Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kansas City, MO

Great Expectations

April 4, 2004 (The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday)

The Liturgy of the Palms

The Liturgy of the Word

- Isaiah 45:21-25
- Psalm 22:1-11
- Philippians 2:5-11
- Luke 22:39-23:56

This is a day of contrasts. We began this service in rejoicing, welcoming our Savior into Jerusalem with palms and praise: Hosanna in the highest! All glory, laud and honor! On this day, as Jesus entered Jerusalem he was proclaimed King of kings; people laid their garments on the ground for his donkey to step on; they waved palms and paid him homage. Yes, we began this service with great expectations. On that day that Jesus rode the colt into Jerusalem, his followers were able to hope that finally, Jesus was going to take charge, to proclaim his rule, to mobilize his followers and to be the great warrior king that they were expecting.

And then. And then. How far we have fallen and how quickly we have sunk. The words of Luke, read dramatically by our friends in Christ, have reminded us of the reality and pain of Christ's brutal death. And who were those people shouting to crucify him? I heard all of us crying out for his crucifixion, for his death, and for the release of the prisoner Barrabas. I heard you and I heard myself calling for his painful and heartrending death..

Oh, but you say, that was just the script. Those were the words we were asked to read, to remind us that there were those who deserted Jesus, who were afraid for their own lives, who got caught up in crowd mentality, who were tired of his nonviolent approach to solving problems. That was then; this is now. That was then; this is then.

Susanna Wesley, the mother of John and Charles Wesley, once said, "There are two things to do about the Gospel -- believe it and behave it." Neither is easy -- belief or behavior. I'm sure you have wondered, as I have, what you would have believed and how you would have behaved that week if you had been a follower of Jesus in Jerusalem. Would we have been disappointed? Angry? Disgusted? Hostile? Would we have turned away? Or hurled insults?

And have you ever thought about what a different world this would be today if Jesus had succumbed to the wishes of the crowd? For he could have, you know. For those of us who have seen "The Passion of the Christ," we ask, given the suffering he endured, why he didn't DO something. He could have mobilized the troops and become a great king, like David, as were some of the expectations. He could have waged great war, encouraged bloody battles.. He could, at least, have softened the brutality inflicted on him. But Jesus had already resisted the temptations of the world; he knew the will of the father; and he was willing to drink the bitter cup.

And because he did, he conquered death and proved his true Messiahship. And in allowing the suffering, he surpassed the expectations of those who were desperately disappointed in him that week in Jerusalem.

And here's where expectations enter again. Each one of us has our own expectations of Jesus. What do we expect of him? We expect him to be in our church, but maybe not in some of these other "weird" denominations. We expect him to be present in our heterosexual unions, but not in a union of gay Christians. We expect him to direct our leaders in the path we believe is right. We expect him to be what we want him to be.

When we hear of the pain, the suffering, the sadness in the world, we ask, "Where is Jesus in all this?" When we encounter personal conflict and trouble, we call out to Jesus, "Change this situation! Make it better! Where are you, Jesus, when I need you?"

The truth is, we expect Jesus to make things work out the way we want them to. Just as the Jews expected Jesus to be a king in the worldly sense, we too often expect Jesus to rule our problems in the way we expect, to take control of the situation. But Jesus is not that kind of king. Jesus is a king who rides humbly into Jerusalem on a donkey -- not a worldly super-power king who is interested only in making things right the way we expect, but a king who recognizes the pain, the suffering of this existence that we are living. People get cancer, and bombs explode, and each week we hear of innocent young soldiers dying in Iraq, and we don't know why. And Jesus comes riding on a humble donkey, the comforting, encouraging, suffering Presence in our lives.

As we enter this Holy Week, walking the way of the cross with Jesus, we remember how wrong the expectations of his followers were and how, initially, they were disappointed. We, too, have our own great expectations of Jesus. I remember a poem by the Kansas poet William Stafford, who, upon thinking of those he loved who have died, commented, "Even far things are real." When Jesus does not meet our expectations, when he seems very far away, he is, nevertheless real. And because he was a sufferer himself, we can link our hearts and souls to him. And it is because of his willingness to be a martyr for our sake that we can go forward toward Easter with our own great expectations. And we will not be disappointed.