March 28, 2021: Beloved on the Winding Way
Mark 11:1-11 & Mark 14:1-11
Rev. Rhonda Blevins
When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’” They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,
“Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
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It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; for they said, “Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.”
While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. But some were there who said to one another in anger, “Why was the ointment wasted in this way? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”
Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. When they heard it, they were greatly pleased, and promised to give him money. So he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.
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I want to commend you, Chapel, for another successful Beachwalk Walk! We haven’t gotten all the numbers in just yet, but early estimates suggest this may be our best Walk yet. You continue to amaze and impress me. This year’s t-shirt received a lot of comments with its bright, highlighter yellow. One person said those shirts could stop traffic!
Which makes me wonder, was the captain of the Ever Given stuck in the Suez Canal wearing one of our Beachwalk shirts? Talk about stopping traffic! 12% of the world’s trade goods are backed up because a little wind blew a cargo ship cattywampus. That was five days ago. This little traffic jam is costing the world $400 million per hour, that’s over $48 billion dollars so far.[1] I’ve read we may be facing a toilet paper shortage in the days ahead . . . those of you who stocked up last March finally get a chance to use it!
The Suez Canal, where the Ever Given is stuck, separates Egypt from the Sinai Peninsula, extending from the northern end of the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. Somewhere around there, no one knows exactly where, Moses led the children of Israel to cross on dry ground . . . which would be easy enough today if you hopped aboard the Ever Given on one bank and disembarked on another. Easy peasy!
How ironic that this is happening at Passover, the holiday in which Jews celebrate this escape from slavery in Egypt—the holiday Jesus was on his way to celebrate in Jerusalem in the first scripture text we read together today.
And what happens on the very first Palm Sunday, is that Jesus leads a staged protest mocking Roman Imperial rule. Jesus could have found a far more regal way to enter then, say, on a donkey, don’t you think? This lampoon pokes fun at Pontius Pilate, entering the city to keep “law and order” during this tinderbox occasion for uprising with thousands upon thousands of pilgrims there, some just itching to cause trouble for Rome. Think spring break in Miami, except with more clothes.
This palm-waving protest in which Jesus rides into town on a donkey while others shout “Hosanna” and spread their palm branches on the road surely stopped “traffic”—with so many people entering Jerusalem on this same day, there was plenty of traffic. Think the causeway on a beautiful spring day in late March. Protests designed to “stop traffic” are familiar to us today as well. The idea is to block the streets, causing irritation but no harm, to draw attention to some injustice or another. Jesus was drawing attention to the oppressive Roman system that subjugated the Jews. Protests today seek to draw attention as well, to make people uncomfortable, to cause just enough of a scene so as to make a point without crossing the line into violence or anarchy. The problem is, not everyone who participates has a commitment to non-violence like Jesus did, or for a uniquely American example, like Martin Luther King, Jr. did.
Recently I went back and read Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”[2] If you have never read this masterful piece, I highly encourage you to do so. Dr. King, as the name of the letter suggests, is writing from a jail cell in Birmingham, what King calls “probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States.” Now you may recall Dr. King lived in Atlanta, so why was he in Birmingham? Dr. King answers this question in this letter addressed to white pastors in Birmingham. Apparently, many white pastors in Birmingham had expressed some sympathy for the black protestors but suggested that some happy compromise could be reached between the black community and local white leaders without the nuisance of causing a scene and stopping traffic.
“My Dear Fellow Clergymen,” King’s letter begins, “While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities ‘unwise and untimely.’” King said, “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.”
“You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement . . . fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations.”
“Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.”
“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
Jesus, who was among the oppressed Jewish community, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey with people shouting “Hosanna” certainly was dramatic and tense, second only to the next protest he would stage that week, turning the tables over in the Temple. And the Beloved Son of the Most High God riding in on the Winding Way to Jerusalem, certainly caused a scene and stopped traffic, for the express purpose of drawing attention to the injustices of the Roman oppression.
