Illustrations For March 16, 2008 From The Immediate Word
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
Just who are those people who come out to see Jesus, as he triumphantly enters Jerusalem?
Some of them are true believers: hailing the carpenter from Nazareth for religious or political reasons, or both.
Others are passersby, caught up in the excitement -- "Who's this character coming down the street? You say he's against the Romans? Well, then, I'm for him!"
Perhaps the largest contingent lining the streets that day are there for another motive -- for a motive best described by Winston Churchill. Once, after giving a speech to 10,000 people, a friend asked him, "Winston, aren't you impressed that 10,000 people came to hear you speak?"
Churchill replied, "Not really. 100,000 would come to see me hang."
It's kind of like the people who stand there watching a desperate person perched on a rooftop, or atop the railing of a bridge. "Jump!" they cry. They have no personal animosity towards the poor, despairing person. They don't even know the person. They merely crave the vicarious excitement that would come of watching such a tragedy.
Surely there are some palm-wavers -- possibly a great number of them -- who have come out for no other reason than because Jesus is a celebrity. They just want to see him: to bask, for a brief moment, in his notoriety. Whatever happens next -- whether Jesus triumphs or whether he dies -- is of little import. Just so they have seen him...
***
So, what's the meaning of the palms, held aloft by the Jerusalem crowd?
During the Maccabean revolt of a century before, the Jews had driven their Greek rulers out of Jerusalem. During the brief period of self-government that followed, the Maccabeans minted a victory coin, with palm branches on it.
Yet, their triumph was short-lived. The Romans soon replaced the Greeks, obliterating all hope of Jewish independence. The Romans eventually minted their own victory coin: on it was the image of a Jewish slave, kneeling before a Roman soldier. Across the top of the coin was a broken palm branch.
To the Jerusalem crowd, the palms are no benign symbol of rejoicing. They are a political provocation. We have no comparable symbol in our country, but if you can imagine the United States under the domination of a foreign power, and what it might mean to display the American flag in such circumstances, you might have some idea.
Many people today enjoy hearing the bagpipes (preferably outdoors!). Did you know that in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Scotland, the English rulers banned the bagpipes as an instrument of war? Yes, an instrument of war. The original Highland pipers charged right into battle with their fellow-soldiers. The "skirl o' the pipes," sounding over the smoke and tumult of battle, was a kind of psychological warfare, certain to strike terror into the hearts of enemies. That's why the English made it illegal or Scots even to own them.
The Romans surely felt the same way about palm branches in the hands of a jubilant Jewish crowd.
***
"He's coming!" says one to the other. "That's got to be him."
Sure enough, a commotion is brewing, way down the parade route. You can hear the cheers -- faint at first, now rolling forward like some unstoppable wave. Everyone's leaning forward, craning their necks, hoping to be the first to see him.
It's been a long wait, for the true believers. They arrived early, at the side of the road, to stake out the best vantage-points. Now, their forethought is about to pay off. Why, they'll be almost close enough to touch him!
Things are happening fast, now. Coming around the corner, could it be? Yes! It's him. The crowds are going wild. Pandemonium!
The limousine glides to a stop. The doorman scurries over to open the passenger door. Camera strobes are flashing, people are cheering, police officers hold the crowds back. A shiny black shoe emerges from the open door...then a tuxedo-clad leg...and suddenly, there he is!
Turning to wave to the crowd, he flashes that trademark toothy grin. It's him, all right. It's....Jack Nicholson!
That was the scene just a few weeks ago, in Los Angeles: the annual awards ceremony of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (better known as "the Oscars"). Countless Americans stayed up late, their faces lit by the glow of their TV screens, waiting for the words, "May I have the envelope, please?"
There are some who claim that movie stars are the closest thing our country has to royalty. If that's true, then the red-carpeted sidewalk may be America's avenue of coronations. Ever since the days of Gable and Monroe, of Bogart and Bergman, movie stars have alighted from their limousines outside the appointed place: to receive from their followers something very much resembling worship.
