Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Sermons 

Title: "Trusting God, Not the Crowd"

Text: Matthew 21:1-11

between the Old Testament reading and the gospel text.

If we didn’t already know the story pretty well,

we would hardly guess that they might be

referring to the same person.

One, honored with the equivalent of a ticker-tape parade …

the other, a victim of torture and abuse.

One acclaimed with hosannas;

the other, spat upon.

One, the conquering hero of this day we call Palm Sunday;

the other, the tragic hero

of this day we also call Passion Sunday.

We might be tempted to demand,

"will the real Jesus Christ please stand up?!"

Except that both of them would.

Both of those portraits are true-to-life.

Both descriptions are accurate …

It just depends on your angle of vision.

One of the angles we might take is that of the crowd.

In many gospel stories,

"the crowd" is a main character in and of itself.

It seems to act almost with one mind.

Like the "chorus" in ancient Greek dramas.

In the Palm Sunday story,

we get the impression that everyone

was waving their palm branches and cheering "Hosanna!"

And not many days later,

there seems to be an equal degree of unanimity

in the shouts of "Crucify him!"

Fickle bunch, aren’t they?

You can see why the scriptures might seem confusing to us,

if they reflect the rapidly changing mind

of the crowd around Jesus.

But there’s also a different angle of vision

that we might want to try out.

We might want to try to see the whole episode

from God’s perspective.

Now I realize that’s not entirely humanly possible.

But I do think we can get an idea,

catch a glimpse.

Does God intend for Jesus to be a conquering king?

Did Jesus intend it for himself?

Does God intend for Jesus to be despised and rejected?

Did Jesus intend that fate for himself?

In every case, I think we have to say

the answer is no.

Though God may have suspected,

or even known in advance,

the way the crowds would react …

that’s not the same as saying that God

planned ahead of time, and designed

all the things that would happen.

At any rate, not surprisingly,

God’s view of things is a bit different from the crowd’s.

Listen again to some of Isaiah’s words

as he gives us the servant, describing both his task

and his relationship with God:

"The Lord God has given me

the tongue of a teacher" …

that is, not a king, not even a high priest,

but a teacher …

"that I may know how to sustain

the weary with a word."

And later,

"The Lord God helps me;

therefore I have not been disgraced …

and I know that I shall not be put to shame;

he who vindicates me is near."

"It is the Lord who helps me;

who will declare me guilty?"

God has commissioned this servant;

God has sent Jesus Christ,

not to be an earthly ruler,

but to teach and to sustain the weary.

And the whole Palm Sunday story is full of irony …

Jesus comes into town in all humility,

riding on a donkey, of all things, like any peasant;

yet the crowd insists on treating him …

well, like a superstar.

It’s as if you came into town pedaling on your bicycle,

but people thronged the road and cheered you

as if you were in a Hummer limo.

Or at least, as if you were Lance Armstrong on that bicycle!

In a way, Jesus and the crowd

aren’t even speaking the same language in this scene.

Jesus’ actions say, symbolically, here is who I am:

a teacher, humble, poor, very much like all of you.

But the actions of the crowd say, we want more.

We want you to be a ruler, a warrior,

a king in the tradition of David,

who will slay the giant we call Rome,

and set us free.

They’re talking past each other.

Which voice do we trust?

Of course, with a couple of thousand years’ hindsight,

it’s easy enough to day

which one we ought to trust.

But if we take a truthful look at our own lives,

right here and right now, with no benefit of hindsight,

we might see a slightly different pattern emerge.

When it comes to the ordering of our daily lives,

where is our trust usually found,

in God, or in the crowd?

In Christ’s teaching, or in conventional wisdom?

Who defines us?

We’ve seen how the crowd

tried to force Jesus into its own mold,

to meet its needs and demands.

Do we see ourselves with God’s eyes,

as beloved children,

given gifts and talents to share with each other?

Or do we see ourselves with the eyes of the crowd:

a consumer first and foremost,

a number on a social security card,

a rugged individual accountable to no one.

Do we value ourselves

because we are created in God’s image?

Or does our self-image waver

according to the attitudes and the opinions

of the world around us?

When it comes to managing our personal finances,

do we consult the Bible,

or the Wall Street Journal?

Who has more influence over how we live our lives:

God, or the crowd?

I saw an interesting segment a while back

in another church’s newsletter …

It answers the question, probably for all us,

even though it’s no fun to admit it.

"Isn’t it funny," it said,

"how easy it is to teach your children

to play ball,

but how difficult it is

to teach them to follow Christ?"

"Isn’t it funny …

how much of a sacrifice it seems

to spend an hour worshipping God,

but it’s easy to spend an hour watching TV."

"Isn’t it funny …

how easy it is to talk with a friend

on the phone for hours,

but how hard it is to talk with God

in prayer for two minutes?"

"Isn’t it funny …

how easy it is to read the daily newspaper,

but how tough it is

to read a chapter from the Bible every day?"

I might rephrase it a little:

Isn’t it a shame…

how easy it is to fall into the patterns

of the crowd around us,

and how tough we find it

to challenge that by trusting God instead?

Isn’t it a shame,

that the world has taught us its ways

so thoroughly and so completely,

that God’s ways seems strange,

and outrageous, and even foolish to us?

How wonderful it would be,

if we could learn, like Jesus,

to hear and to follow God’s still small voice

even amidst the clamor of the crowd.

What a different place the world would be

if we saw one another as God sees us,

instead of tempered by

the judgments and prejudices of the crowd.

How different our lives would look,

if we could trust God to tell us what we need,

and to give us what we need,

instead of assuming that we must have

what everyone else in the crowd has,

and grabbing for it when the chance comes.

As happened with Jesus,

it may seem at first that the crowd has won out.

The crowd got its way on that first Palm Sunday,

insisting on treating Jesus like some kind of celebrity.

And they got their way just a few days later,

when they turned on him in disappointment and anger

after he refused to live up to their expectations.

Similarly, the world that we live in today

has little understanding of, and little patience with,

those who insist on choosing a different path

than the one assigned to us by the majority culture.

Decide that spending time with your family

is a higher priority than climbing the corporate ladder?

Wonder if your employer feels the same way.

Give away more than certain percentage of your income to charity?

You can be sure that the I.R.S. will want to visit with you about that.

Or maybe even worse, you’ll trigger

the alternative minimum tax on yourself.

Drive a small car, or even a hybrid,

in order to be a better steward of natural resources?

Watch out for that Suburban tailgating you …

Spend your Sunday morning at church

instead of on the golf course?

Boy, are you weird.

Followers of Jesus Christ

ought to be out of step with the crowd.

If we fit in too well,

we are not taking our discipleship seriously enough

Chances are, none of us will ever be called upon

to die for our faith …

although, if you think that’s only ancient history,

let me talk to you about El Salvador …

But we are called upon to say no to the crowd and its excesses,

to its passion for power and for the latest trendy thing –

whether that’s a new gadget, or Jesus! –

We are called upon to trust God,

no matter how weird that call sometimes sounds,

no matter what seemingly scary place it might lead us.

Because in the end, it leads us to God.

The journey there will likely be full of adventures,

but the end of the journey is already determined.

It may lead through a cross,

or through lots of little crosses,

little acts of sacrifice,

but it leads to life that is more blessed and more amazing

than the crowd has ever imagined.

But we get to choose!

May we have the strength to say no

to the clamoring around us,

and journey only with God,

wherever the path lies.

Amen.

© 2005 Julie Adkins (e-mail: DrJAdkins@trinitypresdallas.org)