Palm Sunday, 2003
Matthew 27:1-54

Palm Sunday begins with a donkey that had never been mounted. It was tied to a post on a dusty Jerusalem street. Several disciples of Jesus went and led the colt to the Mount of Olives where Jesus was. They then placed their garments upon the animal. Jesus immediately mounted the donkey and calmly rode toward Jerusalem.

Numerous pilgrims, possibly hundreds of thousands, had journeyed to the City of David for the Feast of Passover. The Passover commemorated Israel's deliverance from Egyptian bondage. Reflecting upon the present enslavement under mighty Rome, the Jews recalled the promise of Zechariah: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth" (Zechariah 9:9-10).

This prophecy promised that a Messiah King would arrive on the scene to establish His Kingdom; a Kingdom that would extend across the face of the earth. That Messiah would come riding on a donkey.

Just then, rounding a bend in the road, some of them caught sight of a man upon a donkey. A few of them had seen Him in the northern region of Galilee. Would He now restore the rule of David? Urged on by tremendous emotion they spread upon the road their robes and also tender green shoots cut in the nearby fields. They marched along, waving palm branches. The procession grew larger and larger. Then they began to acclaim the long awaited king: "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" (Mark 11:9-10)

In that vibrant throng were His closest companions, Peter and John and James and Judas. For some weeks now they had been convinced that Jesus was the predicted Messiah and would shortly deliver Israel from the domination of Rome. This surely was the moment! Power must now be seized! Maybe Jesus had finally agreed to use His charisma and miracles to overthrow the vile Roman soldiers. Had He not mounted the messianic colt? Was He not accepting the cheers of the nationalists? Hitherto He had consistently rejected any suggestion of setting up a Hebrew utopia. At last, He had yielded! At last, He was consenting to take the throne!

But there was a major obstacle in the way -- Pontius Pilate. After all he was the Hegemon, or governor of Judea. In A.D. 26 the Emperor Tiberius had appointed Pilate governor in order to keep order. Though they were Gentiles who resided 60 miles away in the Mediterranean port city of Caesarea, the Roman governors of Judea always made it a point to attend the Jewish feasts. Why? Not to have fun, rather, they expected protests of some sort to erupt, and they wanted to be personally present to put them down.

Something disappointing transpired once Jesus arrived in Jerusalem. No coup d'etat materialized. Yes, Jesus was the King of kings and Lord over all the earth, but His kingdom would conquer through worship and evangelism, not through revolution. The Savior always insisted on that point. Once this truth settled in, the cheering, palm-waving crowds became dejected. The Jewish leaders saw their chance. They would arrest Jesus, turn Him in, and charge Him with revolution and revolt. Their motivation was envy.

And it was to Pontius Pilate that the Jewish leaders brought Jesus. Matthew 27:11 says, "Now Jesus stood before the governor. And the governor asked Him, saying, "Are You the King of the Jews? Jesus said to him, 'It is as you say.' And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing." The Jewish leaders were filing charges against Jesus of insurrection, that He had declared Himself a king. It is interesting to compare the different indictments hurled at Jesus. The cheering crowds who had been waving palm branches upon His entrance became disillusioned because He refused to launch His kingdom via bloody warfare. On the other hand the Jewish leaders incriminate Jesus before Pilate of intending to lead a violent takeover. The critics of Christ cancel out each other. Some hate Him for His peacefulness, others condemn Him for his militancy.

This penchant of unbelievers to contradict each other when attacking the Church continues to this day. Before G.K. Chesterton had converted to Christianity he detected some glaring contradictions in the arguments of the agnostics and atheists. In his classic book called Orthodoxy he writes, "As I read and re-read all the non-Christian or anti-Christian accounts of the faith, from Huxley to Bradlaugh, a slow and awful impression grew gradually but graphically upon my mind ­ the impression that Christianity must be a most extraordinary thing. For not only (as I understood) had Christianity the most flaming vices, but it had apparently a mystical talent for combining vices which seem inconsistent with each other. It was attacked on all sides and for all contradictory reasons. No sooner had one rationalist demonstrated that it was too far to the east than another demonstrated with equal clearness that it was much too far to the west In case any reader has not come across the thing I mean, I will give such instances as I remember at random of this self-contradiction in the skeptical attack. I give four of five of them; there are fifty more."

Let's review one from the chapter called "The Paradoxes of Christianity." It is so good it is worth quoting at length. Chesterton writes, "I felt that a strong case against Christianity lay in the charge that there is something timid, monkish, and unmanly about all that is called 'Christian,' especially in its attitude towards resistance and fighting The Gospel paradox about the other cheek, the fact that priests never fought, a hundred things made plausible the accusation that Christianity was an attempt to make a man too like a sheep. I read it and believed it, and if I had read nothing different, I should have gone on believing it. But I read something very different. I turned the next page in my agnostic manual, and my brain turned upside down. Now I found that I was to hate Christianity not for fighting too little, but for fighting too much. Christianity, it seemed, was the mother of wars. Christianity had deluged the world with blood. The very people who reproached Christianity with the meekness and non-resistance of the monasteries were the very people who reproached it also with the violence and valor of the Crusades. The Quakers (we were told) were the only characteristic Christians; and yet the massacres of Cromwell and Alva were characteristic Christian crimes. What could it all mean? What was this Christianity which always forbade war and always produced wars? What could be the nature of the thing which one could abuse first because it would not fight, and second because it was always fighting? In what world of riddles was born this monstrous murder and this monstrous meekness? The shape of Christianity grew a queerer shape every instant." Chesterton concluded that if Christianity was a paradox to the unsaved it was due to their foolish behavior and thinking. They were the ones who put things backwards, not the Church.

