Palm Sunday, 2017

Matthew 21:1-11 and Matthew's Passion

During the Easter Season our liturgies take on a strange look. Holy Thursday – foot washing, reserving the Blessed Sacrament in a special altar; ending the Mass in silence, without a dismissal. Good Friday – no Mass at all, the one day of the year when we don't celebrate the Holy Eucharist. And Holy Saturday – the Blessing of the Paschal candle and its procession, the long readings from the Old Testament, and usually, someone gets baptized or confirmed or receives first Holy Communion. And of course there is today, where we always begin with the Gospel of Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and then we walk with him through his passion and death. And we always wonder, perhaps, how those people who cheered him and lay palm branches before him could turn around and scream for his blood a few days later.

According to some scholars, it wasn't quite like that. First of all up to that point Jesus was an itinerant preacher; sure, people knew about him, but the vast majority of Jews, especially those who had come from far distances, had probably never heard of him. Second, as the Jews began their solemn celebrations it was the practice of the Roman administrator to parade his troops through town, sort of to remind the Jews that if they were tempted to rebel, it wasn't a good idea. Third, very few Jews had any love for the Romans; like conquered people everywhere, they despised their conquerors.

And then Jesus enters the city. It's almost like he is mocking the Romans. They are coming in on war horses with armor and weapons. He is riding a donkey bareback, his feet probably scraping the ground. The Romans had come through the main gate; Jesus had entered through a smaller side gate. And the people noticed, and they loved it. They joined in the mockery, laying down their cloaks and waving palm branches – these would be things that the Roman governor would have to pay people to do to honor him. And why? Why would Jesus do this? Well, he knew he was going to die and had made peace with that fact in the Garden of Gethsemene. Perhaps his purpose was to make himself known to as many people as possible before his Passion began – because it would be from people who knew of him that his apostles would later form His church, and probably by the time of the crucifixion everyone in Jerusalem knew what was going on.

The same scholars that came up with that idea also felt that the people screaming for Jesus' death later on would not be these crowds of ordinary people; the people who began by hating the Romans weren't going to change their minds. The ones calling for his crucifixion were after all within the court of Pilate, not out in the streets, and they were undoubtedly the people who wanted to stay on Pilates good side – maybe some of them were even being paid to demonstrate.

So Jesus begins his passion by showing his contempt for power; and power fights back as only power can, with violence and death. And Jesus goes on to show his contempt for power by rising from the dead, and no power can ever touch him again.

And when you think about it this way, we lose our sympathy for Pontius Pilate, who is usually portrayed as being forced against his will to condemn Jesus. But maybe Pilate was seething mad and knowing that Jesus had not committed any crime, put on a show trial so that no one could accuse him of not following Roman law – because oddly enough, Romans took their law very seriously.

So when we think about that moment when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, perhaps we should see that part of being holy is refusing to be intimidated by power – even power that can put you to death – if that power is standing in the way of the Kingdom of Heaven; if it is standing between us and what God is calling us to do.