HomeGood morning.
Today we celebrate both Passover and Palm Sunday.
Passover is the story of the escape from slavery of the Children Of Israel; Palm Sunday is the story of the entry into Jerusalem of Jesus. In looking at any story from any religious tradition, I first take them at face value and then seek the inner, universal meaning.
I have spoken before of the similarities in these stories, and of the fact that the telling of the journey of Jesus is to some extent modeled on the Passover story.
Both stories begin with a people in bondage. In Exodus, the people are in the bondage of slavery under the Egyptians; in the Gospels the people are under the bondage of both Rome and of sin.
In the Passover story, the Children of Israel are set free because of the miracles of God performed through Moses and Aaron, the Angel of Death passes over the homes of those marked for salvation, the Children of Israel cross the Red Sea, escaping from bondage, and begin the journey to the Promised Land which includes Jerusalem as its capital to be; and the story is celebrated by consuming bread and wine with the Paschal lamb.
In the Palm Sunday to Easter story, Jesus has proven his position by performing miracles, he passes over the palms and branches of the people as he enters Jerusalem to claim his crown, Jerusalem here symbolizing the Promised Land of the Kingdom of God, the bread and wine is transformed into his flesh and blood and Jesus himself is the lamb of God, the lamb of the sacrifice. In becoming the sacrifice, he frees the people from the bondage of sin, removes death from his followers and leads them literally into the Promised Land of God’s kingdom.
So the Jewish story of liberation is transformed and becomes the Christian story of liberation.
In both stories, there is the move to freedom that is celebrated in the Seder and the Palms, both then move to suffering, then to ultimate victory.
In the Passover story, the Children Of Israel cross the Red Sea, and experience triumph and elation. Miriam’s Song is Exodus 15:1-20. The first complaint against Moses is described in Exodus 15:23-4. Let me say that again: Miriam’s song of celebration ends at Exodus 15:20, the first complaint is at Exodus 15:23.
In the Passover story, almost the moment the children of Israel cross over the Red Sea, they experience hunger, struggle and dissension. Freedom means those things. Freedom from slavery means physical hunger until you figure out how to feed yourself. Freedom from political domination means hunger for leadership until one learns how to function in a democracy. Freedom from spiritual domination means hunger for spiritual certainty until one learns to follow one’s own inner light. Because they did not know how to live with freedom, the Children of Israel were condemned to wander in the wilderness for forty years before they could enter the Promised Land.
That number, forty years, is not meant to be taken literally, and yet it has meaning. In the story of Exodus, we are told that every person in the old generation, the generation that had known slavery, had to pass away before the people could enter the Promised Land. That is to say, the old ideas had to die, had to disappear.
Freedom is necessary, but freedom alone is not enough. And it brings it’s own suffering.
In the Palm Sunday story, Jesus enters into Jerusalem in triumph. But as was true for the children of Israel, that moment of triumph is followed by pain and suffering. The entry into Jerusalem only points forward to the abandonment of Thursday and the pain and suffering of Good Friday.
In each case the ultimate goal is not achieved with the first moment of triumph. In each case, the goal of the salvation of a people and entry into the Promised Land or the goal of personal salvation and entry in the glory of heaven, in each case, there is triumph followed by suffering before ultimate triumph.
So the pattern of both stories is: suffering, triumphant move toward freedom, further suffering, greater triumph. That pattern holds up in both our personal stories and in stories of peoples.
In that time of second suffering there is a great temptation to turn back.
Steps to freedom are frightening. Freedom from whatever holds us back, freedom from whatever prisons of body mind or spirit we may be in. Steps out of that are frightening. The Children of Israel were tempted to turn back.
And the Egyptians changed their minds also. They tried to restore things to where they had been before the slaves were freed. They wanted to turn back the clock.
In the Gospels Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane prays to God and asks. “Let this cup be taken from me”. Please, I don’t want to suffer; I don’t want pain. Better to have the fleshpots of Egypt.
The story of Exodus is really a double story, because if the Children of Israel had to learn to live with freedom, the people of Egypt had to learn to live without slaves. Neither of those “learnings” is easy. It takes forty years.
Forty years ago, in 1964, this nation was divided by the Civil Rights movement. Forty years ago today, civil rights organizations were gearing up for Mississippi Freedom Summer. Some people fought for change, others struggled against it. One lesson from the Book of Exodus is that if you achieve the change you want, it will still be forty years before you can fully experience and take advantage of it.
And if you are the Egyptians, it will take forty years before you can fully accommodate yourself to the change that has taken place.
So perhaps today the places in this country where segregation existed are just about at the point where they have come to terms with that struggle.
It has only been thirty years since Roe v. Wade, just thirty years since women gained the freedom to choose; and the Egyptians want to turn back the clock. In three weeks there will be a major demonstration in Washington D.C to support abortion rights. I would be deeply gratified if I were preaching to a nearly empty house that day. Information about buses to the demonstration is on the bulletin boards.
I think there are lessons here for same sex marriage rights, as well. When finally gained, they may not be fully accepted for about forty years. But the day will come.
It is not only on the grand scale that these stories and their pattern apply. Suffering, freedom, more suffering, and then final triumph.
A battered spouse who has just broken free form a batterer still has a long way to go to achieve the goal of self-sufficiency, and a still longer way to go to achieve the goal of feeling good about themselves, of being at peace with the past. And all too often the temptation to turn back arises, and all too often it is too strong to resist.
A batterer who decides to change has a long and difficult journey as well.
An addict, someone addicted to any drugs—heroin, prescription pills, alcohol, it doesn’t matter—an addict who decides that yes, they are addicted, and yes, they do want to be free, and yes, they put down whatever it is they are addicted to, that addict still has a long journey ahead of them, a long and painful one. They have had the suffering, they have the moment of freedom, but now they have greater suffering, a greater struggle to maintain their rejection of the drug, because those drugs have a powerful pull. The road to recovery only begins with the decision to stop using. There is a great deal of temptation to turn back to the fleshpots, to the bottle or containers of one’s drug or the cigarettes. It is not easy.
It is not only the major issues in life that follow this pattern; the small battles do as well.
When we hear the story of Passover, we are supposed to remember the words: You have come up out of Egypt.
We are the children of Israel; we came out of bondage; we wandered in the wilderness for forty years before entering the Promised Land. Whatever personal struggle we might be having today, we have endured pain and suffering before, and we can do so again. I can. You can. That is the message. Keep taking that next step forward, no matter how long the journey, take that next step. Just do it, and one day you will be in the land of Canaan, the land of milk and honey. It’s okay to grumble, it’s okay to feel like you want to turn back, it’s okay to be tempted. But take the next step.
Like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, we all suffer, we all know pain, we all know fear. But Jesus knew that the goal he was after was an important one, and so he was willing to accept the pain involved.
The Christian message is that Jesus endured that pain for you; he knows your suffering, he knows your fear, and he stands with you now as you contemplate the next step in your life. And whatever you face, his strength is available to you.
The universal message is that strength is available to us in whatever our personal struggles may be. Whatever illness of body, mind spirit or life circumstances we may face, there is help and comfort to be had, help outside us and help within us.
Call it God, call it the Goddess, call it the human spirit, I don’t care what name you give it.
As we face our own journeys, our journeys through the difficulties that life places in front of us, or our journeys through our own inner turmoil and struggle, may we draw strength from the story of Passover and from the story of Palm Sunday. May we celebrate our moments of triumph, while being realistic about what is yet to come. And may we keep our focus on the goals for which we aim, keeping in mind that our pain today is for a greater purpose.
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