***
Sometimes the problem with leadership is seen in the judgment of who you listen to for advice. In 1 Kings 12:1-19, the issue of succession after Solomon arose. Rehoboam was the one to succeed Solomon and the issue was how he would rule over the people. His older advisors suggested that "if you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever." Then Rehoboam turned to his younger advisors who had grown up with him and they advised him to say, "My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions." When he chose the harsh way of governing the people of God were split into two nations.
***
Sometimes the problem with choosing a leader is that we have too narrow a perspective in making our choice and we think that our world represents the whole world. How does a politician tell the truth and still get elected?
A frog had lived all his life in a well. One day he was surprised to see another frog there. "Where have you come from? He asked.
"From the sea. That's where I live," said the other.
"What's the sea like" Is it as big as my well?"
The frog laughed. "There's no comparison," he said.
The well frog pretended to be interested in what his visitor had to say about the sea. But he thought, "Of all the liars I have known in my lifetime, this one is undoubtedly the greatest--and the most shameless!"
How does one speak of the ocean to a frog in a well; or of Reality to the ideologue?"
(From Taking Flight by Anthony de Mello, S.J.; Doubleday; 1988)
***
Authority and truth are not always apparent to the observer. The Gospel of John loves to convey the truth through irony. It is never clearer than in John's description of the passion. When Jesus was before Pilate, Pilate asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?"(18:33) and after a discussion Pilate said, " So you are a king? (18:37) Kings have the power to release prisoners and it was the result of Jesus that Barabbas was set free. The soldiers thought they were mocking Jesus when they placed a crown of thorns on his head and dressed him in a purple robe. They then kept saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" (19:3) Pilate then presented Jesus before the crowd wearing the crown and purple robe. (19:5) Later Pilate said to Jesus, "Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?"(19:10) But Jesus responded by clarifying from where true power comes. Then when Pilate had him crucified, he placed a sign over the cross that read: "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews."(19:19) In each of these examples, the truth was stated by people who thought they were mocking Jesus. While the Gospel of Luke quotes Jesus as saying that if people are silent, the stones will cry out (Luke 19:40), John shows how people speak the truth even when they don't think that is what they are doing. God is not without a witness.
***
What do we most need to see and understand during this Holy Week? We need to see and understand and know, with all our hearts and souls and minds, that it was Jesus' great love for each of us that led him to go through all of this week's events--his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, the trials with their whippings and scourgings, and finally his crucifixion on Mt. Calvary.
The following prayer was found among Martin Luther's letters:
May our dear Lord Jesus Christ show you his hands and his side and gladden your heart with his love, and may you behold and hear only him until you find your joy in him. Amen.
Martin Luther, Daily Readings from Luther's Writings, ed. by Barbara Olsen (Minneapolis, 1993, Augsburg), p. 108.
***
What could we say is the main content of the Christian message? We can say that the Lord God of all creation is searching for each of us, to establish a relationship with us.
And that we can have a relationship with God only if God descends and gives himself to us.
John wrote: In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins (I John 4:10).
There is for [us] no way to God except the way of God's self-giving love at the cross.
Gustaf Aulen, The Faith of the Christian Church (Philadelphia, 1973, Fortress Press) pp. 110-114.
***
What happens down there at the foot of the path of real guilt, at the bottom of human despair of self, at the foot of the cross? The apostle writers call it a dying-to-self and a passing from death to life. Kierkegaard also called it dying to self, followed by the leap of faith in the Christ of the cross. And then? Kierkegaard is at a loss to describe the miracle. In his book Fear and Trembling he writes:
The dialectic of faith is the most delicate and the most extraordinary of all; it has an elevation of which I can certainly form a conception, but no more than that. I can make the mighty trampoline leap whereby I cross over into infinity; my back is like a tightrope dancer's, twisted in my childhood, and therefore it is easy for me. One, two, three--I can walk upside down in existence, but I cannot make the next movement, for the miraculous I cannot do--I can only be amazed at it!
