Following Jesus Down and Up
Following Jesus Down and Up by Rev. L. John Gable
April 10, 2022 (Palm Sunday)
There was quite a party going on at the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, and for good reason: Lazarus was there after having been recently raised from the dead, and Jesus and His disciples were there right along with him as honored guests. It is not difficult to picture the scene: music, laughter, good food (which of course Martha cooked) and lively conversation. How often at a funeral service have you heard someone say, “I wish so and so could have heard all the nice things that were said about him”? Well, Lazarus could, he was there, fully alive and in the flesh. “Tell it again, Jesus! Tell us again how You did it! Tell it again, Lazarus! Tell us what was it like to be dead for four days and then to hear Jesus calling your name, “Lazarus, come out!” What a great celebration that party must have been.
But then, unannounced and out of nowhere, Mary, the quiet, introspective one, approached Jesus as He reclined at the table, carrying a jar full of nard, the costly ointment used in the preparation of a body for burial, perhaps the nard she had scrimped and saved for to be used for her own burial. Heads turned and conversations stopped as they watched her kneel at His feet, break open the jar and pour out that costly ointment. This was something more than the kind of obligatory foot washing a servant would do for an honored guest; this was an expression of deep devotion, an intimate expression of love, as she then untied the scarf from around her head, loosened her hair and wiped the ointment from His feet. Very quickly the house filled with the pungent fragrance of the nard and this beautiful dinner party suddenly began to smell like death.
Perhaps you can recall being in a similar setting as conversations stop, backs stiffen and emotions brim when someone raises the unspoken question, names the elephant in the room, brings up the one topic no one wants to talk about but everyone knows they need to.
Years ago I was invited to the home of a woman in her later years who asked me to come and meet her adult children while they were in town. Without their being made aware, she wanted me to come and talk with them about her pending death. Not unlike the setting in Bethany, the initial introductions were warm and friendly, until she invited us all in to her living room and turned to me to start the conversation. Sideways glances and awkward silence ensued for a moment, but then at my encouragement they all began to share memories and tell stories and soon the room was filled with both tears and laughter borne of joy and sorrow as they retold well-loved stories of a well-lived life.
Judas, the betrayer, the keeper of the money, was quick to criticize Mary for what he perceived to be her wasteful action, but Jesus was even quicker to defend her. He knew exactly what she was doing, she was anointing His body for burial, and given that this party was taking place a mere six days before the Passover it is quite certain that He, and she, would be carrying that scent with them all the way to Golgotha. What she was doing was offering a beautiful expression of love and devotion, and Jesus was willing to humble Himself enough to receive it.
We know the roller coaster of emotions we experience throughout our lives and we will see much the same in this final week of Jesus’ life. Our text this morning marks the start of that week, the week when pilgrim flooded in to Jerusalem to celebrate the great Jewish festival of Passover, recalling God’s mighty act of deliverance of the Children of Israel from the bondage of slavery in Egypt; the week marked by the sacrifice of the Passover lamb and the covering of blood on the doorposts of their homes so that the angel of death would “pass over.”
While the disciples, quite remarkably, still seemed oblivious to what was really going on here, Jesus knew exactly what He was doing as He prepared to entered the city. He knew that He was going there to die; that He was the Passover Lamb, the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world. By this point in the story Jesus is a popular and charismatic figure, riding high on the wave of popular acclaim; but He also knew that the religious leaders were out to get Him and the crowds did as well. That’s why they wondered if He would even dare show up at the festival at all, and they were thrilled when He did.
On Saturday evening He relaxed with His good friends in Bethany, just two miles east of the city; but then Sunday morning, still bearing the scent of the night before, He began His final journey in to Jerusalem. The way John describes it we might even imagine that He is walking in to the city which would make perfect sense. From Bethany He would have followed a dusty road that led to the top of the Mount of Olives which overlooks the great walled city. He then would have begun walking down the winding, well-worn donkey path in to the Kidron Valley before walking up again in to the city. It would likely have been a solitary, reflective walk He was taking with His disciples alone.
