The One Man March
A Palm Sunday Sermon by Brent J. Eelman
Abington Presbyterian Church
March 16, 2008

Matthew 21: 1-11
1 When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, just say this, 'The Lord needs them.' And he will send them immediately." 4 This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,
        5 "Tell the daughter of Zion,
        Look, your king is coming to you,
        humble, and mounted on a donkey,
        and on a colt, the foal of a donkey."
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7 they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,
        "Hosanna to the Son of David!
        Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
        Hosanna in the highest heaven!"
10 When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, "Who is this?" 11 The crowds were saying, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee." * 

It was Palm Sunday but because of a sore throat, 5-year-old Johnny stayed home from church with a sitter. When the family returned home, they were carrying several palm fronds. Johnny asked them what they were for.
      "People held them over Jesus' head as he walked by," his father told him.
      "Wouldn't you know it," Johnny fumed, "the one Sunday I don't go and he finally shows up."

Palm Sunday celebrates the “triumphal entry” of Jesus “when he finally showed up” in the capital city of Jerusalem. The march on the capital city is part of our history. In 1963, Martin Luther King launched the “March on Washington”. An estimated 200 thousand people showed up and marched on the capital. The culminating event was the famous sermon at the Lincoln Memorial, “I Have a Dream.” In 1994 organizers planned a “Million Man March” on the capital in the support of African American men. In 1999 there was the “Million Mom March” to protest handgun violence. The mass march on the capital city is part of human history. But there was another march on a capital city that was the most important confrontation with power. Not a million man march, not a thousand man march… It was a one man march. One man, Jesus, marched into the capital city, Jerusalem, and history was not merely changed, it was transformed.

Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem was a confrontation. There he confronted the political, social, and religious authorities of the ancient world. The events following his entry into the city increased with tension until ultimately he was crucified on the cross. Jesus entry into Jerusalem was filled with drama and it speaks to us in a host of different ways. There is a message in Jesus’ choice of a donkey to carry him. There is a message in the shouts of the people, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” There is the question about why the ones who shout “Hosanna” soon change their words to “Crucify him!” and “Give us Barrabas!” But there is an often overlooked message in Christ’s triumphal entry. Perhaps because it is risky sermon material; perhaps because it challenges some of the mistaken beliefs to which we tightly cling. It is a political message. This “one man march” provides an insight and method for how Christians should participate in the political process. Christ’s entry into Jerusalem reminds us that Christians have a unique contribution to make to the political process.I

Sadly religious groups, from Cromwell to Khomeini, do not have a great track record in the area of political involvement. There have been great leaders, who have been motivated by their Christian faith, but often when faith becomes the force of a mass political movement; it has the potential for ugliness, even tyranny. Politics combined with faith can be divisive.

As a child growing up one of the things that I looked forward to were the family get togethers. Most of my uncles and cousins lived in central and northern New Jersey and we would often get together for Thanksgiving and New Years Day. The food was wonderful. It was fun comparing notes with my cousins about schools and classes. Younger children looked up to the older cousins and admired them. It was a noisy, loud gathering of first generation Americans. Norman Rockwell would have loved it. It ended abruptly, however, when I was eleven or twelve. I was not sure why, but we began having separate thanksgiving dinners. Why did this wonderful family tradition fall apart? It was not that we became busier. It was not that we moved farther away from each other. It was politics. I don’t even remember what election it was, or what the argument was about, but the adults got into a political argument. One of my uncles stormed off screaming and yelling… and that was it. No more family get-togethers. What was the message to an eleven year old? Political opinion trumps family relationships

The truth is that often our political positions divide family and friends, and do so in an ugly way.

Sadly, when people of faith have entered the public square, it has often served to further divide people and it has increased the heat of rhetoric and tactics. Differences become escalated because the disagreements are not merely political and social; they are disagreements about the ultimate things, like the course of history, God’s will, and the salvation of the planet. A person’s position in regards to a balanced budget or a specific social program suddenly becomes indicative of his or her relationship with God and obedience to scripture. Consequently long held religious affiliations are broken because a church or pastor might sound too conservative or too liberal. In other words political ideology even trumps participation in a community of faith. Ironically, this is precisely the world into which Jesus marched that day on the back of donkey. The Hebrew people were torn apart and in conflict. The primary source of the conflict was how to relate to the political realities of the day. Jesus entry into the city drew attention, not merely to these differences, but to what was ultimately important in life.

