How Do We Understand Palm Sunday?
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Beth Henricks
April 2, 2023
Scriptures:
John 2:23-25 “When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.”
Luke 19:35-40 “Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven! Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”
Palm Sunday has been one of my favorite Sundays of the year as I was growing up. It’ a joy each year here at First Friends to gather palm leaves and have our children wave their branches shouting hosanna as we sing together Hosanna, Loud Hosanna. There is a sense of joy, thanksgiving, honor, and praise to Jesus as he rides into Jerusalem on the donkey. The people are rejoicing and recognizing Jesus as a man from God who has performed many miracles including recently raising Lazarus from the dead.
3 of the 4 gospels report that Jesus told the disciples to go ahead and bring him a donkey as his means of transportation as he enters the city. Much has been written about the symbolism of this ride on a donkey and this symbolism would be familiar to many of the Jewish people in the crowd as Zechariah wrote in the Old Testament chapter 9 verses 9-10 “ 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. He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.”
We get a sense from the crowd that they are beginning to recognize that this might be the promised Messiah from God. They remember when Solomon became their King and he was presented to them on the donkey of his father, David. They are shouting hosanna (often translated as please save us), blessed be the king who comes in the Lord’s name, peace, and glory in the highest heaven. This seems like the proper welcome and ceremony for a man such as Jesus. Maybe this is Israel’s king that will save them from their oppressors, and they are filled with hope and promise.
In the Gospel of John, we read that, Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead. He looked up to God saying “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here so that they may believe that you sent me.” (John 11:41-43). I am sure this helped to build the crowd that gathered outside Jerusalem. The people came to see Jesus and Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead.
What I have never understood about this story and his glorious entrance into Jerusalem for Passover, is why the adoring crowd so turned against Jesus (I do think this change took place in a longer timeframe than less than a week from Palm Sunday to his arrest and crucifixion based on all that he still shared with the crowd after his ride on the donkey). Were they just worshipping this man who performed miracles and were whipped into an idolatrous frenzy to see Jesus and Lazarus? Were they really embracing the messages of Jesus that required sacrifice and rejection of power or were they just taken with his star quality and wanted to see him in the flesh? Jesus knew how weak we can be and how easily manipulated a crowd can become for both good and bad. We have seen many examples of this in our history where people might not consider doing something on their own but will take part in unthinkable acts when brought together like a mob.
I think many of the Pharisees understood this principle of the mob and I am sure there was a lot going on underground while the crowd was going crazy about Jesus. The Pharisees had been concerned about Jesus for some time and seeing this crowd had to raise their desire to do something about him. John 12:19 reports the Pharisees said to each other, “You see, you can do nothing. Look; the world has gone after him.” As Jeff read to us in Luke “some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered , I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” The temperature is rising, and more Pharisees are saying that they must do something about this situation. They see that they must turn this crowd around.
While there were Pharisees out to eliminate the threat of Jesus, the Gospel of John tells us many authorities did believe in him but because of these Pharisees they did not confess it for fear they would be put out of the synagogue. They loved human glory more than the glory that comes from God. That is also part of the mob mentality. We are too afraid to stand up against the majority, the folks in charge, the ones that tell us what to do because we don’t want to be set apart from our tribe.
Oh goodness, is this not our human tendency? We want some human glory, we don’t want to stand up against others and we find it easier to talk about God’s glory, to talk about our belief system as opposed to living it when there are consequences. It’s a difficult path to follow the path of Jesus. And that is why I had us read John 2:23-25. Jesus would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people, he knew what was in everyone. Jesus knows us and while he may have appreciated the praise and honor showered upon him on Palm Sunday, Jesus knows our hearts, he knows we are broken, he wasn’t going to believe in the adulation being given him on his ride into Jerusalem because he knows how difficult it will be for us to take up a cross and sacrifice ourselves. We love the highs of miracles and the celebrity status of a charismatic leader but are we ready to sacrifice and take up our cross like Jesus will be doing?
