Sermon: April 2, 2023, Palm Sunday
Preacher: Rev Ryan Slifka
Scriptures: Matthew 21:1-11
Today I want to do something a little different. Today we’re going to host the scripture together as usual, but we’re going to look at it through the lens of a piece of art. A painting.
The artist is Peter Koenig.[i] Koenig‘s a sacred artist who strives to give visual expression to biblical texts. We’ve used some of his images. He has a unique style. Some his paintings are more impressionistic or experimental, while others take scripture scenes and drop them in to today’s contexts.
The one I want to talk about today is his painting of Palm Sunday. Very contemporary style. I like Jesus’ stylish summer suit. And yet you can see most of the core elements of the Biblical story:
1. Jesus is riding the donkey he had his disciples commandeer in fulfilment of the words spoken by the prophet Zechariah: "Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey."
2. There are the huge crowds of various ages cheering him on, waving, singing out the words of Psalm 118 “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD”!
3. The guys in front are rolling out a long, purple carpet for the donkey to follow. In the scripture they toss their coats and tree branches on the ground to give Jesus a royal welcome. Not exactly the same, but similar idea. I like the white greyhound in the bottom left corner. Not sure what that’s about.
Then, last but not least you have these nice palm trees way off in the background. Palms being an ancient Roman and near-Eastern symbol of victory. Again, thrown on the ground in Jesus’ path as a royal welcome.
Like I said, all the core elements of the original story, even when he deviates a bit by switching out something ancient for something modern.
There are a few artistic decisions here, though, some ways he’s interpreted the story that really stick out. Let’s take a look.
Jesus has his hands cupped over his entire face. Here maybe Jesus is playing peek-a-boo? Or maybe it’s like a surprise party—oh my goodness, a parade? Jesus says. You shouldn’t have!
Probably not. More likely he’s deeply displeased by this whole display. It’s so disturbing that he just can’t bear to look at it.
Now, this is the only painting like this that I know of. Not to say in other paintings Jesus is smirking or giving off a toothy smile or something. He’s usually either neutral or stoic-faced. Usually it’s a great celebration, and Jesus is take-it-or-leave-it at best. I mean, we had a great time belting out “Hosanna Loud Hosanna” and waving our palms welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem at the beginning of the service. Felt like a good thing. But here he’s got this look of complete disappointment at this whole palm parade. Mayeb Koenig should have called this “Face-Palm” Sunday instead. Cuz Jesus looks absolutely embarrassed. Way to ruin our fun.
Now, why would Koenig make a decision like this? Why would he portray Jesus in a way that seems to go against the grain of so many other depictions of the exact same story?
Let’s take a look at another detail that I think’s really important to figuring this out.
If you look closely at the crowd you’ll see everyone waving flags. National flags, from the USA to Algeria to Japan to South Africa. No Canada, sadly. But a lot are there.
Now, obviously, none of these countries existed circa 33 AD. Greece, China, Egypt, maybe. Kinda, sorta. But none of them had flags like this, and the scripture says that they’re waving branches. A bit of an odd choice.
But the facepalm and the flags are connected. As I said, Jesus is riding this donkey in to fulfil Zechariah’s prophecy regarding the Messiah. The one sent by God to set the world right. A lot of folks assumed that this would be a show of brute force on God’s part. That it was a military parade like any other, that the triumphant king would stride into town, toss out the Romans and take the throne. When a lot of folks saw Jesus parading in to town many of them waved their branches high and proud because thought that the kingdom would be restored. Maybe even for good. Koenig has the crowd waving flags because they, too, think Jesus has something to do with state interests. With national revival. They figure that Jesus is riding in carrying their flag. And that he’s gonna make God’s people great again.
What’s so wrong with that? I mean, love of country isn’t a bad thing. Patriotism isn’t a bad thing. A sense of affinity for one’s culture, one’s language, one geographic locale. It’s fashionable to mock them as primitive or out-of-fashion sentiments, but none of them are wrong in-of-themselves. After all, the earliest days the Jesus movement was a multi-racial, multi-ethnic community, with the Apostle Paul spending a lot of time navigating the cultural differences between Jews and Gentiles while making it clear neither had to give theirs up for the other.
But there is a real danger. It’s easy to confuse the kingdoms of this world with God and God’s kingdom.
There are countless examples of this at work in history. Crusades, conquistadors. Closer to home, the Apology to First Nations by the United Church of Canada issued in 1986 was the confession that we confused western ways and culture with the “height and breadth and the depth of the gospel of Christ.” We thought to be Christian and Canadian was exactly the same thing.
