Liturgy of the Palms
March 29, 2015
Mark 11:1 – 11 or John 12:12 – 16
All four gospels agree that Jesus rode into Jerusalem in a one – man parade. All agree the grand entrance was planned and staged, either by describing the setup (Mark) or declaring its revelatory purpose (John). Jesus intended that those in the know would hear echoes of prophetic voices. The parade signaled confrontation to come. Mark says Jesus went to the temple on a reconnaissance mission to prepare for the next day’s events and the days to follow.
The story of Holy Week begins with a political act. What do we do? We do what we do with Luke’s story of Jesus’ birth, a story that heralds a great social upheaval. We give the story to the children. And Palm Sunday becomes a children’s procession. And then we move on to interpret all that follows spiritually.
There’s no mention of children in either version of the story before us today. Parents know not to let the kids keep the long blades of grass that pass as palm fronds in our services. Someone might lose an eye. Read the story. Someone lost his life.
Jerusalem was overflowing with pilgrims from all over the land. The Romans were on red alert. Their tolerance of the chronically troublesome Palestinians was wearing thin. Pilate was there to do whatever he could to maintain control.
The priests and their staff had to carry off the biggest week of services in the liturgical year without a hitch. It was bad enough they had to serve the once – a – year crowd from up north. They didn’t need one of them riding in on a donkey like a Messiah. There were zealots and crackpots enough in Jerusalem!
Preachers say Jesus was resigned to his death – with – a – purpose. Or he was eager to achieve his great, spiritual victory by dying for the sins of the whole world. He had a big job to do and was determined to take charge and see it done. We leave Sunday’s story with the children and rush the adults to Thursday night and Friday morning. As if all those hard words, arguments, and provocations in between don’t matter.
Stay with the story. Jesus didn’t parade into the city to announce an impending atonement for all the world’s sins. As John says, that understanding of what Jesus was about dawned on his disciples much later (verse 16). Jesus came cloaked in words and symbols that proclaimed release from real oppression, soon. Jesus came looking and sounding for all the world like the one prophets said would restore true peace, real order, and God’s government to Israel. That’s what frightened the people who had power to put him to death. Nothing he did and just some of what he said from Sunday through Thursday suggested he was about anything else. Agents of empire and guardians of pure religion don’t fear prophets who proclaim a new world beyond this one. They fear preachers who give people hope of a better life in the here and now.
We begin this week ready to rehearse the great drama of the salvation of the world. Let’s not forget that Jesus not only lived and gave up his life for reconciliation of the whole sinful world to God. He lived his life, according to all four gospels, in conflict with sin in and of the world in all its manifestations. He lived for people who needed to be reconciled to one another. He set a pattern for us, we who are both in and of the world, to live against all the manifestations of sin and for the reconciliation of all people. He was killed because of what he lived for. Let’s wave our leaves of grass as signs of solidarity with Jesus in this world. Tell our children what Jesus means today.
