Sunday
is April Fools' Day, technically not a holiday recognized by the church. But I
think there is something to the fact that Palm Sunday is falling on April Fools'
Day this year. Who do you think of when you think of fools, of something
foolish? Today, in the workplaces or at school or even at church, we feel shame
and humiliation if we say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing. We don’t want
to be fools – on April Fools' Day, we want to be the ones playing the tricks,
not the ones being made a fool!
Read
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 and John 12:12-19.
The
Gospel reading this week shapes how our Palm Sunday feels. It is mostly a
joyful celebration of Jesus as the promised King, Jesus as the one to fulfill
the covenant, Jesus as a miracle worker, who can bring life out of death. The
people offer a welcoming parade, pledging their loyalty to Jesus as the King of
Israel, running after him, stampeding after him. And yet, we end not with their
joy, but the Pharisees as they continue to plot, their current plans being
foiled yet again. Their presence, however, seems to be an ominous sign that
reminds us of what will come later this week: a meal, a betrayal, a trial, a
cross, a tomb.
And
yet, somehow, Jesus plays us all. Jesus takes on the role of the fool on Palm
Sunday – riding in not on a warhorse but a young donkey, his feet probably
dragging on the ground. Jesus the king rides the
animal of peace, not the Messiah the people expected to violently overthrow Rome.
Jesus lets the people call him king, knowing that later
in the week they would be calling for his crucifixion. Jesus turns everything upside down, making wisdom foolish: emptying himself that we might be filled; saying
that the last will be first and the first will be last, to save your life you must lose it; feeding multitudes with
a couple loaves and fish; healing those who were said to be beyond help; and
bringing life out of a dead Lazarus in a tomb.
In
a court, the fool or jester was the only one who could actually speak truth to
power, who could actually criticize the king or queen or government, who could
mock those in power through the gift of humor. It is said that Queen Elizabeth
once threatened her fool because he did not criticize her severely enough! That
is the role of Christ on April Fools' Day, on Palm Sunday: to subvert the Roman
concept of Lord, to speak to the power of peace instead of violence, to find
value in the people who are marginalized and oppressed. As a fool, Jesus invites people to see and live in the world in a different way. For Jesus himself is the stone that
the builders rejected – only for that very stone to become the chief
cornerstone, the foundation of it all. Jesus fools us, as we are promised a king and are given a sacrificial lamb. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, “God chose what is
foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to
shame the strong.” Thanks be to God for responding to our Hosannas with the foolishness
of the Messiah, the only one who could really save us once and for all.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Kate
