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Reflections on Palm Sunday

John 12:12-16
April 13, 2003

Everyone loves Palm Sunday. The image of Jesus riding into town on this cute little donkey all seems so peaceful and joyful. But brewing just under the surface is conflict. Jesus willingly enters a place where people are plotting to kill him.

As was typical of Jesus' ministry he intrudes into the lives of people, enraging those in power, both political and religious, unmasking the deceit and violence upon which the culture was built and speaking truth to power. Jesus was constantly invading people's settled arrangements and turning things upside down.

Crucifixion was the typical Roman way they dealt with Jews like Jesus who got too big for their britches and who were seen as a threat to the Roman Empire. Thousands of Jews were tortured this way. This is the fate that Jesus knowingly took upon himself. He could have bypassed Jerusalem, but this is not the kind of Savior he was.

This Palm Sunday Jesus not only comes to Jerusalem he comes to us wherever we are and whatever we are going through in our lives right now. God incarnate comes to stand beside us in the good and the bad times. And sometimes the bad times involve conflict.

This morning I want to talk a little bit about conflict. What do we observe from this gospel story about the way that Jesus viewed conflict?

First, we see that Jesus didn't avoid conflict.

Jesus didn't dodge the difficult path that was before him. He didn't hide out until it was safe. He moved forward with confidence into Jerusalem, right smack dab into a major controversy, which eventually led to his death. Jesus courageously faced conflict because he knew it was the road to our redemption.

Do we believe conflict can be redemptive? In my own experience, whether personal or professional, I've seen conflict to be a great classroom for learning new lessons. Sometimes Jesus, my Present Teacher, comes to me in ways I would rather not deal with, in ways I'd rather avoid because it is painful and causes me suffering. Because I simply have too many defenses against learning, Jesus sometimes introduces some unexpected difficulty that actually forces me to examine my life in a new light, laying aside old ways of thinking and being.

I read a little story this week that caused me to think about Jesus as an invasive teacher. A pastor who is struggling with how best to help someone in her congregation writes,

"You can't help someone until they want help." That's what I'd been told in all my training. As I recall, it was with particular reference to the treatment of alcoholics. 'You can't help until they seek help.'

Thus I felt a bit guilty when her husband and I conspired together physically to bundle her up, push her into the back seat of the car, and drive her to the alcohol treatment center for a month of residential therapy. I had to hold her down in the back seat while he drove.

Once we got there, and the wife was sedated and resting comfortably in her room, I nervously told the experienced counselor what I had learned in my training: 'You really can't help somebody until they want help.'

The tough therapist responded with, 'That's dumb. Who in the world would want this help? In the next month we are going to put her through hell. We will force her to look at her life, all that's ugly, to stare her addiction in the face. I would be worried about someone who would want that. If you ever get a person who actually wants to be helped, she doesn't need help! No, most of our people come here because they are forced. Somebody loves them enough to say; 'I can't be married to you any longer unless you get help. Or their boss says, 'Get help or I'm going to have to let you go.' That's how most change begins."

God loves us enough to want to bring redemptive change into the broken places of our lives. And he often does it through conflict. Jesus didn't avoid walking into difficult places and he will help us to do the same so that we can become all that God intended for us to be.

Second, Jesus shows us that true power lies in humility.

Things in Jerusalem were heating up. These people were looking for a powerful political leader that would free them from their oppression. But Jesus didn't show up with a trained army or a lawyer with a high-powered defense team ready to defend his honor.

Jesus entered Jerusalem, as a humble servant riding on a donkey willing to lay his life down for those he loved. Through his example he teaches us that humility is the most effective weapon in conflict.

Thirdly, the controversy that Jesus walked into that day only makes sense through the lens of the larger story. John records in his gospel that the disciples didn't really comprehend the redemptive purpose of God until much later. In the midst of most conflict it is hard to see the big picture, isn't it?

We are presently working through some challenging situations in our meeting. These involve changes in our youth ministry, what to do with the property next door, how to support Maro and Vanessa in Venezuela, to name a few.
There are divergent views on these issues and a sense of conflict bubbling under the surface. This happens in every church, by the way. These challenges may feel like an invasion into our comfort zone. Most of us really hate conflict. As I see it, we all have about four choices on how we are going to respond to these things.

1. We can leave the church because it feels messy… which relationships usually are. This is always the saddest of scenarios to me. This choice robs us of such rich growth as a community.

2. We can avoid dealing with the conflict and act like nothing is wrong. Which feels easier but in the long run an unhealthy choice.

3. We can gossip about things and allow a root of bitterness to spring up and quench all the good God wants to do in our meeting.

4. Or, we can, like Jesus, walk into the midst of the conflict with a spirit of humility and a willingness to learn the lessons God wants to teach us, thus allowing the conflict to be redemptive.

I have been thinking a lot these days about what it means to be a peacemaker. What a great opportunity for us to be peacemakers. I believe as we learn to work through conflict in a healthy way as a meeting there will be a ripple effect in our families, our marriages, and friendships. What we are made of really rises to the surface through the hard times. And remember our kids are watching us dialogue about these things. We all learned how to deal with conflict the way our parents did.

I believe there is a huge difference between being a peacekeeper and a peacemaker. Peacekeepers are the folks who avoid conflict at all cost. It's like a bedspread on a bed that is pulled smooth over rumpled sheets. As long as things appear smooth on the surface then they won't have to look honestly at what is underneath.

Being a peacemaker on the other hand involves hard work. Peacemakers are seekers of truth. They don't want to hide in the darkness but the want to be children of light. Peacemakers are willing to remove the bedspread and look at the rumpled sheets. And for each of us this involves looking honestly and humbly at our own rumpled sheets.

The newly formed committee for ministry and care will be meeting this afternoon to address some of the questions and concerns that have come up regarding changes in our youth ministry. I ask you to try to trust the peace process as we seek to grow towards a place of greater love and understanding.

The doctrine of sin teaches the unavoidable reality of evil. Frankly, most of us would rather avoid such knowledge. It threatens us to believe that our own evil is so pervasive. It contradicts the positive self-image of us as basically good people who are making progress. One of the most courageous things we can do as individuals is honestly and humbly face our own brokenness and need for God's redemptive love and forgiveness.

As your pastor, I want you to know that I am committed to being a peacemaker. I want you to know that I purpose to follow the example of Jesus and not avoid conflict but humbly seek truth in my own life and encourage this within the life of our meeting.

May God give us strength to do the challenging work of peacemaking in our church and beyond these walls.

Amen.