Have you ever seen those children's books that offer the child a choice of which page to turn next?  The top of the next page, or the bottom of the next page?

That choice then leads them to a different direction to the story.  Then a little farther along in the path of the story they chose, they get another choice of page to turn, which leads the child down a new path.  They're not giant choices usually – Maybe the child in the picture is looking at the moon in the page with choice 1, and looking at the sun in the picture with choice 2.  

Each year during Lent thru Easter we hear a certain story told using scripture.  Even though the events that we know of from the gospel writings would be the same story for the most part each year, reading any single gospel alone would have given us a completely different Jesus because each gospel has a Jesus agenda.  So far during the weeks of Lent we have used Matthew, Mark, Mark again, John, followed by John and then John, Luke, then Mark and again, Mark.  It seems as though we have covered them all, and I get the feeling that Lent for us was kind of like one of those children's books.  We didn't go straight through any single narrative – there were choices made each week that all combined give us the path that leads us to Easter.

This year, Year B the gospel of Mark is the emphasis, which is why one of our texts for today is Mark 11:1-11.

In this reading of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem there are a few things to notice that will help determine which direction Mark wants to take us.  Our text today tells us that the crowd hailed Jesus' entry twice which happens in each gospel.  “Hosanna!” is a typical welcome crowds might give those pilgrims who are entering on high festival days.  But the next cry of the crowd is different for each gospel writer.  For us today, there is not a mention of the direct scripture quote from Zecariah about entering Jerusalem on a donkey --- instead, the Markan crowd shouts, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!”  The emphasis for Mark in this portion is not so much “so scripture has been fulfilled,” but rather emphasizes the royal nature of Jesus as king.  Our text also spends a full seven lines with a very deliberate explanation of how Jesus acquired the donkey.  In the remaining few four lines, Jesus' entry into Jerusalem doesn't mention Jesus cleansing the temple.  Here we read only, “…he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany…”

Just as no one gospel tells the complete person of Jesus, no one scriptural selection tells the complete message of that particular gospel.  The cleansing of the temple for example, does happen in this gospel but not until later.  The emphasis in today's text from Mark is different.  

These particular 11 lines receive a lot of commentary, many of which set the tone as one of defiant mockery or dramatic “down with empire” undergirding to the message.  One commentator said that they saw this reading as a blatant “in your face” plan of Jesus to provide a theatrical carnival spoof in front of the ruling elite in order to say to them I know what you're doing and it stops now with what God is doing through my life and death.  Jesus' intention was to make fun of.

The picture Mark creates for us is one of Jesus who is deliberate about creating the picture of a king that will be nothing like anyone around him expects.  Jesus' royalty is emphasized by the use of cloaks on the donkey and on the ground, and in the cry of the crowd about the coming kingdom of their ancestor David.  If you and I were not familiar with the story about the cleansing of the temple, we might not automatically see this as a big moment for Jesus.  Where's the triumphal entry without the big fight in the temple and showing those den of robbers a thing or two.  The beating on the chest of testosterone filled power hungry leaders is missing and Jesus doesn't fight with anyone.  Without the fight in the temple, the win of righteousness over the rich, we almost miss the deeper drama in this story.

The relative calm of the text from Mark is a particular good text to pair with another on a Sunday when we want to participate in both the celebration of waving the palms as well as mark the devastation of the second text from Mark that we read today.  Combining Palm Sunday with the story of Good Friday allows us to move from Sunday to Sunday with a full version of the story.  For those of us who see church as a Sunday event it is often easy to go from the celebration of the palms directly to the celebration of the resurrection.  The Love Everyone Be Happy Barney kind of world is more and more difficult to stomach though.  It is becoming more and more appropriate to love the celebration of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, but not recognize it as a stand alone triumph.  Jesus' entry into Jerusalem was the beginning of the message of the resurrection.

