 |
| Passover Supper today - part of a local church Lent Course |
Philippians 2: 7-8 And being found in human form,
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
Luke 19:36 As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching
the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples
began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that
they had seen, saying,
‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!
Sermon for Palm Sunday
I’ve talked before http://www.parttimepriest.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Palm%20Sunday
about the BBC’s 2-part
adaptation of Jesus’s last week on earth, entitled The Passion (2009) staring Joseph Mawle as Jesus.
Mawle was 31 when
he was cast in the part.
He has a certain piercing look that is most
arresting, but also a bit disconcerting.
There’s something about the eyes and the gaze that
is both holy and playful.
I since discovered that Joseph Mawle is almost
entirely deaf.
One reviewer has written of Mawle as an actor:
“It took guts to pursue his acting dream
after contracting an airborne virus which lead to the disorder labyrinthitis.
It destroyed the hairs of his inner ears and he was left with 70 per cent
impaired hearing and with tinnitus, a constant ringing in the ears. He wears
discreet digital hearing aids but prefers to take them out while he’s acting,
relying on lip-reading to know when to say his lines.”
(http://www.birminghampost.co.uk/lifestyle/dyslexic-deaf-actor-joseph-mawle-3940626)
It may account for the mesmerising performance
he gave as Jesus, a performance which catapulted him into the public eye as an
actor of some note.
The Passion
traces the last events of Jesus’ life, beginning with his triumphal entry into
Jerusalem, on the back of a donkey.
To understand the subversiveness of this act and
the subversiveness of Jesus’ humility, we need to paint a picture of what was
really going on that day, to examine all the cross currents swirling around - political,
religious and spiritual – if you like, the 4 “P”s for Palm Sunday (and not one of
them is P for Palm - there's not a palm in sight in Luke’s account!)
Passover, Pilate, Priests and Perception.
Firstly – Passover.
Judea was an occupied territory, governed by the
Romans, who in their turn were trying to keep the peace.
And tensions were never so high as at Passover.
We re-enacted a Passover Meal recently as
part of our Lent Course (see above) and an amazing experience it was.
A lovely fellowship meal with wine, candles and
a very special atmosphere.
But to Jews at the time of Jesus, Passover was
always about to boil over politically.
Passover was the single most important Jewish
festival in the whole year – the time when Jews from all over the known world
would flock to Jerusalem, make sacrifice, and recall their release from captivity
under the Pharoah.
Because of this there was a strong sense of
national religious fervour around the theme of liberation, which, given the
occupation, was a highly charged theme, emotionally and spiritually.
Secondly – Pilate.
In the BBC film, as in the gospel, Pilate is a
cynical figure, tired of these zealous Jews, not wanting unnecessary trouble.
Because we all know that crowds have their own
dynamic, especially where religion is concerned.
Crowds are volatile - a sudden change of feeling and they can
turn nasty and you can have a riot on your hands.
In The
Passion, Pilate and his wife are gearing up for the heady crowds of the
Passover, these troublesome Judeans they are obliged to rule over.
You can hardly move in Jerusalem for pilgrims.
Knock into someone and they might just give you
a black eye.
Someone has already been murdered – a ruffian
called Barabbas is responsible.
‘A Judean will start an argument in an empty
house’, says Pilate’s wife.
‘Priests are the worst’, agrees Pilate, dryly.
Thirdly – Priests.
The BBC film very subtly portrays the Jewish High
Priest, Ciaphas, as a man torn by conflicting impressions of Jesus.
He has heard that the Jewish people are turning
to this Jesus, but Jesus doesn’t do things the normal religious way.
Jesus is a radical.
He claims that he will tear down the Temple and
rebuild it in three days.
This is blasphemy.
He forgives prostitutes and heals lepers.
He doesn’t appear to need or even like Temple
life.
There’s a powerful scene in part one of The
Passion where Jesus enters the Temple Courts with his disciples.
Everywhere pilgrims are bustling and jostling
each other, all making their Passover sacrifice, either a lamb if they’re
wealthy enough, or a simple white dove.
Judas has been tasked with buying a dove, which
he goes off to do, but while this is happening he is cornered by two Temple
priests who want to know what Jesus’ plans are.
He says he doesn’t know – you can see he’s
looking really nervous and feeling threatened by the power of the Jewish priests
to throw him into jail.
What they want is for Judas to lead them to
Jesus, and so, for money, he reluctantly agrees…
A few moments later, Judas rejoins the group of
disciples and hands Jesus a white dove.
It looks as though Jesus is about to make a sacrifice
of it, like everyone else is doing.
At the moment in which he takes the dove in his
hands, Ciaphas appears at the top of the steps, smoke rising from the altar
where the blood is being poured from the sacrifices.
He looks at Jesus and Jesus looks at him.
You have to imagine what’s going through the
mind of each.
One is the Jewish High Priest, the most exalted
religious person in the whole of Judaism, responsible for seeing that the
Passover comes off without trouble.
The other, an itinerant preacher from Galilee,
who is about to lay down his life and become our Great High Priest.
They look at each other for a moment and then,
smiling wryly, Jesus turns, and in an act of subversion, instead of offering
the dove, he lets it go with a swift upward movement of his arms, and it flies
of high into the sky, alive and free.
It’s almost a moment of resurrection.
It’s as if he is saying, there will be no
sacrifice save my own.
In letting the bird go free, Jesus is at once
innocent, playful and yet deadly serious.
Ciaphas is bemused and troubled.
Although Jesus has ridden into town on a donkey,
as the prophet foretold the Messiah would, the high Priest he does not
recognise the coming of the King.
Fourthly – Perception.
We had a visit from the pre-school to church
this week.
Eight 3 year olds were shown round the church
and looked at the font, the windows, the altar and the bible.
I think it may have been the case that some of
them had never been in a church before.
Clearly one boy had read some picture books
about castles and to him, it was basically an old castle in here.
He kept wandering round looking puzzled and
asking, ‘but where’s the king?’
The adults were telling him, ‘there is no king
here’, but in a sense we were all wrong, and he was right to be looking for the
king!
On Palm Sunday the people were looking for
certain kind of king, but they didn’t perceive the king amongst them.
Only the disciples and the children spotted it.
And the stones:
‘Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your
disciples to stop.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the
stones would shout out.’
A final word about humility.
The way of humility is actually quite subversive, if you think about it.
The way of humility is actually quite subversive, if you think about it.
It has been observed that the more defensive
someone is, the more they feel the need to justify their behaviour, to cajole
and persuade and advertise themselves.
The humble have no such need, because they live
by trust.
We notice this as the US election bandwagon
rolls on; this week Donald Trump announced that if he didn’t win the
nomination, his supporters would riot.
Contrast this with Jesus, who did not seek equality
with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant and being obedient
to death, even death on a cross.
And before Pilate, Jesus said nothing.
As Christians we cannot afford to be strident
about rights and privileges.
If we follow the king who rode on a donkey, we
will follow the way of humility.
We will find that God is on the side of the poor
– the poor are those who have come to the end of their own resources and who
call out to God for his empowering.
As we seek to find the way ahead for our
building project, this could very well soon be us.
And it probably needs to be.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit, Amen.
