Matthew  21: 1- 16                                           Palm Sunday

  In ten months, we will welcome a new president. After the inauguration, there will be
a parade, with a motorcade of at least 35 presidential vehicles traveling down Pennsylvania Avenue. This parade celebrating our new leadership will be a little different than Jesus’ parade into Jerusalem nearly 2000 years ago, a day which has come to be celebrated as Palm Sunday. There were no Cadillac Seville limousines with bullet proof windows for Jesus’ triumphal entry into the capitol city. There were only tall stately horses for the really important people, for the kings, conquerors and warriors, and then there were donkeys, beasts of burden, for the more humble. So Jesus’ entry on a donkey was a statement about what kind of king he would be. He was a humble servant leader, not one to rule by might. He came in with humility, not with triumph.

 Yet he also came with chutzpah. Chutzpah, that great Yiddish word for daring, audacious, bold beyond belief. Jesus came into Jerusalem and went into the temple and while the crowds were saying, “Hosanna” and others were saying, “Who is this?” Jesus had the audacity to drive out those who were taking advantage of the poor in the temple by overturning their tables. He offended the powerful and surrounded himself with the powerless – the sick, the marginalized, and the children. Whomever we elect, I hope will lead America with humility and chutzpah. I hope that person will be humble enough to lead in peace and service, and bold enough to speak truth to power. I hope that person will be willing to stand with the sick, the marginalized, and the children. Just when his followers expected him to establish himself as a military might, a political leader, a power with which to be reckoned, Jesus became a very different kind of revolutionary. He relinquished all power, except the power of love and service and entered the dangerous week that would be his last.
 

 ^NRS Matthew 21:1  When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, "Go
into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me.  ³ If anyone says anything to you, just say this, 'The Lord needs them.'  And he will send them immediately. " ⁴ This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,  ⁵ "Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey."  ⁶ The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them;
 ⁷ they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them.  ⁸ A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  ⁹ The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!" ¹⁰ When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, "Who is this?"  ¹¹ The crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee."  ¹² Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. ¹³ He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer'; but you are making it a den of robbers." ¹⁴ The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. ¹⁵ But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they became angry ¹⁶ and said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, 'Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself'?"
 

 I think Jesus knew it was over. That the time had arrived for him to enter Jerusalem, for the last time. I think that Jesus knew it was over, and that the only appropriate place for him to go was to the Holy Temple in the Holy City.

 I think Jesus knew, and I am not at all sure he would have described this final entry as "triumphal," like so many of us triumphalistic Christians like to do. We like to enter Jerusalem blowing our party-horns, waving our palm branches, casting our confetti, thumbing our noses at death...because we know how the story ends. And we know, don't we, that this is a triumphal entry? That Jesus is coming to the city to celebrate?

 But why does Matthew deliberately leave out of Zechariah's quote the clear declaration of triumph? Instead of saying it like Zechariah said it, "Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey," Matthew deletes the victory part: "Lo, your king comes to you...humble, riding on a donkey." No triumph and no victory, like the prophet said. And yet, year in and year out, we disciples climb on the Palm Sunday Parade Float as if we can just ride right into Resurrection Day, Easter Sunday with nothing but sweet pastel colors. But just like your life, this week is going to be more complicated than it appears. You might be smiling, people might be waving branches, they might be singing your praises but there’s more going on under the service of things. After they sing your praises, they could be denying they even know you. They could be turning their backs on you and betraying your confidence. You never know what a week might hold.

Vast crowds are spreading coats and branches in front of Jesus, shouting "Hosanna to the Son of David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!" But Matthew chooses the Greek word from which our word "seismic" comes to point out that "the whole city" is earthquaking in turmoil as Jesus humbly enters it.

 Everyone is asking confusedly, "Who is this guy, riding in humility on a beast of burden?!" And the crowds are saying repeatedly, "The prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee!" And Jesus just rides on, without a word. What's going on here on the first Palm Sunday? A celebration? A trial? A funeral?

 And why doesn't this Jesus at least acknowledge something? At least, tip his hat or wave his toga, or say "Thank-you, thank-you"? You'd think he was ungrateful for all the commotion on his behalf. And goodness sakes, look at the first thing he does upon his "triumphal" entry. Does he glide on into the party, graciously assuming the center of attention? No. He goes straight to the holiest place in town and starts pushing people out and turning tables over on top of them!

 It's hard to imagine this Palm Sunday scene because it's hard to imagine the Temple and the way in which the outside of the Temple was used as a market-place exploit the needs of worshipers — "One sheep, ten denarii! One spotless lamb, twenty! Special on two-day old sacrificed meat, five denarii!" Just imagine the way in which a stadium steals the attention of 80,000 people, and you will be close to what must have been happening there in the Temple party as Jesus crashed it. “You’ve got the wrong idea, people.”  (Ideas of the last six paragraphs adapted from a sermon by R.Deibert)

 You see, Jesus knew it was over, and therefore felt comfortable pulling out all the stops. Chutzpah. Why not? The first thing he says is not only that this is the wrong kind of party to have, but you are the wrong kind of people to invite to a party, in my house. Now, you just don't do that in the Temple in Jerusalem, and get away with it. And Jesus knows this, but Jesus also knows it is the end. And so he offends the powerful by acknowledging the importance of the weak. The humble cling to the Jesus – the children, the sick, the disabled. The humble cling to the one who comes in humility, who is willing to be humiliated for the sake of love.

 The one who comes in humility has the chutzpah to stand up to the establishment with all its expectations of what power looks like, and declare that God’s way is a different way than they think – that those who are weak are strong, that those who are poor are rich, that those who die, live.

 And, of course, this doesn't settle well with the officials, and so the establishment become indignant that such poor, pitiful people are celebrating their own renegade leader. "Jesus, do you realize that these lowly people do not really belong in an important place like the Temple? And do you hear the things these little ignorant children are saying about you?"

 I believe it is right here that Jesus finally seals his fate. And it is only right here that his entry into Jerusalem can be said to "triumph": "Yes, of course I hear the children. Have you never read in your own book that it is out of their mouths that God composes praise?" Here the chutzpah rises to a level, which people in power cannot handle. “Who is this man?” Who does he think he is, challenging the status quo, trying to change the way we worship?

 This is a man humble enough to care for the powerless and powerful enough to give voice to the humble. What about you? Will you be like Jesus in humility and chutzpah? Will you exercise courage enough to be the compassionate toward all? It’s a hard calling to hold humility and chutzpah together in one person, but that’s the role of a Christian – to humbly proclaim the love of God for all people, even if it upsets people, proclaiming it loud and clear, until the day you die.