Not to be loved, but to love

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            “Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields…shouting, ‘Hosanna in the highest heaven!’”

            Today’s liturgy began by recalling the fanfare Jesus receives when he rides his colt into Jerusalem just a week before the Passover. The people of Jerusalem are buzzing with an excitement that hasn’t been felt there in a long, long time. Finally, they can put their hope in someone who will save them from Roman occupation and oppression.

            As I thought about this procession, I tried to imagine other famous processions, processions that filled the streets with an excitement not felt in a long time. I thought about processions associated with the inauguration of a new president, processions associated with the coronation of a new king or queen, even processions associated with football teams as they parade into a stadium.

            I also thought about how quickly these shouts of joy turn into shouts of condemnation. The minute a new president breaks a campaign promise, the minute a monarch does something that takes advantage of the people, the minute the football team starts losing, the people change their posture. They call for an impeachment or for a coup or for a new starting quarterback. We certainly are a fickle bunch.

            Now sometimes the people are right. There have certainly been presidents and monarchs and quarterbacks who have needed to be replaced. But the change in posture toward Jesus seems almost inexplicable. He is, after all, the Messiah – the Savior of the world. But the people still fail to see what kind of Savior.

            Notice how the gospel lesson from Mark 11 records the people saying, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!” The people are still looking for a military king like David to rid Jerusalem from foreign rule and oppression. And it’s not like Jesus hasn’t said he must undergo suffering and death at the hands of the religious and political authorities.

I guess it’s one of those things you must see to believe. The script is going to have to play out. Jesus is going to have to endure all those things he said he must endure before rising to his place as King and Lord of all. His approval rating will have to plummet to .0001% - remember his momma is still around.

In John’s gospel, Jesus says to Pilate, “If my kingdom were of this world, then my followers would be fighting to save me.” No one, not even his closest followers, fight to save the Messiah – the Savior of the world from the injustice of his death. And one must wonder, what kind of king would die to save those who won’t even fight for him at the most critical hour? What kind of king would lay down his life for those who won’t do the same for him?

As I was considering these questions, I recalled the prayer attributed to St. Francis, the one that says, “grant that I might so much seek to be loved as to love.” Our Lord and King, the Savior of the world came not to be loved but to love. Our Lord and King isn’t seeking re-election. Our Lord and King doesn’t care about approval ratings. Our Savior isn’t interested in a popularity contest.

Instead, our Lord and King is interested in establishing his Father’s rule in heaven on earth. Our Lord and King is interested in establishing the law of self-sacrificing love in a world that is governed by the love of power and control. Jesus is interested in saving the world from its self-destructive ways by showing the world how true life and true joy is found when we seek not to be loved but to love.

This past week, as I was considering the implications of Jesus’ triumphant procession into Jerusalem, I witnessed a procession that I had never seen before. The procession was led by an elderly man named Janusz Korczak and 192 orphans in 1942.

Janusz directed a Jewish orphanage in Warsaw, Poland when the Nazi’s came to move the 192 children in the orphanage to the Warsaw Ghetto. The Nazi soldiers told Janusz that he didn’t have to go. However, Janusz said he must stay with the children, and so he did.

During the two years in the ghetto, Janusz tried to help the children experience some kind of joy. He even got the children to put on a play during that time. In August of 1942, soldiers came to take the children to the Treblinka extermination camp. Again, Janusz was offered sanctuary but refused saying, “I cannot abandon the children.”

An old video captured the procession and shows Janusz holding the hand of a young boy as the group made their way to the train that would take them to the gas chambers. The video shows the children wearing their best clothes and each holding a favorite toy. Janusz had told the children they were going to a different country where there would be flowers and meadows and streams.

So even as they marched toward their death, Janusz managed to make the procession a cheerful one. There was even a buzz of excitement in the air. One last time Janusz was given the chance to save himself, but he refused and stayed with the children until the very end. He never abandoned them.

Janusz, a gifted writer and educator, wrote in his journal, “I exist not to be loved and admired, but to love and act. It is not the duty of those around me to love me. Rather, it is my duty to be concerned about the world, about man.”  

In light of the cross, the triumphant procession of Jesus into Jerusalem looks more like the procession Janusz led to the Nazi gas chambers than any procession led by a president or monarch or football coach. Jesus’ procession is triumphant not because of some kind of anticipated military victory but because through Christ God shows the world that joy and hope and love are more powerful than the powers of evil and death. God shows the world that evil and death is not to be feared for love wins.

Jesus rides into Jerusalem not for the fanfare but for the purpose of the cross. Jesus primary purpose is to die with and for all the abandoned children of the world. And to the thief who repents Jesus promises Paradise – presumably a place with flowers and meadows and streams.

Jesus rides into Jerusalem not to be loved but to love the world even to the point of his own death on the cross. Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem is meant to show this lost and fallen world that, even when we abandon our Savior, our God will not abandon us at the hour of our death. Jesus’ procession is meant to give us hope even when we march toward the worst kind of evil this world has ever seen.  And it is for this reason alone, we proclaim our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the King of kings.  Amen.