Friday's thoughts on Sunday's sermon

Palm Sunday becomes one of the most interesting Sundays of the year when you consider what happened after it. The celebration of the triumphal journey into Jerusalem is put into the context of arrest, trial, and crucifixion and all of it is put into a larger context of Easter and resurrection.

There are speculations about what happened and why and that is about all we can have because none of the gospel accounts tell us. We are left to try to figure it for ourselves.

Why would Jesus have been able to ride in triumph and then be treated with contempt? Were the people who cheered him the same ones who jeered him? Were the people who were calling for his election as Messiah the same ones who were loudly begging for his murder as they chose a hardened criminal, Barabbas, to be released instead of Jesus?

Ultimately, it continues to be the case as Rudolf Bultmann has suggested that Jesus was promoting a "radical obedience" that was hard to hear and difficult to follow.

It seems to me when you think about the "abundant life" and what Jesus brought to the world that the world didn't really want it then, and, if we had been there, we wouldn't have wanted it either. It is a difficult and almost impossible ethic to live. It requires consistency and conformity to a creed that is instructed by values that are not prevalent in the world where might makes right and convenience rules over complexity.

So they cheered him and then they jeered him and they cried for his death which is what happened.

Palm Sunday is one of the most interesting and important days of the year because it forces us to decide whom we will follow and how we will live out what it means to be Christian.

What do you think about Palm Sunday and why do you think they put Jesus to death on the cross?

Write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net.

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I look forward to hearing from you.



Charles Schuster