Palm Sunday
2 Apr 2023
So which will it be? The palms or the passion? We are offered a choice of participating in the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem or of hearing his last words dwelling on the meaning of the cross. These are held not in opposition to one another, for they both are true, but held in tension, one supporting the other.
In Paris is the famous Arc de Triomphe. Military powers love to use it as a backdrop for propaganda: Germans in 1871, the French in 1919, the Germans in 1940, and the French and Allies in 1944 and 1945. It is a symbol of more than French autonomy and power. Jerusalem was a symbol of more than just a Jewish state.
If you were there, you would be familiar with Zechariah. You would know that Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem meant one thing: the new era of the Great Jubilee was beginning and it was beginning with Jesus. God’s kin-dom is being ushered in and the graves opened, the dead resurrected, just as Ezekiel had said. Wasn’t Lazarus proof enough? You would have gladly spread your cloak on the ground, brought branches for the festival of booths, the time when you remembered living in huts as you recalled the wandering in the Wilderness, going with God from slavery to being a free people. Jesus is coming to set the people free and to cleanse the temple. He is the new Moses.
On the other side of town, in stark contrast, you could watch as Pontius Pilate and a legion of Roman soldiers entered through the main gate. He was not there to set the people free, open the graves, nor begin the great Jubilee.
Holy Week is an emotional roller coaster. Today we celebrate, making way for the King who will restore us. Hosanna! Save us! We come crashing down to Tenebrae, where the light goes out, then rise again, but not so fast or so far, as the full weight of Jesus’ mandate on Thursday hits our guts. Friday we are at rock bottom; like a drug addict out of drugs and out of options. Saturday we go to the liminal space between death and life, and then we soar once again as the Easter Vigil brings the light back into the world.
Do not avoid the bottom of the well; do not neglect the heights!! We must live through it all. Take the time to dwell on all of it.
I have a question for all of you: why did the people who were saying “save us now” turn on Jesus? Here was the person who opened the temple to all people; those previously prohibited or cast out (the lame, the blind, the eunuch, the gentiles, women, and the poor who could not afford to buy the needed sacrifice) were able to enter the inner temple. Heaven’s gate has been opened. It wasn’t enough, was it? Those shouting hosanna expected Jesus to lead in the way all earthly leaders do: with military power and might. God’s blessing would be restored and Jesus would rule as King. They do not see that Jesus is truly divine nor do they see that God’s promise is health and healing for all, not a return to a time of earthly glory, with its own set of evils. This is truly God coming into the world for all people. He fails to give them what they think they want and need; instead he gives them what they really need. The water that forever quenches thirst; the bread that forever satisfies hunger. The tragedy of Holy Week is that no one sees it. They looked for salvation in a way that, like our own endless cycle of wars and empires, offered no real salvation.
Jesus came to open the gates of righteousness, asking that we do justice, be merciful, and love one another.
As we enter into this Holy Week, try to walk with Jesus. Try not to fall asleep or betray him. Pray for justice, mercy, and love as you walk the way of the cross.
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