Palm Sunday

“A Simple Song of Freedom”

Mark 11:1-11

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions,
perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Let him step to the music which he hears,
however measured or far away.”

- Henry David Thoreau

These words of Henry David Thoreau help us understand what was going on that day long ago when Jesus and the disciples marched into Jerusalem. That little Palm Sunday parade was not much by way of parades. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, or the colorful processions of Mardi gras, or even the boots marching in cadence to remember fallen soldiers on Memorial Day are all parades of a different kind. Everyone loves to march in those kinds of parades.

But this parade was different. It cut against the grain. It was not the kind of parade a sensible person would want to be associated with. It was one of those parades that could get you killed.

We sometimes do not fully appreciate the risk of the Palm Sunday procession, or the fact that only a handful of people dared be in it. They were, after all, marching into Jerusalem, a city set on edge because of a confluence of incendiary factors. The occupying Roman army was on full alert. It was the Passover and thousands of people were going up to the services at the Temple. It would be an easy thing for a zealot assassin to hide among the pilgrims until the moment came when a clear shot could be taken at Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. The religious authorities were nervous as well. Any outbreak of nationalistic fervor spawned by the holiday that recalls how God freed the people from the bondage of Egypt could spark a revolt against the Romans. And that would result in an immediate crackdown by the evil empire. Jerusalem was a tinderbox ready to explode.

What nobody needed that day was some nut with a Messiah-complex riding into town accompanied by a bunch of equally crazy people waving palm branches and shouting “Hosanna! Hosanna to the son of David!” Palm branches, you know, were the symbol of FREEDOM! And Hosanna was a cry for “Freedom now!” And the identification of Jesus with David was the sign that the throne of Israel was about to be restored to the house of David, and the Romans were about to be driven out!

“Hosanna! Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Jim Croce, back in 1972, sang a popular song that said, “You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger, and you don‘t mess around with Jim!”

Well, it was the conventional wisdom of that day that you didn’t mess around with the Romans. But that’s not Palm Sunday.

And that’s not Christian Faith.

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions,
perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Let him step to the music which he hears,
however measured or far away.”

One of the great questions posed to you and me today on Palm Sunday is this, “What drumbeat are YOU marching to? Whose music are you following?”

There is a cadence, of course, that’s safe and conventional and popular. Jesus said, “The gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and many are those who find it.” There were other people who went up to Jerusalem that day, you know. Thousands of others. But those thousands did not dare wave the palm branches or shout the song,“Hosanna!”

Jesus also said, “The gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to eternal life, and those who find it are few”

Which drumbeat are YOU marching to? Whose song are you singing?

My observation is that most of us have no idea how radical the Christian Faith is. We have, in some respects, even forfeited the right to shout “Hosanna!” on Palm Sunday because we are not willing to accept what it means.

For instance, confronting our modern politics and singing, “Hosanna!”- as Jesus and his followers did that day long ago - is not something most of us can do because we have long since sold out to the “system.” Tony Campolo has a book entitled “Is Jesus a Republican or a Democrat?” When I first heard that question, I felt like I wanted to shout, “I hope not! I hope Jesus is neither a Republican or a Democrat!” But the more and more I think about, I appreciate the probability that Jesus probably was a Democrat or a Republican, or whatever the name was back in those days. After all, Jesus took on a national identity. He was a Jew. And he had a geographic affiliation. He was a Nazarene. I’m sure that Jesus played on the ancient equivalent of a Little League team, and probably was a Boy Scout, and that he cheered on teams like George Mason in the NCAA tournament. I’ll bet you Jesus had a favorite golfer in the Jerusalem Masters, and I know for sure that he was a fan of the University of Tennessee Volunteers! All human beings have affiliations and attractions toward teams and groups and people and political parties. So I think the answer to the question, “Was Jesus A Republican or a Democrat?” is probably a resounding YES!

But that’s not the most important question. The most important question is, “As a Democrat or a Republican, was Jesus able to hear the drumbeat of a drummer who supercedes both Democrats and Republicans?” Whose music did Jesus hear? What drumbeat did he march to?

My personal experience is that political leaders and systems and governments are your best friends – until you stand up and wave a palm branch and sing, “Hosanna!” When you stand up against your own party because you know that God’s way is a better way, the friendship quickly ends and destructive forces are often marshaled against you. This is what happened to Jesus. It was his allegiance to God over and above his allegiance to the “system” that ultimately moved the powers-that-be to murder him.