I had a professor once explain that a sermon should have two parts.  The “so” and the “so what?”  Meaning there's the thing, and then why does it matter?  The text from the beginning of Mark chapter 11 is the so.  And without Good Friday, the second reading from Mark that we read today, there is no “so what.”  

As the disciples fawned over Jesus, glad to be in the in crowd with him as he arrived, wondering just how this new kingdom that God had in mind through Jesus would be installed, Jesus instead was more muted.  Jesus knew that the glory the disciples expected would not happen the way they were thinking.  There would not be a “…normal power-wielding, army-raising king,”1riding in on a majestic horse and raising a flag.

Ira Brent Driggers writes, “The tragic irony, of course, is that Jesus is headed to a shameful execution – and he knows it.”  He has been prophesying this.  Driggers writes, “Not that Jesus' mission per se is to die.  Rather, Jesus chooses death because toning down God's healing love – to avoid death – is not an option for the Messiah.  Jesus can only love at full speed." Jesus' mission is not the same as a king who will steal land and conquer peoples.  This Mark text is written for “us to view Jesus as a king, but only by helping us re-imagine the very concept of king.”  A king who would “restore broken humanity to its divinely created wholeness."

How can we re-imagine the very concept of king?  How can we re-imagine anything?  Is there a book I can read about how to re-imagine something? A TED talk?  A practice I can begin?  A wise person I can talk to?

It is a major developmental aspect of being human that we learn and spend our lives learning how to discern what is true.  So then why would we want to voluntarily take something we think to be true and break it down?  Why would we want to take something apart if it works so well for us?  Truth is crucial.  When a person tells us the truth we trust them.  When someone's love for us is true we thrive.  When facts we know to be true protect us they become a solid foundation.

It's risky to try to re-imagine something.  I've mentioned before that I think of being risk-averse as a compliment.  The risk is that if we re-imagine something we rely on we may send ourselves floundering.  The risk is that re-imagining will make us hopeful just to disappoint us later.

So I don't generally try to re-imagine something right off the bat.  But I start by cultivating my imagination without any particular purpose.  We all do that in different ways.  For me it's art projects that look like a kid did it, or making tiny clay crosses, or painting something that no one will ever look at.  For others it's finding a good meditation habit and letting the mind go where it goes.  For others it's reading and falling completely into a fictional novel or into a prior era in history through a good documentary.

I have mentioned my first experience with a spiritual director many years ago.  When she asked how Jesus had responded to me in our guided meditation that morning I replied, “He said whatever I wanted him to say.  It was MY imagination.”  She replied, “Just because it is your imagination, do you think it wasn't from God?”

In order to re-imagine anything we first need to know that our imagination is safe for us.   For some people, imagination is something that leads to ruminating and anxiety and full of What If's followed by something terrible.  What we need is an imagination full of What If's that are followed by something fun, or good, or right, or better, or helpful.  We need actual experiences and repeated experiences of that safety before we will go to our imaginations willingly and without expectation in order to re-imagine something.

Because if our imagination is a safe place for us, then when we need it we can trust that our openness to whatever God sends through us will lead to good, or right, or better, or fun.

Just imagine –

--Being Asian or Pacific Islander and not being afraid of being assaulted.

--Being black and not being afraid to do things others do.

--Being LGBTQI and not having your church – your very example of Christ's love in the world – abandon you.

--Being in Georgia and being able to vote

--Being in Yemen and not starving

--Being hungry and being fed.

--Being in prison and visited

--Being naked and given clothing

--Being a stranger and being welcomed

For some, the stone has never been rolled away.  For some the tomb is a daily experience.  

Let us pray,

Dear Lord,

We have palms today.  We have glory today.  We sing of glory and honor today.  Be our new kind of king God.  For we ask in the name of the one who lay in the tomb.

Amen.

1Ira Brent Driggers, March 28, 2021 workingpreacher.org

Imagine – as if someone's life depended on it

Reverend Debra McGuire

March 28, 2021

Mark 11:1-11, selections from Mark 15