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The Reverend James Derkits

Palm/Passion Sunday - March 16, 2008

And so our story ends, it seems.

The centurion gets it, when almost everyone else misses it…or maybe they others get it the moment the Centurion gets it. Maybe we can get too.

Everything that Jesus has done, preached, taught, and the way he lived his life has been pointing to this blessed moment: his death on a cross.

At first glance, it may seem a strange pairing of stories: first the triumphal entry into the city, with the crowds calling "Hosanna" which means "Save Us" then moving on to the Crowds crying "Crucify him"

It seems a strange paring, but Isaiah can help guide us to deeper understanding with his phrase: "It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty?" (read twice)

If we view these stories from the end of Jesus life through the lens Isaiah offers, we may see them as one fluid movement of God's earth quaking revelation in the world.

Jesus rides into Jerusalem not long after he reminded his disciples that "the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many." It may seem in the palm waving procession, that he is acting in a contradictory manner. But Jesus is not having a temporary amnesia of God's plan for him. Jesus knows at all time that the cross lies ahead.

What he does in Jerusalem, actually speeds his journey to the cross. He is staging a political drama. Imagine for a moment, a parade through Washington DC, with cars and crowds, and a leader in the parade for whom the crowds chant "This is the one who will save us, this is the one we will follow!" and in case your imagination is going to a political rally leading up to an election, add a few tanks, and military uniforms to the picture…this would get some attention from the powers that be. And this is just what Jesus and his friends are doing. They aren't wielding weapons, because that is not Jesus way. They are instead making a mockery of a political take over as if to say, come and get us. As if to say "it is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty?"

Jesus seems to defy the established authorities to reveal the true authority: God. He can stage a mock coup because he is already the one who reigns in God's Kingdom. He can go before the staged trial put on by Pilot and the Clergy because he is the true Judge of all creation. And it is finally on the cross, when it seems everything has been taken away from him, all apparent power, authority, possessions, even his voice, that his true identity is undeniably apparent to a soldier of the occupying army. The centurion sees that this is God's own Son. The centurion learns that when God is our help, no one else can declare guilt.

Jesus carries this trust in God from the procession with crowds praising him through to the crowds ushering him to his death. Through it all he lives Isaiah's message: It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty?

Today instead of reading the part of the fickle crowd, easily misled by conspiring clergy, we, as the congregation read the part of Jesus. Our calling through all this is to seek to speak the voice of Jesus with our lives to the world. We are invited to both walk with Jesus to the cross, and to also carry our own cross, to bear the witness of God's reign with our lives. We are called to boldly live a life of servathood, showing Christ's sacrificial love to our neighbors and when we are judged as being wrong by the worlds standards, to pray "It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty?"

The story does not end with this Passion reading…it begins. We are invited to recognize, in Jesus act of ultimate trust in God that Jesus is God's son, and let that recognition transform our lives…to look back at his life and read his teaching, preaching, healing, and the way he lived through that lens. This is God the Son, whom we try to follow with our lives. This is the one who invites us again in lent to repent and return to following him. This Jesus invites us now to accept the gift of his life, and to live ours for him, trusting God to be our help.
AMEN

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