Palm Sunday - a day of subversion

Luke 19: 28 - 40

It is time to be honest. I am absolutely fed up with the sentimental donkey processions that in a sickly sweet way, are dragged out on Palm Sunday. I am fed up with Palm Sunday being constantly turned into a day for nice safe religious thoughts. Why? Because there is nothing safe about Palm Sunday for it is a day when sharply opposing worldviews clash, a day that makes the eventual outcome of a torture, a show trial and public execution become inevitable.

For a moment let us imagine Jerusalem on that day. Passover is drawing near. Over three million pilgrims are to be found within the walled city, packed tightly together. Religious and nationalistic passions are running high for this is occupied land, occupied by a power that cares little for the practices and religious sensitivities of these peoples.

And now into that city comes the latest of a long line of prophets. Many of these prophets have been the cause of great trouble to Rome. For long, a fractious people have hoped for, even longed for an anointed one who would deliver them from their oppressors and set them free.

And what a reception. The crowd goes crazy. They sing their Hosannas. They cry out;

“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.”

And they wave the palm branches that St John tells us that they have taken from the trees.

Now, we often look upon this as well meaning, even if in view of later events shallow, enthusiasm for Jesus. An ever so slightly enthusiastic Praise Service!

Of course there may have been elements of that. But there is so much more! When the people shouted “Hosanna” which means “Save us” they were not looking for a Billy Graham style mission. No, these were words rooted in rebellion. To Rome, the message that they gave was a message that these people longed to be led into destroying the very presence of Rome. These were people who had been the losers under Roman rule and every fibre within them just longed to drive the infidels out. And Rome knew this. For that is why the great religious festivals such as Passover would be accompanied by Roman demonstrations of power with the bodies of the crucified being made all too visible to the visiting pilgrims.

But then the palms referred to in John’s Gospel. Here, the message could not be starker. You see, nearly 200 years before Jesus rode into Jerusalem, there had been a great war of liberation in Palestine. The then occupiers of Palestine, Greeks, had sought to destroy the Jewish way of life. The Temple had been defiled with the erection of a statue of Zeus. Those who would not conform to pagan ways such as those who continued to circumcise their baby boys faced execution. Eventually, a Jewish priest named Mattathias along with his family decided to resist. Many of them were killed but the survivors under Mattathias’ son Simon Maccabeus, formed a guerilla army. Their resistance was bloody but ultimately successful with them regaining the Temple which they repaired, cleansed and reconsecrated, an event celebrated by the annual feast of Hannukah. Even today part of the celebration of Hannukah involves the waving of palm branches for when Simon Maccabeus had entered Jerusalem in triumph, we are told in 1 Maccabees, he was greeted with praise and palm branches. And this was part of the collective Jewish memory and so the crowd that welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem knowingly acted as they did in the hope that Jesus would fulfil the hopes of liberation.

So rebellion and insurrection are in the air and we can sense a tension within the city. John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg point us to that in their book, “The last Week” in which they offer us a picture of two processions. One is mad up of Jesus and his noisy followers who they suggest were the poor and landless, those desperately wanting and needing hope. The other procession is Pilate on his stallion accompanied by the economic elite and the Temple establishment who owed their power to Rome.

An unequal match you may think, but the scene now takes a comic and ridiculous turn. For this King, Jesus, comes not on a charger but on a donkey. What a mismatch! Where is the power in this? Kings are meant to be powerful but this, this is but a parody. And yet, there is a scriptural warrant for a King riding a donkey. Back in Zechariah, there is a verse which proclaims;

Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo your King comes to you;
Triumphant and victorious is he,
Humble and riding on a donkey,
On a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

This verse comes against a background of restoration of Israel but more important is what follows it for it is this which points to the true nature of the Kingship of Jesus.

“He will cut off the chariots from Ephraim
And the war horse from Jerusalem;
And the battle bow shall be cut off,
And he shall command peace to the nations.”

Do you get the picture? On Palm Sunday, Jesus stands before us with a transformed picture of Kingship and power. Rather than oppress as is so often the practice of Kings, he will confront injustice as when he turns over the tables in the Temple, the economic and religious centre of Jerusalem, where the powerless are being kept from God. Rather than dominate, he will reveal himself as the servant of all. Rather than fill his boots with the blood of others as was the case with Simon Maccabeus, he will allow his own blood to be shed.

But now, we need to follow him through this most holy of weeks. Time and again, he will amaze us with his passionate inclusive love and his compassion to those who had hitherto been nobodies. And as love is revealed, so to will we see an opposition that brims with hatred. And disappointed that he has failed to meet their aspirations, many of those who rejoiced at his entry into Jerusalem, will have in despair moved from the one procession to the other and now they will be manipulated to a cry of;

“Crucify him! Crucify him!”

And what of today? Will we let this unusual King transform us and our world. Will we allow him to guide us to a new reality in which the forces of domination are broken? Will we seek to institute the sort of community in which all are valued?

And in our own lives, will we recognise what this King offers. For whilst in holy Week we see Jesus wronged by humankind, we see him offering love at precisely those moments when humankind is at its worst. For this Jesus confronts the cycles of hatred and violence with unlimited love for the likes of you and me. Rather than a Kingship that destroys its enemies, Jesus offers to us his Kingship which reconciles us to God and gives to us the Divine forgiveness and acceptance that we so need.

So today, wave your palms with joy! Shout your Hosannas! And most of all rejoice at how Jesus saves us and gives meaning to our lives.


This sermon was preached at Bideford Methodist Church and Lavington URC on Sunday April 1st 2007