If we stop and think
about it, a number of the events of the first Palm Sunday are a bit puzzling.
That’s not to say that we shouldn’t believe the story, of course. But some of
the things recorded take some thinking over. Growing up in Twentieth Century North
America, we have been so nourished by comic books and Disney and Hollywood
When Jesus sends his
advance party of disciples into Jerusalem
"What Lord? Who
are you talking about? Who do you think you are, wise guy? Hey! Come back here
with my donkey! Stop thief!"
That's certainly what
would happen in Gurnee, or Antioch Lindenhurst . Yet, according to all of the Gospel accounts, it doesn't happen. Did Jesus use mental
telepathy to convince the colt's owner to allow a scruffy looking bunch of
strangers to walk away with must have been one of his most valuable
possessions?
The same thing
happens a bit later when the disciples run into a man, walking down the street
carrying a jar of water-- just as Jesus told them they would. They follow him up to his home, and calmly
inquire if the room is ready where the Teacher and his disciples are to
celebrate the Passover. How did Jesus know they'd run into that guy? How did
the man just happen to have a room prepared in his attic with a table set for
thirteen? Did Jesus work a minor miracle of some sort here as well?
I hope these questions
don't seem disrespectful or sacrilegious to you. The point of asking questions
like this is to make our faith more mature. When the Bible makes sense to us,
it becomes more believable. Unless Jesus becomes for us something more than a
heavenly magician who does tricks for His disciples' convenience, we can never
come to know Him as the Incarnate One-- a fully human man who, in ways we can
never totally understand or explain, came to us from God and reveals for us the
face of our Creator.
So it's important for
us to think about who this Jesus truly was. It's important to try and
understand the Bible. It's important today, to try and understand the events
of the first Palm Sunday, and of Holy Week itself.
Palm Sunday gets its
name because, according to John's Gospel, the people of Jerusalem waved palm
branches to greet Jesus as he entered the city. We probably assume those were
simply the most convenient branches lying around-- after all, you always see a
palm tree or two in most Hollywood Bible epics. But the fact is, palm trees
can't grow in the mountainous area around Jerusalem.
The nearest place
that palm trees grow in any abundance is Jericho-- fifteen miles away. Palm fronds do not usually fall from the
trees-- they must be cut loose. If you've ever seen a palm tree you know that
they can grow very high. Somebody
must have known Jesus' plans, and shimmed uup the trees, and cut the fronds in
advance and brought them to Jerusalem for the occasion.
Why all this fuss
over palm branches? Just as an olive branch symbolizes peace and harmony in our
world, the palm branch was a symbol of the struggle for political independence
of the Hebrew people. The palm branch was the symbol inscribed on coins during
the reign of King David. When Jesus did
enter the city, we read that the crowds greeted him with the cry, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed be the
One who comes in the name of our God." "Hosanna" literally
means "save us now". The
first scriptural use of the word "Salvation"
in that sense is found in the Book of Genesis, where it refers to Moses'
deliverance of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt
A contemporary
paraphrase of the people's greeting of Jesus would be, "Save us now, Free us, Son of David. Blessed was the reign of our ancestor David,
that is now about to be reinstated." And that greeting was as
politically provocative as the orchestra at Rick’s place playing the Marseilles to drown out the Nazis
singing the Horst Wessel Song in the
movie Casablanca
We don't know if
Jesus had anything to do with the choice of palm branches to greet Him. We
don't know if Jesus approved of the cries of "Hosanna". But one thing we do know-- He refused to silence His followers.
"If I silenced them, the very
stones would cry out." He says in
Luke’s Gospel. And yet all the
Gospel accounts make it clear that the decision to enter the city riding on a
donkey was Jesus' and Jesus' alone. The donkey is seen as a humble, peaceful
beast, as opposed to the horse, a military symbol.
Christian
pacifists like to cite that choice of Jesus' and I think they are correct. Jesus was
symbolically forswearing a violent revolution, and He was, at the same time fulfilling the words of the Prophet
Zachariah,
"Shout
aloud daughter of Jerusalem, for see, your king is coming to you... his victory
gained, humble and mounted on an ass."
