"THE LONESOME VALLEY"

(Matthew 21:1-11) "Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, {2} saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. {3} "And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and immediately he will send them." {4} All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: {5} "Tell the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.'" {6} So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. {7} They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. {8} And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. {9} Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: "Hosanna to the Son of David! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!' Hosanna in the highest!" {10} And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, "Who is this?" {11} So the multitudes said, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.""

(Matthew 26:36-46) "Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, "Sit here while I go and pray over there." {37} And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. {38} Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me." {39} He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." {40} Then He came to the disciples and found them asleep, and said to Peter, "What? Could you not watch with Me one hour? {41} "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." {42} Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done." {43} And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. {44} So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. {45} Then He came to His disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. {46} "Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.""

(Matthew 26:69) "Now Peter sat outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came to him, saying, "You also were with Jesus of Galilee.""

(Matthew 27:1) "When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put Him to death."

(Matthew 27:15-26) "Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished. {16} And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. {17} Therefore, when they had gathered together, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?" {18} For he knew that they had handed Him over because of envy. {19} While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, "Have nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him." {20} But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. {21} The governor answered and said to them, "Which of the two do you want me to release to you?" They said, "Barabbas!" {22} Pilate said to them, "What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" They all said to him, "Let Him be crucified!" {23} Then the governor said, "Why, what evil has He done?" But they cried out all the more, saying, "Let Him be crucified!" {24} When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, "I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it." {25} And all the people answered and said, "His blood be on us and on our children." {26} Then he released Barabbas to them; and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified."

Some of you will remember the name of Joseph Campbell. Campbell taught in relative obscurity for many years until Bill Moyers discovered him, did a series on public television about Campbell's ideas about mythology and comparative religions, and thus elevated him into celebrity. Most of it posthumously since Campbell died shortly after that television series.

The book that caught Moyers's attention was a book entitled, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Incidentally, it also caught George Lucas's attention and was the inspiration for his film, Star Wars. The thesis of that book is that the same story appears over and over again in all the world's literature, including the Bible. He called that story, "The Hero's Quest." He said that the plot is always the same. A hero must make a solitary journey, sometimes to climb a mountain to get the prize, sometimes to go to the cave to slay the dragon, sometimes to journey the gates of the forbidden city.

Whatever the symbol for that stronghold of the powers that threaten to undo us, the powers of evil, the powers that threaten to take away meaning and goodness in life, the powers that seem too strong for us and threaten to overwhelm us, the hero is the person who faces those powers, enters the struggle, prepared to give his or her life, and then comes out of it a new person, with a new life.

He said those stories are everywhere. They are a part of every culture. In Greece, you see it as the Golden Fleece. In Britain, it is the Arthurian legends and the Holy Grail. And in the Bible, it is the story of Abraham leaving Ur of Chaldees, the most civilized part of the world in those days, and journeying through many "dangers, toils, and snares" to a promised land. Or it is Moses, leaving the comfort and security of shepherding in Midian to go to Egypt and confront Pharaoh. Or it is David, leaving the simple life of a shepherd boy and going out to meet the giant Goliath. Or it is Jesus, leaving the safety of Galilee, and heading for Jerusalem.

That is the story of Palm Sunday. And he didn't want to go there. If you read the story in all the gospels, you will see that. According to Matthew, in fact, he spent his whole ministry in Galilee. He never went to Jerusalem during his lifetime. Which was quite extraordinary. It would have been natural and easy to journey to Jerusalem from Galilee. In fact, it would have been expected that a good Jew would go to Jerusalem several times in his life to the Temple for the high holy days.

Jesus never went there. Until one day at Caesarea Philippi he announced that the time had come for him to go to Jerusalem. His disciples immediately protest. Especially Peter, who says, "You are crazy to go there! Don't go there!" Peter knows what Jerusalem means. Jerusalem is the center of power that has been trying to do Jesus in. As long as Jesus stays in Galilee, in his own country, among his own people, then he is relatively safe. But for him to go to Jerusalem, it would be like Moses, going to Egypt to challenge the Pharaoh, "Let my people go." Or it would be like Abraham, leaving his ancestral home in Ur of Chaldees, and venturing out simply on the trust in God. Or it is like David, stripping himself of the armor of Saul, going to meet the giant Goliath alone. It is like "The Hero's Quest."

