Sermon for Palm Sunday - March 16, 2008
“ Christ Jesus… being in the form of God… made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. ”
GLORY, LAUD, AND HONOR! Redemption comes with our King! Salvation by the Son of David! Welcome our Messiah! The crowd roars its excited approval and you would think your eyes would show you… branches of palm and olive are waving over the heads of hundreds lining the road that leads up to the ancient city. Somewhere down there the branches are falling, like dominoes, coming toward our vantage point, making a soft, green road for the approaching vanguard. I can't see the spears yet, the colored banners, the war horses, his knights or the king's carriage, but soon…
But what is this? A dozen ragged country bumpkins lead a procession, on foot! Someone behind them sits astride a lowly mount: it's just a donkey. What is this? Why the shouting? What does this excitement mean?
From centuries before, the refrain comes of a prophet proclaiming this great day in profound irony: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” Zech 9:9-10
In an enforced humility, something very powerful in this man, something that could take over the world by force, is hidden away, cloaked within the form of a servant, a carpenter's son from Nazareth . But this is Jerusalem, the city of the King. In Nazareth, they had almost killed him for proclaiming Himself the fulfillment of Isaiah. What will they do with Him once He is with these walls, once conquered by David, again rebuilt by Nehemiah?
St. Paul admonishes us to keep the attitude of Jesus as He, being God the Son, equally God with the Father, “ made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Phil 2 Jesus had no reputation by intention . When His divinity couldn't help but show who He was, by healing sickness, freeing demonized souls, raising the dead, feeding thousands: He made sure, it seems, that all but His most ardent followers would be offended by something He told them and He drove them away. He wanted no fair-weather following, no crowds proclaiming Him king, not so soon, not too early…
Until His hour was come, the great conflict He was creating must not ripen. He would suppress an uprising, quell a popular movement, and keep Himself in hiding. No reputation . A reputation is the story they tell about you, the general opinion of others. Jesus clearly didn't seek popular acclaim, and He said, “ Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.” Luke 6:26 Fame is fleeting, people are fickle, and the world's approval is not what we ought to live our lives for. If the very Son of God is not loved by all mankind, the world's acclaim isn't what it's cracked up to be. John Lennon of the Beatles said his band was more popular than Jesus, and was criticized for saying so, but he stated a fact. And Jesus would have it so.
But why? Shouldn't the Son of God want every man and woman's love? His love was for every creature, and for each and every human soul He died. Why not vie for that kind of general approval? On an earlier Passover, Jesus had also come to Jerusalem, and we read “many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men , And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.” John 2:23-25 Did He despise us? Hardly. His heart yearned for us. But reputation, fame, general acclaim was all something people played for by finding the general desire of others and becoming that. If they like fiddle music, you take up the violin. If they like humor, learn jokes. If they want a nimble clever man, juggle. Jump from the tower and land safely. Turn stones to bread.
Jesus could have had humanity's attention and kept us rapt with entertainment, but He'd have lost His purpose and His message. He had come to free these slaves from sin, and that meant changing us , giving us some hard lessons, and dying at our hands. It was imperative that on that terrible day we should hate Him, reject Him, lose all sympathy for His cause and claim to kingship, and that we should shout, “Crucify Him!” For He came, not to rule the world or win a popularity contest; He came to die for us.
No reputation . If His entry into Jerusalem had set Him up as the people's current hero and popular legend, He swiftly confused everyone by angrily chasing the animal sellers out of the Temple and overturning the moneychangers' tables, their precious coins clanging and skittering across stone floors. Night fell and He was nowhere to be found, but with His disciples out of town in the olive grove where He was later to be arrested.
No reputation. When a priest prepares to come to the altar, he must first put on a cassock, a long black garment from head to foot, that shrouds the man's own clothes in black to make sure none of his glory, good taste or finery, should show. Then come the vestments of Jesus. No reputation . We can be known for how funny we are, how witty, how loud, how eloquent, how beautifully we sing, how good we look, how easily we make friends, how many people are clamoring to get close to us. We can be known for our wealth, our many mentions in the paper, the many boards that seek our membership, the places we've been, the famous people we know. Those are our own clothes. If we try to represent Jesus in those clothes, they won't fit. They don't fit Him.
We represent Jesus in this world if we are Christians outside these walls. It is something to come to church at all, given that at least 80% of Butte County stayed home or went elsewhere today, didn't even notice it's Palm Sunday. So, well done . You are Christians inside the walls of this building. But the building doesn't make us His Church any more than stepping off the curb onto Salem Street makes me a city bus. If we come for Him, we take Him inside of us, we wear Him into the world, and we are His representatives . If so, we have to cope with being of no reputation. You aren't Billy Graham, and neither am I. For Billy Graham wasn't always Billy Graham, of high repute, and Billy bought his reputation at great sacrifice and humility. The proud ones make a splash, and then mostly go to jail or shame or pack the tent and move on. No reputation means you put on the cassock, cover your old self in black and wear the vestments of Jesus. And what are those vestments?
A blood soaked robe without seams. Sandals that have walked miles of rocky paths between Galilee and Judea. A crown of thorns. “As a root out of dry ground He has no form or allure; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.” Isaiah 53:2-4
Why does God who makes the most majestic mountains, fantastic animals, glorious seashores, and human beauty come and present Himself in such apparent ugliness? Jesus wasn't good looking, so it says. He is rejected and His utter unpopularity sweeps us up too. The world is not beating a path to His door, even now. And much of His church is trying to change that by changing Him, to make Him more presentable, more easily acceptable . But He comes with no reputation, making Himself seem less than He is. And why? Our human eyes see what they want to see. We look for the familiar. We seek to be accepted by the others in the crowd. And God has no use for that. For every soul that He saves from the general headlong self-destruction of the human race He saves one at a time , cut from the herd, arrested in flight , shocked into finding out what He wants and how we haven't been even close.
And then we are shocked that He loves us so. Everything we've done was for nothing, for pride, for ourselves. And it isn't acceptable. With nothing in our hands to offer Him, but nowhere else to go, we come to Jesus naked and with that empty reputation, He lovingly accepts us. We too now have no acclaim, no esteem of the world, and may wear the vestments of the suffering servant.
Jesus had just repelled most of His followers with offensive language that they must eat and drink His flesh and blood, when He turned to His apostles and asked, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” John 6:66-70 When nothing else remains, and the wood, the hay, the stubble of what we thought to build our lives with is smoke and ash, there remains Jesus: nail scarred, bruised, lashed, bloody, broken. Should we seek another? Isn't there a better Savior than this failed Messiah? The world is still looking for one and will always find one. But we have heard the words of life from this condemned felon who claimed to be the King of the Jews. Am I a Jew? What is truth? Do we wash our hands of Him, or do we take up our crosses and walk with Him to Golgotha this week?
No reputation. The world will never get it, never congratulate you for seeking that strange epitaph. Let that be scrawled on your tombstone—NO REPUTATION—and join Him whose grave was with the sinners. And with no reputation, in this life and in the next, enter the kingdom of light and joy and life and abundance, with reward to be His brethren, with peace unbroken and glory unbounded forever and ever, Amen. No reputation, but in heaven, the loving acceptance of our God.
PFH+