March 29, 2015 (Palm Sunday/Sunday of the Passion) – John 12:12-16; Mark 14:1-15:47
John 12:12-16; Mark 14:1-15:47
Why do We still Need Witnesses?
Palm Sunday/Sunday of the Passion – March 29, 2015
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
A donkey? Really?Why a donkey?
The donkey should have tipped the crowd off that day in Jerusalem.
The Roman governor was likely coming into town on the other side of the city that day with
a parade of soldiers and armaments and weapons and a mighty display of power to
awe the people and keep them in line.
And he would have been riding a mighty war house, a fearsome stallion,
towering over the people from his mount.
But Jesus?
Jesus rides in on a donkey, undoubtedly mocking the pretensions of Rome and
its pretensions to power.
You wanna see power? Jesus seems to be asking. You ain’t seen nothin’.
His donkey says something about the kind of kingdom he is bringing in.
It’s not the sort of reign that sets himself over and above anyone.
While the Roman governor on the stallion would have looked down at the people from
his mount,
Jesus, at most, would have been put at eye level with the people even while
seated on his donkey.
The people shout Hosanna! Save us!
But soon they realize that Jesus has not come to fight stallion with stallion.
He has come ushering in a very different kind of reign.
He has come to fight stallion with donkey.
To fight the power of violence with the power of forgiveness.
To fight the power of brokenness with the power of healing.
To fight the power of hunger with the power of hospitality.
The people are disappointed.
And soon after the palms and the Hosannas they fall silent –
all the way through the passion account until, at the end,
what they shout is isCrucify him!
It’s all so disappointing – unless you happen to be the donkey.
If you’re the donkey, it’s like, “Coach is putting me in the game?”
(A J Watkins, Christian Century, Mar. 18/15, 21)
In the kingdom Jesus is bringing in, everyone has a place, and everyone has a role to play –
even the donkey.
But the people fall silent.
Reading Mark’s Passion account this week, I was struck by a single line.
It’s the question the chief priests and scribes ask when
Jesus supposed guilt becomes clear to them: Why do we still need witnesses?
As if everything were over now and there is no more need for witnesses to
anything that has happened.
And it does seem as if there are no more witnesses to what unfolds in Jesus.
In Mark’s account, Jesus is betrayed and abandoned by everyone.
Judas, for sure, but, you’ll notice, all the disciples flee and abandon him.
The religious leaders, the crowds, the judicial system – everyone.
In Mark’s Gospel there isn’t even one nice criminal crucified with him to soften the blow.
Those crucified with him mock him and jeer him too.
Even God seems to abandon Jesus in Mark’s Gospel, where we hear Jesus cry,
“My God, my God – why have you forsaken me?”
In Mark’s Gospel Jesus dies utterly alone.
I’m not even sure about that Roman centurion who famously says,
“Truly this was God’s son.”
I have a strong suspicion this is said mockingly and sarcastically in Mark’s Gospel,
“Truly this was God’s son!”
Why do we still need witnesses?
We can ask the same question.
We can sit and listen to the story and remain silent about the depths of God’s love for a world
that often seems to have completely abandoned the God of all love and all compassion.
We can sit and wave our palms here in the building while in the streets we remain silent.
We can sit and listen to the stories of healing and feeding and compassion and inclusion and
our bodies can remain totally silent and still while the hungry remain unfed and
the estranged remain estranged and the vulnerable remain vulnerable.
The thing is: God still needs witnesses – because as we’ll hear next Sunday, the story isn’t over!
And so God still needs witnesses: witnesses to what God has done and is doing in Jesus.
And in Mark’s Gospel, what God has done is joined God’s self once and for all to
all the world’s godforsaken.
In the cross, God has joined God’s self to all those who have ever felt like they have been
abandoned by God.
In the cross, God has entered into the depths of all the godforsakenness and all the
abandonment and all the crap we have ever endured – so that we will not be alone there.
So that, at least, one who knew total and complete abandonment all those years ago,
is with us still.
Why do God still need witnesses?
Because without our bodies, the godforsaken will not know that they are not godforsaken.
Why do we still need witnesses?
Because without our bodies, the godforsaken hungry will not be fed.
Why do we still need witnesses?
Because without our bodies, the godforsaken lonely will not be included.
Even the donkey is a witness, even the donkey has a role to play in the reign of God:
to keep us at eye level with the people we are called to serve.
To take us into the street to the people we are called to serve.
To remind us that even the most humble have a role to fulfill.
To remind us that Jesus still needs witnesses:
witnesses to his work of healing and justice and peace-making and forgiveness and
inclusion.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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