Political systems are your friend…until the day you stand up against them and say, “You’re wrong! Your way of caring for the poor, your policies of relating with other nations, your vision for taking care of the sick, your efforts at protecting the environment, your way of dealing with immigration are not God’s ways!” Political systems are your friend until the day you wave a palm branch in their face and shout, “Hosanna!”

So the question that confronts us today in this Palm Sunday Parade is, “Whose drumbeat are YOU marching to? What song are you singing?

“Hosanna!” they sang as they marched into the capital city..

But even more important than marching to a different politic is marching against your childhood religion. Sometimes you have to wave a palm branch and shout “Hosanna!” against your own most sacred and cherished religious beliefs. After all, that’s what Palm Sunday is about, too. This parade will eventually end up in the Temple itself where Jesus overturns the tables of the moneychangers.

Jesus often went head-to-head and toe-to-toe against the religious institutions of the day. He knew that religion can be a force for good, and just as easily can become a force for evil. Jesus was not afraid to point out where the faith had become poisoned with ideas, beliefs and practices that sucked the life out of the people God loves. Much to the chagrin of the religious authorities, Jesus violated the scriptures by healing on the Sabbath, and speaking publicly with women, and reaching out to people of other religions and faiths, and welcoming tax collectors, sinners, doubters and even his enemies into the circle of his friendship. Jesus more often than not sided with the people against the demands of the religious institution. Jesus defended people against the “church.” Jesus was not afraid to say, “Hosanna!” to the religious structures of the world and those who support them.

But many of us are afraid to join that parade. We’ve been taught by our religious leaders that some of those over us are “infallible” and that their word is the word of God and we must accept it as such. And so we do. We have been taught that asking questions is tantamount to betraying God. And so we don’t. We’ve been taught that we must believe everything in the scriptures as absolute fact, whether it conflicts with science, or common sense, or even our deepest held moral values. Some of us read Bible stories in which innocent children are murdered in the name of the Lord, and cannot even dare to say, “I don’t think that’s the Lord at all!”

Many of us have been intimidated into silence, and therefore we are a party to the growth in our lives and our world of religious ideas and activities that oppress people, divide one from the other, abuse children, deny some their rights as human beings, and that exploit people in the name of religion.

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You know, religion has the power to do so much good. And yet it has power as well to inflict great harm. Faith can produce people who become compassionate caregivers who love God and their neighbor in ways that make the world a better place. And religion can produce people who give God a bad name and make the world a rotten place.

So “Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!”

Sometimes you have to sing a song of freedom even in the face of your own Faith!

“If a man does not keep pace with his companions,
perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Let him step to the music which he hears,
however measured or far away.”

I wonder today, whose drumbeat are YOU marching to? What song are you singing?

Although the disciples of Jesus didn’t have it all figured out yet, and they were far from perfect followers, they at least knew one thing – the drumbeat of Jesus of Nazareth was the only drumbeat that could lead them to abundant life in this world, and eternal life in the next. They somehow believed that the music of Jesus was the song that will make the world right.

And it has more to do than just singing that simple song of freedom to the political and religious institutions. It is a song we are called to sing to our children as we raise them, and to our friends as they struggle with the burdens of life, and even to ourselves as we pass through challenging times.

As our family has faced the death of my mother, we have had to make a choice about giving in to the despair of the world, or daring to march to Jesus’ drumbeat that speaks of hope and resurrection. And I will you that, even as a person of faith, it is not an easy choice to make. All of us wrestle with whether to sing a dirge, or to sing, “Hosanna!”

As we face a world filled with danger and the reality of terrorism, will we succumb to our fears, or hear the hopeful song of “Peace on earth! Good will toward all!” And if we hear that song, will we get up and dance to it by becoming people of peace and good will ourselves?

And as we raise kids and grandkids, what drumbeat will we teach them to follow?

It is true that our family loves parades. And our grandson Ryan most especially does. You can sometimes see us marching down the street playing our imaginary instruments, acting like a bunch of nuts! We love top play “Down In The Meadow Where The Itty-Bitty-Boop”, and “PowWow The Indian Boy”, and our favorite marching song, “Hava Nagila!”

But the most important parade we will ever join Ryan to is the parade of the followers of Jesus Christ. The most important drumbeat Ryan can march to is the drumbeat of God. The most beautiful song he can be taught to sing is that simple song of freedom.

“Hosanna! Hosanna to the son of David! Hosanna in the highest!”

On that Sunday long ago, they took up palm branches, and together they sang as they marched into the city of Jerusalem.

On this Sunday, nearly two thousand years later, the palms are in your hands.

What drumbeat will you march to? What song will you sing?