“Join the Party”

Karen Sloan

Reading - Luke 19: 28-40

Many of you here are reading a book for bookclub, called “After Jesus, before Christianity”, from the Jesus seminar people.  It covers an incredible about of research done over many years, into the period of time, well before organised Christianity, but after Jesus had gone.  What were people thinking and doing, in the 2 centuries  following his death. How did followers of Jesus live and work, and be, well, followers of Jesus?

The thing that struck me early on was what people who were followers of Jesus were called in those early times.  They were not called Christians, which today seems to mean believing in a set of beliefs or doctrines.

Actually there were many names for them, some you would know, like people of the way, but the term “Christianos” was also used.  This means “one who belongs to the party of the Anointed”.

 I love that, one who belongs to the party of the Anointed”.  Clearly the anointed one was Jesus, who was seen as a messiah and prophet, anointed by God, to lead Israel over and above the powers of Rome. A truly political and subversive claim. Over time there were people of the anointed, friends of the anointed, brothers and sisters of the Anointed, and Intimates of the anointed. Variations on the theme.

What I love about the term “one who belongs to the party of the Anointed”, is that it was used by the Romans to identify a subgroup of the larger groups in Israel that were going to cause trouble, which made membership to this group a serious offence.  Later the name was used more as a badge of honour by those in it, as a symbol of resistance to the dominant structures of power.  Clearly, saying truth to power non-violently would get you into serious trouble.

I haven’t finished it yet, but it is an incredible book, opening our eyes to the many ways people understood the life and teachings of Jesus. There was certainly no one set of beliefs, that meant you were in or out, but there was a way to live that was pretty universal. 

So his followers had to choose!  Do I join the party of Jesus, with everything that entailed.  We hear today, on Palm Sunday the full realisation it was a risky, but life giving choice.  Maybe before Palm Sunday many were hopeful joining the party would just mean being part of a grand demonstration of firepower, let’s get rid of these Romans once and for all.  A stupendous action movie where the goodies win and the losers are wiped out. And they might not have to risk too much.

Then Jesus comes in to Jerusalem riding on a donkey!!! A sign of peace. 

Crap, there is going to be a lot more riding on this membership than waving a few palms!!!

So I want now to  put some context around this day for us.  So we may also be inspired to join the party  or be inspired by the Anointed one.

We know that Jesus was Jewish, and that during his lifetime Jerusalem was home to  political, economic and religious oppression.  Gods passion for justice seen in Jesus’s Jewish roots had been replaced by injustice. Mainly at the hands of the Romans but also by the system itself.

As he travelled and preached many people thought he was the longed for Jewish messiah. Who would magically rescue them from the Roman oppressors with his power and might. It was an understanding steeped in ancient beliefs, an expectation that here was the new dawning found within this one man. But it was a rescue bound in blood.

Yet Jesus clearly was not that sort of Messiah. His teachings, mission and life reflected that reality.  As Rev Dawn Hutchinson highlights, “his messiahship was almost a non-event, for Jesus insisted on the wisdom of peace through justice rather than war, generosity over greed, selflessness over selfishness, mercy over vengeance, hope over fear, and above all love and kindness over hate.”

He was not the messiah that many around Jerusalem expected that day. They wanted someone to take control. Jesus was something else entirely, someone completely different.  In fact, even the disciples had trouble understanding who Jesus was. A messiah who called those listening to participate with him, a messiah that said the Kingdom of God was already present in and among them, they just had to join in. A messiah that chose powerlessness, not power.

So people were confused.  We heard about the events of Palm Sunday in the year 32 from Matt, who was sitting on the hill over.  Depending on the gospel, we have Jesus riding on a donkey or colt, a foal of a donkey, or 2 donkeys in Matthew, which is a confused reference to an OT passage , through one gate into Jerusalem, while Pilate rides on a stallion through a different opposite gate. Two different parades, two different ways of seeing life.

If anyone was confused at the beginning of the day, they wouldn’t be at the end. Jesus was clearly making a statement, a very dangerous statement.  

When we examine the synoptic gospels, Mark, Matthew and Luke, in particular, the revolutionary Jesus, the Jesus of peace and nonviolence comes through pretty clearly.  In Mark the procession is well planned and he spends a lot of time telling his audience about the preparations.  This was not just a spontaneous act, but a intentionally political act, contrasting the Kingdom of Rome to the dominion of God.  This thread is seen throughout Matthew and Luke, whose story we heard today.  While only the gospel of John has people waving palm branches, Mark and Matthew have leafy branches of some sort, perhaps even olive branches, while Luke has none. 