Now get this. When he announces that he must go to Jerusalem, he also says that you and I must go there. I think that is really why Peter objected. When Jesus announced what he was going to do, Peter said, "God forbid that you should ever do this!" But Peter knows that if Jesus goes to Jerusalem, then he must go there too. Peter had just told Jesus, "I will follow you wherever you go. Others may not follow you, but I will follow you." Now he wishes he had qualified that a little bit, "I'll follow you, maybe, under certain conditions." But he can't do that. If Jesus goes to Jerusalem, then he must follow him there, and so must we.

Jesus rebukes Peter. Then immediately he begins using the language of "The Hero's Quest." "If anyone would come after me, he must take up a cross and follow me." Then this: "For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." That is the path of the hero, to lose your life in order to find it. The old spiritual put it:

Jesus walked this lonesome valley
He had to walk it by himself
Oh nobody else could walk it for him
He had to walk it by himself.
You must go and stand your trial
You have to stand it by yourself
Oh nobody else can stand it for you
You have to stand it by yourself.

At some point in everybody's life you are called on "The Hero's Quest."

I remind you of the famous first words in Scott Peck's book, The Road Less Traveled. His first words are, "Life is difficult." Then he goes on to say,

This is a great truth, but most of us can't see it. Instead we moan more or less incessantly, noisily, or subtly, about the enormity of our problem. As if life is supposed to be easy for us, and therefore what has happened to us has never happened to anybody else before, at least not in this excruciatingly painful or insoluble way that it has burdened us.

Peck says that he wrote that not because as a therapist he hears his patients say that, but because he has been tempted to say that himself. You could call it the "Law of Exceptionalism," the idea that this has never happened before, at least not to the degree that it has happened to me. "Exceptionalism."

I like that cartoon I saw a long time ago showing a huge desk, a huge CEO sitting behind the desk, in a huge leather chair. Standing meekly in front of the desk is a man in work clothes, obviously a lowly employee in that corporation. The worker says to the boss, "If it's any comfort, it's lonely at the bottom too."

Life is difficult for everyone. Someone explained to me once why they don't like Lent. They said, "I'm not into suffering." I like that. Like it's optional. Like it's an adopted lifestyle.

Well Jesus was not into suffering either. You remember he prayed, "Let this cup pass from me." But when the time came for him to go on "The Hero's Quest," the text says, "He set his face steadfastly for Jerusalem."

The truth is, he didn't have to go there. He could have avoided it. He went there to fulfill his mission. He went there because God called him there. His mission was to show us what life is all about. He could not show us what life is all about simply by teaching us in a comfortable setting in Galilee. To teach us what life is all about he had to go where someday you and I have to go, and demonstrate that when you do that, when you give up your life, at least put your life in God's hands, you will receive it back.

A man named Jourard wrote a book called, Transcendent Behavior. In that book he said that each one of us has both deep needs and shallow needs inside of us. The problem he said with most of us is that we elevate the shallow needs to ultimacy, and make them the top priority in our life. The shallow needs are the desire for pleasure, comfort, and security. What's wrong with our life, he said, is that we think those are the most important things in life. In fact, our whole culture conspires to preach that to us day after day, especially through advertising. We get the same message over and over again, that the shallow needs are the most important needs. The need for pleasure, comfort, and security.

But Jourard says that there are more important needs. He calls those the "transcendent needs." The need to get beyond yourself. The need to get outside of yourself. The need to become a better person than you are now.

He said that there are four ways that we reach this transcendent level in our life. The first is through creativity. Creativity is year, somebody asked Bob Feller what he thought about it. Feller said something very wise. He said, "Give him a chance to mess up his life, and then see how good he is."

That's the old man talking. He's been there. Feller, the most celebrated pitcher of his generation, knew that life is not about being on top with no problems. Life is about being knocked down, and getting back up again. "Give him a chance to mess up his life, and then see what happens."

The heroes, the heroines, are those who, when that happens, do not crawl away in bitterness or in fear, but they set their face steadfastly to face whatever Jerusalem they have to face, and expect that new life is going to come out of it.

Help us to be masters of ourselves,
that we might be servants of others,
through Christ our Lord. Amen.


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