However, once they saw Him the crowd began to gather along that path. Wanting to honor Him they grabbed the only banners they had available, palm branches, which they began to wave, shouting “Hosanna! (the Hebrew word for ‘Save us’) Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord – the King of Israel.” In that moment Jesus could have rallied that crowd and stirred up their emotions to His great benefit. The palm branches they waved were symbols of Israel’s national identity and their acclamations of Him as their King had the overtones of political persuasion and the ouster of their Roman captors, but Jesus would have none of that. Recall, His Kingdom is not of this world and any who would try to highjack Him in to being their kind of king, then or now, would be sorely mistaken.
So, in the midst of that crowd and their shouting, John tells us, “Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it.” Not only was this the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy from the prophet Zechariah, Jesus was making a clear statement about who He was and the kind of King He was and Kingdom He was introducing. A conquering warrior king would have mounted a mighty stead; the Prince of Peace comes riding a lowly donkey.
Jesus knew exactly what He was doing and why He had to do it as He passed through that crowd and entered the city. He knew He was walking down in to the valley of His suffering and death, the necessary path He had to follow before He could be raised up and glorified. He knew that He would soon be betrayed by one of His closest followers and denied by another; that He would be charged with blasphemy and sedition; tried before leaders, religious and political; beaten and flogged before being executed in the harshest way imaginable, by crucifixion. He knew it all and faced it still, why? Out of obedience to the perfect will of His Heavenly Father. He knew that He was the sinless Passover Lamb who would shed His blood, once and for all, for the salvation of the world. He knew His purpose; His reason for being; and His means of getting there, by making this journey down and up.
John tells us that even this far along in to the story the disciples did not yet understand what He was doing, and they wouldn’t until after His death and resurrection, His ascension, and the out-pouring of His Holy Spirit weeks to come, and who can blame them. This down-ward path of humility and suffering, of His laying down His life for the lives of others is so counter to the way we think of living our lives, yet this is the counter-cultural, up-side-down, way of the Gospel that Jesus invites us to follow, in which the first become last and the last first; the proud are brought down and the humble lifted up; the weak are made strong and the wounded made whole; the wise are shown to be foolish and the foolish wise because they have chosen to follow the One who claimed victory through the way of the cross.
It is not insignificant to note that this story of Jesus’ entry in to Jerusalem for the final time is recorded in the 12th chapter of John’s Gospel which is only 21 chapters long. Do the math? Just less than half of John’s telling of the entire Jesus story is given to the last week of His life. John is making his point loud and clear: Jesus may have been a great teacher and leader, a miracle worker and healer, but what sets Him apart from all other would-be messiahs were the events of this week: His suffering and death for the sins of the world, and the victory over death He won on the Easter day; His willingness to be taken down so that He could be raised up again.
This day, on the Christian calendar, is appropriately marked as both Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday. Here we rehearse the story of our salvation: from the heights of His triumphal entry in to Jerusalem to the shouts of “Hosanna!” to the depths of His humiliation and suffering. This week we will retell these stories on Maundy Thursday as we sit with Him at the table of His Last Supper, and on Good Friday as we walk the Via Dolorosa with Him to the hill of Calvary. I encourage you to join us for each of these services, so that we might experience together something of the emotional height and depth of this week in the life of our Lord. Of course, we can jump from the mountaintop of Palm Sunday to the even higher mountaintop of the Easter Day, but we will only be able to experience the real high points if we have walked in the valley with Him as well.
There is a roller coaster of emotion expressed in the readings of this final week, emotions we feel still today in our everyday lives. The relaxed comfort of being with family and friends; the anxieties of facing an unknown future; the joy and intimacy of good fellowship; the sharp hurt of denial and betrayal by those we trust; the deep loss of those we love. Such is the way of following Jesus down and up.
That emotional journey is mirrored in the physical geography of Jesus’ Palm Sunday walk: from the joyful intimacy of Bethany, along the dusty road to the Mount of Olives, down the winding path in to the Kidron valley, then ascending again in to the city where He would suffer and die, then be raised again to new life.
Friends, Jesus invites us to walk that way with Him, down and up, knowing full well that He walks that way with us, still today. Amen.
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN