Attention, Please

Palm Sunday

John 12:12-19

I will be honest with you...I hate parades.  Ok, “hate” is too strong a word, maybe.  But I don’t like them.  [Ironically enough, I love processions, though I couldn’t tell you the difference.]  Nonetheless, a parade is exactly what went down on that first Day of Palms.  The people had done a background check.  Turns out that Jesus was not only a citizen and a Jew, but he was also a great-to-the-nth-power grandson of King David.

The people, the High Priests and the Romans smelled royal blood.

The parade was a bold statement: the Messiah, the King, the Royal Heir has come!

So they placed Jesus on a donkey (the equivalent of a white horse, or a black, bullet-proof Cadillac limousine), and they brought him to the royal city in style.

The exhilaration, the joy!  Hosanna!  Huzzah!  Hooray!

But isn’t a parade something that celebrates something that has already been done?  A victory, a historic event in the past, a commemoration?

Well, Jesus had just raised Lazarus.  The crowd went out to meet him because he had performed this sign: Death gave way to life (John 12:18).  MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

But there was more going on that day.  It was more than a parade, although the disciples did not understand that until Jesus was glorified (John 12:16).

This parade functioned differently.  It was a statement of hope...it was an act that anticipated political change.  It was meant to function as a turning point, a tipping point.

We call that a rally, a campaign stop, a march, a protest.

This Parade of Palms was also a March of the Masses.

We have all heard of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

In Rockford the last few days, our teachers were on strike.

Last week, Rockfordians (and people all around the country) donned hoodies instead of grabbing palms in order to raise awareness of the tragic killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida.

Recently, the Tea Party stood across from Edgebrook Center on Alpine Road, waving hands and signs.

The reasons for these demonstrations were different, but the purpose was the same: change.

Something has to give.

Demonstrations, whether with palms or signs or hoodies, are meant to raise awareness.  They are designed to get the attention of the people, to get the attention of those in power.  The point is to get those in power to say to one another: “You see, you can do nothing.  Look, the world has gone after him!” (John 12:19).

That was where the Judeans were at on that first Day of Palms.

And change was, indeed, about to come.  But it wasn’t going to be what they expected.

It wasn’t going to be revolution--at least not like they wanted.

Jesus wasn’t coming with a scythe to weed and prune and harvest.

Jesus wasn’t coming with a sword and army to overthrow Rome.

He was coming to sow seeds, to become the grain of wheat that would die in order to produce much fruit (John 12:24).

What a weird event.  The joy, the zeal, the hope...and yet the passion was only just beginning.

On this day, Jesus is lifted up onto the back of a donkey.  Our arms are lifted up to wave palm branches in the air.

It is a day of so much hope.  When we can taste the Kingdom of God coming near...when we can picture the kingdom of this world about to fall.

Approval ratings on Jesus are high.  The Jesus movement had the momentum.

Something is finally happening--a turn for the better.

Attention, please: everything is about to change.

Everything.