Don't Skip It!

Luke 19:28-40

After he had said this, Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. 

As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They said, “The Lord needs it.” 

Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

Jesus’ life, death and resurrection are very much like some of our favorite trilogies. That’s because Jesus’ life, death and resurrection serve as many of their inspirations! The Star Wars Trilogy… the Lord of the Rings trilogy… they follow that same story arc of a journey through darkness into new life. In all of them… Biblical, Science Fiction and Fantasy… the first episode sets the characters on their journey and introduces the conflict. Then, in the middle episode, you have the dark, seemingly inescapable rise of the antagonist and then finally, in the last installment, we see the victory of the hero against impossible odds.  

Over the last few months, I’ve stood in the aisle on Sunday mornings reading the Gospel. With those lessons, we’ve been working our way through the first episode of the Jesus’s “Kingdom of God” trilogy. We’ve heard of the improbable origins of Jesus, born in miraculous circumstances, into an oppressive world, an early brush with the “Dark Side” in the wilderness and then his journey filled with teaching, preaching, healing and casting out demons, all the while building more and more tension against the Dark Side’s earthly forces. 

Today, with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, we end Episode I and in just a few minutes, at the very end of this service, we’ll get the trailer for Episode II in the form of a shortened version of Luke’s Passion. But that will ONLY BE THE TRAILER! It’s no where near like sitting through the whole thing! The FULL Episode II is called “Holy Week” and then, next Sunday we’ll gather for the epic, climactic, Episode III, which isn’t called The Return of the Jedi (although it could be) and it’s not called The Return of the King (although it could be called that too). Episode III is called… The Resurrection of the Messiah: Easter Sunday!  

But today, I’m here to wrap up Episode I and share with you the trailer for Episode II. Like any good trailer, my hope is to inspire you to come see ALL of Episode II this coming week! Because to miss “Holy Week”… to miss the critical Episode II of this, the Foundational Trilogy of all other trilogies… it would be like… well, skipping The Empire Strikes Back and just going from A New Hope to Return of the Jedi. It would be like reading the Fellowship of the Ring, skipping the Two Towers and going straight to The Return of the King? Would you ever consider doing that? Of COURSE not!  

You wouldn’t do that, because it’s HEARING Darth Vader say, “Luke, I am your father” and seeing Han Solo frozen in Carbonite in The Empire Strikes Back… it’s that decent into that trilogy’s darkness, that allows Episode III, the Return of the Jedi, to be so powerful! It’s the overwhelming armies of orcs, ring wraths and the seemingly invincible powers of Sauron and Saruman in The Two Towers that makes the overcoming of ALL of that so AMAZING in The Return of the King! 

In the same way, it’s sitting through the telling of the betrayal at the last supper and the cruelty of the cross and that stone sealing the tomb in an impenetrable darkness, shutting off all hope during Holy Week that allows The Return of the Messiah… that allows Easter… to be for us infinitely more than just colored eggs and chocolate bunnies. It’s that full force, full stop, horrific and impossible death that connects Jesus’s story with our story no matter how dark our story can ever become.  It’s hearing that decent into darkness that allows us to see that Jesus’s path is OUR path too! Because we see in Episode II there is no darkness which Jesus does not know, Episode III is not simply a story on a screen it a galaxy far, far away... It is OUR story too, about OUR darkness being transformed, however impossible that might feel, into the abundant lives God created us all to live as well!

So this year… Come to Holy Week! Come and absorb the darkest depths of Episode II and I promise you that in the Easter Vigil and on Easter Sunday you will understand with new fullness, new light, new joy… the brightness of God’s light! It is a light that no darkness can overcome!  It is a light that reaches each of us no matter how dark life might be.  Amen.