April 5, 2009

Mark 11:1-11

“Questions We Have About The Passion: A Dialogue Sermon With The Rev. Carrie Culleen and The Rev. Allen Harris”

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Carrie:  You know, Allen, when I was a child, Palm Sunday was my favorite church day. That was because that was one day where children were really welcomed into the church. We didn’t have to sit still, wear white gloves and BEHAVE! We could shout and sing.
 

Allen: I agree, Carrie. It was the same, for me. With all the pageantry and festivities echoing that day in Jerusalem, it allowed adults, especially the parents, to relax and allow the kid in us to come out. And boy did I love my palm branch! Everyone got their own, and could even take it home with them!
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And while I still love Palm Sunday, and love having youth involved, it brings on something else. A week of questions for God. Sometimes the questions change, sometimes I think I have gotten an answer, sometimes my brain just explodes. If this week didn’t end in Easter, I would be a wreck.
It certainly is a packed week, filled with some of the most vivid and powerful stories of the New Testament! It’s no wonder that our heads fill up with questions. I think there’s more to ponder, question, and be disturbed by in this week ahead than in any other time in the church year… Christmas included. Death, and all that surrounds it, seems to draw out of us more curiosity than birth. I wonder why we aren’t more curious about birth?
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One of my questions is about how much Jesus really knew. In Mark 11 verse 2, Jesus tells his disciples to go into the next town and just as they enter the gate into the town they will find a colt that has never been ridden. He tells his disciples to bring it to him. Now I am sure that he has no intention of stealing it, but how does he know about it, and why not just walk, like everybody else, into Jerusalem?

My biggest question is: did God plan this all out (that seems awfully cruel, I am not sure I like this God) or did God just take the worst possible scenario and bring forth joy?
I’m with you. I personally have never believed God has some master blueprint up in heaven and then “tricks” us into fulfilling that plan. Same way with Jesus. I don’t believe for a moment that he had to walk some “template” from A to B all the way to Z in order to fulfill God’s plan. That would be pretty deterministic and leaves grace and faith as trivialities.

Rather, I think God, and Jesus, knew us so well that they could imagine what might happen. But just as God and Jesus could imagine the horrible things we might – and did – do (such as the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus), the also could imagine the beautiful things we could do… the woman anointing Jesus with costly ointment, the cheers of the crowd as Jesus came into Jerusalem, and the love of the disciples in that upper room.
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I always wonder if I were there, who would I be? Would I end up being Judas, whom I feel very sorry for, because if this was all ordained ahead of time by God, Judas was only doing God’s will. How could Peter deny him? Are we all like Peter at some point in our lives?
Who would I have been if I were one of the participants in Holy Week? That’s a great thought, Carrie. I suppose my heart wants me to have been the beloved disciple, laying my head on Jesus’ shoulder, vowing my loyalty to him forever. Or, perhaps, one of the women who were not afraid to be at the crucifixion to show Jesus he wasn’t alone. Probably, I would have a little bit of all of the characters… from those who remained loyal, even to the one who would betray Jesus.
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And then the Garden of Gethsemane, I am always very moved by how real Jesus is at this moment. I think that I find Jesus most human there, alone and scared and crying. In Mark 15:34, Jesus cries out, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? If God can forsake Jesus, what leads us to believe he won’t leave us? Was Jesus wrong about God forsaking him?

I think of that scene a lot, too. More than anything, I think what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane reminds us in poignant and painful ways that we are human and Jesus was human. He was fully human and fully divine, as later church leaders would say. This description of Jesus’ doubts, his fears, and his frustrations really sets Jesus apart from a lot of the other “gods” of our lives. All-too-often we want our gods to have no fear, be completely other than ourselves, different, stronger, better. Jesus is that, but at the very same time he’s just as weak and vulnerable as we are. That’s the paradox that makes this “the Greatest Story Ever Told!”
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Why do we always blame “the Jews” who executed by “stoning” when it is evident that Jesus was crucified, a method only employed by the Roman government? If Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the Jewish council as reported in Mark 15:43, why don’t we honor “the Jews” for giving Jesus a proper burial?
We’ve got to be crystal clear on this question, don’t we, Carrie? The history of misinterpretation and downright manipulation of the scriptures to somehow blame “the Jews” for killing Jesus is wrong, wrong, wrong! Jesus never abdicated his Jewish identity, and, in fact, lived it out fully. Jesus didn’t really spend any time at all repudiating other religions. Rather, he chastised those negative habits which really cross all religions: selfishness, pride, arrogance, and prejudice.

Also, we must get the point once and for all that those who were working to get Jesus arrested, tried, and crucified were showing the worst of human nature, not living out their faith. In fact, the characters in the Passion story that we love to hate, the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Scribes, were not all of one mind, and those that were intent on getting Jesus out of the way are better called “religious collaborators” as they collaborated with the Roman empire to keep ALL the Jewish people down and beholden to them, and to Caesar. Jesus was a victim of this religious/political collaboration, and that can happen in any nation and with any religious tradition.

What is the point of Jesus’ silence in Mark 15:2-5? Why didn’t Jesus at least defend himself? What did Jesus hear that moment he left death behind; God’s deep laughter? Where did he go, why not stay and see his mother?
I’m not sure. Ultimately, this week and this story leave me wondering more and more each year. Isn’t that a large part of faith, to realize that sometimes the questions and the questioning are as important as the knowing and the believing? What was Jesus thinking those last few moments on the cross? Why did he grant the one thief a place in paradise with him, without so much as a demand for repentance? Why did Jesus die so quickly, when crucifixion normally took days? What was on God’s heart the moment Jesus died? I just don’t know…

 

Rev. Allen V. Harris
Franklin Circle Christian Church
www.FranklinCircleChurch.org


 

Copyright 2009 -- The Rev. Allen V. Harris

Franklin Circle Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

1688 Fulton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113-3096