Edna Hong, The Downward Ascent (Minneapolis, 1979, Augsburg) p.76).
Some of them are true believers: hailing the carpenter from Nazareth for religious or political reasons, or both.
Others are passersby, caught up in the excitement -- "Who's this character coming down the street? You say he's against the Romans? Well, then, I'm for him!"
Perhaps the largest contingent lining the streets that day are there for another motive -- for a motive best described by Winston Churchill. Once, after giving a speech to 10,000 people, a friend asked him, "Winston, aren't you impressed that 10,000 people came to hear you speak?"
Churchill replied, "Not really. 100,000 would come to see me hang."
It's kind of like the people who stand there watching a desperate person perched on a rooftop, or atop the railing of a bridge. "Jump!" they cry. They have no personal animosity towards the poor, despairing person. They don't even know the person. They merely crave the vicarious excitement that would come of watching such a tragedy.
Surely there are some palm-wavers -- possibly a great number of them -- who have come out for no other reason than because Jesus is a celebrity. They just want to see him: to bask, for a brief moment, in his notoriety. Whatever happens next -- whether Jesus triumphs or whether he dies -- is of little import. Just so they have seen him...
***
So, what's the meaning of the palms, held aloft by the Jerusalem crowd?
During the Maccabean revolt of a century before, the Jews had driven their Greek rulers out of Jerusalem. During the brief period of self-government that followed, the Maccabeans minted a victory coin, with palm branches on it.
Yet, their triumph was short-lived. The Romans soon replaced the Greeks, obliterating all hope of Jewish independence. The Romans eventually minted their own victory coin: on it was the image of a Jewish slave, kneeling before a Roman soldier. Across the top of the coin was a broken palm branch.
To the Jerusalem crowd, the palms are no benign symbol of rejoicing. They are a political provocation. We have no comparable symbol in our country, but if you can imagine the United States under the domination of a foreign power, and what it might mean to display the American flag in such circumstances, you might have some idea.
Many people today enjoy hearing the bagpipes (preferably outdoors!). Did you know that in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Scotland, the English rulers banned the bagpipes as an instrument of war? Yes, an instrument of war. The original Highland pipers charged right into battle with their fellow-soldiers. The "skirl o' the pipes," sounding over the smoke and tumult of battle, was a kind of psychological warfare, certain to strike terror into the hearts of enemies. That's why the English made it illegal or Scots even to own them.
The Romans surely felt the same way about palm branches in the hands of a jubilant Jewish crowd.
***
"He's coming!" says one to the other. "That's got to be him."
Sure enough, a commotion is brewing, way down the parade route. You can hear the cheers -- faint at first, now rolling forward like some unstoppable wave. Everyone's leaning forward, craning their necks, hoping to be the first to see him.
It's been a long wait, for the true believers. They arrived early, at the side of the road, to stake out the best vantage-points. Now, their forethought is about to pay off. Why, they'll be almost close enough to touch him!
Things are happening fast, now. Coming around the corner, could it be? Yes! It's him. The crowds are going wild. Pandemonium!
The limousine glides to a stop. The doorman scurries over to open the passenger door. Camera strobes are flashing, people are cheering, police officers hold the crowds back. A shiny black shoe emerges from the open door...then a tuxedo-clad leg...and suddenly, there he is!
Turning to wave to the crowd, he flashes that trademark toothy grin. It's him, all right. It's....Jack Nicholson!
That was the scene just a few weeks ago, in Los Angeles: the annual awards ceremony of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (better known as "the Oscars"). Countless Americans stayed up late, their faces lit by the glow of their TV screens, waiting for the words, "May I have the envelope, please?"
There are some who claim that movie stars are the closest thing our country has to royalty. If that's true, then the red-carpeted sidewalk may be America's avenue of coronations. Ever since the days of Gable and Monroe, of Bogart and Bergman, movie stars have alighted from their limousines outside the appointed place: to receive from their followers something very much resembling worship.
