The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday
April 1, 2007
Homily for the Anglican Usage Mass at
St. Clare Church, Scranton, PA
Luke 23:1-49
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
One of the digs made against President Bill Clinton when he occupied the Oval Office was that he made decisions based on opinion polls. It was said he’d scan the news reports for poll results, even hire people to conduct polls for him. And then based on the results, based on what the polls said was the most popular course of action, he would make his decision. I don’t know if that is true or if it’s just an example of calumny offered up by people who did not like the decisions he made. After all, I don’t have firsthand knowledge. I do know, however, that the Passion we heard today demonstrates clearly that the opinion of the masses is not always helpful in determining what one should do. Taken together with the lesson from the Gospel that we heard during the Liturgy of the Palms, we see that the masses can be quite fickle with their affections.
Our Mass today began with a recounting of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We heard of a multitude of disciples rejoicing and praising God for the great things that Jesus had done. Jesus received the adulation well, which indicates that the crowds spoke the truth when they cried out, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Luke 19:38). Moreover, the Pharisees asked Jesus to rebuke the disciples for saying these words, and Jesus refused. Thus, we can infer that the praise of the masses was accurate and welcome as Jesus made his way to the cross.
Problems arose, that is, the cross happened, when the masses changed their mind. The Passion we just heard details the manner by which the masses begged for Jesus to be crucified. Having feted him at the beginning of the week, the crowds were screaming for his blood at the end of the week. They proclaimed him king, yet five days later wanted their king dead. Jesus had not changed. He was the same man on Good Friday as he had been on Palm Sunday. He had committed no sin between the time he came into Jerusalem and the day he was crucified on Calvary, so it cannot be said that Jesus deserved the penalty the crowds desired to impose. What had changed was the crowd’s perception of Jesus. What had changed was how the crowds perceived their King.
The Truth, in other words, existed outside the perceptions of the masses. They perceived on Palm Sunday that Jesus was indeed a king, but we must understand that he was not a king because they said he was. The masses didn’t even understand what kind of king he was. What they said on Palm Sunday was an accurate reflection of the truth, and it was something that would have been true even if they did not recognize it. Five days later their perceptions had been completely altered, but the truth that existed outside of their minds had not changed. Jesus was still a king, even though they could no longer perceive him to be one. Jesus was still innocent, even if they insisted he was guilty of treason.
The change in the people’s perceptions only became a problem when their fickle affections crossed paths with Pontius Pilate. The masses did not care about what the truth was beyond what they perceived it to be. It did not matter that Jesus was innocent. It did not matter that he was their king. They wanted him dead, and that was the end of it. So it was with Pontius Pilate. It did not matter that Jesus was innocent. It did not matter that he was in fact the King of the Jews. The crowds wanted Jesus dead, so that was the end of it. Pilate was content to govern based upon the opinions of the masses, when he should have been willing to govern based only upon what is true, regardless of what the masses might believe.
Government divorced from truth is a disaster. One need only to read a history of Reconstruction in this country to see how far astray a nation can go when policy is based on the opinions of the masses rather than on the truth that sets us free. Blacks were disenfranchised in many parts of this country for one hundred years after the abolition of slavery, because it was what the majority wanted, or at least what the majority did not desire enough to change. One need only look at the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ to see how the innocent suffer when lives can be taken simply because it is what the people want, rather than for crimes they have actually committed. Our nation’s history of lynching innocent men is enough to make us question whether the masses ought to be trusted when it comes to deciding whether the innocent ought to live or die.
The innocent, of course, ought never be put to death. Jesus should never have been put to death. Therefore, I am not comforted when I read that a majority of Americans, based on polling, think that embryonic stem cell research is a good idea. Nor am I persuaded when I read that, based on polling, a majority of Americans think that abortion ought to be legal in at least some instances. Rather, I am appalled, because the opinions of the masses are willing to sacrifice the lives of the innocent because the truth of the matter is obscure or irrelevant to them, just as it was among the crowds who begged for Jesus’ death. I am appalled that so many of our purported leaders accede to these deaths of the innocent, because it is what the people want, just as it was for Pontius Pilate, who sentenced an innocent man to death, because it was the popular thing to do.
I am often asked what I think. I am inclined to answer that what I think is ultimately irrelevant if it is not grounded in the Truth. What I try to do when confronted with these questions, what each of us ought to do, is state clearly and convincingly what the Truth is. And the most important truth the world today must understand is made abundantly clear in the Passion of our Lord. And that truth is this: to kill the innocent is wrong, no matter what the people say, no matter what the people demand, no matter what the people want. If we as a nation, if we as a civilization, wish to avoid the fate of the Roman Empire we must understand what Pontius Pilate did not: the lives of the innocent must be protected, or the life of no one will be respected.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.