There is a legend about an ancient village in Spain where the villagers learned that the king would pay a visit! In a thousand years, a king had never come to that village,so excitement grew and they decided to hold a big celebration...
But, it was a poor village, and there weren’t many resources so someone came up with an idea. Since many of the villagers made their own wines, the idea was for everyone in the village to bring a large cup of their best wine to the town square where it would be poured into a huge wine container...
The day before the king’s arrival, hundreds of people lined up to make their offering to the king. They climbed a small stairway, and poured their gift through a small opening at the top of the container. Finally, the container was full ! The King arrived, was escorted to the square, given a silver cup and was told to draw some wine, which represented the best the villagers had. He placed the cup under the tap on the container, turned the handle, and then drank the wine, but it was nothing more than water.
What had happened was that every villager had reasoned that with so much good wine going into the container, a little bit of water wouldn’t matter. It was a good idea as long as not everyone did it !
The problem was that everyone thought the same thing, and the king was greatly dishonoured...
Palm Sunday is a funny day. Jesus procession into Jerusalem is often called a triumphal entry and people celebrated by waving their palms - they appeared to be giving an enormous amount of honour to Jesus, unlike those villagers with their wine. It seemed Jesus was being greeted as a king with real excitement...
But then there’s another side to this because we know that a week later Jesus was put on the cross to die... Perhaps some of those same people who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem now turned their backs on him. Perhaps their expectations had not been met. Many others at the very least said nothing.... So was Jesus being really honoured on that day....??
Because true honour is surely shown when it is deep and lasting - praises were shouted, palms were waived but some somewhere were plotting, some were angry at this man riding into Jerusalem... And the praise for many was superficial...
It’s easy to follow the winning side, it’s easy to go with the crowd. It’s easy to look to where the power is. The people in Jerusalem desperately wanted a new king but they had no idea what that king would look like and they certainly couldn’t manage whose only crown was a crown of thorns placed mockingly on his head.
But following the winning side, following power or things like money or material things or being attracted to faith just through tradition are not lasting things. Again, they are superficial.
This week I was in a meeting and the subject came up of what is the DNA of our church, what is it that we have at the very heart of who we are and what we’re doing...
That’s a really good question to think about, and it’s important that we do, but it made me also wonder what is the DNA of the church as a whole and the answer must be that running through it, into it’s very depths must be a characteristic that offers a willingness, even a determination, to follow the way of Jesus, to follow the path of love and humility that led him to the cross and to pray even for those who were putting him there...
In the Lent study group this week we looked at the mystery of love and sacrifice and thought of just how irrational love might be at times, but we shouldn’t be surprised at our capacity to love. The bible tells us that ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8) and we are created in his image, in other words we are created to love... Yes, there will be things that get in the way of it for us, yes, there will be times when we don’t feel capable of loving someone, but God is love and calls us to love, right at the very heart of who we are...
On Palm Sunday we’re called again to think where we’d be in those crowds of people. Would we be waving our palms and shouting with the crowd, but silent or even accusatory a short time later when things don’t happen in the way we hoped ? Would we follow the conquering hero but abandon the suffering servant ?
Jesus came as that suffering servant but not to be an object of pity, certainly not a symbol of any weakness but a sign of the ultimate power and unbending love of God.
There have been times I’m pretty sure for all of us when we’ve gone with the crowds, when we’ve done the popular thing in terms of our faith... there may well have been times too when we’ve turned on God, when we feel he’s let us down, when things haven’t gone to plan, but the question we’re left with as we enter this Holy Week is where are we now and where are we going into the future ? Will we look for the conquering hero or the suffering servant ? Will we run with the crowd or follow the way of love and humility however hard it gets and will we look to a future that is lasting for a time or a future with God that is everlasting. AMEN
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