The Play’s the Thing                                            Luke 19:28-40

Today is Palm Sunday and Jesus is entering Jerusalem to fulfill God’s plan for our redemption. There are two plays that I absolutely love, “Phantom of the Opera” and “Jesus Christ Superstar”, coincidentally they both were written by Andrew Lloyd Webber. I’ve seen them both multiple times. I love the scenery, the music, and of course, the characters. I have divergent taste; one is about a deranged psychopath in the Paris Opera House, the other is a modern rock version of our Lord’s Passion.

I found that as I was going over our reading this week I started to think of it almost like a play. And I started to pick out some of the characters and see how they can relate lessons to us. There are several characters we can look at but I limited myself to just a few.

The first character I want to look at is the crowd. Now yes the crowd is made up of a host of people but it can be looked at as one character in our play. The crowd welcomed Jesus as he entered the gate to the city. They sang praises for him; they laid palms on the road as he traveled through. They cheered and welcomed him like a king. And then just a few days later they turned on him and demanded his crucifixion.

The character of the crowd can teach us about our human nature. There is a scene in “Jesus Christ Superstar” where just after Jesus and the disciples enter Jerusalem Peter tells Jesus to look at the crowd, they were so worked up they would do anything he asked them to do. The song says, “…look at the ten thousand, they will do whatever you ask them to, just add a touch of hate at Rome and you will be raised to a higher glory…”

In our reading today, Jesus enters Jerusalem just a step shy of being crowned king. The crowd saw the Messiah as a military leader who would liberate Israel, they expected Jesus to lead an uprising and expel Rome. They had high expectations for Jesus. And when he didn’t do what they expected, they changed their attitude about him.

I used to get angry when I read this passage. How could they turn their attitude 180* so fast? If we look at our history we see mankind’s attitudes and loyalties can change quickly. Look at our politics; and I don’t care who anyone votes for, but if we look at our system the fact is all politicians run campaigns on promises and if they get elected and fail to deliver on those promises we get upset. The joy we feel at the election changes quickly and we start to look for the next candidate.

But it’s not just politics. We all have favorite products that we’re loyal to; a favorite laundry soap   or a shampoo, probably a lot of other products too. And yet many get replaced by something “new           and improved.” and we move on to the next great product because it promises better results. Before long the original product disappears from the stores. Human nature is that we look for something new, what are we up to now,  I phone 12.

This isn’t the first time the crowd has turned in this manner. In Exodus God just led his people out of Egypt and shortly after the people felt they weren’t getting what they should; they changed their attitude and made a golden calf and started to worship it instead of God.

This character; this crowd teaches us that God’s thoughts and plans stretch from the beginning to the end of time. As humans, when it looks to us like God is not doing what we expect, when it looks like our prayers are not being answered, we tend to back away or turn from him.

Now maybe God is working in their minds to accelerate this process of change of attitude because the cross is so near, but it doesn’t change our human nature and our willingness to look for something new that does what we want it to do in the way we want it to do it.

The next character for us to look at is Caiaphas. As Jesus enters the city Caiaphas admonishes him, telling Jesus to send the crowds away. As we look at Caiaphas we can quickly see his motivation; simply, it is fear.

Here is a man above men, the head of the religious elite. A man accustomed to being paid attention to. Jesus tells us in Luke 20:46, “Beware the scribes who walk around in long robes and…love the best seats in the synagogue and places of honor at feasts.” Caiaphas was afraid that as the people turned to follow Jesus and his message of redemption, he would lose his standing; he would lose his power of control over the masses that he wields by telling them where they fall short of the law.

Today, when one has power and influence they usually want to keep it. Power and influence are not bad things; the bad thing is what people may do in order to keep it. We just need to look at the scandals among leaders of industry, finance and government and sadly faith leaders to see the truth in this.

Caiaphas should have been afraid. But not of losing power, he should have been afraid of God.

2 Peter 2:1, “But there were also false prophets among the people…They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord…” Instead of using the law as it was intended, to lead people to God, to show people they need God’s mercy; he was using it to control the people. He was using the law to keep the people living in servitude and fear. Jeremiah 23:1, “Woe to the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture.” I take this very seriously. Caiaphas should have been afraid of God.

So what are we afraid of, financial hardship, loss of a loved one, loss of a job? Franklin Roosevelt said that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. But really the only thing we need to fear is getting to the end of our life without Christ in it.

We’ve looked at the crowd and at Caiaphas; the next character in our play to examine is Pilate and he teaches us about authority. Pilate had authority, ruling over Judea with the power of life and death over the population. He was one the most powerful men alive at the time and yet Jesus tells him in John 19, “You would have no power over me if it were not given from above.”

Each of us has some amount of authority. Parents have authority over their children, I have a certain amount at my job. But the authority we have in our lives is nothing compared to the authority God commands.  He has the authority to bring all existence into being with just a word. He has the authority to offer us redemption through his son.

I, like most kids, couldn’t wait to grow up so I didn’t have to listen to anyone tell me what to do, doesn’t work that way. In our life there will always be people that we have some level of authority over, and there will always be those people who have authority over us. But the ultimate authority is God. He tells me how to live and how to come into his presence.

The next character is the collective twelve, the apostles and their lesson of faith. Jesus entered Jerusalem hailed as a great man. And by being his select they were riding on his coat tails, reaping the benefit just by being around Jesus. They were looked on with admiration and celebrated, and in less than a week, when things go south; they scatter and Peter even denies he knows Jesus.

Can’t we all do something like this? Maybe not to this extent but really I think most people; when things are going good, when life is on a high, we give thanks to God. But when things are down, when there’s trouble, we can distance ourselves from God. I know when I face hardships it is easy for me to ignore God and try to fix everything on my own. Instead of acknowledging I need him, I can turn away from him.

God wants us to have faith in the good times and the bad. Our faith is about heaven and our salvation by our belief in Christ’s death and resurrection, by our trust in God’s promises. My faith is based on my redemption, not on whether today is a happy day. And when we do face hard times; Romans 8:25, “…the Spirit helps us in our weakness.”

And now we come to the last character in today’s play that I want to look at, the donkey. What can this small animal teach us? He shows us trust. God put this animal right where he needed it to be so it could carry Jesus into Jerusalem fulfilling the prophecy in Zachariah 9:9, “See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

That donkey couldn’t build a great city. It couldn’t write great epics or poems. All that donkey could do was walk; walk and carry things on its back. That donkey was small, unassuming and overlooked. Yet God used it to carry the Son of Man, the savior of mankind into the holy city of Jerusalem.

We need to trust that God will have the things we need where we need them. We need to understand that it may not be something grandiose. What God gives us may be something small and unassuming like this young donkey. God can use anything, big or small for our good and for his purpose.

Palm Sunday, Jesus enters Jerusalem. A scene,  a play with characters each with its own lesson for us. The crowd shows us thing may not always go the way we want them to, but they always go the way God ordains them to. Caiaphas shows us that we cannot combat fear with bullying, that the only thing we really need to fear is reaching our physical death without Jesus. Pilate shows us some are destined to have great authority but whether we command a lot or almost no authority over others, God has total and absolute authority over us. The disciples tell us that Jesus is with us in good times and in bad times. When we face bad times don’t turn from God, reach out to him. And a small donkey shows us God is always working in the world, and he will have what you need where you need it.

Palm Sunday, as we move through this week to Easter Sunday, let us all put our minds and hearts in the right place. Open yourself to the true meaning in your life of the miracle of the cross and Jesus resurrection.

Amen.