Sunday bloody Sunday

The church suffers from a bit of schizophrenia about Palm Sunday. Should the focus be on Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the “Hosannas!” of the shouting crowd? Or should the emphasis be placed on the cross and the “Crucify him! Crucify him!” chants of the people? Is this a service of exultation or a service of passion? Furthering the complexity, the lectionary offers five texts, two of which are lessons from the Gospel of Matthew, the latter being a nearly two-chapter scramble through the most significant moments of Jesus’ final days.

A common mistake in preaching is tackling too much in 20 minutes, leaving the congregation drowning in content without clear focus. Given the amount of material for this week, the preacher might do one of two things:

Preach a thematic sermon on the significance of this Sunday to the life of faith. One way to do this would be to place the events of Holy Week in the larger story of God’s activity in Jesus. Sam Wells has suggested that God does three things in Christ: 1) He comes to be with us. Notably he does this for 30 years in Nazareth as a son, a brother, a congregant, a friend, a carpenter taking his place in daily fabric of community life. 2) He comes to work with us. This is his three-year public ministry of gathering a community about him, preaching and healing, and embodying the reign of God. 3) He comes to work for us. This is Holy Week, when Jesus takes our aspirations and dreams, our loneliness, grief, sin and betrayal into himself, for us and for our salvation.