Parables, Palm Sunday, and the Super Bowl Halftime Show

Did any of you catch it? No not the super bowl! I mean, let’s face it, that was a huge disappointment. No, no, no. I’m talking about the half-time show by rapper Kendrick Lamar.

I did. But I have to admit, the first time I watched it I was more confused than amazed. Here’s some of the questions that were going through my mind:

• Who was this figure playing Uncle Sam?

• Did I just see Serena Williams dancing in a white tennis skirt?

• Oh, I think those dancers have just formed the American flag! But did it just get torn in two?

• Did I just hear, “You’re going the wrong way!?!”

  
  

Look to be honest, the first time I watched this, I was in entertainment mode. I was looking for a parade of stars. I was waiting to be “wowed” by flash, dance, lights, and song.  And so, when it was all finished, I kind of looked at Cyndy and those around me and said, “Well, that was interesting? Kind of? Was I supposed to get something out of this?”

It was only later, after reading more about the symbolism in the show, (check out this link if you’re interested in knowing more)  that I began to realize that this performance by Kendrick Lamar and company was a major political statement. And when I went back and watched it again, I realized just how courageous this half-time show was! Lamar was trying to speak truth to power! Lamar and company were trying to raise awareness about the racial injustice that still runs rampant in our country. And like a good artist, he did it in a way that left those in power confused and wondering just what they saw. But, for those on the other side of the tracks, the powerless, this show was electrifying and empowering!

In some ways, just like Jesus, Kendrick Lamar was speaking in parables.

I’ve been reading a great book about parables by Sam Tsang, a good friend of mine, called “Right Kingdom, Wrong Stories”. The book explores the meaning of Jesus’ parables in the gospel of Matthew. Two things have come to me in reading this book. First, just what a politically complex world Matthew wrote in. Tsang writes this about the times: “The Galilean picture Josephus (a major first-century historian) painted looks a bit like pre-World war-II China, where warlords fought for control over populations and territories. Josephus also showed that different cities had their own self-interest. In his (probably quite accurate) self-portrait, Josephus was a prominent leader trying to keep the factions from killing each other and killing him.”

Sometimes we read these parables without fully understanding the complex political system Jesus was trying to navigate while he was telling them. We tend to lump all these factions into one group when the fact is that each faction was trying their best to navigate through a complex political system dominated by Rome.

In order to speak the truth and stay alive in this political turmoil, Jesus had to speak a new language. A language that would confuse those in power, but empower those who followed him, the powerless. And like any good artist, Jesus invented a whole new literary genre...the parable…to do just that! A “simple” story that sounded like a simple farmer’s tale to those on the outside, but that, to those on the inside, spoke to those being oppressed by this system and stirred them into action.

One of Jesus’ greatest parables wasn’t a story at all, but a highly choreographed dramatic event. In Jesus’ day it was the equivalent to the Superbowl half-time show. And that event is one of my favorite events in the church calendar...no it’s not Easter or Christmas. It is the event we call Palm Sunday! In effect, it is Jesus' greatest living parable!

It all centers, in my mind, on the donkey. You see, in Jesus’ time, a real parade, on the Roman side, was meant to intimidate. Those in power would ride in chariots lead by 10 or 20 “Clydesdale-like” horses. These horses would scare Andre the Giant! Along with all these horses, came Roman soldiers with powerful breast plates and swords that would march down the street just hoping someone would get in their way so they could run them over. The parade was a way to intimidate and show just how much mire powerful those in control were.

Jesus, however, enters the city of Jerusalem on a donkey. He’s not high up and ready to dominate, he is down on the ground with the people. And when children come up to him, he doesn’t run them over...he scoops them up and lets them ride with him. Talk about talking truth to power!

People aren’t shouting “hail to the king” out of fear, but out of joy and love. They see Jesus as the one who has come down to be with them and to lift them up out of the pain of their circumstances.

The people in power probably looked at Jesus’ parade and scratched their head wondering just what this was all about.  But the people without power saw just what they needed: a leader who cared enough to walk with them. A leader ushering in a new "kin-dom of God" that included them!

Let’s just put it this way...in Jesus’ time...this was a Super Bowl Half-time show nobody would ever forget. A carefully choreographed parable about a God who was doing something tadically new in Jesus.

Your friend and pastor, pondering just which half-time show I'm dancing in, Brook