As part of North Street's 40 Days of Lent, every Saturday, Pastor Jeremy is sending out a "preparing for worship" reading. This week's passages come from two liturgies - of the Palms and of the Passion. We'll touch on both tomorrow. Here are the passages in full: Matthew 21:1-11, Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29, Isaiah 50:4-9, Psalm 31:9-16, Philippians 2:5-11, Matthew 26:14-27:66. Click here to read them.
Have any of you ever heard a rendition of the poem "The Touch of the Master's Hand"? I remember an evangelist that would come to churches when I was younger and would sing the poem set to song. If you've never heard it, you can click on the title above and hear a rendition of it. But briefly, it's a short poem about a violin up for auction. The bidding started at $1 and worked its way up to $3 before a man came up and played the violin masterfully. The bidding then began again, this time in the thousands of dollars. The worth of the violin was said to change because of "the touch of the master's hand." It was a wonderful story.
An experiment along these lines was conducted a little over a year ago.
Joshua Bell is considered by many the greatest violinist alive. He has played at the major symphony halls across the world. His playing regularly draws sold-out crowds. On January 9th, 2007, at Boston Symphony Hall, Bell drew one of these such crowds, where "merely good seats" sold for $100. As many of the best classical violinists in the world do, Bell plays an infamous Stradivarius violin. He paid $3.5 million for his. Only the best for the best. Bell's playing is accomplished, well-known, and of the best in the world. He's a master of the violin.
Just three days after that Boston performance, Bell was put to an experiment. He donned a baseball cap, jeans, and a t-shirt and carried his Stradivarius violin into a subway terminal - L'Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C., a busy station that services mostly government workers. At 7:51 AM, he set himself up right by a trash can, just by the escalators, and several yards from the stand that regularly sells lotto tickets. And for the next 45 minutes, Bell played his heart out, mostly classical violin songs that only a few ever master. He held nothing back, giving his all as if he was indeed on the stage at Carnegie.1097 people heard him play that morning...but only a handful stopped. And only one person recognized who he was. His total earnings that morning? $52.17 was tossed into his violin case (and $20 of that was from the woman who recognized him). Bell confessed that he felt very uncomfortable after a while. In between songs, a space usually reserved for thunderous rounds of applause, Bell was forced to squeak out a few uncomfortable chords, pretending to be tuning his violin, as the hundreds of people hurried by, too busy to hear greatness.
Apparently context is everything.
It's easy to be caught up in something great when "everyone else is doing it." It's easy to say what is worthy when everyone is expecting something to be worthy. It's easy to be a part of something that's surrounded by greatness, easy to join a movement that's already moving at the full steam of popularity, easy to jump on the bandwagon that's promoted and well-known.
Perhaps this is part of the picture of Palm Sunday. The people are expecting a Messiah. They're ready and waiting for a leader who will conquer and set things straight once and for all. Their hunger has begun to be satisfied by this guy who's coming into town who has supposedly been healing people from their sickness, causing blind people to see, and has even raised people from the dead. You can almost hear the buzz: "Hey...let's go see Jesus!" And the fanfare begins - palms and coats on the road, shouts of "Hosanna!", waving, smiling, and clamor. This guy's got a lot of fans.
But just a week later, the fanfare ends. And this very same guy - Jesus Christ, in a different, darker context: bound by chains, scarred by whips, and mocked by soldiers and institutional leaders - has no fans, no followers, and no fanfare.
Which Jesus are you following?
I look forward to worshiping with you tomorrow,
For & Through Christ,
Jeremy
(You can read the whole story and watch hidden video of the Joshua Bell experiment here.)
