Palm Sunday 2019

Palm Sunday/ Which Crowd do I Belong to?

Crowd psychology is a hard thing to understand.  Sometimes what we believe about how a group is feeling can be wrong.

            The day was bright and clear on November 22, 1963.  President Kennedy and Jaqueline Kennedy landed at the airport in Dallas Texas.  John Kennedy was not necessarily popular in Texas, but the election was coming.  He decided to go to the state to see if he could mend fences. He wanted to see if he could change his opponents’ opinions. He was like any other politician looking for support. 

            He landed at the airport.  Outside the fence were all kinds of friendly people who waved and smiled.  Probably some of them shouted, “Four more years!” 

            The president moved to his motorcade to travel through Dallas to the place where he was going to make a speech.  In the front seat of his limousine were the governor of Texas John Connally and his wife Nellie. Crowds lined the roadway.  Somehow it seemed like everyone wanted to get a glimpse of the first couple.  At one-point Nellie Connally turned to the president in the back seat.  She said to him, “You cannot say Dallas does not love you.”  Perhaps that was one of the most ironic comments ever made because with those words a shot rang out.  In a matter of moments, the president was dead from an assassin’s bullet.

            The feelings of a crowd are not always feelings we can predict.  Nor are they feelings we can depend on. 

            As we reflect on the Palm Sunday readings, the obvious question we ask is how people who are shouting hosannas one moment can be shouting crucify him the next. But we should reflect on how we act in crowds, what our emotions are.  Most of us do not like to draw attention to ourselves in public.  If someone begins to clap at a speech, we all probably join in even if we are uncomfortable with the remarks made.  If someone starts a standing ovation at a concert or play, we will stand and applaud even if the program was a dud.  We know it takes courage not to simply join in with an audience’s reaction.

            We could say there were three crowds that are described in the passion of St. Luke.  And those three crowds can symbolize who we are as Christian believers.

            The first crowd are the people who gathered on the streets of Jerusalem to greet Jesus as he came to town.  Of course, there was religious fervor there.  We have all been part of such groups.  We might go to a retreat.  We might, as the saying goes, get high on Jesus for a few days. At those moments it is easy to believe because we have other believers around us who believe what we do, who have positive attitudes about Christianity.  We have a sense of well-being.  Trust, good will, happiness abounds.  We might be like Peter at such moments saying, Lord I will never deny you. 

            But then we might be part of a crowd like the one that gathered on Good Friday to see trial and crucifixion of Jesus, a group that is hostile.  We have all heard someone who starts criticizing Christians.  Maybe there is a discussion about a certain ethnic group which is racist or hateful.  Or, perhaps a person who is difficult or different is ridiculed in our presence.  We can start to add our comments, joining in the negativity.  We are in effect yelling, “Crucify them.”  “Crucify him.”  “Crucify her.”  We have all know it is hard to stand in opposition to slander.   We realize it is difficult to remain loyal to a person who everyone else is criticizing.   

            Finally, we have third crowd in Luke’s passion narrative who were the group of women who followed Jesus as he carried the cross.  This crowd is mentioned three times in the Gospel of Luke.  The women followed Jesus from Galilee. When we hear people say that everyone ran away from Jesus at his darkest hour, we can remember these nameless women because they did not. Jesus addresses them as he walks to Calvary.  The women are mentioned a second time as they stood at the foot of the cross weeping as he died.  Finally, they walk along with Jesus as is taken to his final resting place.  Never, did they desert Jesus even as everyone else was jeering him.

            On Palm Sunday, we are left to ponder which crowed we belong to?  Are we only with Jesus when religion feels good like the first crowd?  Do we renounce him when it uncomfortable or inconvenient like the second crowd?  Or, are we like the women in the third crowd?  Are we loyal to Jesus even when it costly to us?  We pray, this day, that we will have courage never to desert Jesus, the savior who always remains true to us.