Even today there are plenty of Christians who, though sometimes well-meaning, greet Jesus waving the stars and stripes, confusing country and God’s kingdom. That flag’s there in the painting. And even now the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church have more or less endorsed the war in Ukraine as a holy war, having thrown their lot in with Vladimir Putin as a defender of the so-called Christian culture and civilization against the decadent west. You’ll notice the Russian flag’s in there, too.
Jesus covers his face it because it’s all a form of what the Bible calls idolatry. The worship of a false god over the true God. I’m reminded of the great humanitarian and historian Albert Schweitzer who said that the search for the historical Jesus was like looking down into a well and seeing our own reflection. All of us want a Jesus that’s more or less like us. A God that’s onboard with our own agendas, our dreams and our ambitions. Political or otherwise. In the first Palm Sunday parade they saw reflected in Jesus the image of their own desires for vengeance on their Roman occupiers and a restoration of national glory. We tend to peer down into that well and see our brand of politics. Just a glance at a Christian Facebook in response to the latest American mass shooting is exhibit A. Whose agenda might this serve? Whether we are conservative or progressive we look into the well and see an ally and ammunition and wave our flags accordingly.
It’s far too easy to confuse God’s ways with our own. Like that great Saint Bob Dylan of Minnesota once sang: “You don’t ask questions/When God's on your side.”[ii] After all, the same folks who cheered Jesus on Palm Sunday were the same ones who jeered as he was crucified on Good Friday. On Palm Sunday, Jesus disassociates himself from all of it with one big hearty facepalm. On Palm Sunday Jesus rejects all of our attempts to remake him in our image.
Now, there’s one last detail I want to look at in this painting.
Hey… what’s that lamp post those kids are hanging off of? Why, it’s a cross! In the painting it’s just background, like a lamp post. Everybody’s oblivious to the fact of it, even though it’s the final destination for Jesus’ parade march into the city. Here it’s more or less scenery.
As I said, on Palm Sunday Jesus rejects all of our agendas, all of our attempts to remake him in our image. But the presence of the cross in this painting points to Jesus’ agenda, which we often find hard to see. And Jesus’ agenda is to remake us in his image.
Jesus’ agenda is the inauguration of God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. His agenda is the forgiveness of sins and the salvation of the world. His agenda is the granting of eternal life and the healing of creation. This is an agenda that will ever arrive on the warhorse of worldly power, amassing secular strength, or even grabbing the reins of public policy. This agenda will only come about through his own suffering, his own humiliation. His own death for the sake of the world.
Jurgen Moltmann, a theologian who I’ve quoted a few times, once recounted his experience at the World Council of Churches. It was the 1950’s, at the height of the Cold War. During this meeting of the Council many were—rightly—concerned at the rise of Soviet and Chinese Communism, both of which were explicitly atheist and anti-Christian. Many gathered were proclaiming the struggle against communism as a cosmic battle against the devil, as a crusade against the enemies of God.
Moltmann recounts that one Bishop from Germany, which had devastated the world only a decade prior, stood in the heat of the debate. And once he had a moment to interject, he spoke an extremely unpopular truth:
“Christ is not against the communists,” he said. “Christ is not against the communists. He died for them.”
Jesus refuses all of our agendas, he rides to victory under no flag but the cross. It was an illustration, not only of Palm Sunday, this painting. But also of Jesus’ agenda: the radical grace of God in Jesus Christ on the cross. That he died not just for the lovely, the healthy, and the level-headed. But he died for sinners—his enemies. Our enemies. Even us. Thanks be to God.
Palm Sunday is his victory parade, no doubt, with that salvation destination of never-ending joy. But it’s one whose route running avoidably through the cross. And if we wanna be a part of that parade, if we wanna be in that number when the saints go marching in, then we need to learn how to die. We, too, need to die daily to our hatreds. We need to die to the easy mentality of mobs. We need to lay our palm fronds at his feet, give up on all our projects and agendas… We need to put down our flags, take up the cross in its place… and surrender to the truth, beauty, and goodness of our suffering Saviour.
Ride on, King Jesus. Ride on, and take us with you through suffering and shame to the great dawn of eternal life.
AMEN.
[i] Peter Koenig’s personal site https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/
[ii] Bob Dylan, “With God on Our Side,” The Times They Are a Changin,’ Columbia Records, 1964.