I have thought for a while that one of the most overused words in popular vocabulary these days is “hero.” It seems that whenever you turn on the television now somebody is talking about a hero somewhere in some place doing something. Even yesterday, listening to The National, I noticed that the word “hero” was used four times in one newscast to describe different people. Sometimes, it is as ordinary as a baseball player hitting a home run in the final innings to win a game, and then he is called a hero. I thought they were paid to do that! I didn’t realize they were heroes when they did it! There are heroes who do all kinds of things, and then you hear this, “Well, we are all heroes in some way or another.” After a while, “hero” loses its power. You get no real sense of what it is that it means.
I thought I was alone in this until I ran across a blog by Mark McClune. He makes the case that in fact the word “hero” is used too much. We have heroes who do very little. We have superheroes that people like to argue over which one of them is the greatest – and it is all fiction! Then, people doing seemingly mundane things are called heroes. He recognizes, as do I, that there are heroes but the problem is that it has become commonplace. McClune, in his blog wrote the following just recently:
Heroes are born and die every day. While we cannot live in a world full of just heroes, I am very thankful for the heroes that have given themselves to the greater good of all. They have earned the title “hero”. Let’s not dishonour them by casually sprinkling the term hero on to someone that has not earned that distinction.
He is right. There are heroes, but true heroes are those who at some point have done something for somebody else.
This brings me to Palm Sunday. I don’t think we can really honestly understand the events of Palm Sunday unless we understand what constitutes a true hero. This is because I think the crowds that lined the streets that day, as today’s passage from the Gospel indicates, were looking for a hero. It has been suggested that maybe there were three different crowds that had gathered on that day in Jerusalem. It wasn’t just one crowd, but it was a crowd made up of other crowds.
There was the crowd that was the Galileans, those that had followed Jesus through the three years of his ministry, who were there when Lazarus was raised from the dead; when Mary was anointed in Bethany; who were there to see him feed the five thousand and befriend Zacchaeus. They had come with Jesus to Jerusalem to honour their new king. They thought this was the moment where the Jesus they had been following for three years would finally be crowned, and take over the royal mantle in Jerusalem. They were ecstatic about it. They felt something great was going to happen. The disciples, we are told by John, had gone along for the ride, but they were hapless really; they didn’t know fully what was happening. Only later on, after the Resurrection did it really dawn on them what Jesus was up to. At the time, they went to Jerusalem to celebrate Jesus.
There was a second crowd there as well: the locals from Jerusalem and all those who were visiting Jerusalem for the Passover. The historian Josephus says that there were as many as two million people in Jerusalem – a staggering number – and that they had come from all over for Passover. They got caught up, I think, in the joy and the ecstasy of Jesus of Nazareth coming to town. They heard the Galileans’ praising, and they were looking for a liberator, and wondering if this Jesus was the one who was going to set them free from the tyranny of Roman rule. This was the moment to really praise and celebrate somebody powerful coming from Galilee to save the nation. They were ready for a hero.
The Romans and Pharisees were worried about a hero because they had heard rumours that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. According to The New Testament scholar Lindars, this was one of the motivating factors for them being worried about Jesus. The story of Lazarus was out, and they were worried that their role as religious leaders would be usurped by this Galilean, who was performing miracles. They were in the crowd, and they were suspicious. The last thing they wanted was a hero. The Romans liked order and structure. They wanted straight roads, good governance, law and order – the pax Romana! The Romans wanted everything in its box, but now these Galileans had come into town celebrating Jesus, and they are terrified that their order was going to be thrown out. After all, if there are two million people in Jerusalem, how are they possibly going to control all this excitement about a man who had evidently had raised someone from the dead? They were terrified. The last thing they wanted was a hero! The last person they wanted was Jesus of Nazareth!
Whether you were from Galilee, were a local from Jerusalem, or one of the religious or political elite, they all had certain expectations when Jesus came into Jerusalem. I think the Galileans and the locals and those who had genuinely come for the Passover really wanted some hype. They wanted to wave their palm branches and sing Hosanna! They wanted to make a big deal and spectacle of Jesus’ arrival.
I don’t know if any of you have been to a Raptors game, but I must admit the first time I went I was astonished by the pre-game performance. Before the team ever enters the court, there is music from AC/DC and Jon Bon Jovi and Usher, there is smoke and lights. Finally, through the fog, the players arrive on to the middle of the court, and you can’t wait for the game to begin! Such a lot of hype – it is fantastic! I know what is wrong with The Maple Leafs: not enough hype before the game! Never mind the players; they need some Raptors-like hype before the game. In fact, I really think on a Sunday morning when we come down the aisle, we should have that kind of hype and excitement before the worship begins – don’t you? Thank you!
