Palm Sunday: Celebrating

John 12:12–16 NRSV

The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord— the King of Israel!” Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written: “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.

Do the cries of “hosanna” and “blessed is the one” resonate to us? Do they ring in our ears and cause us to swell up in our own celebratory exclamation?

Or do we hear them and wonder, what is this all about? Does the juxtaposition of these cries of praise to the King, as he sits lowly astride a humble donkey, does this juxtaposition jar us, confound us, cause us to question what is going on?

Our text, this morning, has 4 movements.

First, there is the gathering of the crowd and their waving branches.

Second, there are the are the words of blessing upon the coming king.

Third, we have Jesus’ reply, his teaching which ties this processional to its wider lens in the Scriptures.

And finally, we have the admission that the disciples themselves did not understand these things in the moment, but only later, once all had been revealed.

Four movements which take us into Holy Week, the processional which leads us to the final days of Jesus’ life and his crucifixion upon the Cross of Calvary.

Let’s deal with each of these, briefly.

We begin with the gathering of the crowds and their collection of Palm branches.

From our previous weeks and because we know the time and season ourselves, we know that this is Passion week and it ties in with the Jewish celebration of Passover. We have heard that the people are gathering in Jerusalem to prepare for the feast and their annual marker of God’s faithfulness to them. The Passover feast is the reminder of how God sustained the people of Israel during their time in captivity in Egypt, cared for them as the Spirit of God passed over the land and brought judgement upon the firstborn of any house which did not mark their doorposts with the blood of the lamb, blood marked with a branch of palms.

If the disciples didn’t initially recognize the significance of this moment, then why did they gather? Well, it’s a parade, a festival, for one. The people gather to celebrate and mark the holiday together. We do this — Fourth of July, St. Patrick’s Day, even in typical Bellingham fashion, the progression of the species parade…we get out, sit on the roadside, and celebrate these communal moments together.

The people have heard Jesus is coming and they gather in the streets to welcome their coming king, or so they hope. There is enough hubbub around this year’s Passover, with Jesus and his disciples coming into town, that the people begin to swell with hope that he will reveal himself as their true king. They welcome him with a kingly procession.

Which leads us to the second movement of this passage: the cries of acclimation.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! The King of Israel!

This cry is important, the words significant, in their cultural context and their implication for the future of God’s people.

God’s people have long cried out for a King. The stories of the Hebrew Scriptures are filled with accounts of the people’s longing for a leader like the Kings of the Earth. And so this longing continues as they welcome Jesus, hoping he will be the king they have long waited for.

Their words and cries betray their hearts and their social position. They are longing for an upset, an overthrow. The powder keg that is an occupied people is about ready to explode.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The King of Israel!

The people are likening Jesus to the formal, imperial, leaders of their time. The ones who were proclaimed to be Sons of God, God’s divine servants and messengers. The Caesars, the religious elite. The power holders. These men were welcomed as demigods, in many cases, if not outright Gods themselves. To praise Christ as the one who comes in the Lord’s name is to place upon him all authority and divine power that would often get ascribed to these earthly leaders. In short — this is a subversive, political statement — Jesus is the true King.

We have a ritual celebration. We have political cries of acclimation.

And then, third, we have Jesus’ response:

“Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

The Christ, as he enters the city of Jerusalem, does not push off these cries or ignore their weight. Rather, he looks to the Hebrew prophets, once again, to name and reinforce his place in this dramatic unfolding story.

Jesus quotes the prophet Zechariah here:

Zechariah 9:9–10 NRSV

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 war-horse from Jerusalem; 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.

Jesus responds to the people’s cries by reminding them of their own prophet’s words.

Certainly, cannot imagine Jesus loudly yelling this in reply to the onlookers’ shouts…but what does happen is that Jesus uses this prophetic word to teach, to help his followers make meaning of what is happening here. I can imagine him leaning over to his beloved disciple, John, and whispering this piece of Scripture, this connection to the larger context of his mission. God’s people had longed for a king and been promised a redeemer. Jesus’ procession into the city makes this arrival clear, even though it his kingship will not be as the people expect or want it to be. He will be their King, but not as they predict.

Zechariah’s prophecy doesn’t speak of a King triumphant, a king trailed by armies and power. Rather, he speaks of a humble king, a king whose authority is great, but comes through peacemaking. Whose power extends to the ends of the earth by bringing all nations together to worship God.

When the people cry out for a King who will rival Caesar…they get a king who will serve through peace.

Finally, we have the fourth movement of this text, the acknowledgement that the disciples did not understand what was occuring here until much later. It is only after Jesus’ death and resurrection that the disciples grasp the importance of Jesus’ movement into Jerusalem. He certainly is the King of the Jews, but not as they had expected. He is the king who was born to die, and through death, defeat all powers of death that hold him from his true place as King and Lord of all Creation.

We are nearing the end of the Lenten journey. Today is a day of celebration, where we welcome in our King and proclaim that his rule will be one of justice and peace. We wave our palm branches (our Northwest ferns) and sing Hosanna, knowing that our cries are also subversive, undermining all power that would seek to control us, all leaders who would seek to use us, and instead, prop themselves up. We sing Hosanna in protest, knowing that these kings and rulers are second to the authority of the Holy One. We celebrate in defiance of the powers that be.

Shouldn’t we enter humbly into Holy Week, knowing that it is the road to Jesus’ death?

As I approach this week, I am reminded of Jesus’ ministry and his encounter with the disciples of John the baptist. How are we to act when our King arrives? Are we to humble ourselves to the point of shrinking back, bowing to the powerful ruler in our midst? Or are we to celebrate, to rejoice and be drawn in to the full experience of wonder as the Christ passes before us?

Remember Jesus’ interaction with the disciples of John the Baptist:

Matthew 9:14–17 NRSV

Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

Now is the time for new wineskins. The King is here. The moment is now. It is time to harvest and celebrate, to proclaim that Justice and Peace have arrived. It is time to set aside old perceptions of what our King might be and look squarely at Jesus — the humble King riding on a donkey, fully aware of the road he must walk as he enters Jerusalem. We confess our complicity in the powers of the world and defiantly raise our branches in resistance to this draw, this collusion. We will stand aside, we will lift our voices, we will praise the King who is riding on the donkey.

So what must we do with this text?

I wonder, who asks for your allegiance, your heart, your commitment? Who or what party or cause demands you speak up in the streets for its progress and fame? Do you feel the draw to be humble? To be focused upon peacemaking? Or is it a claim for power, a coersive force?

Who will we be as we welcome the King into the city, this week? Will we expect triumph and glory? Will we lay down our coats and raise our branches? Will we risk angering the authorities and powers who otherwise demand our full allegiance and support?

This is what it means to say Hosanna to Christ the King — setting aside all other hopes to follow the humble king. Follow him through the streets, wave your branches, and in it, show your faithfulness to a way of peace that is contrary to the war, power, and might that all other earthly kings trade in.

Jesus, the humble King, welcomes you today, to walk with him, worship him, make his way your way. Together, we journey with him to his cross, the king who would come to die, trusting that even the power of death may somehow be subverted and destroyed.

This is a Passion, our Holy devotion. Hosanna, in the highest, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord our God.

Amen.