March 29, 2026
• Rev. Mindie Moore
Lent Week 6 (Palm Sunday): We Have No King But the Emperor
John 19:8-15
Beck update
Pray
Today is the final week of Lent, a day known as Palm Sunday that ushers us into Holy Week. Now, Holy Week might be a tradition you’re very familiar with or it might be a bit new to your practice, so I want to tell you about what that looks like at St. Luke’s and why it might be important to you.
Holy Week starts today, as we remember Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, which is what the video we watched talked about. And it’s a strange day, because even with the fanfare and celebration, this entry into Jerusalem will be Jesus’ last. It’s his first step towards the cross.
That’s what this whole week is, really. Steps towards the cross. Because, yes, Easter is coming next Sunday...but there’s a lot that happens between today and next week. We remember Jesus’ last supper and the first time Communion was shared on Maundy Thursday. And we remember Jesus’ crucifixion and death on Good Friday.
On just a really practical note, there are three different ways you can experience Holy Week at St. Luke’s this week. They’re all at North Indy, for everyone no matter what location you worship at (SLIDE):
· Stations of the Cross are a self-directed experience, in the North Indy Sanctuary that are open to walk through and experience anytime the church is open. You might consider experiencing them before or after one of the services throughout the week.
· Monday at 6:30pm: Service of Prayer and Healing
· Thursday at 7pm: Maundy Thursday (Service with Communion)
· Friday at 12pm & 7pm: Good Friday
And, yes, that’s a lot of time to spend at church, I get it! But the reason these moments matter is that they prepare us for Easter in a really unique way. They remind us of everything that happened to GET to the joy and healing of the resurrection. And I think in the world we live in, we need to have space to see how God shows up in lament and darkness and places that feel hopeless. We need to remember WHERE resurrection springs out of to truly understand the power of it.
And so today, we start here, back at Jesus’ trial, not quite a week after he enters Jerusalem to fanfare and celebration. Things have dramatically changed for Jesus. Just days before, he was being treated like royalty, and now the people are saying, in no uncertain terms that HE is not their king...but (SLIDE) We have no king but the emperor.
Now, it is more than a bit ironic that we chose to do THIS statement said about Jesus on this specific week when there was a No Kings Protest yesterday. We didn’t plan that, but I definitely had a few people ask me this week what I was going to do with these things coinciding. Some of those questions were very eager...and some were kind of nervous.
So let me speak to that for just a second. YES, there are plenty of parallels to our current political situation that we could explore. I don’t need to pretend or gloss over that just to try and create a false feeling of comfort or detachment. But what I want to do today, is I actually want to take us a layer deeper than current events, many of which I would consider to be symptoms of a root condition. I think a lot of the harm, the reactivity, the chaos that we’re seeing in our country right now is stemming from the fact that we as HUMANS have a really volatile relationship with power. And sometimes, any of us, no matter who we are, we can get caught up in grasping FOR whatever we think power looks like...and we can lose Jesus in the midst of that.
Last year, I went to an exceptionally specific and nerdy gathering called “The Festival of Homiletics.” It’s essentially 5 days of sermons and workshops about sermons. I know you’re all bummed you missed it, but I LOVED every minute! And at this gathering, one of the speakers was a Christian Ethicist who I really admire named David Gushee. He was leading a couple of workshops on his newest book called (SLIDE) “The Moral Teachings of Jesus”.
And I showed up to this workshop pretty excited. I was kind of like this week’s more eager questioners. Because I thought this was going to be an epically well-researched theological takedown of the American Church and the ways it has strayed from how Jesus lived and what he taught. How much do I LOVE to sit on that high horse?!
But that wasn’t the focus at all. While he did acknowledge that what I just said is true, and we DO see a lot of people claiming a Christianity that is typically more aligned with a political party than Jesus Christ, his book is actually about the fact that the teachings of Jesus are scandalous no matter WHO you are. No matter HOW you vote. No matter if you would identify yourself as a liberal or conservative, or even a moderate! Sorry to say, but no matter WHO you are, Jesus’ teachings are kind of hard to digest across the board.
