Scripture reading: Psalm 118:19-29.

Sermon text: Mark 11:1-11.

This week, I began rereading St. Augustine’s The City of God. In this work, St. Augustine responded to those who blamed the Christians for Rome’s fall to Alaric and the Visigoths in A.D. 410. Many Romans declared that the city’s abandonment of the old state religion had led to Rome’s defeat. St. Augustine soundly refuted the accusation by reminding Romans of their numerous defeats and historical embarrassments under the old gods of the state religion. The City of God marks the first time in Christian writings that a Church official stated a clear distinction between the Kingdom of God on this earth and the kingdoms of the world. The kingdoms of the world — including Rome — would one day perish. The Kingdom of God, on the other hand, will continue for all eternity, marching forward in victory until its culmination in Jesus’ righteous eternal reign over a new heaven and a new earth.

Today, Christians around the world celebrate Palm Sunday, the day when our King, Jesus Christ, entered the holy city of Jerusalem the week of His crucifixion. On this day in A.D. 33, Jesus rode into Jerusalem in fulfillment of the prophet Zechariah’s prophecy (cf. Zechariah 9:9). Zechariah had prophesied the arrival of the Messiah on a “colt, the foal of a donkey” to establish His reign over the earth.

By the time of Jesus’ arrival, the Jews really needed a Messiah to deliver them. The Romans ruled Judea and the rest of the Mediterranean world with the iron fist of their legions, even occupying the holy city itself. The Jews had long expected an earthly Messiah to deliver them from Roman oppression and elevate them over all other peoples on the earth. Most Jews knew that the prophecies of Daniel had precisely predicted the date of this occurrence. Now, when news of Jesus’ arrival at Jerusalem raced through the city, the expectations seemed on the cusp of fulfillment.

The Jews knew their prophecy, but they misunderstood the message. In uncertain times, or in times of certain suffering, people start grasping at anything that promises deliverance. Jesus’ arrival at Jerusalem seemed the ultimate recognition of God’s deliverance from the Jews’ oppressors. When we read this passage from St. Mark’s Gospel, however, we see that the Jews underestimated their God and His Son. The Visigoths of the fifth century A.D. disproved the fallacy of Rome’s invincibility. Jesus’ inauguration of His kingdom would prove the undoing of humanity’s greatest enemies, ones that held even the mighty Romans in their grasp: Death and sin. As we begin our celebration of the events leading to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, we must understand the true meaning of the Kingdom of God and its ultimate goal.

When we examine the Gospels, we see that Jesus’ entire ministry pointed to this week. Of the 16 chapters of the Gospel of St. Mark, most of the last 8 chapters — nearly half the book — describe Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem and the events leading to His crucifixion upon His arrival.

This shouldn’t surprise us if we read these 8 chapters in the context of the first 8. Opposition to Jesus began rather early in His ministry as He revealed His true identity as the Son of God. In Mark 2, Jesus forgave the sins of the paralytic lowered through the roof for Him to heal, leading the Pharisees to charge Him with blasphemy.  Later in the same chapter, the Pharisees confronted Jesus for His disciples’ failure to fast. For the rest of the first 8 chapters, Jesus’ confrontations with the Pharisees over their interpretations of the Law of Moses would grow more intense, even as the priests in Jerusalem watched with alarm as the crowds followed Him toward Jerusalem.

Why the opposition to their Messiah? Remember that earthly kingdoms always seek to maintain the status quo; those with power will always work to maintain that power and extend it until it meets invincible opposition. The priests and religious authorities in Jerusalem had reached an accommodation with the Romans that allowed them to exercise authority over the Temple and its rituals in return for begrudging acceptance of Roman rule. St. John would record that the priests feared Jesus’ popularity would lead the crowds to declare Him their ruler, inciting the Romans to crush their nation and destroy the Temple that served as the source of their power and wealth.

Jesus Himself rarely encouraged the crowds to stay with Him. St. John recorded numerous times that just when His popularity threatened to tip the crowds into open revolt against the Romans, Jesus would say something offensive that led most of His followers to abandon Him. St. John recorded one such instance in chapter 6 of His Gospel, immediately following the feeding of the 5,000.

Lest we think too little of the crowds, we must remember that Jesus met their physical needs as well as their spiritual needs. In a time where most workers worked each day for the meals of the next, hunger visited most people on a regular basis. In a time where doctors knew little about diseases and blamed many maladies on the anger of the gods, Jesus’ healing gave concrete hope to those who suffered.

We’re no different today. If you turn on your TV, or go to your Web browser (in a different tab or window, of course), you can find hundreds of “ministries” today promising you a Jesus who will give you lots of money, make you popular, and ease your suffering. The so-called “prosperity gospel” has always drawn huge followings; after all, everyone wants to follow a God who will give us everything we want and ask for little or nothing in return. The popularity of these shows and sites proves how little people have changed.