It sets the stage. I want you to grasp this, friends: that is what they were doing on Palm Sunday. They were waving their palms and singing Hosanna, which is from Psalm 118. It was about God coming to save the people. But in their minds they were also going back in history. They were thinking about Judas Maccabeus coming into Jerusalem and taking over the Citadel on behalf of the Jewish people. Judas Maccabeus was the great hero, and the people really thought that Jesus of Nazareth was the new Judas Maccabeus. He was the new liberator, the new king. He would throw out the Romans, he would overturn the tables - everything would be changed! Their king was coming, their hero, and Jesus the Galilean was the man! They had their expectations. They were ready for him. So, too, were some of the religious leaders and the Romans. The Romans, we are told in this passage, even believed that the whole of the City of Jerusalem and the whole world was singing his praises. Hyperbole, to say the least! John Calvin said the best way to translate it is tout le monde, the whole world is here to praise Jesus. It was an exaggeration, but you can tell what they were feeling. Their expectation was that there was going to be trouble, and it was the last thing they wanted.
Then Jesus enters. The smoke clears, palm branches are waving. It seems like the great coronation is taking place. Here, this Galilean closely choreographs everything. He gets on a donkey, a never ridden animal and he comes into Jerusalem. The hero who was an anti-hero! The people expected greatness, but he came in humility. They expected a warrior, but he came in peace. They expected someone who was going to run the whole gamut of life and power and prestige but they got a humble Galilean on the foal of an ass! It was not what they had wanted. Fulfilling Zachariah 9:9, fulfilling The Old Testament, definitely! Definitely fulfilling what it said in Proverbs – that humility comes before honour – the very last verses of that text from Proverbs. Jesus was really fulfilling Scripture, but he wasn’t fulfilling their expectations. They wanted him to be great and powerful, to be a hero, but he came in humility to be a servant and he changed everything!
Why does this matter? What difference does it make to our existence? Well, I think it is huge because who your hero is and what they are like determines the values you have and the kind of world that you want and the kind of God that you serve. This is particularly poignant in a world that often is driven by the hero notion of always coming first, or always being the most successful, or always being the most powerful. Sometimes we are driven by the success of numbers, or by the success of wealth, or by access to power. Something about Jesus is different, isn’t it? The crowds had that view of life. That was their definition of hero. Jesus’ definition of hero was demonstrated on the Cross. His definition of hero was not the utmost and the foremost and the greatest; it was the service of the whole world, the tout le monde of which Calvin spoke. Jesus did not come in the expectations of the world. He wasn’t a hero because the world defined him as a hero. He wasn’t a hero because of the faith of the Galileans who thought he was a hero. He was a hero by virtue of what he did and he did it in humility, out of service, and in obedience to God. When culture says one thing and the crowd says one thing, the powerful elite feel one thing, and everybody is driven by the notion of hero, which is glory, Jesus comes on the foal of an ass and says, “No. The glory is in the Cross.”
I was handed an article from The Toronto Star on March 14th to be precise. Actually, it was Marial who saw it first, and she said, “I know it is not in the sports section, dear, but it is well worth reading.” The article is entitled The Virtue of Humility. She said, “You need to read this.” I will go no further! I read it. It was about Jean Vanier and how he is the recipient of this year’s Templeton Prize for Religion, an amazing award that he will receive in London in May. He will receive it because of a life devoted to creating communities where people find dignity and strength in “the simple, humble gestures of daily living.” He got it because in a sense he gave up the power and the prestige of his name and his title and his education, even his vocation to become a priest, to serve those who are physically and mentally challenged, to give them a sense that they are able when they live in community. For the last sixty years, that is exactly what he has done; lived in community with people in the L’Arche and Daybreak homes, homes I have been privileged over the years to visit on a number of occasions.
It was interesting. When asked about the joy of receiving this prize, in his typical humility – remember he is a devout Christian – he said, “We have universities, we have schools of technology, but where are the schools for love? Who will teach us to love? Who will help us to come out from the frontiers that we lock ourselves behind? The world is at a crisis point today, and it needs that love.” This love is the love he finds in Jesus Christ. For him, he is only trying to be a faithful follower of the One who rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The author says everything I wanted to say at the end of the essay: “If Canada or the world needs a hero, we probably need look no further.” You see, who your hero is, your ultimate hero, decides what your ultimate life is like. Who you deem to follow shows the path that you must walk.
When Christ came into Jerusalem, the crowd wanted one hero, and feared that hero, and ultimately betrayed that hero; whereas Christ was a hero of another kind, a hero who laid down his life for the world. Now, that is our hero! That is our faith! Humble is, as humble does. Humility is what Christ did. What humility calls us to be is who Christ is. Walk with him, my friends! Walk with him this Holy Week! Amen.