Matthew 27:11-56 The Good Old Days

This is Palm Sunday. Or, this is Passion Sunday. Or, this is Palm and Passion Sunday.

It doesn’t seem that long ago when this day announced Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and the world around us sort of stopped. Some of us may have been part of the tradition of going to worship every day during Holy Week. More of us remember the worship services of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and then Easter Sunday. Even the people who only came to church twice a year thought of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter as being one time instead of three separate times. Those that we knew of as the Christmas/Easter worshippers showed up for the great Easter parade.

One older lady once told me, “I loved Easter because that was when I got my new Sunday dress for the year.” She later told me of a day when she was little when she was naughty and had accidently fallen before worship that Easter and had torn her new dress. She said, “I had to wear that beautiful dress with the patch in the front for the rest of the year.”

In many ways those days were simpler, but those days also had their challenges. For instance, for this one woman, wearing that dress with the patch was not so much a punishment as it was the reality of not having enough money for another dress.

In her own wisdom, she told me one day, “I’m not sure that they were the good old days. I think that they were just the days I grew up in. I remember thinking that where we lived was everything until the Great War broke out. Then there was the flu epidemic and the Depression and the Second World War. After that we had a few good years until Korea came along. Then it was time for my boys to go to war. Then there was Vietnam, and after that I was old. People keep telling me that life was so much better then, but I’m not so sure. I like turning the faucet on and getting water. I like turning the light switch and having light without having to trim the lantern wicks. I am definitely too old to be trekking across the backyard at night in January for the privy. Life may have been simpler, but it was harder.”

 
Of course, life goes on. The clock continues to measure time, but it doesn’t tick so much anymore. Still, there are events that continue to hold us in time and in place. These events and the stories that accompany them continue to shape us and give our lives meaning. Today is one of those days.

Today we hear the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and the story of his trial and crucifixion. It is a stark story of great love, compassion, and dedication. Today, we don’t tell everything that happens, but we whet your appetite for hearing the details of our faith story during the rest of the week. Yes, it is stark. It is brutal at times, and yet there is an end that is worth waiting for.

This is the beginning of that great story that continues to open and unfold like spring flowers, in techno-color and sweet smelling perfume. It is the story that takes us into the empty times of death and rises up into spectacular visions of hope and promise. It is our story of joy, confusions, despair, and hope for a better future. It is our faith story that neither longs for a time that was, nor does it naively anticipate a so much better future. It is our story of life lived, day by day with the assurance of Christ’s loving and caring presence among us.

It is not a love and caring that does not know the reality of our pain, for this week we witness Christ’s crucifixion suffering for us. It is not a love and caring that is without temptation, for we remember Jesus’ wilderness time. It is not a love and caring that is without anxiety, for we will witness Christ’s prayer in the garden of Gethsemane asking to have the cup removed. It is not a love and caring that is given without alienation, for we will see his disciples fall asleep while Jesus prays, betray him, deny him, and, finally, abandon Jesus altogether at the cross. It is not a love and caring that comes without knowing limitation, for Jesus dies on the cross.

It is a time of mysteries. It is a time when we shout with the crowds, “Hosanna!”, that is, Lord save us, and then cringe as the crowd cries out to have Jesus crucified. It is in the mystery of this day that we can say that although Jesus is fully dead on the cross, yet today he lives. His love and caring does not end at the tomb, but it continues to sustain us as we live our lives each day. It is a time when we seriously ask ourselves, “Were the good old days really that good? Or, is it that good has come out of the old days and that goodness is what we long to claim and remember?

Whatever we call this day, Palm or Passion Sunday, it is the day the Lord has made for us. Let us rejoice and be glad.