The use of a donkey,
a beast of burden in a politically provocative demonstration (right on the
heels of his cleansing of the Temple), could only mean that Jesus was indeed
declaring himself as a Messiah who would not only be a ruler, but a servant as
well. Servant of God, and servant of God's people, Jesus was saying that in the
New Jerusalem yet to come, rulers would not lord it over people. Jesus was
calling all rulers to be servants first, and kings, prime ministers and
presidents second.
Our Lord reinforced
this idea at the Last Supper, when, clad in a towel, He took the role of
servant to wash the disciples' feet. The new Kingdom, the New Jerusalem, God’s
Coming Realm of Shalom that Jesus preached will be a Holy Commonwealth based on
equity, based on justice, free of economic and class distinctions, free of
racial prejudice.
It will be a way of
life without oppression, without exploitation, without racism or ageism or
sexism. Jesus was preaching, and living
out with His entrance into the city of Jerusalem, a totally new religious and
political and economic and social and intellectual reality for all of
humanity—of all colors and tongues ages and gender orientations.
The palm branches,
the donkey, the arrangements for the use of the Upper Room, the occupation and
cleansing of the Temple all suggest a pre- arranged plan. I have no problem in
believing that Jesus thought out the events of His ministry in advance. I'm
sure that Jesus knew exactly what He
was doing all along.
All this requires
that, as well as those who traveled with him, Jesus also had a network of
converts and followers who stayed in their homes in Jerusalem, or Bethany, or
Galilee, or Samaria, or wherever they happened to live. The Jerusalem based contingent
of that extended support network would have been the organizers and workers
behind the scenes of the first Palm Sunday.
These folks, people like Mary and Martha and Lazarus, and you and me;
along with Peter and John and James and Mary Magdalene and the other traveling
disciples would have, later on, together formed the core of the earliest
church.
Out of the teachings
of Jesus, out of the faithfulness of His followers, out of their hard work and
devotion to His cause, out of His marvelous teachings and genuine miracles, out
of his ultimate sacrifice on the cross, and the wonder of His Resurrection, out
of the work of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, out of Jesus' dream of God's
coming Reign would, as we know, emerge a movement-- the church.
In the church, Jesus'
dream would be shared and reborn, nurtured, reshaped even twisted at times to
some extent, by human collaboration with it over the centuries. But the dream
persisted and still remains. Even when the church has strayed from what Jesus
was trying to do and say--the promise of that coming New Jerusalem of Peace--
built on peace and justice-- remains.
The Gospel records
remain. We need to read it with open and
inquiring minds as well as with believing hearts. Blind faith is not enough.
You and I are called to be informed, active, inquiring, intelligent, and
involved in our faith.
Our faith must become
more than sitting around waiting and praying for miracles or visions from
Heaven. Believing requires more than intellectual assent. It means giving your
heart. It means following.
And following means
taking Jesus as the model for our everyday lives and relationships. It means
striving to make his earthly body—the church more just, more holy, more humane,
more godly. It means giving our hearts, living our lives and dying our deaths
for him—alongside him—with him—in him—for the sake of the world. In our own
corner of the world—and who knows? Perhaps beyond.
Otherwise you and I
will never get around to taking responsibility for our lives, to taking responsibility
for the shape of this broken world that our God has called us to live in, and
better, and transform. Otherwise this world we live upon and love so much will
continue to go its’ merry way to Hell in a bucket.
Like those anonymous
disciples working in the city to orchestrate Jesus' arrival, you and I are
called to do all in our power to
work, to share, and to further Jesus' dream of the Divine Realm of justice and
equity and freedom from oppression and liberation from the power of sin.
We are invited to help build that Holy New Jerusalem-- with
our prayers, our presence, our gifts, and our service-- with our minds, our
hearts, our souls, our lives.
Maybe we won't get
the full message. Maybe we’ll never all agree-- much less understand all of the
things that puzzle us about life and discipleship and Scripture. But you and I are still called to dream, to
vision, to believe, and finally to give our lives in the day to day living out
of that dream.
Let us pray.
God of infinite
power. We praise you for Jesus Christ, who came riding into the city of
Jerusalem on a lowly beast, victorious through love, and not through violence.
Help us to learn the true meaning of power and glory through Christ, who though
He was one with you, took on the form of a servant and shared our human life
and sufferings. We praise you for the vision of equity and justice in your love
that He lived out for us, and died to plant in our world. May we truly join you
in participating in the life and the struggles of the world's peoples, to our
joy and to your glory. Amen.
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