Gordon E. Ellis
April 1, 2007
IF THESE WERE SILENT…
Jesus says in our Scripture Lesson today: I tell you, if THESE were silent, the STONES would shout out. Whenever I used to HEAR these words, I USED to think that Jesus was pretty FULL of himself, pretty POMPOUS. MAYBE it’s because I’d grown accustomed to the WAY this quote is EMBELLISHED in the rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar. IN it, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd-Webber have Jesus saying to the Pharisees, who want to STIFLE the PRAISE of the CROWD: WHY waste your breath moaning at the CROWD? NOTHING can be done to stop the SHOUTING! If every tongue were still, the noise would STILL continue. The rocks and stones themselves would start to SING… Don’t you AGREE that that DOESN’T sound like the HUMBLE Jesus we all KNOW and love? If THESE were silent, the STONES would shout out! And I always wanted to say: Come on, Jesus! Get OVER yourself, WILL you!
NOW, however, I HEAR that line very DIFFERENTLY, because I REALIZE that Jesus ISN’T talking about HIMSELF here. JESUS is talking about US! JESUS is TALKING about the way ALL of us, and ALL of creation, YEARN for God, and LONG for God, and even ACHE for God. You see: the CRIES of the CROWD are NOT just cries of PRAISE. In fact, MORE importantly, they’re cries of YEARNING and cries of LONGING! They SHOUT out: BLESSED is the KING who COMES in the name of the Lord! And WHEN they DO, they’re joining THEIR voices with the voices of their ancestors. They’re joining THEIR voices with the words of PSALM 118, which is a ROYAL psalm, a historic psalm of CORONATION, in which the KING comes to the Temple to be ANOINTED before GOD. You see: the word Messiah in Hebrew, or the word Christ in Greek, LITERALLY means the ANOINTED one. So, HERE is the announcement that God’s ANOINTED One, that God’s chosen KING is COMING! And He’s bringing them DELIVERANCE! HERE is the PROTECTER of the WEAK! HERE is the DEFENDER of the DEFENSELESS! HERE is the PERSONIFICATION of JUSTICE! HERE is what they’ve been WAITING for, and YEARNING for – for CENTURIES! Yes, HERE He IS entering the Holy City, the CAPITOL city!
Well, like ANY new leader, the One who comes in the name of the LORD is like a BLANK screen, ONTO which are projected ALL the HOPES, and ALL the LONGINGS, of His PEOPLE. It’s just like when we elect a new leader TODAY, isn’t it? And SO, SOME want POLITICAL deliverance from the OCCUPIERS, from the ROMANS! OTHERS want FINANCIAL prosperity! SOME want moral PURITY for their NATION! Still OTHERS want whatever THEY consider to be SALVATION! And ALL of them expect this new LEADER to BRING it, JUST as WE do TODAY! And so, Luke TELLS us that this crowd is CHARGED UP! They’ve SEEN the deeds of POWER that JESUS has done! And SO, they’re praising GOD for Him, even as they expect MORE deeds of power FROM Him! After all: they’re TIRED of feeling POWERLESS! They’re TIRED of feeling like LOSERS! They’re TIRED of living as a CONQUERED people, with NO control over their own DESTINY! But NOW, the ANOINTED one is coming! And they FULLY expect Him to be their CHAMPION! SO, they shout out: BLESSED is the KING who COMES in the name of the Lord! BLESSED is the MIGHTY one! BLESSED is our CHAMPION! Can you PICTURE it? And they’re waving PALM branches! Does anyone know what PALM branches were to those people. PALM branches were like FLAGS are TODAY, because THAT’S what palm branches WERE to them during the Maccabean WAR! They used them as FLAGS! And PALM branches were even printed on their COINS after that, as WE print the FLAG. SO, this is a display of NATIONALISM!