II

In a world that is torn apart by ideology, what is the contribution of Christianity? We have a creative perspective to bring to the political dialogue in three areas: The rhetoric, the obfuscation of truth; and witnessing to a greater truth.

Rhetoric: Political rhetoric has a way of heating up and just as plastic or metal melts in heat, so human reason and rational thinking tends to warp as our speech becomes hotter. Issues seem to become much more important than they actually are. We lose our sense of scale and no longer judge the relative importance of things and ideas. Ideas become more important that people. Responses are no longer pragmatic they are ideological, and the first misstep from the prevailing ideology becomes the proverbial “slippery slope”. Speech and rhetoric become either/or and choices are often reduced to one of two options… the right way or the wrong way(s).

One of the confrontations that Jesus had after his one man march was with a group that tried to trap him in a political argument. The issue was taxes, (always volatile!) Should we pay taxes to Caesar or not? Which side are you on? Supporting a non religious emperor or following the strict moral code of the Torah? Jesus response was insightful, albeit puzzling. He basically said, “Your question has no relevance. Worry about your relationship with God, and give Caesar whatever he wants.” We need to follow Jesus into the political arguments of our day, readjusting the rhetoric so that it does not claim ultimate importance for itself and obscure what is ultimately important: our relationship with God

Commitment to Truth: Political rhetoric is not intended to communicate the truth; it is intended to score points and to win. The pundits will talk about “scoring points” during a debate. A particular t.v. ad might be described as “putting the opponent on the ropes.” The goal in sports is to win. The goal in the political world is to win. The concern of Christians is for truth.

I don’t buy the argument that we should keep out of politics, or that the two don’t mix. They do, but they need to be mixed correctly. Christian participation in politics needs to have a passion for the truth, both in debate and in style. The pundits are not performing this service, they are merely keeping score. Sadly, as one journalist wrote in the recent issue of Newsweek: the media is biased toward conflict. It thrives on conflict and controversy and looks for that in the story.

Pilate’s interrogation of Jesus was revealing. Truth was not important to him but could be twisted to justify events… and so Pilate asked, “What is truth?” Christians need to answer that question.

We are called to witness to a greater truth. This is perhaps the most important thing that we can bring to the political world. This greater truth is that there is more that unites us, as human beings and as disciples of Jesus Christ, than divides us. What unites us is the cross. What unites us is the Grace of God. What unites us is our belief that all of us stand in need of forgiveness. What unites us is that our only hope in life and death is Christ and the resurrection. What unites us is that we are children of God, Christ is our brother, and we therefore are sisters and brothers, part of one family. What unites is our baptism and the memory of our baptism that we recall whenever we celebrate the Lord’s supper. What unites is that Christ lived for us, died for us was raised for us. All our differences are petty in light of this!

One of the most powerful witnesses to this reality of unity in Jesus Christ came to as I served in Northern New York. I know I have mentioned that in that congregation we had the President of Life-Right an anti abortion organization and the president of Planned Parenthood, an organization that has been identified with abortions. This could have been a messy situation, (particularly for the pastor), but they were friends. Their friendship included teaching Sunday school together, serving on church committees together and even traveling together. They traveled to Houston Texas together to attend a Christian Educator’s conference, shared rooms, etc. Why?? Because there faith was so powerful and genuine, that they recognized that there was more that united them than divided them.

Today in worship, we celebrate Christ’s “one man march” into the capital city, the hub of political power and authority. We live in a politically charged world and often we too, get involved in ideological arguments. Palm Sunday is a reminder to us that there is something more important that transcends these differences and each of us has the responsibility of witnessing and sharing God’s love, grace and forgiveness. Families, churches and communities have been torn apart by good people, in the name of God, acting in divisive ways. It is time for people of faith to follow Christ on his one man march….into our places of power and declare Christ’s message of peace and truth. We also need to declare it with the humility of one who rides a donkey. . This is the good news… awesome news for a divided world. Amen

*The New Revised Standard Version Bible, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1989.

Abington Presbyterian Church, Abington, Pennsylvania,  www.apcusa.org