit, at the roundtable,
just what success means to the psalmist, to Israel. Even, what does it mean to us to succeed?
It
is a word we use quite a lot in our culture.
We talk about dressing for success, being successful in business. The first definition of success in my
Merriam-Webster is actually “achieving wealth, respect, or fame,” which
surprised me. It does say something
about our culture, doesn’t it? But even
if your goal is not wealth or fame, success still means getting what you want,
achieving what you set out to achieve, whatever that is. If we don’t get what we want, we feel that we
have experienced not success, but failure.
We put things in binary terms – something is either a success or it’s a
failure. Getting my t-shirt at the end
of boot camp meant success for me. But
if I had not received my t-shirt, I would have felt a failure.
For
those of us who are competitive by nature, it’s not success unless we are more
successful than anyone else – first in the class, winner. I have a nephew who was a star athlete and
also a pretty good student. Once he
participated in a district-wide spelling bee and came in second place. On the drive home, he quietly stared out the
window. His mother suggested they stop
for ice cream to celebrate. He turned to
her and said, “I don’t celebrate second place.”
His standard for success was very high.
However
you define it, you probably do celebrate, in some way, when you succeed.
The
psalm describes a kind of celebration – a festive procession, a parade that
begins at the gates of the royal city and ends in front of the altar. There is thanksgiving to God, and the
proclamation that God has been their strength and their salvation.
On
the day that Jesus entered Jerusalem, there was also a celebration; again, a
festive procession. The parade began at
the gates of the royal city. The people
surrounded Jesus, threw down their cloaks on the path, and cried out hosanna,
which means save us. It is the same word the psalmist used: Lord,
save us; Lord, grant us success.
Think
back to last Sunday for a moment, when we told the story about the death and
resurrection of Lazarus. At that time,
Jesus was summoned to Bethany, which is quite close to Jerusalem. At the prospect of making that journey,
remember his disciples expressed concern.
They reminded him that the people in Jerusalem, the temple authorities,
had it out for him. This much was known
from the many encounters he had with Pharisees, scribes, and Sadducees.
Entering
Jerusalem at any time might have been dangerous for Jesus, for that very reason.
But now, at this particular time, it was more dangerous. It was near the time of the Passover, a time
when the city would be teeming with Jews from all over the diaspora, all making
their pilgrimage to the holy city.
The
Roman authorities dreaded the Passover.
With so many people milling about, there was greater potential to
disturb the peace. The Romans prized
peace above all things. But for Rome,
peace meant something different than what it means to me and you. For Rome, peace meant their unquestioned,
unchallenged authority. For Rome, peace
meant that there was no dissent, that there was total obedience and loyalty to
the empire. Rome prized their peace, and
was more than willing to use violence to keep this peace. The irony of this should be
self-evident.
The
Romans dreaded the Passover. But this
was not only because of the large crowds; it was also because of its
meaning. The Passover was, and is, Israel’s
remembrance and celebration of their liberation story. Many centuries ago, Israel remembers, their
God freed them from the bond of slavery in Egypt. Many centuries ago, God chose Moses to lead
them out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and to the promised land. They remembered that God had given them
freedom. But how could they celebrate
this freedom, while suffering under the oppressive foot of the Roman Empire, and
not be inspired to resistance? Rome dreaded
the Passover, because they knew there was a heightened risk of uprising.
And
just as Rome knew it, the Jews knew it.
Jesus’ disciples knew it. They
were aware that it would be risky for Jesus to enter Jerusalem. So, when Jesus said to his disciples that he
would go to Bethany, they discouraged him.
They said, “Lord, the people there want to kill you.” The disciples were often wrong about many
things, but this time they were correct.
Nonetheless,
Jesus went to Jerusalem. And if he was
at all concerned about arousing attention, or raising tensions, he didn’t show
it. Because he paused before making his
entrance through the city gate, and he sent his disciples in search of a donkey
for him to ride into the city. A donkey.
There
is important precedent for this. It is
in the Old Testament book of Zechariah, which sings of the triumphal entry of a
king:
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
And
so the people surrounding him, the people who had followed him in his ministry,
the ones who adored him, laid down their cloaks, and shouted their hosannas,
Save us, Son of David! Save us, our
king!
During
the time of the Jewish Passover, King Herod also came to Jerusalem. He made a grand entrance through the northern
city gate, on a war horse, with his soldiers, armed and astride their
horses. He was not there to celebrate
the Passover; his presence there was to ensure law and order.
Imagine
King Herod making his grand entrance on one side of the city, representing the
might of the empire, while Jesus makes his entrance from the eastern gate, near
the Mount of Olives, on a donkey.
Which
procession will find success?
On
this day, there was a celebration surrounding Jesus of Nazareth, as the people
shouted hosanna, and lay their cloaks on the ground, a royal carpet for their
king.
Five
days later, Herod would have this king on a cross, crucified for the sake of
the Roman peace. Which one would have
success?
Today
we celebrate. But we know that Friday is
coming. The important question we must
face is: do we know what we are celebrating?
Are
we celebrating Jesus’ popularity on Palm Sunday? Are we celebrating that Christianity wins,
because we have the most people of any religion in our country, so we win? Are we celebrating because singing praise
songs makes us feel good? Do we know
what we are celebrating?
Are
we celebrating making it through the season of Lent? So we can have an I-survived-Lent t-shirt?
But
in our celebration we are reminded that Lent is not an end in itself. It serves a larger purpose. Our spiritual practices during this season of
Lent were not undertaken so we could get a t-shirt at the end. There is something more.
We
are entering the final stretch of our journey.
This week that we begin with joyful celebration, will give us ample opportunity
to grieve. We will encounter the closest
intimacy with death that we can have on our spiritual journeys. At the end of this week that started with a
celebration of success, we will be face to face with something that looks very
much like failure.
Last
week I asked if we could look past death with God and see life. This week, the question is the same.
May
you finish this Lenten journey strong.
May your spiritual practices nourish you well this week because you will
need it. And at the end, may you see
success through God’s eyes.
No comments:
Post a Comment