I want to start off today’s sermon by having you imagine you’re in the crowd while all of this is going on; Palm Sunday, when Jesus is riding through the city on livestock. Think about what might be going through your mind.
Well, unless you were one of the Romans, that day would likely have made you pretty joyous. Here was your king; the promised one, the one who was triumphantly coming as prophesied to bring salvation. You might have stared at him in awe, perhaps vying for the closest place to the front to get a better look, or maybe even to grasp his robe as so many had before in order that they might find healing.
He must have looked so serene riding through the crowds, palm branches laid down before him. He must have brought so much peace. Everyone watching must have felt like he was there just for them; he was on their side … the side of justice and the side of truth.
It must have felt like at that very moment salvation came; as he rode through the street with the cheering crowd surrounding him singing praises to God. As we find out in the coming week, though, salvation doesn’t come neatly packaged and tied up in ribbons. It doesn’t come in the triumphant cheers of a crowd praising their savior and true king. It doesn’t come, at all, in what most would consider a moment of joy, but in a moment most unlikely to be viewed as joyful, or a moment of salvation. Very little if anything about how God works is neatly packaged and tied up in ribbons. We’re about to get a glimpse of that.
How startling must it have been to see him head straight for the temple and, from how it seems, fly into a rage! Was this the same man? Here he was, not being peaceful or serene at all, but rather acting like a mad man, flipping over the tables of the frauds doing their trades, making a total mess of the temple! Surely, this was showing the crowd that Jesus was not on the side of these people; these crooks, these frauds, these people who had done wrong to others. He told the people the temple was to be a house of prayer, not a temple for thieves. So clearly, Jesus was not on the side of these thieves, right?
What we’re told next makes me laugh in a sense. We’re told that the clearing out he did made way for people with disabilities to make their way around the temple, and they were able to then come to him, and he healed them. It makes me laugh because, in my mind, I can’t help but thinking “Hey, Jesus was trying to enact the Americans with Disabilities Act way before 1990. What took the White House so long to get it?
But look deeper. This goes much deeper than just people with disabilities being able to move about in the temple. In doing what he did, he made the temple accessible to all who would come and use it for its intended purpose … a house of prayer, with no discrimination. So, clearly, God isn’t on the side of those who discriminate against others, right? It seems like God is on the side of those who are discriminated against.
Speaking of being discriminated against, what happened next was perhaps a bit funny as well, if for no other reason than the religious leaders were so far missing the point that it was nearly turning comical. Little children began running around the temple praising God, knowing that Jesus had come in the name of the Father; honestly spiritually moved and excited by what was going on. And what was the response of the religious leaders? All they paid attention to was the fact that the children were making noise; something that, in their eyes, disrupted the temple just as, in their eyes, Jesus overturning the tables had.
Jesus was quick with a response, though. He responded as though surprised that the religious leaders were not aware of it having been said that out of the mouths of children would be built a house of praise. And what is praise, but a type of prayer? Sometimes little children are nearer to the heart of Christ than the most prominent religious leaders. Clearly, Jesus was on the side of the little children, and not at all on the side of the religious leaders who were denouncing all that was going on, right?
Well, I’ve asked a lot of questions, and the answer to the questions might surprise you. Jesus was and is on the side of all the people I’ve mentioned in this story; he was and is even on the side of those who had him arrested, lied about him, crucified him, spit on him, and pierced his side on the cross. Jesus is on your side, and he’s on my side.
That’s a tough concept to understand. I remember in elementary school having squabbles with others who told me that if I was so and so’s friend I couldn’t also be their friend. I had to pick one. At the time, I felt forced to choose the person making me choose, but ya know what I learned as I got older? It was usually just one of the two or three people asking me to choose. The others simply didn’t care who I was friends with. That didn’t matter, in their eyes, to our friendship.
The thing about Jesus is that he doesn’t pick whether he’s on our side based on things we do. He doesn’t have a sports team, a political party, a race that he prefers over any other. And you know why? He made all of them. He, along with the Father and Spirit, made Adolph Hitler and Mother Teresa, Charles Manson and Nelson Mandela, Osama Bin Laden and Martin Luther King Jr.
I think a lot of times we want to think of God our parent and Christ our brother as someone who’s on the side of only people who do good things in life. But guess what? All of us have messed up. We may look at the Adolph Hitlers and Osama Bin Ladens of the world and think to ourselves, “I haven’t messed up nearly that bad. Surely, God is far more on my side than theirs.”
This is where God, and God in Christ differs amazingly from humankind. We base whose side we are on in situations; political, familial, even watching sports, based on who in our eyes most deserves us on their side; who we like the most, who we know the best, who we feel most deserves to win, who we feel is most on the right. But that’s not how God operates.