With others around the world, I have been watching with great interest as the solution to the Ever Given stuck in the Suez Canal is found. One meme that is making its way around social media is a tiny little front-end loader trying to dig out the 220,000-ton (plus) behemoth.
And in the meantime, 12% of the world’s goods are stuck (including your next roll of toilet paper). Now, if you’re one of the 213 boat captains stuck in traffic because the captain of the Ever Given decided to wear one of our Beachwalk shirts, what would you do? Here are the options, best I can tell:
Go home. Go sleep in your own bed. Make the trip when the Beachwalk is over.
Wait it out. Anchor in place in the Suez Canal or at the north or south entrance. Hang tight. Catch up on your solitaire.
Take an alternate route. The Horn of Africa never looked so good! So it adds 10 days to the trip, but who wouldn’t enjoy that scenery?
Now, what if you were one of the pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem not with Jesus on that fateful day he decided to block traffic. What would you choose to do?
Go home. Plan to celebrate Passover next year!
Wait it out. Hang out in Bethany a little longer than planned. Check out the Garden of Gethsemane, I hear that’s nice this time of year.
Take an alternate route. Sure, coming in from the East is the easiest and quickest way, but that out-of-the-way northern entrance to Jerusalem looks pretty good—you don’t want to get mixed up with those rabblerousers causing a scene.
(And here’s a fourth option) Join in. Decide to get mixed up with those rabblerousers causing a scene.
What would you have chosen?
I’d like to think I would have joined in, waved a palm branch or two, shouted “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” But that would have been pretty risky. “Someone might see me, or worse yet, I’ll show up photo bombing someone’s Facebook selfie. And what if they round up these protestors and throw them in jail? That would be on my permanent record.” Shouting “Hosanna,” I fear, would have required more “skin in the game” than I would have been willing to muster. Just. Too. Risky.
The other scripture text today tells the story of a woman who was not afraid to put “skin in the game.” Breaking a vase of costly nard used for burial on Jesus’ feet that Holy Wednesday, she showed her hand. Her heart and her bank account were the Lord’s. “How dare she!” some of the disciples snipped. “That perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor.”
And if I had been too cautious to wave a palm branch, I probably would have been too fiscally conservative to appreciate the woman’s lavish act of love. I imagine I would have been among those chastising the woman for the lavish “waste.”
How about you? Maybe you’re less risk-averse than me and you would have been shouting “Hosanna” and maybe you would see the act of pouring costly perfume on Jesus’ feet a thing of beauty instead of a fool’s errand. Heck, maybe you would have been the one breaking the jar over his feet yourself!
But if not, if you wonder whether you could have been there with and for Jesus during the dramatic events of Holy Week, today is an opportunity to move a little closer to him. To count the cost of picking up a palm branch, the to consider the actual cost of discipleship instead of simply the benefit.
People today, American Christians for sure but perhaps an issue worldwide, we want all of the perks of faith—comfort, peace, strength, wisdom—without the costs of faith. We want something that costs us nothing.
As we, the Beloved sons and daughters of the most high God, walk with Jesus on the winding way of Holy Week, consider: what are you willing to risk for the one who risked everything for you? What sacrifice are you being called to make this Holy Week? Great love often requires great sacrifice.
I close with the lyrics to a song I learned many years ago . . . may it be our genuine prayer as we begin Holy Week 2021 with a few final, heartfelt, waves of a palm branch.
I will not offer anything that cost me nothing
I'll place before Him nothing less than my very best
And if I'm called into sacrifice
It will be worthy of my Christ,
I will not offer anything that cost me nothing.[3]
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/25/suez-canal-blockage-is-delaying-an-estimated-400-million-an-hour-in-goods.html
[2] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/02/letter-from-a-birmingham-jail/552461/
[3] “Anything that Costs Me Nothing” is written by Bobby Michaels.