At the end of the novel
Dr. Bernard Rieux looks over the town
which has apparently been freed
from its devastation and dying.

Hearing shouts of joy
rising up from the streets,
he became aware
that life and safety
are always in jeopardy,

For he knew what the delirious crowd
did not.
He knew that the bacillus of the plague
never dies
and never disappears.

He knew that it can remain for decades
slumbering in furniture
and in linens,
and that it waits patiently
in bedrooms and cellars
in luggage and waste bins,

until, perhaps, the day will come
when the Plague
will awaken its fleas
and its rats
and send them out to die
in a doomed city.

Camus is not writing, I believe,
about that specific disease,
so much as he is illustrating a truth
which we prefer not to acknowledge.

The truth
that in the midst of life and maybe happiness
and even joy
the seeds of pain and of death
lie dormant,
hidden in dark places of our hearts.
waiting to be awakened
and to be carried by the rats
into the doomed city.

"Hosanna, Lord," they cry.
"Hosanna in the highest" - "Save us, Lord"
Save us, big time.

Today's Jerusalem and the Holy Land
illustrate for us the truth
of these words.

The Plague of fear, hate, and retribution
is loosened,
The city is dying inside;
again.

Every time Israeli agents
booby trap a telephone,
every time a Palestinian retaliates,
every time he is hunted at night in Palestinian territory
and is blown away on a public road
by a gun ship,
the rats scurry,
the Plague spreads,
the human soul dies a little.
and becomes further and further from God.

As we worship this morning,
Jericho and most Palestinian towns
have had huge trenches cut all the way around them.
Roads, communications, food, access to hospitals
are all cut off
and people from both sides,
mostly innocent and peace-loving
die inside.

We have major stories to absorb
in today's bible readings
this Passion Sunday.
Its all quite overwhelming.
Its supposed to be so.

Jesus has approached Jerusalem
and the day had come
when the Plague has awakened its rats
and sent them to die in public places in Jerusalem,
and voices cry out
of the Son of God,
"Crucify, Crucify!"

Yet, God is at work
to free his people
from this plague.

Look at the introductory reading
from today's Procession of Palms.

It is Passover.
Hundreds of thousands of Jews
journeyed to Jerusalem each year
from all over the country.

They filled the streets
and lived outside in the valleys
and with relatives in nearby villages.

Among the people
were zealots,
who hoped for the overthrow,
by whatever means,
of the hated Roman Occupation.

So, the Roman Governor, Pilot
each year would come to Jerusalem
at Passover
to oversee the control of the population.

The people cringed
when the Roman Governor arrived
on this most holy of weeks.

He had brought with him
a cohort of the famous Roman 5th Legion
from Caesaria Maritima.

This was the day of their arrival,
and they made a big impression
as they march into the city.

They did so with an awesome display of power
so that the people would be
appropriately awed.

Pontious Pilot,
and his officers rode in through the gate
on splendid war stallions;
chariots followed,
and hundreds of the feared heavy infantrymen
took up the rear.

The ugly standards were carried
through Joppa Gate
in the North Wall,
and the city felt the anger, hatred
and resentment
which twists the human soul.

Meanwhile,
as spectators watched the entry
of the occupying army,
something was happening
at the gate opposite the Joppa Road.

Coming down the Mount of Olives
was a man on a donkey.
He rode across the narrow valley
and the Garden of Gethsemane
and up to the East Gate of the walled city.

Jewish messianic expectation held
that the messiah would come
from the East
and would enter the city
which God would have be holy
from that direction.
That is why we face the east wall
in our churches when saying the creed.

And, Zechariah wrote, 500 years before Jesus,
that the Messiah would come
to liberate the people,
riding humbly on a donkey.

Jesus knew all of this
and used it.

So, here he comes
with several hundred of his followers from Bethany
and even Galilee.

Some people watching the soldiers
streaming into the city
hear of this counter play
at the East Gate,
and leave the Roman columns
to rush over to see what is happening.

The symbols of the Messiah
assault their senses and rouse their hearts
and in their fear and anger
they cry out
"Hosanna, Lord, Hosanna!"
Save us, Now!

Meanwhile,
the followers of Jesus
were singing,
"Blessed is he who comes
in the name of the Lord."
And, Jesus enters the stricken city.

But, he does not lead his procession
to intercept the Roman column
or to storm the Fortress Antonia
there by the East Gate.

Rather, he rides into the temple area,
taking the presence of God
into the symbol
of the very heart of the People.

God, in a mis-direction play
enters from a side door
and cleans house,
while the supposed "main event"
is going on elsewhere,
and he moves to capture
the heart of the People.

The stories that follow
remain to be played out
over this Holy Week.
We will sit at supper with Jesus
on Maundy Thursday, dinner at 8.
We will be stunned
at his arrest and execution on Friday evening
and we shall sit at Vigil
awaiting his triumph
in Saturday Evening's Great Vigil.

We will have a front row seat
at the real main event.

Come and be healed by this story.
and by this Lord.

This is a story
of God's great mis-direction;
how he came
not with arms and war stallions
to coerce
and to cause fear and resentment to multiply,
but, he came as a vulnerable human being
and linked us forever to God,

that we might discover
that the cosmic battle
for the human soul
takes place
not on main street
not against whatever oppressor
we blame for our problems
and isolation,

but it takes place
in the human heart.

"Hosanna, Lord!"
"Save us from the Plague within,"
we cry,

and he does.