Palm Sunday, 2025
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Philippians 2:5-11
Luke 23:1-49
Psalm 31:9-16
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
How did we get here? How did we go from a crowd singing Hosanna to the King, to a crowd shouting crucify this false king? How did they let this happen? How did no one speak up? How is it that not one person was willing to step forward and say, “This is madness! Make it stop!” I know we like to think we would have done that. We like to think that we would step in front of the crowd and plead for reason and justice for an innocent man. But would we?
As an occupied territory of the Roman Empire, things were mostly peaceful for the people of Judea, all things considered. But as Herod’s son Archelaus was such a bad ruler, the people rose up in 4 BC and the Romans stepped in and crucified 2,000 Jewish citizens. 2,000! Within ten years of that atrocity, Jesus was born. So during his entire lifetime, the memory of 2,000 fellow citizens being crucified for getting on the wrong side of the government would have been a core memory among the people.
The Jewish people had a certain amount of freedom and justice in their occupied land, but they also had a direct memory of what happens when you get on the wrong side of the Roman Empire. “Should I inform on my neighbor in order to save my own skin?” “Should I look away when someone speaks ill of the emperor, or should I turn them in for sedition?” The need to ask yourself questions like this creates an important tool for the oppressors. Because it divides people from one another. If I can’t trust my neighbor, if I can’t speak my mind freely, am I really free? We might call this approach to governing divide and conquer. The East German Stasi were quite familiar with it.
Back to the scene we just heard. An innocent man, who has committed no crime, and is here legally has been swept off the street under the cover of darkness. Hmmm. He is arrested, mocked, and beaten. Pilate himself says the man has committed no crime. The parallels to what our country has been doing to innocent people like Andry Romero are striking. A gay makeup artist who was scooped up off the street last month, accused of being a dangerous gang member, and sent to a torture dungeon in El Salvador. Or the Maryland father Kilmar Garcia, whom the government openly admits it mistakenly arrested and sent there, and refuses to bring back despite court orders.
And now I go back to what I said just a few minutes ago. How did they let this happen? How did no one speak up? How is it that not one person was willing to step forward and say, “This is madness! Make it stop!” I know we like to think we would have done that. We like to think that we would step in front of the crowd and plead for reason and justice for an innocent man. But would we?
Divide and conquer is a powerful motivator. When we are afraid of our own government, when we are afraid of our neighbors, that makes us feel isolated and alone. We choose to keep quiet with our head down, lest the Eye of Sauron suddenly sweep across and single us out. And carrying the memory of 2,000 of your neighbors being crucified would certainly lead a person to act that way. Just mind your own business and keep quiet. But then how do we explain the crowd yelling “crucify him” about an innocent man?
I talk a lot about us being unified as the body of Christ in this world. The people in this gospel story are also unified. But they are united in fear. They are united in their compliance to a dangerous government. People can be united for a variety of reasons. Think of sports teams, or humanitarian projects, or even television shows. And people can also be united by fear and hatred. People can be united in saying, “Please don’t see me.” Or, “please go pick on and bully that other kid.” As I say, people can be united for a lot of reasons.
But when we are united as the body of Christ, that is where we find love instead of fear. Where we find courage instead of cowardice. Because when we are one in Christ, God is among us. God goes before us and God surrounds us. God is behind us and beneath us, and everywhere we look, when we are united in the love of Jesus.
As we live out our lives, there will be times when we are afraid for ourselves and others. There will be times when we turn inward because we fear the power of evil that surrounds us. And in those times, we might find ourselves really wanting to just give in and join the crowd yelling “crucify him.” Times when we might want to circle the wagons and protect ourselves and our family. It’s honestly easier sometimes to just yell “crucify him” and go home.
But we don’t have to give in to that temptation. There is another way. A better way. A way that brings life out of death. A way that surrenders to God, and seeks what is good in this world. A way that listens for the voice of God. And you are here today because you have heard that voice of God. You are here on the hardest, most confusing day of the church year, because you recognize this other way. This better way.
We are the body of Christ in this world. No matter how much we might disagree and have our differences, we—together—are the body of Christ. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, “ Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” And he says, “If the foot would say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?” We are all different. Yet we are all one.
It takes all of us to be the body of Christ. And whatever one of us is going through impacts all the rest of us, because we are one body. And as that one body, let us choose the way of love and life. Let us choose not to join the crowd in fear and hatred. There is a better way. There is a loving way. And as the body of Christ, God will guide us on the path that is the better way. All we have to do is listen.
Amen.
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