Jesus was sinless, and His enemies were depraved sinners. They desperately attempted to find a crime that would stick. If they couldn't crucify Him for being too peaceful, they would crucify Him for being too violent. In response Jesus allowed Himself to be led like a sheep to the slaughter, for this was the will of His Father. These were the circumstances as Jesus faced Pilate on that tumultuous and explosive day. Pilate begins the proceedings by putting Jesus on the judgment seat. The event became a mockery. However, Pilate was obviously impressed by the noble bearing, self-control, and courage of Jesus (Mt. 27:22-23). He declared, "I find no basis for a charge against this man" (Luke 23:14, 22). Moreover, the conviction of Pilate about the innocence of Jesus was reinforced by the message his wife sent him. Pilate's wife warned him, "Don't have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him" (Mt. 27:19). Shakespeare borrowed from the details of Christ's passion. We see the dream of Pilate's wife repeated in Julius Caesar . On the eve of Caesar's assassination, his wife Calpurnia has three bad dreams. Caesar gets up out of bed to complain to his servant, "Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace tonight. Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out 'Help! They murder Caesar!' Who's within?"

Pilate attempts to avoid coming down on one side or the other. He wanted to elude sentencing Jesus, and at the same time avoid clearing him. How could he contrive to reconcile these irreconcilables? How does one satisfy a bloodthirsty crowd when the blood of the man they want is innocent? We watch Pilate squirm and wriggle as he attempts to release Jesus and at the same time pacify the Jews.

This business with Barabbas may have been a way for Pilate to set Jesus free. "Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished" (Mt. 27:15). For some reason, the governor granted amnesty to one prisoner during Passover. Maybe Pilate hoped the people would select Jesus. However the people thwarted the plan by demanding instead that Pilate's pardon be granted to the murderous thief called Barabbas.

Finally, it dawned on Pilate just how intensely the people wanted to kill Jesus. He easily could have protected the Lord; he had plenty of well-armed soldiers, but why bother? Why upset everybody? Pleasing the mob was the easiest solution. So Pilate decided he would give the command to scourge and crucify Jesus. Before doing that he would demonstrate his innocence. He took water, and washed his hands before the crowd, saying "I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it." (Mt. 27:24). Would this cleanse him legally and morally? The Ethiopian Orthodox Church accepted the hand-washing gimmick. They made Pilate a saint. On June 25, Pilate and his wife Procla are to be venerated. Why? He washed his hands. Shakespeare interpreted the passage more accurately than the Ethiopian Church. He borrowed from the Bible for his play called Macbeth. If you remember, Lady Macbeth had organized the plot to assassinate the King because her husband was next in line to the throne. She and Macbeth stabbed the King in his sleep. Once the deed was accomplished, the guilt came back to haunt her. Each night in her sleep she got up to wash her hands in a basin. Rubbing them together she muttered, "Out, damned spot! Out, I say What, will these hands never be clean?" Then raising her hand to her nose, "The smell of the blood is still there. All the perfumes of Arabia cannot sweeten this little hand. [She sighs deeply] Oh, oh, oh!" [Act five, Scene 1] In the same way it was ludicrous of Pilate to think he could absolve his soul of blood guilt by washing his hands of the murder of Jesus.

Thus, Jesus suffered and was crucified under Pontius Pilate. Our creeds state the historical fact. Pontius Pilate is as much to blame for the death of Jesus as anyone. What can we learn from Pilate? We discover how despicable cowardice can be. With a little display of courage Pilate could have saved a just man. Pilate was a coward, and cowardice always leads to misery. No doubt he was a wretched and unhappy man. As a Christian, you and I are called to a life of courage. If you know the right course of action to take, do it, say it, stand up. Don't let cowardice hold you back!

Pilate's example teaches us furthermore the folly of shifting blame to others. Do you wash your hands of responsibility for the sins you commit? Do you make excuses and strive to blame someone or something else? This is a perennial temptation. Like Pilate, instead of accepting responsibility for your sinful actions, you rationalize it. Instead of acknowledging sin and confessing it, people search for excuses. One blames his bad genetics for drunkenness. Another blames his gluttony on a hormonal imbalance. Another blames his parents for a bad temper. Another blames his upbringing for theft and lying. The biblical notion of sin and guilt and personal responsibility is being replaced by therapeutic and psychological explanations that leave the inner self spiritually empty. The guilt remains.

Only Christianity has the answer for sin. The answer to sin is not to elude it, but face it head on. The Church calls you to humble yourself, admit sin, confess it, and by God's grace change bad habits, strive for holiness, and live for Christ in complete obedience to His holy Word. As you moan under the weight of your sin and guilt, know and be confident that there is forgiveness for sin. Flee to the cross of Christ for forgiveness. That is the place of mercy and grace. Come now to the Holy Communion. Thank the Lord Jesus for taking upon Himself your sins, so that you might have salvation.

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