Because the teachings of Jesus do not come from any system that is rooted in this world. And the things Jesus asks us to be about often don’t fit neatly within any extremes of politics or power. And in a world that demands we pledge our allegiance to these different earthly expressions of power...trying to follow Jesus while navigating the realities and importance of being politically and socially engaged can feel incredibly difficult.
If we pull ourselves out of OUR context and go back to what’s happening in this Scripture story, we see Pilate’s expectations and frustrations in how Jesus shows up in the face of earthly political power during his trial. Jesus, as terrible of a time as he’s having, is seemingly unbothered and uninterested in having a back and forth with him. Pilate finally says to him: “Do you not know that I have the power to release you and the power to crucify you?” Like, do you know who you’re dealing with here? Do you know who I am?
And he’s not entirely wrong, but he’s also maybe not entirely right. One of the things that makes Pilate unique in this moment is that the Jewish leaders—the people who are really out for Jesus—they have no jurisdiction over whether or not Jesus is crucified. They could stone him for blasphemy, that’s a thing they have done to other people, but crucifixion is a uniquely Roman instrument of justice. So Pilate is ultimately the one who is going to make that decision about Jesus' fate...but he’s got in the back of his mind that he needs to decide carefully. Because he knows what can happen when a large group of united people turn on the person in power. So he’s GOT power...but it’s fragile and it can get overshadowed pretty quickly.
I think Jesus knows this, and even more importantly, he also knows who HE is. And the thing about Jesus is that—even though he’s LIVING under Pilate’s system, he’s not beholden TO that system. That’s a really key piece of how Jesus navigates and responds to earthly power. Because earthly power shapes his reality, it’s obviously shaping the moment he is in and the punishment he’s going to end up enduring, but his worldview and the way he shows up in the world are shaped by something totally different. His moral compass doesn’t come from a decree from a politician...it comes from the very nature of who God is.
And when that’s how you’re able to live...earthly power can huff and puff and get loud and in your face...but it holds a very different kind of weight. It matters...but it matters less. We realize that in all the places that earthly power is fragile and falls short, God’s power is true and lasting. That there’s something better we can follow. Something rooted in goodness and hope and eternity.
That’s the place Jesus is operating from. THAT is what’s shaping Jesus’ relationship and response to power.
Now, it might not be super surprising, but Jesus is absolutely an outlier in how he’s able to view the power around him and this moment he is in. Because BEYOND Jesus, this earthly power is certainly holding a GREAT deal of weight and influence. And that influence is so strong, that it is seeping into some places that we might not expect. The Scripture tells us that after this conversation, Pilate starts trying to actually release Jesus, which is kind of ironic given what he’s just said to him. But as he tries to release Jesus, the people gathered, primarily people who are Jews, push back hard on this. They say, “If you release him, you are no friend to the emperor.”
And I had to read that a few times, and each time I read it, I became more and more puzzled. Because...ok? And being a friend to the emperor matters to this specific group of people...why?
I spent a little time researching the Roman Empire this week—my husband told me I could have asked any man because apparently, they think about the Roman Empire at least once a week, at least according to TikTok. I don’t, so I did have to look some things up.
And one of the interesting things about the Roman Empire is that they had a lot of power, but I wouldn’t say they had a lot of friends. They were in charge of a LARGE area and there was peace established IN this area, but it was peace that was overall pretty fragile. And when the Romans took over Judea, this area where our story takes place, it wasn’t like the Jews there were excited about it. The Romans put people in place to govern this part of their territory and they weren’t always supportive of the religious customs that had existed before they got there, they could be ruthless, they taxed the people!
The bottom line is that the powers that were put into place politically by Rome didn’t often cultivate a warm and fuzzy relationship between the two groups. There could be outright hostility and resentment towards Rome from the Jews, and the Jewish leaders. Because for those Jewish leaders, God was supposed to be the ultimate authority. Not some emperor or governor or any earthly person.
All of that to say...this sudden affection for and alignment with the government that happens in this story...it feels weird to me. It feels counter to what this group of people has claimed to believe. It certainly feels like a contrast to that Palm Sunday story we heard, when people seemed to have no problem shouting words of praise and proclamation to and about Jesus as he paraded down the streets.
