Palm Sunday: March 24, 2024
The Rev. Nat Johnson
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Philippians 2:5-11
Mark 11:1-11
Psalm 31:9-16
I have vivid memories from Sunday School when we heard the story of Jesus’ “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem. The teacher sat in front of a felt board and as the story was told, each of the characters was added to the board. A piece of felt shaped like Jesus, sitting atop a donkey, one arm raised in a royal wave. All around him were people – young and old – waving branches and laying their coats and giant leaves on the ground. The last pieces to be put on the felt board were the little children, who joined in the celebration, raising shouts of “Hosanna,” and running alongside the procession waving their own branches in excitement and joy. This is a day that has, since my childhood, always signified celebration and happiness – Jesus finally got the welcome, praise, and glory he deserved after his very long journey into Jerusalem.
What we weren’t told in that felt-board story as children was that the events of that day, the actions and shouts of the crowd as Jesus entered the city, were part of a ritual steeped in imperial meaning. When a Roman king, ruler, military commander, or governor entered a city, the fanfare was choreographed as a display of Roman power and supremacy. The parade signaled the greatness of the one who entered the city: the powerful man would ride in on a powerful warhorse; the crowds would spread their cloaks on the ground as an act of respect and honor; the branches waved around and laid on the ground, and the shouts of acclamation were signs of military victory and supremacy. This entrance ritual was intended as a display of power and might, of the dominance of Roman rule and authority.
In 2007, John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg, released a book called, The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’ Final Days in Jerusalem. They propose that Jesus’ wasn’t the only “triumphant entry” into the city that day. From the West, another spectacle occurred. Soldiers’ feet marched toward the city gates, imperial flags waved in the wind, and atop a beautiful warhorse sat Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. Like nearly hundreds of thousands of other folks, Pilate made this entry into the city every year. Unlike nearly hundreds of thousands of other folks, Pilate was not making a pilgrimage to a holy city. Rather, he came as a reminder to the people of Jerusalem that Rome was still in charge. It was ironic because the occasion for this visit was the yearly festival of Passover, the commemoration of Israel’s liberation from oppressive Egyptian enslavement. Rome’s presence was meant to quash any stirrings of resistance against Roman occupation.
Read against this background, Jesus’ “triumphant entry” becomes a little less triumphant, more comedy and parody than victorious and joyful, more political theater than happy parade. In other words, Jesus performs imperial authority in a way that mocks its perceived power and strength. Instead of riding in on a warhorse clad in armor and carrying banners of victory, Jesus sits on a donkey, a simple “beast of burden.” But this joke also has a critical sting. As he mocks the powers and principalities of the Jerusalem and Roman elite, Jesus declares that the reign of God he has been preaching and teaching and manifesting, is and will be wholly other than the reign of Empire. Jesus is king, but his kingship will be wholly different than the forces of domination and power experienced under Roman control.
This, combined with his first stop at the temple after his so-called triumphant entry, suggests that what Jesus does is an act of revolutionary resistance – AND, provocation! As Mark tells the story, Jesus’ arrival at the temple happened late in the day and he went to Bethany for the night. The next day, he returned to the temple, drove out the sellers and buyers, overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves. The note of celebration faded rather quickly as Jesus provoked not just the imperial command in Jerusalem but as he challenged the temple authorities and religious leaders.
We know where this story leads. Jesus’ provocation tipped the scale and the imperial and religious leaders sought to kill him. The “joke” of Palm Sunday will dissipate as the hours pass and we’ll find ourselves in the solemn setting of an intimate meal, overhear Jesus’ agonizing prayer in the garden, witness his arrest and watch as his disciples betray and abandon him as he’s tried, tortured, and executed.
And I wonder if this is what we’re meant to reflect on as we enter into Holy Week. The story of Palm Sunday is an invitation to enter more fully into the story of Christ’s passion, to take each methodical step through Jesus’ last week as he teaches his disciples, as he impresses upon them what love really means, what the true marks of discipleship are. The story of Jesus’ triumphant entry invites us to consider the cost of the protest we make when we wave our branches and palms and sing “All Glory, Laud, and Honor to our redeemer king!” It is a costly action to follow Jesus in the Way.
During this most holy week, we will be invited to sit in the confusion, desperation, and agony experienced by the disciples. We will be bid to acknowledge the shadows in which we hide, the evil in which we participate, and our own complicity in the crucifixion of Jesus. We cannot rush from the celebration and ceremony of the palms straight into the astonishing excitement of Easter. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday cannot be bypassed, because the only way to Easter is through them.
And so we are bid to walk this path with Jesus as participants and not simply observers.
We will experience the humbling act of being washed and of washing others;
we will sit with Jesus keeping watch through the night;
we will hear the mighty deeds of God who always works toward the liberation of God’s people;
we will sit with Jesus at the foot of the cross as he bears the loneliness and anguish of betrayal and condemnation.
My prayer for us this week, dear People of St Peter’s, is that God gives us the grace and the perseverance to walk in the way of the Cross with our Lord so that we might also, by his resurrection, be brought into the newness of life that Jesus offers us.