by Rev. Dr John Evans
Matthew 21:1-11
Life is strange. Out of the extremes of human existence we often see the best in people.
At the time of war, amid the carnage and the senselessness of it all, we see people rising to the need for sacrifice, courage and loyalty. In times of social and economic unrest we see people showing compassion and care. The stories I have heard from my parents of life during the Great Depression, showed that despite the times being tough, very tough – they would pitch in, help each other, help those who were doing it even more difficult than they were. Through this experience they marked the quality of a generation and the very character of this nation. Again at the times of natural disasters – bushfires or floods – people pitch in to help each other. I remember when the Evans family arrived in Maryborough, Queensland – by this stage in our ministry after six or seven weeks, we had had two cyclones, two floods, we knew the whole town and felt accepted and a part of the place. Of course it is not always true. The story of another cyclone, in another place – New Orleans and Katrina – brought forth different responses and different reactions. And yes – when everything is going well, life is easy, who cares about such qualities as loyalty, honesty, courage, truth and love for others.
Of course I am talking about paradoxes: something that is seemingly absurd and yet can be explained as expressing a profound truth. It is absurd to think that any good to think any good can come from a moment of sadness and loss, from war or economic depression. It is absurd to think that periods of prolonged economic prosperity, such as Australia has experienced in recent times, has in built dangers and the seeds of vast and difficult problems. But we do see paradoxes all around us – families where everything seems to be going well for them, and yet there is enormous bitterness and discord and a lack of meaning and purpose. We use paradoxical statements to describe situations all the time – and perhaps in the process end up sounding like school mottos: strength through adversity: it is an ill wind that blows no good; you have to be cruel to be kind; or the reverse, you can kill someone with kindness.
Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus who we believe to be the Christ – was himself a paradox; in a sense our faith is founded on a paradox; the truth of who God is for us is revealed in a paradox. There is truth and meaning, indeed the basis of all truth, in the seeming contradiction of God becoming flesh; of an ordinary carpenter, who became a wandering teacher – with not a cent to his name, and who is put to death with common criminals – being the Son of God, and the source of all life.
Our celebrations on Palm Sunday highlight this paradox.
Indeed within Christian tradition we paradoxically call this day Palm Sunday, and also Passion Sunday: a day of reflection on Christ’s kingship; and yet also his passion. Consider these paradoxes – they seemingly are absurd, but they go to the heart of who God is:
Jesus is King – our Lord; and yet rides on a donkey; and a borrowed donkey at that.
Jesus is greeted as King, and yet he reveals his kingdom by going to his own death.
The good folk of Jerusalem hail him this day with loud Hosannas; one can presume they were the same crowd, who by the end of the week bay for his blood.
Nothing in this story fits with what we normally associate with kings and their authority; nothing is here we associate with the might and power of God – those “omni’s” omnipotent, omniscient – fits with what will unfold this coming week.
I want to suggest we have become too familiar with the story of Jesus – especially in this last week of Jesus’ life. These vast and enormous paradoxes just wash over us – we harmonize, we minimize, we don’t open them out – so God may break in. As Paul in his letter to the Corinthians says – we proclaim Christ crucified – a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. These events of this day – and of the coming week are truly absurd, troubling and contradictory – but paradoxically they do reveal God’s nature and Christ’s love.
A king would ride into Jerusalem on a stallion. Today even the poorest nation on this planet is able to muster some sort of regal retinue for its leader, ruler or potentate. All those years ago it was festival week in Jerusalem – the Passover is to be celebrated. This was for the Jews great story of salvation and freedom from the bondage of the Egyptians well over a thousand years before. Rulers and leaders across the known world would be there at the temple. They would not come on a borrowed donkey, with a motley band of followers who literally been just arguing among themselves as to who was the greatest. This entry of Jesus to Jerusalem would have looked like a joke then, just as it looks like a joke now. Only subsequent reflection would have seen the connection between this event and the prophet Zechariah – which is quoted by Matthew.
Imagine the Queen visiting Carlton – traveling down Lygon St greeting her adoring subjects; or perhaps it is the Governor General or President if you are republican – and she travels on one of those many, many pushbikes just leaning up at the entrance of the shopping arcade there at Borders. The queen on a pushbike. Now pushbikes are a great form of transport – most of us here ride one; nothing wrong with pushbikes, or donkeys for that matter – but can you imagine the Queen on one. Here the crowds give the great greeting reserved for the coming Messiah – Blessed is he who is coming in the name of the Lord.
A paradox should set us back on our heels, make us think, make us realize that there is something profound happening here, and shock us into understanding – new understanding. Paradoxes are not there to be downplayed and minimized and made comfortable. Let their absurdity and shocking nature challenge us; and let the starkness and unexpected surprise us into understanding how God acts and loves. Furthermore we perhaps need to see our whole life as a “lived” paradox. Paul again – in 2 Cor. 6 when he says “we have been treated as impostors and yet we are true; as unknown and yet are well known; as dying, and see – we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful and yet always rejoicing, as poor and yet making many rich; as nothing and yet possessing everything.”
The irony is that others see the absurdity of our faith and our lives – and do not see a paradox at all. It is just foolishness; just a stumbling block as Paul contends. Philosophers, such as Nietzsche, have long since seen the death of God and the absurdity of our king being killed and somehow that provides to us the revelation of who God is. For Nietzsche, a king does not ride on a donkey. The heirs and assigns of such philosophical thinking – our current contemporary, secular society sees this coming week, and next weekend as being just the best long weekend of the year (four days not three), and not as a Christian festival to reflect on and be renewed. Perhaps it is because there are now other Gods worshipped, or there is just sheer laziness and selfishness, a desire for good times and fun. Yes Christ’s death on the cross is foolishness, not a paradox at all; not a paradox that there is truth in the cross of Christ.
This is the profound challenge for the Christian church in our secular world.
And for us, our familiarity with these paradoxes becomes dulled because we become too familiar with this story; and there is nothing strange or confronting about the events of the week that lies ahead. My prayer would be that this Easter we might be challenged by the power and the significance of what is actually happening to Jesus in this coming week.
At our Wednesday morning communion – last week – and again next Wednesday as we continue to listen to the story of the week – we have prayed this prayer that:
As we contemplate again the pageant of our Lord’s betrayal, suffering and death;
May neither the history, ritual, nor sentiment of this season in themselves fascinate us. Or we might add, wash over us.
Rather may our souls be grasped by what our minds alone cannot contain, or rationalize such a paradox –
That this week we remember, was all for us.That this day and this coming week, was all for us.
God has come into our life in a least expected, indeed absurd way; but in the process God has revealed the truth that God is love, and indeed loves us. God continues to call us and claim us – often in most unbelievable and impossible ways.
This is the same God who comes as a king mounted on a donkey. As Philippians says, in probably the oldest hymn of the Christian Church – Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited but emptied himself taking the form of a slave.”
For you that happened. As our Lord begins this momentous week, may you be struck again by the truth of the paradoxes that will unfold. May your life be changed and renewed.
