Rebel with a Cause: A Threatening Hosanna

Katniss Everdeen volunteering as tribute (image source).

March 29, 2015 - Palm Sunday

“Rebel with a Cause: A Threatening Hosanna”

John 12:9-19

9 When the great crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, 11 since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.

12 The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting,

“Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord—
    the King of Israel!”

14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written:

15 “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion.
Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

16 His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.

17 So the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to testify. 18 It was also because they heard that he had performed this sign that the crowd went to meet him. 19 The Pharisees then said to one another, “You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him!”

Sermon: “Rebel with a Cause: A Threatening Hosanna”

There is a powerful book and movie series that’s been sweeping through our country with ever-growing popularity.  It’s called The Hunger Games.  Have you heard of it?  I realize it sounds like the lunch rush on Sundays at Valentis, but it’s a very different story than that.  The Hunger Games is partly popular because of its unarguable star: Jennifer Lawrence, whose attitude, intensity and just plain awkwardness has seemed to charm everyone.  But the story itself is captivating and deeply, deeply disturbing.

The Hunger Games is the futuristic dystopia set in the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem.  In this country, the gap between the have’s and the have-not’s is extreme, as all of the wealth is gathered in The Capitol, while workers toil in other districts to furnish such a lavish lifestyle.  There was, at some point, a rebellion against the state, and so every year, The Capitol has what are called The Hunger Games, in which a male and female “tribute” child are taken from each district.  “Games” is a ridiculous name for it; what ensues is a battle to the death between these children, all televised, all in an effort to show the poor districts the cost of their rebellion, and to show everyone the power of The Capitol. 

The main protagonist is Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence, who comes from district 12, what is meant to be Appalachia (and was filmed in the mountains of NC).  When her younger sister is selected to fight in the Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers herself in her place, and into the Games she goes.  She resists the demand to kill her other competitors as much as possible.  The Capitol continues to make preserving life more and more difficult. 

Finally, she and another tribute, Peeta, emerge as the winners because, instead of killing one another, they are prepared to both die willingly.  It is a horrific story, and shows how the threat of death can often be used to pacify entire peoples.  Again and again, Katniss resists that system, though.  When touring as the “victors” of The Hunger Games (though clearly this is a game no one really wins) she visits the district of a dear friend, a young girl who was killed in the games.  

Instead of sticking to her Capitol-faithful script, she names the reality: this young girl died.  She shouldn’t have.  She will not be forgotten.  The crowd responds to this act of honesty by showing their support for her with a simple symbol – perhaps as symbolic as waving palm branches –, and the Capitol officers swoop in and take control, bringing even more death.  You see, for The Capitol, there is absolutely nothing as threatening as a hero who faces and overcomes death.  The world follows after a hero like that.

This story came to mind as I pondered our Palm Sunday narrative.  They are not named “The Capitol”, but the Pharisees and chief priests behave in the same sort of way.  They’ve heard of a hero among the Jews named Jesus who has been drawing lots of attention and, it makes them nervous.  Especially so when they hear that he raised a man – Lazarus – from the dead.  There is nothing more threatening than a hero who faces and overcomes death.  They planned to put Lazarus to death as well as Jesus because they thought killing was the key to maintaining power – it wasn’t.  We’ll talk more about that next Sunday.

The crowds that filled the streets of Jerusalem – the Capitol of power for political and religious leaders – did so because they had heard this Jesus had defeated death. 

As the Roman army advanced through the city bringing order from the West, this Jesus processed in from the East.  It was Passover, and the city was packed.  The Roman army was a mighty show of authority and control with one clear message: resistance is futile.  Might is king. 

Jesus put on a very different show: riding in on a humble and rather silly donkey, with palm branches instead of weapons, and children instead of armies surrounding him.  And Jesus too, proclaimed one clear message: a new king is in town, and the world will follow after him.

What good was a mighty army when walking among Jesus’ followers was a person he raised from the dead?  Jesus resisted the death-dealing ways of the empire, again and again.  He broke all of their rules – even the very rules of life and death itself.  His resistance did not take the form the Roman army and chief priests might have liked.  It was not a battle of weapons.  He did not fight back against that Westward expanding Roman army in Jerusalem with stones or sticks or hateful speech.  He defeated them with a single word, “Hosanna!”

It means, “Save us, we pray!”  The entirety of that mighty army, the fabric of that whole oppressive society, the structure of that entire legalistic religion, was brought to its knees all because of one word: “Hosanna.”  Save us.

Why is that hosanna so threatening?  I’m glad you asked.  Here’s why:  if that rapidly growing crowd was asking Jesus to save them, it means they weren’t expecting salvation anywhere else. 

They no longer trusted the State to save them from poverty, injustice and powerlessness, because it couldn’t.

They no longer trusted the religious leaders to save them from damnation, isolation and faithlessness, because they couldn’t.

Only Jesus could save that crowd.  And if salvation wasn’t something to be bought and sold with guilt and fear, then the state and the religious elite had nothing whatsoever to do with it.  That is why that one word so threatened the religious and political elite, enough that they would kill whoever it took to silence it. 

Save us.   In the story of The Hunger Games, those who were fortunate enough to live in the Capitol of wealth and power expected that privilege to save them.  They even made a massive sporting event out of the horrifying Hunger Games to pretend it was all necessary to “be saved” from disorder and chaos.  With their fancy parties and avid watching and blind eye to the violence of the system, those residents of The Capitol cried, “Hosanna: Save us” to the very thing that was destroying them.

I wonder who we cry Hosanna to.  Do we also ask salvation of what can never bring it?    Do we cry “save us” to the bottom of a glass of wine, or a robust bank account, or a politician with whom we agree?  Do we cry “save us” to bad habits, or deluding distractions, or the next popular self-help model?  Do we cry “save us” to our own independence, or a close friend, or even our religious practices? 

These things cannot bring us salvation.  The One whom we call Christ can.  It is not enough to proclaim that Jesus brings salvation.  We must also proclaim what does not bring salvation.  Like Katniss Everdeen resisting the empire that used poverty and violence as a tool for subjugation, we must cry out that we do not look to the powerful to save us, even when we count ourselves among the powerful. 

We must let go of our ego and need to be right enough to be different from the chief priests, and admit that institutional religion won’t bring salvation. 

Conservative or liberal political lobbying won’t bring salvation.  

Our deep-thinking minds and spiritually-engaged hearts won’t bring salvation. 

Jesus Christ will bring salvation.  He is the only one we who follow him cry Hosanna to.

But, remember there is a threat in that hosanna.  If Jesus can bring salvation through defeating death once and for all, then nothing is beyond his reach.  That salvation then seeps into all of those other places: into organized religion, into the political realm, into our minds and hearts, into communities plagued by injustice and communities benefitting from it.  That Hosanna threatens it all, not with weapons, and not with hateful speech, but with love that death can’t begin to defeat, or even understand. 

Who are we crying Hosanna to?  

And, just as importantly, who should we stop crying Hosanna to?  Amen.