Sermon for Palm Sunday

April 14, 2003

St. Luke's, Jamestown

by The Rev. Eric M. Williams

The Cost of Discipleship

Whenever I read the Passion Story

         and especially when I hear it read

                  in dramatic fashion on Palm Sunday,

                           I wonder:  “Did it have to be this way?”

I know of course how the story goes.

         But I always hope for a happy ending.

                  I guess I’ve been raised to expect the happy ending,

                           the last second rescue,

                                    the reprieve just before midnight.

The ugly brutality of the Passion story hits me every time.

         The betrayal, the torture, the mocking

                  and finally the agonizing death by crucifixion.

I imagine that was the question Jesus prayed about

         in the garden of Gethsemane.

                  Father, Dad, isn’t there any way out?

                           Can’t we go to plan B?

I am not one of those who believe that Jesus always knew

         exactly what was going to happen to him.

                  His humanity included being in the dark about the future.

                           But on that dark night he had a pretty good idea of what to expect.

I think he expected the worst

         as soon as he headed back to Jerusalem for the last time.

                  He knew the Jewish authorities, threatened by his popularity

                           and scandalized by his miracles and his teaching,

                                    had been plotting for months.

And now he was walking right into the jaws of the lion.

         You don’t have to be a prophet to see that kind of trouble coming.

                  And now the crisis was just about to break.

                           He had seen the guilty look on Judas’ face just before he left the table

                                    and he knew that his time was just about up.

And so he prayed, prayed so intensely according to Luke’s Gospel,

         that he sweated blood.

                  Prayed for this cup of death to be removed.

                           And then he said the words that he had taught his disciples to pray.

“Thy will be done.”

         “Not what I want, but what you want.”

The tragedy of Jesus’ death is not an uncommon tragedy in human terms.

         Millions of human beings have been executed.

                  Many have been tortured and brutalized.

                           We have seen the evidence in Iraq,

                                    where the grisly reminders of Saddam Hussein’s regime

                                             are scattered all over that sad broken country.

 What makes the Passion of Jesus Christ so remarkable

         is not its brutality and violence,

                  but the obedience of Jesus in the face of that brutality and death.

Jesus, by my estimation, may not have known every detail of the future,

         but he knew two things better than any human being before or since.

                  He knew exactly who he was and what he was called to be,

                           and he knew and trusted God his Father.

According to all four Gospel accounts

         in the three years that Jesus proclaimed the kingdom

                  he never wavered in his purpose,

                           and now, at the end, he was not about to falter.

There is a wonderful line in the second Harry Potter book.

         Harry suffers a crisis of identity and the headmaster reassures him.

                  “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are,

                           far more than our abilities.”[1]  

Jesus’ role as Messiah and Son of God was revealed

         not so much in his miracles and healings,

                  but in this supreme act of obedience and trust.

                           In his choice to carry on to the end.

It was this choice to obey and trust God that led him to the cross.

         And it was his choice to obey and trust God that led him out of the tomb as well,

                  that made him worthy of the victory of Easter,

                           worthy to be the Savior of the whole world.

The message of the Passion is that there can be no Easter

         without Good Friday;

                  no resurrection and life everlasting

                           without real suffering and real death.

That is as true for us as it was for Jesus.

         If any want to follow me, he said,

                  the road goes through Gethsemane and Golgotha;

                           there are no shortcuts.

Each one of us faces difficult choices in life,

         and it is the decisions we make that will define us.

                  Will we, like Jesus, choose the costly way of obedience?

                           Or will we turn aside from the path set before us?

Sometimes the choices are not so clear.

         Should we take the job that is offered

                  and move to a new place

                           or stay where we are?

Should we place our mother or father in a nursing home

         and face the anger and guilt

                  or risk disaster while they live alone?

At other times the choices are crystal clear.

         There are moments when we must choose the right course

                  even though it may cost us dearly.

Moments in our families when we must speak the painful truth

         about alcoholism or abuse

                  even though we may lose the relationship we prize the most.

Moments at work when dishonesty must be confronted

         even at the risk of losing one’s job.

                  And it would be nice to think that God always rewards those choices

                           by always making things come out right instantly.

                                    But that is not the case.

Sometimes the cost is real and painful.

         Yet we must take heart from the story of Jesus.

                  We must continue to make the best choices we can,

                           knowing that we will sometimes be wrong,

                                    and that sometimes being right will feel just as wrong.

We must strive, with prayer and courage,

         to follow Jesus in walking the walk,

                  not just saying but living the words,

                           “Thy will be done.”

Thy will be done, Lord, in my life and community.

         Thy will be done in Iraq and North Korea and this whole troubled world.

                  Thy will be done in moments when everything seems hopeless.

                           Thy will be done when I don’t know if I am right or wrong.

                                    Thy will be done today and tomorrow and every day to come.

410 North Main Street, Jamestown, New York 14701

Phone (716)483-6405 * Fax (716)483-6406 * stluke@madbbs.com