Rev Dr. Howard Wallace  Texts: Matthew 21:1-11 and Philippians 2:5-11

In 1964 the Lutheran Church in the US made a short film called “Parable”. It was only 22 minutes long and had no dialogue. The story was carried by the actions of the characters and the music. It was the story of an old-fashioned travelling circus, the type that in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries travelled with horse and carts moving from town to town.

The film begins with the circus rolling into one town to the great adulation of the people. You can see the scene here in the poster advertising the film. At the very back of the parade comes a simple clown, dressed all in white, riding on a donkey. The story of the film is a parable on the gospel story. The circus is the world. The performers in the circus are pictured as marionettes, controlled and strung up by the cruel ring master. But the clown moves about the circus with compassion, being helpful and gaining followers until he takes the place of the performers and is strung up and murdered. The ring master is transformed by this sacrifice and takes the place of the clown.

The image of the clown riding the donkey is reminiscent of the Palm Sunday story where Jesus rides into Jerusalem to the adulation of the crowd. The story as Matthew presents it is seen as a victorious fulfilment of the words the prophet Zechariah uttered long ago:

“Look your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zech 9:9)

Based on Matthew’s account we might think that a large crowd was there especially to see Jesus. But that was not the case. There was a large number of people in Jerusalem at the time but they were there because it was approaching Passover time – the biggest and most crowded festival in Jerusalem in the year. We might also be tempted to think of crowds of people shouting “Hosanna” which means ‘save us’. Matthew writes that the “whole city was in turmoil”. But that was hardly the case either. Passover was the busiest and most crowded time of year in Jerusalem. So there were not only pilgrims galore around, there was also a strengthened Roman garrison to keep control and watch out for any unrest or activity of the type implied by Matthew’s description. The Roman soldiers would have cracked down on it quickly.

Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is portrayed by Matthew and others as some victorious, triumphant event. In the Gospel it leads to the actions that are going to see Jesus condemned and crucified within a week. But in reality his arrival in Jerusalem was probably anything but a triumphant parade as big as Matthew says. It may have been more akin to the clown’s entry to the town in our film “Parable”. Was Jesus more a figure of comedic quality and only of minor threat in the religiously and politically charged, but controlled, atmosphere of Jerusalem at Passover time?

There is truth in both images of the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Matthew’s triumphant, victorious and glorious scene may not have played out in reality but it connects Jesus with the hope of a messianic king; one who promises wholeness, compassion, love of freedom including political, openness, the removal of oppression and hardship etc.

But there is also something comical about this gospel story. As is the case with a lot of humour this story overturns our expectations (and also those of the crowd). The story is interrupted by the unexpected, the absurd – namely Jesus on a donkey, an image of humility.

The hymn we heard from Philippians today also tells us something of the absurdity of this story. The trouble is that we have become so accustomed to the story of Jesus that we no longer see the absurdity in it, the unexpectedness, the surprise that it contains. The Philippians hymn starts in high, exalted language but then goes on to say that the one who was equal with God emptied himself and took on the form of a slave, the least of the least form of human likeness, humbling himself even to the point of death. And all this is portrayed as obedience to the will of God. Hardly the way of a king!

The donkey on which Jesus rides both recalls the description of the king in Zechariah’s prophecy, but is also a symbol of humility, as mentioned in the Philippians hymn. The Gospel portrays Jesus as both the king the people looked for, and yet a clown who exposes all their false hopes, and their shallow hosannas with which they surround him.

There is something in all of us that seeks the joys of life, its benefits, its pleasures and delights by way of control, accumulation, and acquisition, be it in the realms of comforts, knowledge, skills, power etc. We save and plan for our holidays; we plan our career paths; we save for our retirement. Often the actions of our governments and institutions are built around power, accumulation and acquisition. In many of these things we follow paths that, sometimes subtly, sometimes not, exercise power or control, the things that kings exercise (or used to). And of course, much of what I am talking about is both beneficial and necessary in human life.

But we should not forget, that in Jesus another way of being a ‘king’ is chosen, a way in which Jesus plays the clown in our own circus of life. This way is that of self-giving, of self-emptying, of compassion and care, of serving even to the point of death, of being strung up like the other marionettes in the circus.

Now Paul in Philippians urges us “to let the same mind that was in Christ” be in us. He is not speaking simply about Christ being an example to us of how we are to live. He is not speaking about us striving through our charitable works and own self-giving to be like Jesus. That is, in fact, the case but only in part. Christ is more than that to us. Rather, Paul speaks about a close dynamic between us and Christ. He speaks about the Spirit of Christ alive and working within us. It is not something we are to achieve, but rather something we are to recognise, to cherish, and to let flourish. He speaks of an attitude shaped and nourished by the self-giving, humble will of God. An attitude open to those often regarded as the least, willing to embrace those who by their presence, their circumstances, their demands, call upon our time, our resources and our patience. He is speaking of an attitude that is open to the very working of the Spirit that was alive in Jesus which is still working within us individually, between us as a community, and from us into the larger world. He is speaking about embracing the clown Jesus plays in our life together. It is an attitude that constantly asks ‘where is God in this situation, in this relationship?’ ‘In what ways can we faithfully walk with Christ in these circumstances?’ Where is that unsettling clown like behaviour of Jesus in this situation?

Paul is speaking about our lives shaped by the will of God, infused by the Spirit of Christ. About lives which welcome the clown coming in humility on a donkey. In that there is something to cry ‘hosanna’ about.

Amen