On Palm Sunday, Jesus made his final journey to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. Long before Jesus ever set foot toward the city of Jerusalem for Passover, however, the most important journey of his life was well underway. It was the journey inward, to a place that was not a place but grounded all other places. This journey kept Jesus grounded in what he was supposed to do and kept him doing it even when it ceased to be popular. This journey gave him the fortitude and clarity to remain undeterred.
All that he did and said and spoke was the fruit of this journey. Before Jesus ever answered a call to do, he answered the call to be. His first pilgrimage was inward.
It is no coincidence that Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem coincided with the celebration of Passover. Passover is all about freedom from bondage. It is the celebration that marks the Exodus and the end of slavery in Egypt at the hands of Pharaoh. Like all Jews who were physically able to make the trip, Jesus and his friends made their pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the celebration. Passover was and remains a ritual symbolizing their belief that God set them free. It is an archetypal story that speaks to the human experience–from bondage to freedom, from death to life, from vulnerability to strength and back again, through suffering to new life. Every great world religion has a feast/festival or celebration that marks the cycle of renewal and refreshment, freedom and new identity.
Passover and the rituals that surround it are all about freedom, deliverance, identity and the kind of inner clarity that keeps one going when nothing else can. Much of Jesus’ teaching and ministry was about setting people free from bondage and slavery that came from too much money and too little money, too much power and too little power, those who were broken and isolated and shunned for whatever reason.
Jesus was formed in the crucible of the Passover celebration. It was a reminder that God’s intent was freedom and life without fear. He was tempered by the prophets’ words and scarred with the fire of others’ pain. He lived and laughed and loved after the way of God and showed God to all who would look and listen and follow.
It’s hard for us to grasp this. We are so intent on doing and accomplishing and having. In our culture we are what we have and we are what we do. And when we read this back into the Bible it’s easy to focus on all the cool stuff Jesus did; but this wasn’t about doing, it was about being. This was a moment that defined Jesus and gave us a glimpse of his inner space. Most of us can point to a few moments that define who we are. As Frederick Beuchner says, we are formed by a tender and terrible process, moments too wonderful and too awful to tell. As life rolls out around us and sometimes right over us, we are shaped by the response we make, by the place deep inside that we reach to in order to keep on going.
Jesus did not go to provoke the situation, though it seems pretty clear he knew what was waiting for him, that this would bring clashes with the religious poobahs of the day to a head. It’s kind of ironic. He is going to celebrate freedom knowing he will be arrested.
Maybe today is a day to think twice about what freedom really is. Jesus came into the city for a celebration that marked freedom. It suggests that he saw a truth beyond what appeared. Though he would be arrested later in in the week, this day staked Jesus’ path of freedom that was not measured by the absence of bars but by clarity of purpose.
The celebration of this day lies not in the palms and cheering crowds but in Jesus’ gentle resolve to keep on being who he was, to keep on doing what he was doing. Jesus’ inner journey is a path for us to follow, but in a way that is uniquely our own. We discover it by reaching inward and listening for God’s whispering presence. It’s one of the ways Jesus stayed grounded; he went off by himself because it was the only way he could hear what was happening inside of him.
Jesus lays a path for us to follow. It is the journey inward to that place that is not a place; yet it grounds all other places. This journey will keep us focused on what we are supposed to do, even when it ceases to be popular. This inner journey will give us the fortitude and clarity to remain undeterred. This is how we follow Jesus on the way.
The Irreverent Reverend 