The issue with palm branches is interesting. Maybe Mark, Matthew and Luke do not include people waving palm branches before Jesus because they knew they were linked with victory and generals, or perhaps, as others say, palm trees would not have been available at that time or at any time in Jerusalem.  Who knows? Either way, they have become a symbol of peace and of Jesus and today we would have  waved them this afternoon at the Palm Sunday March for refugees, if we had a march.  So I have them here.

What we do know is that when Pilate entered the Jaffa gate he was showcasing his power and military might, and the might of Rome.  Get in the way and you will be crushed. Instead of power and might Jesus enters the lions gate, down from the garden of gethsemane.  A different gate and a different parade.  One stressing nonviolence and love.  And justice and inclusion for the poor and marginalized. And forgiveness and peace.   

So while the details change there is a truth that is breathtaking to behold. Rome or God.   As our Matt saw, this man called Jesus was going to change things, but not in the way people might have thought. 

Yet even Pilate got it, for he knew Jesus was not a military Messiah. Otherwise he would have had all his disciples arrested.  Rather as Bill loader says, he saw Jesus as a dangerous stirrer. Fancy suggesting that Rome’s empire and kingdom was not enough!.  So Pilate did what totalitarian regimes often do.  He eliminated Jesus, executed him by the usual method designed to scare people off from ever acting against Rome, crucifixion.”

Good Friday is beckoning…., but before we get there….

What do we do with today, Palm Sunday in 2022, after understanding the context in which it stands.

Well there have been many who have taken Jesus words and lived inspired lives in our more contemporary times.

Those who have come before us…

People like Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Desmond Tutu, and Nelson Mandela who lived in terrible unjust times, the sacrifices they made to stand up to the injustices perpetrated on their people in their time and place.  Or the many women who stood up when women were not supposed to be feisty.  Women such as Rosa Parks, Malala Yousafzai and Dorothy Day.  Or even the indigenous voices that have helped aboriginal people for generations here in our own land. People like Shirley Colleen Smith , Joyce Clague  and Professor Megan Davis, a human rights lawyer and activist involved in formulating the Uluru statement from the heart. And who is still active.

Maybe they were inspired by our man, Jesus, our spirit infused man whose life and message has sent shivers down the spine of all those who think power and violence is the way to peace for 2000 years.  A man whose love of God made people think and believe they saw God.  Whose love and compassion for people transformed those that followed.

But does this mean we leave it all to those whose lives and actions we think we can never emulate!

No!

I think the message today is clear.  The throne of power was a throne upon which Jesus would never sit, because that is not where hope is engendered. Hope and justice, oddly enough, are not achieved from the top down but from the bottom up. They are achieved from people like those in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago and from people like us today. For while we live in the 21st century, not the first, we have the same choices to make. We, ordinary people, leading ordinary lives can make a difference.

if we look round, it’s happening all the time, little and not so little acts that end up being life changing. Both for ourselves and for others.  Acts that have far reaching consequences than we might ever dream. We may not be a Desmond Tutu or a MLK  or a Malala or a Rosa Parks but we can be a Matt and a Kerry and a Russ and a Joan, there are a lot here, or a Karen or a Mavis or a Vic. Or any of us.

As Eleanor Roosevelt– an incredible activist in her own right said

“Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just one step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.”

Or as Margaret Mead colluded

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

Words that inspire and keep us going.

Yet, yet, it’ s not easy, and never has been.  How do we hold on to this idea that Jesus shows us a different way, an alternative way of living.  One that is transforming ourselves and for others. How do we hold on to his teachings.  Perhaps It’s like being in the stream or river, realizing we’re home, this is where we belong.  Jesus reveals a truth to us, if we listen and join in. A divine ancient truth that has nothing to do with messiahs and kings or power and might, but about love.  Jesus reflects the God of the universe, found within all of us, calling all of us to participate in his vision. Collaborative eschatology as Dominic Crossan would say. A big word which just means we are called to collaborate with the life and love of the universe in order to transform ourselves and our society for the better. And Jesus points the way, as he has pointed the way for so many..

In the midst of so much violence, and disaster and suffering and injustice there is a way.  And it starts with us. As Luke says the final line of the reading, if his disciples were to stay silent, the stones would shout out. 

So which gate, which parade are we going to choose?. Are we going to choose the way of love or be tempted by Rome.  And keep choosing it, day after day, week after week, year after year.. Are we going to join with those who belong to the party of the Anointed.  The party of Jesus or the party of Rome..

A challenging question…. but one which we are obliged to answer if we are to be followers of Jesus of Nazareth, just like those who have gone before us and those who will come after!

Amen.