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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHow did this happen? How did Jesus\u2019 life of peace end in such a violent death? We stand at the edge of this moment, looking on in horror and confusion \u2014 just as Jesus\u2019 followers did on the day he was crucified. The violence we have seen is numbing: it robs us of the ability to think clearly. Like Peter in Pilate\u2019s courtyard, we are afraid. And fear will always lead us astray. So it\u2019s a difficult moment to try and puzzle out the meaning of what happened here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The familiar formula \u2014 that Jesus died for our sins \u2014 raises more questions than it answers. First, exactly how is Jesus\u2019 death connected with our forgiveness? Why does this terrible thing lead to that wonderful thing? And who is it that wants this sacrifice anyway?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some are content to say that God does. But surely God cannot need<\/em> such a sacrifice. Consider what the prophets have to say about the offerings and sacrifices made in the temple. In Isaiah, God says, \u201cWhat to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? I have had enough of burnt offerings\u2026 I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.\u201d And in Hosea: \u201cI desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.\u201d And on Ash Wednesday, we began Lent by reciting this line from Psalm 51: \u201cThe sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout his ministry, Jesus questioned the authority the temple claimed as the sole arbiter of God\u2019s grace. Every time he broke one of the rules by healing on the Sabbath or eating with someone considered unclean, he was saying that God\u2019s love embraces everyone. No one controls access to God\u2019s grace. God\u2019s love is bigger than you think it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But if God did not desire Jesus\u2019 death in this way, then who did? Why did this happen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n To answer that question, we have to fill in some of the story that\u2019s missing from the Palm Sunday liturgy. We began this morning by waving our palm branches in the air, celebrating Jesus\u2019 \u201cTriumphal Entry\u201d into Jerusalem. Jesus and his disciples have come from the countryside, where his ministry began, to celebrate Passover in the ancient city. Jesus knew the crowds would be there \u2014 he wanted to bring his message to as many people as possible, and to confront the religious authorities in the temple head on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mark\u2019s timeline for the whole week of Passover is surprisingly precise. Because of this, we can work out that Jesus would have entered Jerusalem on the Sunday before Passover. The Palm Sunday liturgy then skips over several days of that Passover week, and several chapters of Mark\u2019s Gospel, and the next thing we know, it is Thursday evening. Jesus\u2019 disciples are preparing the Passover meal, as Mark says, \u201con the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed.\u201d But it\u2019s what happens between Sunday and Thursday that helps explain why the authorities \u2014 both Jewish and Roman \u2014 were so keen to have Jesus killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s fill in some of the missing pieces. First of all, Jesus\u2019 so-called triumphal entry: although the crowds shouted Hosanna to greet him, it seems perfectly obvious that Jesus\u2019 procession was anything but triumphant. He chose to ride into town on a young colt, the foal of a donkey. If this is hard for you to picture, imagine a large and friendly dog, about three feet tall at the shoulder. Jesus has no armor but the cloaks of peasants, and he is lauded with palm branches and leaves instead of golden eagles on spears carried in procession by Roman soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You see, it was Rome that really loved a procession. Rome excelled at using a military parade as a demonstration of its dominance, to keep its subjugated peasants in awe. And Jesus knew that Pilate, the Roman Governor, made a point of riding from his capital city on the Mediterranean coast every Passover, to make sure these crowds of peasants in Jerusalem stayed in line. Picture Pilate on a magnificent war horse and surrounded by a legion of Roman soldiers in red and gold armor, marching in lockstep as they enter the city gates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus\u2019 little street parade, in contrast, with the donkey and the palm fronds, is an anti-imperial protest. He\u2019s mocking the empty pomp of the empire, questioning the brutality with which Rome ruled the peasant class and kept Judea impoverished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After taking on the empire, Jesus goes straight to the temple. The day after that peace demonstration, Jesus takes over the temple courtyard, the heart of the action during Passover week, and stages a teach-in. Remember Jesus overturning the tables of the money changers? Well, that\u2019s what he did on the Monday before Passover. He tells thinly veiled parables about the religious leaders which cast them in a very bad light. This goes on for several days. By the time Wednesday has come around, Jesus denounces them openly: \u201cBeware of the scribes,\u201d he says, \u201cwho like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces\u2026 They devour widows\u2019 houses and for the sake of appearances say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They devour widows\u2019 houses: that is Jesus\u2019 accusation against the religious authorities. They think they control access to God\u2019s grace by controlling the temple. The only way to get a little of that grace was to pay up: all those money changers were there to facilitate your purchase of the correct sacrificial animal, which, for the right price, the priests would offer to God on your behalf. The price was the same whether you were a poor widow or a rich merchant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the start of his ministry, Jesus\u2019 central message has been, \u201cThe Kingdom of God is at hand!\u201d And that is a dangerous message, for it challenges both the secular and the religious authorities. If God is King over all, then Caesar is not. And in Jesus\u2019 vision of God\u2019s Kingdom, God\u2019s love is not mediated by priests at the temple but is free and available to all. Is it any wonder that both the Jewish and the Roman leaders wanted Jesus dead?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nailing him to a cross was supposed to be the final solution. Get rid of the rabble-rouser, silence him, and his message would die with him. Crucifixion was the world\u2019s way of saying no to everything Jesus stood for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The world says no to Jesus \u2014 but God says yes. This is the good news that Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost: \u201cGod has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.\u201d It\u2019s the first attempt at explaining what happened on Good Friday. The world rejects Jesus\u2019 message and tries to silence him in death \u2014 but God vindicates Jesus and raises him to life. The horror and violence we inflict on an innocent man shows the depth of human evil and the ultimate defeat of human power, by revealing the moral bankruptcy of human beings left to our own devices. But God\u2019s love as revealed in Jesus is life itself: Love that can never be silenced, never be killed. Love that will restore our lost humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Out of this terrible violence, God has made an opening between heaven and earth. At the very end of the Passion narrative, at the moment of Jesus\u2019 death, Mark tells us that \u201cthe curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.\u201d This is the veil in the temple that separated the people from the power and love of God \u2014 the veil that contained God\u2019s presence, and behind which only the high priest was allowed to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This veil was torn asunder, and God\u2019s love is no longer contained in a temple. Jesus\u2019 redeeming work was to confront those who tried to keep God locked up. Jesus\u2019 life and teaching have shown us a new way. The scandal of the cross is that now, God\u2019s love can go anywhere and reach anyone. Even those who are different from us. Even those who don\u2019t deserve it. Even those who don\u2019t believe. God\u2019s love now permeates the whole universe and continually pulls us from death into life, with each breath we take, from the beginning of time until the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This sermon was written by the Rev. Jason Cox<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n How did this happen? How did Jesus\u2019 life of peace end in such a violent death? We stand at the edge of this moment, looking on in horror and confusion \u2014 just as Jesus\u2019 followers did on the day he was crucified. The violence we have seen is numbing: it robs us of the ability…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[36,43,52,3],"tags":[291],"class_list":["post-512331","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-week","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-palm-sunday-b"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":36,"label":"Holy Week"},{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":291,"label":"Palm Sunday B"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3477320,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512331\/revisions\/3477320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}