God doesn’t choose a person’s side. He chooses the side of justice, righteousness, truth and love. Does that mean that if we fail to act out of these things, God drops us like a sack of potatoes and says, “Sorry, kiddo, you’re on your own now”?
By no means. We aren’t judged by how many mistakes we make or don’t make. We’re judged by our hearts which only God can see. When we have Christ in our hearts, we’re still gonna screw up. We’re still gonna do things that God wouldn’t approve of. We’re still not going to always be just, truthful and loving. God is still on our side, though, just as he is still on the side of those we feel aren’t on our side. There is no partiality with God. He loves us all every bit as much as everyone else.
Put yourself back in the scene from the beginning. You’re watching Jesus ride through town. You feel that euphoria. You feel that peace. You feel the love he has for you, and you realize that love is for everyone there, not just you.
Then he goes to the temple, and overturns the tables of those who have been taking advantage of others, making room for those who were discriminated against and welcoming them. Look at this with new eyes. Is Jesus really even saying he’s not on the side of the people whose tables he’s overturning? No, he’s saying he doesn’t approve of what they are doing.
That’s a distinction that as fallible humans we have a really hard time making. It can be difficult sometimes to separate a person from things they are doing or words they are saying. We may feel we can’t be on a person’s “side” because of things they’ve said or done or things we’ve heard they’ve said or done, but is that really the whole person? Is that really their heart?
This Palm Sunday, I want all of us to take a moment as we close in prayer to consider times in our lives where we’ve been in a tug of war or perhaps put others in a tug of war between one another. It can be in your family, in your workplace, in your home, even here at church or at another church you’ve been to.
I want you to visualize both parties who seemed to be on opposing sides during what went on. And I want you to visualize Jesus stepping in between and embracing them all, bridging the gap and showing us that the greatest love of all does not shun one person in order to be in the life of another.
The greatest love of all is great enough to love us all, if only we will accept that love.
Will we accept it from him? Will we accept it from one another, and will we grant it to one another? Will we allow Jesus to bridge the gaps in our relationships with others … in our relationship with him?
Let’s close in a word of prayer.
A native of La Crescenta, the Rev. Katharine “Kat” Royal is an alumna of Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy in La Cañada and Azusa Pacific University. A resident of Carrboro, North Carolina, she was pastor of Progressive Christian Alliance from 2011 until her death at age 33 in 2015. This column is published today, Palm Sunday, in her honor.
Scripture to be illustrated
Matthew 21:1-3: When they neared Jerusalem, having arrived at Bethphage on Mount Olives, Jesus sent two disciples with these instructions: “Go over to the village across from you. You’ll find a donkey tethered there, her colt with her. Untie her and bring them to me. If anyone asks what you’re doing, say, ‘The Master needs them!’ He will send them with you.”
Matthew 21:4-5: This is the full story of what was sketched earlier by the prophet: Tell Zion’s daughter, “Look, your king’s on his way, poised and ready, mounted on a donkey, on a colt, foal of a pack animal.”
Matthew 21:6-9: The disciples went and did exactly what Jesus told them to do. They led the donkey and colt out, laid some of their clothes on them, and Jesus mounted. Nearly all the people in the crowd threw their garments down on the road, giving him a royal welcome. Others cut branches from the trees and threw them down as a welcome mat. Crowds went ahead and crowds followed, all of them calling out, “Hosanna to David’s son!” “Blessed is he who comes in God’s name!” “Hosanna in highest heaven!”
Matthew 21:10: As he made his entrance into Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken. Unnerved, people were asking, “What’s going on here? Who is this?”
Matthew 21:11: The parade crowd answered, “This is the prophet Jesus, the one from Nazareth in Galilee.”
He kicked over the tables.
Matthew 21: 12-14: Jesus went straight to the Temple and threw out everyone who had set up shop, buying and selling. He kicked over the tables of loan sharks and the stalls of dove merchants. He quoted this text: “My house was designated a house of prayer; You have made it a hangout for thieves. Now there was room for the blind and crippled to get in. They came to Jesus and he healed them.”
Matthew 21:15-16: When the religious leaders saw the outrageous things he was doing, and heard all the children running and shouting through the Temple, “Hosanna to David’s Son!” they were up in arms and took him to task. “Do you hear what these children are saying?” Jesus said, “Yes, I hear them. And haven’t you read in God’s Word, ‘From the mouths of children and babies I’ll furnish a place of praise’?”
Matthew 21:17: Fed up, Jesus turned on his heel and left the city for Bethany, where he spent the night.
