Mark 11, 14, 15
Does Not Play Well With Others
Pastor Chris Enstad
Palm Sunday is one of the most jarring Sundays of the church year for me. Starting with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem and ending with the crowd shouting, “crucify him” all in one hour. And with many of the same people yelling those things too!
But there are many reasons that I love the way that Mark tells the Gospel story one of them being the structure of the story that takes place between Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and his betrayal by Judas. Mark makes this story rush in on us; he catches us up into the crowd and then it’s kind of like someone has pushed the fast forward button on the DVD player but not the super fast forward just the one that nudges it about 2 times faster so you can still kind of see what’s happening but your brain is not quite processing the details.
I mean listen to this cascading series of events that take place between the moment of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem and his handing over to the Romans to be tried and executed:
The first thing Jesus did after his arrival in Jerusalem was condemn a fig tree for not producing fruit even though it was out of season. This was how Jesus put Israel on notice. It was an immediate broadside against Israel for not producing the fruits of faith. Then he cleansed the temple throwing the moneychangers out, yelling that they had turned his father’s house into a den of robbers, overthrowing tables… not the picture of Jesus that we have today and certainly not the Jesus that the religious leaders and authorities were waiting for. And then there was that teaching on prayer where Jesus upended the teachings of the authorities yet again you know they had turned God into some kind of errand boy who only worked for those who followed the rules the best according to the authorities and so when someone asked God for something and didn’t get it those in charge would say well, you just aren’t a good enough person, you need to do this and this and this and then maybe God will answer your prayer. Well, Jesus took that idea and stood it right on its end. No, that is not what a life in worship of my Father looks like. Align yourself with the Father’s kingdom and your prayers will start to reflect that reality and that life is one lived in forgiveness and trust and hope. If our lives are aligned with the reality that Jesus Christ died on the cross wouldn’t our prayers reflect that faith?
He then turns the religious leaders challenge to his authority back on them with a discussion of the greatest commandment. He tells the parable of the wicked tenants who killed the Son of the Landlord foretelling his own death at the hands of those at work in his father’s field. He challenged the Sadducees lack of faith in the resurrection with the words, “God is the God of the living not the dead.” He denounced the scribes for devouring the homes of the widows and saying long prayers for appearances sake. He lifted up the tiny offering of the widow as evidence of her faith for giving out of her want over and against those who gave just a tiny portion of their abundance. He foretold the destruction of the temple and his own persecution. He taught about the end times but then warned people not to try to guess if they would come sooner or later. He warned that one could not tell when the Son would return but that we all must stay awake.
Is it any wonder then that this Jesus who was welcomed in triumph is, all of the sudden, being plotted against?
For the authorities and priests and scribes Jesus’ presence was undermining their authority over the people… as many church leaders find even today I might add… when Jesus Christ is truly preached and taught and lived it can overthrow our own control and overwhelm our mightiest expectations. Oh, we would prefer the Jesus who was conforming and controllable, who lived up to our expectations not this Son of God who is tearing down traditions, rules, and conventions because God was here to restore his creation to his will not ours and that means dying brothers and sisters. Someone had to die are you willing to do that? You’d rather have the rules and regulations so you can tell who is in and out, we’d rather have a list of busywork to do so we can avoid confronting what really needs to happen. Jesus had to die to bring us back into God’s presence. We have to die to ourselves so that we too might live. Oh man oh man.
But perhaps, perhaps it was the anointing of Jesus with the oil that was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back. Perhaps it was this extravagant act of worship, a jar of nard worth a year’s wages opened and upended on Jesus’ head. "Could not this bottle have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor?"
“Of course,” is the only answer Jesus could give. "But I am with you now"… you see, we always miss the point. We can serve serve serve but it is in the worship of God in Jesus Christ, and not just the victorious Christ of Easter but also the Jesus hanging lifeless on the cross that demands our attention first. We have to make a life of the worship at the foot of the cross that will spring forth fruits of service and worship that come as a result of that faith not as a prerequisite of it.
Brothers and sisters we cannot handle a God like this, a God who reminds us that the first commandment is the most important… you shall have no other Gods but me. Not your job, your house, your spouse, your reputation, your kids, their schedules, even service to the poor are only misfired attempts to do life on our own terms and not in worship of the God who gave his only Son to die for you.
So yes, this is an incongruous Sunday but I think it must be a necessary one to have to spiritually and physically jam us into readiness for the week and the life and the death ahead of us.
Amen.
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