Jesus didn’t heal people to make them happy; He healed to prove His presence among the Jews, that the power of God had come among His people again. Jesus didn’t raise people from the dead to keep them from dying; He raised people from the dead to point toward His own eternal resurrection. Jesus didn’t promise in His teachings to make everyone wealthy; instead, He called on His followers to deny ourselves, take up crosses, and follow Him (cf. Mark 8:34).

Unfortunately, these lessons failed to sink in on the Jews in Jerusalem. Perhaps few of them had heard of the call to a cross, or the enormous crowds that met Jesus at the gate of the city would have remained only a small handful of His closest disciples. Even His disciples failed to realize the enormity of Jesus’ teachings about His crucifixion, as their own participation in the triumphal entry revealed. Perhaps if the disciples had remembered Jesus’ teachings about a crucifixion, they would have mourned His entry rather than celebrated it.

What a difference between the kingdoms of the world and the Kingdom of our God! The kingdoms of the world constantly allure us with physical pleasures and protection, promising us anything if we will fall on our knees and give them the reverence they think their due. Given a choice between worldly pleasure and the agony of self-sacrifice on a cross, precious few will choose the way of the cross.

Yet, as St. Peter had said to Jesus after most of the crowd abandoned Him after His teachings following the feeding of the 5,000, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68).

This saying gives us a new insight on the call of the crowds: “Hosanna in the Highest.”

“Hosanna” comes from the Aramaic language of Jesus’ time and means, “Save us!” The Gentile Greek-speaking Church, transformed the term into a call of praise, but the Jews remembered the term from its Hebrew origins. Today’s reading from Psalm 118 contains this word in the Hebrew in verse 25, where the Psalmist called for God to deliver His people from their pagan oppressors. The Jews saw the Romans as tangible proof they needed saving, but their myopic focus on the Romans prevented the Jews from recognizing their worst enemy and kept them from understanding Jesus’ true reason for entering into the holy city.

Jesus knew what awaited Him at the end of the week. After all, one can clash with the secular authorities only so long before those authorities bring the full force of their power upon those foolish enough to challenge them. The raising of Lazarus from the dead (cf. John 11) alone shook the Jewish religious leaders to the core. If Jesus’ actions in Galilee and on the way to Jerusalem failed to stir the authorities to act, His cleansing of the Temple on the day after His arrival certainly sealed the deal.

Jesus heard the crowds that day shouting “Hosanna!” By the end of the week, He answered the call on a cross, saving all who will believe on Him from eternal death and separation from God. As St. Peter predicted, Jesus’ words and actions would lead to eternal life for those who believed in Him.

If Jesus’ responded to the call of the crowd by giving His life, what does His call to us mean today?

I’d like to return to the theme of The City of God for a moment. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday in A.D. 33, He entered as the sacrifice for our sins but also as the King of God’s Kingdom. As Christians, we live in the tension of a Kingdom already come and a Kingdom not fully revealed in our time. Jesus’ call to sacrifice should speak to us today and help us understand the differences between serving the kingdom of the world and the Kingdom of God.

First, we must never forget that the Kingdom of God already exists only for those who believe in Jesus’ name and resurrection. In Romans 10:9, St. Paul wrote that those who confess Jesus as Lord, believing in His resurrection, would be “saved.” Remember the cry of the Jews: “Hosanna!” “Save us!” When we confess Jesus as Lord of our lives, we declare to the world that we have switched our allegiances from the kingdom of the world to the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God remains open to all who will declare their allegiance in Jesus as Lord.

We must then follow our new Lord wherever He leads — even if it means our own suffering and death. I see too many people in the Church today worrying more about chasing material wealth and pleasures than proclaiming the Kingdom of God. We’ll do anything to preserve our own financial security, even offend someone and keep them from the Kingdom. We’ll fiercely defend our own pride, even if it means keeping someone else from attending worship and hearing the saving news of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. Like the Jewish authorities of Jesus’ day, we’ll do anything to preserve the status quo rather than accept new responsibilities and new challenges to reach our community for Christ.

This must end. Our society has changed. Today, most Americans do not profess Christianity as their religion. In reality, Christianity has never held the majority of our nation; most professors of Christianity in our history held only to the civic religion that closely mimics the true faith. Now that the veneer has fallen away, it reveals to us the enormity of our work ahead.

In uncertain times, the Church must take the lead in ministering to the suffering, even at the expense of our own comfort. The Church must take the lead in demonstrating God’s love to everyone, regardless of their race or economic status. The Church must now live what we’ve professed all these years. We have the Kingdom of God in our midst; now, we must share it by reaching out beyond our comfort zone and culture and choosing to live according to our true loyalties.

Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem changed everything that day. By the end of the week, Jesus’ death would conquer sin; His resurrection would conquer death. We live in the power of these victories. If Our Lord has conquered these enemies, we can surely conquer those that constrain us from reaching our community with the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel that saves those who call for it. The world today, in so many ways, is calling: “Hosanna!” As a citizen of the Kingdom of God, will you respond to that call?