Proclamation of the Scripture Matthew
21:1-11
As they
approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus
sent two disciples,
saying to
them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey
tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me.
If anyone says
anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right
away.”
This took
place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
“Say to
Daughter Zion,
‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”
The disciples
went and did as Jesus had instructed them.
They brought
the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit
on.
A very large
crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the
trees and spread them on the road.
The crowds
that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,
“Hosanna to
the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he
who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in
the highest heaven!”
When Jesus
entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”
The crowds
answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people
of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
In 1841, Scottish journalist
Charles Mackay published the book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the
Madness of Crowds. His book was the first deep dive into the dangers of
crowd psychology – people caught up in crowd-mentality often become carried
away. Mackay talked about the Dutch Tulip Economic bubble of the 1630s when
people became so obsessed with their tulip bulb expenditures until the entire
market collapsed and ruined the finances of many people who got caught up in
the buying trend. Mackay also wrote about witch hunts in Europe and
philosophical delusions that led to people supporting alchemists and fortune
tellers.
Some of us may have invested in
Beanie Babies or Precious Moment figurines thinking we would eventually have a
huge payout. But, the trend faded and people stopped lining up to buy the
products, and our investments turned to dust.
On the first Palm Sunday, Jesus
entered Jerusalem and a crowd surrounded him. The crowd grew and grew as it
heard other people shouting and pandemonium breaking out on the streets of
Jerusalem. They saw Jesus entering the
city on the back of the donkey and believed him to be the messiah, which he
was. But, Jesus didn’t do the things they expected the messiah to do – he
wasn’t a warlord, he wasn’t a fighter, he wasn’t a zealot prepared to overthrow
the Roman oppressors.
So, the crowd became carried away
with their shouting and rejoicing, but they weren’t prepared for the reality of
who Jesus was – Jesus came to earth to teach us about God’s love. Jesus came to
earth to remind us to love each other, even the people who don’t fit in or are
different than the norm. Jesus came to earth to tell non-Jews, and sinners, and
outcasts, and sad people that we are loved by God too. Jesus came to teach us, love us, and die for
us. And, this is not what the crowds expected.
Like Jesus, sometimes in our lives
we have been rejected for who we are. We aren’t what people expect. WE aren’t
who people thought we were. We are too weird, or too athletic, or too friendly,
or too liberal, or too conservative, or too in-in-the-middle. We are rejected
for things that we have no control over. We are rejected for who we are.
Jesus came to earth and was
rejected. He wasn’t the kind of messiah people expected. The people of
Nazareth, his hometown, chased him out of town.
He was nearly stoned when he said things people didn’t want to hear. The
religious leaders who should have embraced him turned against Jesus. After he
was arrested, even Jesus closest friends, his disciples, pretended to not know
him. Jesus was rejected by the people he came to save. Jesus was rejected for
who he was….for who he is.
Friends, we must take heart that
Jesus understands what it is like to be rejected. Jesus understands how we feel
when we are rejected. And, Jesus asks us to do better. Jesus asks us to be
better than the people who have hurt us and turned against us. We are called to
love each other. We are called to love our neighbors as much as we love
ourselves. We are called to love the people who others reject. We are called to
love the outcasts, and the oddballs, and the people without homes, and the
people who are food insecure, and the people who are different than we are. We
are called to do better and to live out the teachings of Jesus as we warmly
embrace those who are hurting and lonely and sad and rejected.
Over the next few days, we will walk
with Jesus to the cross. We will remember the tragic and sad things that
happened to Jesus in his final hours on earth…the meal he shared with this
friends….his time of prayer in the garden…his arrest, his trial, his beatings,
his pain….We will spend hours waiting with Jesus as he suffered on the cross,
as he died….we will spend hours mourning him and remembering the anguish felt
by his friends when they believed death was the final word. And, then, next
Sunday, we will celebrate the greatest miracle the world has ever
experienced…..but we can’t get ahead of ourselves. We must be rejected
alongside of Jesus, and feel his pain and agony, before we get to next Sunday.
Let us live out the good news of
Jesus Christ. Let us treat others with love and compassion, welcoming people
with open arms who are not welcomed everywhere they go, today and all days.
Amen.
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