Shalom Mennonite Church
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Palm/Passion Sunday
Texts: Mark 11 & Mark 15
Eric Massanari
“strange royalty”
We don't have to look far
in this world to see what happens
when the power of kings is threatened—
or the power of rulers of any kind,
kings or queens, presidents or prime ministers,
CEOs, five-star generals or archbishops.
The “kings” of this world
often wield their power
from well-defined, and well-defended distances.
The king is the elevated other,
enthroned above the ordinary.
The king is beneficent to those who are loyal
and unyielding to those who are defiant.
If Jesus of Nazareth is a king,
then he is a very strange one.
The kings of this world
ascend to their thrones.
Jesus descends to his death.
The kings of this world
are well satisfied and wealthy.
Jesus journeys a way of emptiness.
The kings of this world
fight to maintain their control.
Jesus yields and surrenders.
The kings of this world
stand apart from their subjects.
Jesus willingly companions all.
As far as we know,
“king” is a title that Jesus never
claimed directly for himself.
However, as he enters Jerusalem,
we cannot miss the fact
that he is very much playing
with the images of royalty:
entering the royal city of David
riding on the back of a donkey,
as people line the roadways
and shout their accolades.
Perhaps it is a bit of theatrical protest
on Jesus' part; a moment of ironic playfulness.
However, for the crowds
who lay down cloaks on the road
and shout, “Hosanna!”
there is no irony in the moment.
For them, for this moment,
this is the hoped for heir of David,
their messiah,
their lord,
their deliverer.
Much will happen in the coming days
and turn the tide of their favor.
No doubt many of them will join
the crowds that eventually
shout out for Jesus' crucifixion,
once it becomes clear that this is
not the sort of king they wanted.
The irony of Jesus as king
is heard in the mocking words
of the soldiers at the crucifixion:
“Hail, King of the Jews!”
It becomes the inscription
beneath his feet:
INRI.
In Latin:
Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum.
“Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”
What is this strange royalty?
Even here, in this final moment
there is no word of vengeance,
no threat or judgment,
no resentment or reproach.
There is, instead, a moment
of supreme abandonment
and anguish.
Jesus enters it in the way
he has all other moments:
with complete openness
of heart and being.
In this way,
a great emptying happens in this moment,
the cross is emptied
of any power it may have had
to threaten, intimidate
or humiliate.
Here the worldly power of kings and rulers
is disarmed and rendered impotent.
For what has the power
to control or intimidate
a person (or a people)
willing to fully accept anything that comes,
with utter openness and love?
Bodies can be tortured and killed,
but never souls.
Egos can be battered and bruised,
but not the image of God we carry.
And it is the majesty
of this image of God
that Jesus reveals on the cross.
Kings of the world do not behave like this.
What is this strange royalty?
Ronald Rohlheiser, a contemporary
writer on Christian spirituality reflects on the crucifixion:
In the crucifixion, Jesus was humiliated, shamed, brutalized. That pain stretched his heart to a great depth. But that new space did not fill in with bitterness and anger. It filled in instead with a depth of empathy and forgiveness that we have yet to fully understand.
It seems our understanding comes
through making such journeys ourselves.
What experiences of life have deepened you?
The experiences that deepen us most
and make our living more soul-full
are typically not the ones that
affirm us and leave us feeling great.
The experiences that deepen us most
are often the ones that lay us bare,
leave us vulnerable,
like moments of loss or wounding.*
They may be the moments when
we know humiliation or shame,
perhaps for the way they reveal
some weakness or inadequacy we may have
that we don't want others to see.
If you've ever lived as part
of a family then you have probably
known many such experiences!
To live a part of a church
or some other human community
for any length of time means
you will likely know such experiences!
These experiences inevitably change us,
and we have choice as to what sort
of change that will be.
We can choose to grow bitter, angry and resentful.
We can choose to take out our pain
on ourselves or on others.
Or, we might choose, with God's help,
to experience such moments
with a great openness of being.
And in doing so we learn we can survive them
and be deepened by them.
By engaging these experiences in the
way that Jesus himself did,
with openness and love,
there can come a deepening of our being;
we grow more alive
than we were before...
eventually...eventually.
It is a way that more often than not
requires great patience.
Jesus once said:
“I came that they may have life,
and have it abundantly” (John 10:10)
If Jesus can be called a king,
then the royal way of abundant life
that he calls his followers to
is something very different
than the life of kings in this world.
The true royalty,
the true majesty
that dwells in Jesus
dwells in us.
It is the richness and power
of God's own presence and love.
But it must be chosen.
We must choose it
in whatever circumstances
we might find ourselves in.
We must make the choice
to live from that deep place of love
even when we have to travel
pathways that are shadowed
by great difficulty and death.
This is the way of abundant life.
May you allow yourself
to be deepened by life,
to be loved by God,
and to share with others
the majesty of the love
God has given you to share with the world. Amen.
* I am grateful to Ronald Rolheiser for this question, "What makes you deeper?" and this observation that often it is the challenging, troubling, even humiliating experiences of life that may deepen us most for they way they unseat the control of our egoic self.
