The King We Need
PALM SUNDAY
Isaiah 50:4-9a • Philippians 2:5-11 • Mark 14:1-15:47
Have you ever asked for something, received exactly what you asked for, realized it wasn’t what you thought it would be, and then regretted asking for it in the first place?
Last week, as our family drove from Colorado into New Mexico on our way to Amarillo, Texas, we started seeing the signs: “Free 72oz. Steak.” Every few dozen miles, we’d see another sign: “Free 72oz. Steak.” You may have heard of the Big Texan 72-ounce steak challenge. If you can eat a 72-ounce steak, shrimp cocktail, baked potato, salad, roll, and butter in under an hour, it’s free. If not, you’re out $72.00. Either way, you’re a loser.
Somewhere along the way, one of my children asked if we could go there for dinner. “I could eat that!” this child boldly exclaimed. Yeah right. If I had known at the time that this would become a sermon illustration, we probably would have gone so that I could tell you first-hand what happens when someone asks for something, gets exactly what they asked for, and then regrets it almost instantly, but I couldn’t see that far ahead. Instead, we’ll just have to imagine together how nauseating that experience would be.
In a way, though, we live through that same wild swing of emotions every year on Palm Sunday. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” we proclaim at the beginning of our worship. “Hosannah in the highest!” we shout in words of jubilation. But, by the time we get to the passion narrative, our cry has become, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” We asked for a king, and a king we did receive, but he wasn’t the king we were hoping for, and so we turned against him.
When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the street was lined with people who had come to see their king. Word had spread among the people that God’s anointed had come among them and that this was the time when he would bring them victory. “This is the one who has come in the name of the Lord!” they said to one another. “This is the one who will usher in the kingdom of his ancestor David! This is the one who will defeat our enemies! This is the one who will restore the throne of God’s chosen king!”
Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords, but he isn’t the sort of monarch the people were hoping for. Instead of claiming his rightful place in the temple, he turned over the tables of the money changers and brought the nation’s worship to a halt. Instead of inciting rebellion among the people, he taught them to forgive their enemies so that they, too, might be forgiven. Instead of consolidating power among the religious and political leaders of the day, he openly challenged their authority and criticized them as self-seeking and faithless. Instead of praising the rich and powerful and promising his followers unqualified success, he celebrated the poor and assured his disciples that only hardship awaited them. No wonder the people in power turned against him. No wonder his disciples deserted him. No wonder a member of his inner circle betrayed him.
How quickly the attitude of the crowd changes from celebration to rejection when they learn that Jesus hasn’t come to give them the kingdom they expected! How quickly our admiration becomes condemnation when we realize that it’s our power, our comfort, our wealth, and our status that the King of kings has come to overthrow!
But not everyone in the story turns against him and runs away: “There were also women looking on from a distance; among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. These used to follow him and provided for him when he was in Galilee; and there were many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.” In a world that celebrates power and legitimizes greed, it is the women whose faithfulness is heralded by the gospel. Their witness reminds us what it means to seek not the kingdom of our own desires but the reign of God that sets the world free from its slavery to sin.
We don’t need a savior who crowns our desire for power, victory, and success. We need a savior who rescues us from it. And thanks be to God that that’s exactly who Jesus is. The good news of Palm Sunday is that our flawed expectations cannot thwart God’s plan of salvation. No matter what king we wish to receive, the one we are given is exactly the one we need—the one who challenges our strengths by glorifying our weaknesses. That is the way of the cross, and it is the way of our salvation. Our thirst for worldly power has nailed Jesus to the hard wood of the cross, but God has used the very worst impulses within us as the very means of our forgiveness.
We may not have received the king we were hoping for, but, even without realizing it, Jesus is the king we asked God to give us, and, thankfully, he’s the savior we need most of all.
© 2024 The Rev. Evan D. Garner
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church – Fayetteville, Arkansas