“I could never…”
“I never say, ‘Crucify him.’ I could never.”
This was the well-meaning whisper of a man to me after a Palm Sunday service years ago. On this day, in a participatory reading of the Passion narrative, church-goers assume the role of the crowd that sentenced Jesus to die after Pontius Pilate asked, “What then shall I do with the one you call the King of the Jews?” With one voice we cry aloud, “Crucify him!”
It’s intense. It’s unsettling. I, too, am tempted not to say it every year. But not to say it is to miss the whole point of the service.
On another Palm Sunday, a young boy who had carried the cross during the service told me, “I don’t know how I’m supposed to be feeling today.” In hindsight, I think he was much closer to getting it.
On Palm Sunday, we read the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry. We hear about how he rides on in majesty into Jerusalem as the crowds yell out, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” It’s majestic. It’s glorious. Taking on the role of the crowds here too, we welcome our savior and king.
Immediately following, we read the Passion. The very same crowds who welcomed the king are now, just days later, condemning him to die. How are we supposed to feel?
One minute people are praising, the next they’re betraying. How true to lived reality is that: to my experience of those closest to me, to my knowledge of myself?
The liturgy prevents us from doing what, unfortunately, many Christians have done for so long. We cannot blame the Jews for killing Jesus. Neither can we blame the Romans. The message of this service is the reality that, in our sin, you and I put him there.
But that’s not all! Much more so, the word of this text for suffering sinners like you and me is that Christ died for the very people who put him there: for Jews and Romans; betrayers and fake friends.
We all love the passage, “Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn. 15:13), but the radical message of Palm Sunday is that Christ lays down his life for his enemies — for the ones who say “Crucify him!” And in dying for them he makes them real friends.
Grace and Peace,
Ben