Some of Jesus teachings after Palm Sunday are hard for the crowd to accept. The crowd is still trying to figure out who exactly this Jesus really is? Jesus is willing to bring some turmoil into their lives (and our lives) and turmoil is not something that anyone purposefully seeks. Jesus cleanses the temple in Matthew after his entry into Jerusalem. Jesus curses the fig tree, shared the parable of the two sons, the parable of the wicked tenants, the parable of the wedding banquet, the question about paying taxes, questions about resurrection, giving the greatest commandments (to love God with all your heart, soul and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself), he denounces the Scribes and Pharisees, he laments over Jerusalem and foretells about the destruction of the Temple. These are some tough stories to embrace and commandments to live by. And this potential Messiah is talking about the destruction of the Temple? The Messiah is the one to uphold the Temple and to be Israel’s leader.
So what is the crowd to do about this Jesus? Walter Wangerin Jr states in his book about Jesus Reliving the Passion, “Always the threat of this man is manifested in those whom his presence excites. Look how volatile the people are now! Worse than that, he is questioning religious laws developed over the centuries, the very forms by which we order ourselves and know ourselves and name ourselves. If order is lost, so am I….What then? Why, then I must destroy before I am destroyed. Self-preservation is a law of nature. I will arrest this Jesus by stealth and kill him. Because if I do nothing, I will be nothing.”
It is clear that the crowd started having second thoughts about this commitment to Jesus’s way.
The crowd heard Jesus say “Now is the judgement of this world, now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” The crowd said “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man?
The group thinking of the mob is changing. They wanted a Messiah that would become their King and bring justice and defeat to the Romans. They wanted judgement now and wanted their rulers (the Romans) to be driven out. But Jesus is talking about a later time when he would be lifted from the earth – how does that fit into their desire for a King in the here and now?
So many of Jesus parables talk about sacrifice, putting others before ourselves, seeking justice, and aligning with the poor and marginalized people. Jesus was talking about a power that is not what the world idolizes as power. As John Caputo, theologian and philosopher writes in his book Cross and Cosmos, “Theology must get over its love of power in favor of the powerless power of love, weakening the strong metaphysics of omnipotence into the soft power of the coming Kingdom’s call.” “God’s power is constituted by powerlessness and nonsovereignty, God’s eminence by being what is least and lowest among us.” God is revealed in the defeat. God chose the weak to shame the strong, the foolish to shame the wise, the nothings and nobodies to confound the powers that be.
Wow, if I am part of the crowd, the mob, this is not the vision I have of a Messiah. I want a real leader that will change my life now, will deliver on promises made, will be strong, decisive and take action on my enemies. How do I support someone that suggests that the way of God is to abandon the desire for power and to choose the weak, the nothings and nobodies and pursue a way that tells me to love my neighbors, my enemies, that values justice over my self interest and understands power in a very different way. This is the hard way, the road less traveled, the way of the cross where we are willing to give up much for others.
During a class in seminary on philosophy and religion, we studied the writings of philosopher and theologian John Caputo (that I just previously quoted), and he became my favorite theologian. He writes that it is when Jesus freely gives up his life that he became Christ. It is through the free sacrifice of Jesus life that we defy death. This is how we move from Palm Sunday to Jesus crucifixion, death, and resurrection.
Jesus knows us, gets us (as we have been seeing in ads on TV) and understands our nature of light and shadow. Jesus has never been about the short term but always has the long term in mind. He knew what was coming even during the adulation he was receiving on Palm Sunday. And he was in for the long term.
My prayer for us today is that we not become completely discouraged by the short term all around us but continue to listen to God’s voice and God’s call for each of us for the long term.
As we enter our time of unprogrammed worship, which is our communion, I encourage you to quiet your heart and mind and listen to God’s voice. If God is speaking to you directly, please hold this in your heart to ponder. If God is speaking to you and you sense that we all need to hear this message, please stand, and come to a microphone. Here are a few queries to consider.
How willing am I to take up my cross and follow Jesus in the difficult path?
Do I sometimes follow the crowd or mob and am afraid to stand up for what is right?
Do I seek ways for power in this world? Do I seek the glory of power more than the glory of God?
Do I follow the path of the long term versus seeking short term desires?