Join us today as we celebrate Holy Communion for Palm Sunday 4/10/22. To follow along at home, click here and print the Holy Communion Program. Text of today’s homily below.
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Homily for Palm Sunday 4/10/22
Readings: Lk 19:28-40, Is 50:4-7, Ps 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24., Phil 2:6-11, Lk 22:14—23:56
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The same religious and political story has unfolded for all of human history. For over 3,000 years, Egyptian emperors known as pharaohs ruled as God-kings. On the other side of the globe, for the 3,000 years from 1,500 BC to 1,500 AD, the emperors of the Incas ruled in a similar way. The Greek Emperor Alexander the Great was a God-king. The emperor of Japan was a god until 1945, the emperor of China was considered divine until 1911, and Nepal’s king was considered so until 2008.
There were many Roman cults in Jesus’ day, each dedicated to one of the many gods – Jupiter, Isis, Dionysus, and so on – but the Roman imperial cult was the most popular. The Roman emperor was a God. During private and state religious functions, offerings of wine called libations were poured onto the ground as a sacrifice to the various gods, including the emperor.
And when the emperor returned to Rome after another successful mission to conquer a foreign land, he donned his purple cloak and crown, climbed aboard a chariot drawn by four proud horses, and led a great procession into the city. He and his army put their swords aside and entered unarmed. Behind him came his army, his slaves and captives, the gold and other spoils of war.
Jesus enters the holy city of Jerusalem at the peak of Roman power, authority, and influence known as the Pax Romana, Latin for Roman Peace. But it was only peaceful insofar as there were no internal revolts or external challenges to Rome. At that time, as ever, there was no reason to believe that the ancient, eternal story should be challenged. The eternal story, best summed up by the popular mythologist Joseph Campbell in his groundbreaking 1949 book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, is as follows:
“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”
This is the hero’s journey, the so-called monomyth, the story of the man who achieves great success, eventually becoming a god. Hercules, Perseus, Romulus and Remus – the founders of Rome – great generals and leaders from time immemorial, kings and emperors, regularly achieved godhood. This was the story believed by every culture the world has ever known, as far back as history and archeology have been able to uncover. And many is the mythologist to puts Jesus in the same category. After all, isn’t he just another man who went on a great adventure, did some miraculous things, brought home some sacred knowledge, and became a god?
No, brothers and sisters, Jesus shatters the monomyth and breaks the mold! He is not a man who becomes a god, but God become man. He is not a man who thinks his achievements will make him immortal, but God himself come to earth to help man reach immortality in the world to come. He is not a man who exalts himself and is exalted by other men, but the Son of God who humbles himself before men and is exalted by God the Father!
When the Roman emperor enters the city in triumph, he puts his sword aside and enters the city unarmed. But this is a token disarmament. Everyone knows the worldly power that emperor wields. Jesus enters the city humbly, not on a chariot drawn by four stallions but on a colt. Strangely though, he is not disarmed and neither are his soldiers. They bring with them a very special sword – the Sword of Truth – the sword of discernment, the Holy Spirit, which separates fact from fiction, right from wrong, and good from evil!
The emperor of Rome brought peace by force at the point of a sword; but Jesus brings with him a sword whose point brings voluntary peace from within – the peace that comes by the power of the Holy Spirit.