Now, what you DON’T see in Luke’s gospel is the word, Hosanna, which we USUALLY associate with Palm Sunday, and which is attributed to the CROWD in every OTHER gospel, EXCEPT Luke’s. Well, HOSANNA is a HEBREW word, which LITERALLY means save us now. It’s an URGENT word, a HEARTFELT word! The PROBLEM with it IS that it had a different MEANING on the lips of EVERY person who UTTERED it. And personally, I think that’s why LUKE doesn’t USE it in his gospel. INSTEAD, Luke has the crowd shout: PEACE in heaven, and GLORY in the highest heaven! Now, WHERE have you heard THAT line before? Well, it ECHOES the CHRISTMAS canticle, back in Luke 2, doesn’t it? It’s what the ANGELS sing to the SPEPHERDS on the night of Jesus’ BIRTH. They sing: Glory to God in the HIGHEST heaven, and on earth, PEACE… Well, IF there’s peace and glory in HEAVEN, then we OUGHT to be praying for peace and glory here on EARTH with ALL our hearts, because Jesus TELLS us that THAT’S what we are to PRAY for. Remember? Between the Christmas canticle and this Palm Sunday passage in Luke’s gospel is ANOTHER story, the story of His DISICPLES realizing that the KEY to His powerful kind of life, His FULLNESS of life, is His PRAYER life. SO, they come asking Him, Lord, teach US to PRAY. And He TEACHES them, AND us, what we call The Lord’s Prayer. He teaches THEM, and US, to pray: THY kingdom COME. And what’s that MEAN? It MEANS: THY will be done on Earth AS it is in heaven. SO, what’s in HEAVEN is God’s WILL and PURPOSE, isn’t it? Therefore, THAT’S what we ought to be PRAYING for, and WORKING for, here on Earth: that God’s WILL be DONE on earth AS it is in HEAVEN! And for LUKE (and we see this THROUGHOUT his gospel), what PEACE on earth MEANS is a REORDERING of society. What Peace on earth MEANS is a REVERSAL of fortune for the HAVES and the HAVE-NOTS. You see: LUKE’S gospel is not just good NEWS for the poor in SPIRIT – as SOME say MATTHEW’S gospel is. It’s ALSO good NEWS for the ECONOMICALLY poor. And as far as LUKE is concerned, THAT is the will of GOD, and THAT is how to HAVE peace on earth. So THAT’S what LUKE has the crowd SHOUTING out on this Palm Sunday in HIS gospel!
It also ECHOES the words of Psalm 118, in which the people shout out: Blessed is the One who COMES in the name of the Lord! But the YEARNING that they express is SO deep, and SO profound, that I believe it JOINS the YEARNING, or the GROANING, for God of the entire COSMOS. AS the Apostle Paul writes: We KNOW that the whole CREATION has been GROANING in LABOR pains until NOW; and not ONLY the creation, but WE ourselves…! And friends, Jesus KNOWS this. And SO, He says to those who would SILENCE the crowd: if THESE were silent, the STONES would shout out! You see: it’s NOT just OUR yearning, but the yearning of God’s ENTIRE creation! And it’s a YEARNING of the COSMOS for GOD!
Well, SOON enough, the CRIES of the crowd WILL be silenced! SOON enough, their desperate EXPECTATIONS will turn to RAGE! You see: THEY have made their yearning for GOD into an ILLUSION, an illusion of HUMAN power and glory. And God will GIVE it to them they think! Well, the problem with ILLUSIONS is that they INEVITABLY lead to DISILLUSIONMENT! And DISILLUSIONED people get ANGRY! I’m SURE we’ve seen it in OURSELVES. When someone we really CARE about DISILLUSIONS us, our FIRST response is ANGER! SO, when Jesus does NOT come and start an UPRISING against ROME, and when Jesus does NOT bring in some new PROGRAM of political CHANGE, and WORST of all, when Jesus does NOT perform His mighty deeds of POWER in Jerusalem, but becomes POWERLESS, the PEOPLE get ANGRY! WHAT a LOSER, they shout! AWAY with Him! CRUCIFY Him! We have no USE of Him! And then, ALL the machinery of human invention GRINDS into action! The religious institution acts, as religious institutions OFTEN do, NOT to express eternal TRUTH, but to ASSURE its own SELF-PRESERVATION. And the institutions of human JUSTICE, as they often DO, QUELL the disturbance WITHOUT addressing its CAUSES. Oh, they say, WE don’t have TROUBLES. WE just have a TROUBLE-MAKER, and WE will DEAL with Him. SO, in an act of state-sponsored TERRORISM, Jesus is NAILED to a CROSS with a SIGN over His head for EVERYONE to SEE. In Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, it reads: King of the Jews. And what it’s REALLY saying to them is THIS: So does anybody ELSE want to be king of the Jews? Does anybody ELSE want to hear the crowd shouting: ‘BLESSED is the KING who comes in the name of the Lord?’ Well, THIS is what you’ll GET! THIS is where you’ll end up!
