Palm Sunday: The Last Temptation of Christ
The Kingdom of God is Not Built on Power
Mark 11:1-11
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. March 28th, 2021
Palm Sunday is for us a temptation, and perhaps the Church’s greatest temptation. It is a temptation that Jesus is able to resist, and a temptation the Church today is also called to resist. According to John’s gospel Jesus will later stand before Pontius Pilate and say “My kingdom is not of this world.” It’s not of this world, he says, because men had not arrived to save him from his trial. Palm Sunday gives us another hint at how it is that Jesus is a King, but his Kingdom is not of this world.
As Jesus is on his way up to Jerusalem he tells his disciples that he will be betrayed by the chief priests and teachers of the Law, he will be condemned, handed over to gentiles, and killed. But on the third day, he says, he will rise. Right after he says this, as if on cue, James and John come to him and ask if they can sit at his right and left hand in glory. Jesus tells them that they don’t know what they are asking, and he asks them if they are willing to drink the cup he drinks or take on the baptism with which he is baptized. Yea, the sturdy dreamers answered, to the end we follow thee! Though we know it’s all bravado. Jesus knows it too, and tells them that while they will in fact drink his cup and take his baptism (meaning, they will be martyred) it is not for him to give seats of honor in the Kingdom of God.
The other disciples begin to grumble amongst themselves when they hear about what James and John had requested. So Jesus calls them all together and says, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high official exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Now you may be wondering why am I stuck in Mark chapter 10 when the reading is from Mark chapter 11. Mark puts these accounts together with a narrative purpose, almost as if he were weaving an argument. It is no mistake that he tells us about how James and John sought glory, and Jesus told them that the leaders of the Kingdom are slaves shortly before Jesus makes his triumphant and kingly arrival in Jerusalem.
As they approach Jerusalem, Jesus sends two of his disciples to go and fetch a colt for him. He tells them that in the village ahead there is a colt that has never been ridden, that they should untie the colt and bring it back. And if anyone asks, let them know the Lord is in need of it. They do so, and bring the colt back. They put their cloaks on the back of the colt and Jesus sits on it.
Now Jesus didn’t ask for a colt because he was tired. Jesus had been wandering for three years now and was quite used to walking. He took the colt as a sign. For in Zephaniah it is prophesied that the King would arrive on a donkey, and indeed donkeys were seen as a kingly animal in the Hebrew bible, precisely because of how humble a donkey is seen to be. Jesus is announcing to all of Jerusalem that he is King by making this grand entrance.
The multitudes pick up on what Jesus is doing and take off their cloaks and lay them on the ground to act as a red carpet. They cut off the branches of palm trees and wave them to give shade. They begin to shout “Hosanna!” which means “Save!” Save us from the Romans! Save us from our occupiers! A dangerous slogan. They even begin to recite Psalm 118, the psalm recited at the enthronement of a King, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”
Jesus enters Jerusalem and makes it all the way to the Temple. We should not mistake the significance of this. The Temple is a lot more than just a really big Church. The Temple was a large bank. It was a node of political power. It is where the one true God held his throne. And Jesus, the King, had just entered. From there he could establish his Kingly rule, speak for his Father, command legions of angels, proclaim a revolution. He had quite literally made the entrance of a King, the people fawned over him. This was the moment. Now he could free Israel. Now he could defeat the Romans. Now he could save.
But instead, after doing a bit of sightseeing Jesus goes back to Bethany.
Do you see the temptation? The temptation is to take power. If only Jesus were in power, if only Jesus were president we might think, then everything would be fine. But Jesus himself rejected that solution. He did not seek power over others. He did not, like the gentiles, seek to Lord himself over others. But he leaves just when he could. Though being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. Instead he submits to death, even death on a cross.
The Kingdom of God is not established on power over others, the power of earthly kings and emperors. The Kingdom of God is about power with others. The Kingdom of God is about serving others, even at the cost of one’s own life. The Kingdom of God is about building up, and despising shame. The Kingdoms of this world fear death and they deal death. The Kingdom of God is stronger than death, has overcome the grave and so deals out life.
It’s so easy to imagine how things would be better if only we were King. Or if only the people I like had power. But what Jesus asks us to imagine, especially this Palm Sunday, is how we can take the power that is already in our hands and use it to serve others. How we might throw it away, even waste it, for others. Because that is how Christ operates. That is how Christ won for us forgiveness and life.