Dealing with Life's Extremes

“Dealing with Life’s Extremes”   

A meditation delivered via YouTube by Rev. Dr. Randy K. Hammer

March 5, 20202 (Palm Sunday)

Matthew 21:1-11; Psalm 31:9-16 GNT

This morning we begin that seven-day period of the church year commonly referred to as Holy Week.  The iconic symbol for today's service is the palm branch.  Holy Week concludes next Sunday morning when the iconic symbol is the Easter Lily. Oh, but what a week of drama, what a week of diversity, what a week of extremes that week in ancient Jerusalem was! 

And what a week of drama, diversity, and week of extremes it should be yet today in terms of church services and liturgy!  Unfortunately, this Holy Week, because of present circumstances and cancellations, we will not be able to fully experience together and appreciate the drama, the diverse nature of those events, and the extremes that Holy Week embodies. 

The drama began with what I like to refer to as the Palm Sunday Parade - Jesus' dramatic procession into Jerusalem when his followers hailed him to be the God-sent chosen One for which they had been longing, hoping, and praying. 

Now, I must confess that I have never fully comprehended all that was going on that day in the minds of the people who hailed Jesus as David's Son and the prophet from Nazareth.  And I have never fully comprehended what might have been in Jesus' own mind as to the message he was seeking to convey. However, reference to Jesus as a king from the line of David clearly has political overtones.

Scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan suggest that Jesus had a clear political agenda in mind and was acting out a message to the Roman authorities by processing into Jerusalem in the manner that he did, and allowing the people to hail him as the new "king of the Jews."  Such was an in-your-face, subversive message that called to account and threatened the political powers that be.

And then as we read the gospel accounts that relate what unfolded during the few days after Palm Sunday, we see Jesus in the Jewish Temple courtyard calling to account those in religious and political authority through his pointed sermons, prickly parables, and condemnation of religious hypocrisy and oppression. By Thursday, the authorities’ ears were on fire, and they were furious; furious enough to have this thorn-in-the-flesh, this troublemaker from Nazareth, killed. And so, they found one of his followers who was willing to betray him into the hands of Roman soldiers, who led him away to be tried and crucified.

You see, when it comes to corrupt men who are in authority, there reaches a tipping point when they can't stand to be called to account any more for their injustices and oppression, and they take whatever measures necessary to silence their exposer.

So, as stated in the beginning, what a week of drama, diversity, and extremes that week was. From Palm Sunday's "Blessed be David's Son, the One who comes in the name of the Lord," to angering the religious and political establishment on Monday through Thursday, to extreme sadness during Thursday evening’s Passover supper, to the betrayal and desertion in the Garden of Gethsemane, to a hasty and rigged trial early Friday morning, and then culminating in an excruciating death on a Roman cross Friday afternoon.  What a week of extremes!

By the way, both of today’s readings – from Matthew 21 and Psalm 31 – are Lectionary readings for today that will be read in many church services.  What an extreme we see from Mathew which exudes joy, excitement, possibility, and hope, compared to the second reading from Psalm 31 which in large measure captures the spirit of what Jesus must have felt on that fateful Friday, which speaks of weeping, exhaustion, desertion, being treated with contempt, and murder.  It is very possible that Jesus was contemplating this psalm throughout his entire ordeal.  What extremes of emotions!

In a number of ways, the words of the psalmist typify what many people in America and the world at large are experiencing – troubled in spirit, weeping, physical and emotional exhaustion, people afraid to pass us on the street, feeling isolated and forgotten, and a sense of terror all around us.

And yet, after all the sorrowful feelings that the psalmist shares, he is able to testify to his trust in God, God’s care, kindness, and constant love.

I realize that different people have different ways of viewing the present coronavirus crisis, why it happened, where God is in all of this, and so on.  Some may think that God has a reason for this virus coming upon the world; maybe God is trying to tell us something.  Well, I want to be perfectly clear that I don’t believe for one second that the coronavirus is God-sent in any shape, form, or fashion.  If God is anywhere in this present crisis, God is in all those who are putting their lives on the line to test and care for and provide the essential services for those who are being treated, cared for, and lovingly accompanied from this life to whatever lies beyond.  God is in those who are making masks for health care workers.  God is in those who are sacrificing their own resources and goods and well-being to help the stranger.  God is in all the good that is being done and coming about in the face of human suffering.

Yes, just as with his last week, when Jesus and those close to him experienced life’s extremes from joy, elation, and celebration to extreme sorrow, suffering, and great loss, life will have its extremes for us as well.  But while we are in the midst of this crisis and trouble, let us hold on to hope, trust, kindness, compassion, and service to others, in whatever ways we can, believing that the present trouble we now experience is not the end.  The suffering and grief of Good Friday may come, but after that comes Sunday.  Amen.