SO, at LAST the crowd is SILENT. Even the handful of MOURNERS, who grieve Jesus’ DEATH – AGONIZING over the CRUELTY of it, the INJUSTICE of it, and the SENSELESSNESS of it – even THESE are SILENCED. And THEN, in the SILENCE – in the eerie AFTERMATH of the CRUCIFIXION – the stones DO begin to cry OUT, just as Jesus had PREDICTED. The STONES of the PAVEMENT, ON which Jesus was tortured, cry OUT with OUTRAGE over the shedding of innocent BLOOD. And the STONES of the TEMPLE – the SYMBOL of ALL human achievement, the SYMBOL of the PERMANENCE and DURABILITY of HUMAN institutions, this mighty edifice INTENDED to inspire AWE and WONDER – yes, the STONES of the Temple itself begin to CREAK and GRIND and SHIFT. And friends, that EARTHQUAKE was just the BEGINNING! In LESS than 40 years, in less than a single HEARTBEAT of HISTORY, Jesus’ PREDICTION about WHAT will happen to those STONES will be an APPROPRIATE description of what actually DOES happen. Do you remember His description? He said …the days will COME when not ONE stone will be left standing on another; ALL will be thrown DOWN. (Luke 21:6b) And SURE enough, in 70AD, the Roman legions entered the HOLY city of Jerusalem and SACKED it! They LITERALLY tore DOWN the Temple, stone by stone, COMPLETELY filling IN the VALLEY of the CHEESEMAKERS, which used to run NEXT to the Temple. And TO this very DAY, the RUBBLE continues to CRY OUT, as archaeologists SLOWLY unearth the STONES of that ancient TEMPLE. I’ll tell you: it’s an ELOQUENT testimony to the FOLLY of HUMAN wisdom and HUMAN presumptuousness, JUST as ancient Rome ITSELF is TODAY, or the ancient city of POMPEI, which had PLENTY of warning that the volcano, VESUVIUS, was about to ERUPT. EACH one of them is an ELOQUENT testimony to the FOLLY of human wisdom and human presumptuousness. And friends, I can’t help but WONDER: WHAT will those who follow US – 100 years from now, 500 years from now, 1000 years from now, 2000 years from now – point to and say about OUR time: THERE is an eloquent TESTIMONY to the FOLLY of HUMAN wisdom and HUMAN presumptuousness? Will they point to nuclear WEAPONS and nuclear POWER plants? Will they point to POLLUTED air, water and land? Will they point to cities UNDERWATER because of global WARMING? Will they point to the RUINS of Washington, D.C. or New York, Baghdad or Jerusalem? Yes, to WHAT will they POINT and say: THERE is an eloquent TESTIMONY to the FOLLY of HUMAN wisdom and HUMAN presumptuousness? I tell you: ALL of us NEED to be thinking about this question, because HOW we answer should be determining HOW we live our day-to-day lives NOW. The ANSWER to that question OUGHT to be informing EVERYTHING we do, from the values we instill in our children to the amount of trash we generate, from the kind of car we drive to the votes we cast in the voting booth, from the way we build new homes to the policies and politices of our government that we support. SO, think about it! Pray about it! Struggle with it! WHAT will those who come after us POINT to and say: THERE is an eloquent TESTIMONY to the FOLLY of HUMAN wisdom and HUMAN presumptuousness?
Yes, it’s TRUE, friends: EVEN the STONES shout out! They shout our YEARNING – creation’s GROANING – for GOD, and for God’s WILL to be done on EARTH as it is in HEAVEN! And UNTIL we turn our hearts and minds toward GOD – until we MEAN it when we pray, THY Kingdom come. THY will be done on earth AS it is in Heaven – UNTIL we begin LIVING our lives according to GOD’S purposes and GOD’S values, as if GOD were REIGNING as ruler in our hearts instead of all the OTHER “gods” that we give our ALLEGIANCE to these days – yes, UNTIL we turn our hearts and minds to GOD, the CRUCIFIXIONS that have PLAGUED humankind for CENTURIES and centuries, will CONTINUE to HORRIFY us! Friends, we HAVE to finally shout out, and MEAN it – WITHOUT all of our illusions of HUMAN power and glory – BLESSED is the KING who COMES in the name of the Lord! And that’s because, IF we DON’T, if WE allow the WORLD and ITS institutions to RENDER us SILENT, the very STONES will shout out, the STONES that lie in the RUBBLE! SO, let’s turn OUR hearts to GOD! Let’s offer OUR lives to GOD! And let’s DO it TRUSTING that there is ANOTHER stone that speaks even MORE eloquently. And THAT’S the stone that we will hear about NEXT Sunday. It’s the stone that is ROLLED AWAY from the gaping MOUTH of a silent and EMPTY tomb. Amen.
(With thanks to my friend & colleague, Dave Ruhe)