***
Sometimes the problem with leadership is seen in the judgment of who you listen to for advice. In 1 Kings 12:1-19, the issue of succession after Solomon arose. Rehoboam was the one to succeed Solomon and the issue was how he would rule over the people. His older advisors suggested that "if you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever." Then Rehoboam turned to his younger advisors who had grown up with him and they advised him to say, "My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions." When he chose the harsh way of governing the people of God were split into two nations.
***
Sometimes the problem with choosing a leader is that we have too narrow a perspective in making our choice and we think that our world represents the whole world. How does a politician tell the truth and still get elected?
A frog had lived all his life in a well. One day he was surprised to see another frog there. "Where have you come from? He asked.
"From the sea. That's where I live," said the other.
"What's the sea like" Is it as big as my well?"
The frog laughed. "There's no comparison," he said.
The well frog pretended to be interested in what his visitor had to say about the sea. But he thought, "Of all the liars I have known in my lifetime, this one is undoubtedly the greatest--and the most shameless!"
How does one speak of the ocean to a frog in a well; or of Reality to the ideologue?"
(From Taking Flight by Anthony de Mello, S.J.; Doubleday; 1988)
***
Authority and truth are not always apparent to the observer. The Gospel of John loves to convey the truth through irony. It is never clearer than in John's description of the passion. When Jesus was before Pilate, Pilate asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?"(18:33) and after a discussion Pilate said, " So you are a king? (18:37) Kings have the power to release prisoners and it was the result of Jesus that Barabbas was set free. The soldiers thought they were mocking Jesus when they placed a crown of thorns on his head and dressed him in a purple robe. They then kept saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" (19:3) Pilate then presented Jesus before the crowd wearing the crown and purple robe. (19:5) Later Pilate said to Jesus, "Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?"(19:10) But Jesus responded by clarifying from where true power comes. Then when Pilate had him crucified, he placed a sign over the cross that read: "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews."(19:19) In each of these examples, the truth was stated by people who thought they were mocking Jesus. While the Gospel of Luke quotes Jesus as saying that if people are silent, the stones will cry out (Luke 19:40), John shows how people speak the truth even when they don't think that is what they are doing. God is not without a witness.
***
What do we most need to see and understand during this Holy Week? We need to see and understand and know, with all our hearts and souls and minds, that it was Jesus' great love for each of us that led him to go through all of this week's events--his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, the trials with their whippings and scourgings, and finally his crucifixion on Mt. Calvary.
The following prayer was found among Martin Luther's letters:
May our dear Lord Jesus Christ show you his hands and his side and gladden your heart with his love, and may you behold and hear only him until you find your joy in him. Amen.
Martin Luther, Daily Readings from Luther's Writings, ed. by Barbara Olsen (Minneapolis, 1993, Augsburg), p. 108.
***
What could we say is the main content of the Christian message? We can say that the Lord God of all creation is searching for each of us, to establish a relationship with us.
And that we can have a relationship with God only if God descends and gives himself to us.
John wrote: In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins (I John 4:10).
There is for [us] no way to God except the way of God's self-giving love at the cross.
Gustaf Aulen, The Faith of the Christian Church (Philadelphia, 1973, Fortress Press) pp. 110-114.
***
What happens down there at the foot of the path of real guilt, at the bottom of human despair of self, at the foot of the cross? The apostle writers call it a dying-to-self and a passing from death to life. Kierkegaard also called it dying to self, followed by the leap of faith in the Christ of the cross. And then? Kierkegaard is at a loss to describe the miracle. In his book Fear and Trembling he writes:
The dialectic of faith is the most delicate and the most extraordinary of all; it has an elevation of which I can certainly form a conception, but no more than that. I can make the mighty trampoline leap whereby I cross over into infinity; my back is like a tightrope dancer's, twisted in my childhood, and therefore it is easy for me. One, two, three--I can walk upside down in existence, but I cannot make the next movement, for the miraculous I cannot do--I can only be amazed at it!
Edna Hong, The Downward Ascent (Minneapolis, 1979, Augsburg) p.76).
