Palm Sunday, 2022 - A Sermon in Four Part Harmony

 

How do you communicate something the other doesn’t want to hear? Refuses to hear? Can’t hear? 

Such was the challenge Jesus faced as he entered Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. It seemed that no one — not the crowds that flocked to him, especially not the religious leaders who opposed him, not even his disciples — had understood what he had been teaching about God and the Kingdom. Knowing he would be crucified by the end of the week, he planned and implemented four events that would proclaim the truth he knew — four actions that could not be ignored or forgotten. In doing so, he adopted the pattern used by the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel. He acted out his sermons. These acted-out sermons embodied the truth he proclaimed but could not, would not be heard.  They provided images that would be remembered and reflected on.

The four acted-out sermons were the royal entry on Sunday (Mark 11), the cleansing of the Temple on Monday (according to Mark 11:12-19) followed by the teaching in the Temple during the week, the washing of the disciples’ feet (John 13), and the reinterpretation of the Passover meal (Mark 14:17-26). Each event proclaimed the same truth from a different perspective — as though in four part harmony. Still today, we remember these four sermons. Hopefully, we reflect on them so that we may hear and embrace the truth they proclaimed.

Jesus’s acted-out sermons reflected his refusal to give up on or abandon those who could not and would not hear. He continued to give to them even as they refused what he had to give. As the gospel of John puts it, “He loved them to the end” (John 13:1). These acted-out sermons offered the possibility that his truth could be heard and embraced sometime in the future.

Jesus’s faithful love, expressed in these four acted-out sermons, raises for me the question, “Why do we not want to hear, why do we refuse to hear the truth Jesus taught about God and the Kingdom?” I find the answer to my question in the gospel of Matthew. Jesus, referencing the prophet Isaiah, explained why he taught in parables — which were another attempt to help people hear what they could not and would not hear.

‘You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn— and I would heal them’ (Matthew 13:14-15).

Jesus used parables, as he did the acted-out sermons, in an attempt to get around the resistance to what he taught. The people’s hearts were unresponsive to truth – dull. They could not hear with their ears or see with their eyes. Using the text from Isaiah, Jesus explained the reason for their resistance: “so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn.” They refused to hear because they did not want to change — turn.

Our resistance to truth is part of our resistance to change.

We have built our lives and our identities on what we believe. When something or someone challenges what we believe, it threatens how we live our lives along with our sense of identity — our understanding of who we are. Embracing “the new” as truth disrupts what is — our understanding of life, how we live our lives, our understanding of who we are based on our beliefs.

The ways of the Kingdom that Jesus taught are at odds with the way of thinking in which we were trained. Relationships in the Kingdom are based on grace and forgiveness. Relationships in the world are based upon merit-based thinking. We get what we deserve. We give what we believe the other deserves. In the Kingdom, all are viewed and valued, accepted and embraced as beloved children of God. The merit-based thinking of the world produces hierarchal relationships (better than-less than) and us-them divisions. In the Kingdom, power is used to serve. It is used in life-giving ways that nurtures the other toward emotional-relational-spiritual maturity. The merit-based thinking of the world taught us to use our power in self-serving ways. We were trained to use power against others for our own advantage. The merit-based thinking of the world taught us that our identity was inseparably tied to our achievements and success, to our standing in the hierarchy, and to how we compare to others.

Embracing the truth Jesus taught about God and the Kingdom turns our thinking and our living upside down. It puts us out of step with the society and culture that taught us who we were and how we were supposed to live. The truth Jesus taught produces radical change. It changes how we think and what we value. It changes how we live, including how we use our time and our material wealth. The truth Jesus taught changes who we understand ourselves to be and how we view others.

Change is hard. It requires turning loose of the old and familiar as we embrace that which is new and different. It requires a willingness to learn and grow. It requires thinking that involves unlearning while we are learning to think differently. It requires us to jettison old attitudes and prejudices as the Spirit engrains the servant spirit of Christ in our hearts. Change requires intentionality and effort. It requires maturity reflected in the strength to be out of step with and at odds with those around us. It requires a strength we draw from the Spirit.

As we begin another Holy Week, we again encounter Jesus’s four acted-out parables. They invite us to remember and to reflect. They invite us to learn again the truth Jesus taught in four-part harmony. They invite us to be transformed by the truth he taught. They invite us to change.