Author Diana Butler Bass wrote about this in her email this week and said this:
the Jesus of the “No King but Jesus” sign isn’t about putting a crown on Jesus. It is an ironic theological-political sign, a slogan rooted in American democracy itself — a reminder that the “kingdom” of Jesus was reign of people over and against hierarchy and privilege, where the only “ruler” was a poor carpenter who rode to his “coronation” on [a donkey].
“What we often call the triumphal entry,” wrote biblical scholars Marcus Borg and Dom Crossan, “was actually an anti-imperial, anti-triumphal one, a deliberate lampoon of the conquering emperor.”
It was Jesus’ way of ridiculing Caesar
So what happened? Why the change? Where did people find themselves drawn away from Jesus and into something else?
I’m sure there are a lot of answer to that, but the one I’ll hold in front of us today is fear. Maybe there was some:
· Fear of change
· Fear of retribution
· Fear of losing their OWN power, which might function differently than Rome’s but you better believe it exists for a small group to benefit from.
· Fear that God is working in a way they cannot understand
· Fear of losing something
Fear is a pretty convincing thing. And (SLIDE) Fear can cause us to make power our king instead of Jesus.
We think power can solve all of our problems...but I can think of so many times when power just falls short. Especially when power lifts up or practices things that are counter to what we know about God. When power asks us to harm people or create “others” among us. When power bends towards violence and oppression. When power forgets about God’s explicit calls to care for the widow, the orphan, the sick, the poor, the foreigner. That’s the barebones basics of God’s concern in the world, and it’s been consistent for centuries. But sometimes power is really uninterested in that and it can lead us to places that just look nothing like Jesus.
When we notice that power is beginning to play that kind of role in our lives, we might just ask ourselves (SLIDE) what kind of king we really expect Jesus to be? Do we look for a humble servant on a cross? Or do we expect Jesus’ power to look like Rome (or insert whatever political power you want here)?
As we watch Jesus defy expectations, as we see him stand on something different in the face of earthly power...what does that mean for us? Maybe we have our own expectations we need to set down in order to follow the unexpected and humble power of Jesus. Maybe there’s something we’re holding on tightly to that’s getting in the way of seeing Jesus for who he really is. Maybe God has an invitation for us to move beyond fear and into what’s really true.
During our closing song, you’ll have the chance to pray through these ideas in a few different ways. First...you can stay right where you are. And just have a moment of quiet.
OR, there are a couple of stations you could visit. On the sides of the room, we have tall table that have baskets of crosses in them. You can go to one of these tables, bringing your palm and laying it down as a symbol of laying down whatever God might be putting on your heart...it could be an expectation. A fear. A place where you’re stuck. As you lay down your palm, you can take a cross with you. To remember who Jesus is and how he lived out God’s power on earth, in ways that no one expected.
You might want to do something a little more free-flowing to reflect. So at the back, there’s a table with some different interactive prayer practices. And I want you to know that you don’t have to rush...the band will guide our time with this one song, but you can stay after the benediction to keep praying once the service is over.
I’m going to invite us into that space of prayer and reflection with a prayer of my own. And as the band begins to play, know that the stations are open and this time is yours to connect with God. Will you pray with me?
God, it is so tricky to know what we are supposed to do with power and the many forms it takes. There’s so much chaos...there’s so much that’s broken around us...that honestly it is easier to put our trust in whatever power is loudest or speaks most directly to our fears. It’s so much harder to put our trust in you and the unexpected ways that you show up.
And Jesus, this is the week where you invite us in such a direct way to do just that. To fix our eyes on the one who would go to the cross, who would choose to die so that life could be made known, who would show us that true power never has to be desperately clung to, but can be held loosely because God is holding us.
Jesus, could you make us brave enough to set some things down today? Could you help us trust you with our fears...with the things we don’t quite know how to move on from...with the times we’re tempted to wield power like a sword because we’re not sure we have any other options?
Can you help us, Jesus? Help us as we come to you today. Help us believe in you as king...help us believe that when our hearts cry our “hosanna, save us” that you don’t just hear us but you act.
Help us believe who you tell us you are. And help us hold on to the things you say are true.
It’s in your holy name we pray and live, Jesus. Amen.