SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2024 | LENT - Palm Sunday, Sixth Sunday in Lent (B)

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Revised Common Lectionary 3-24-2024: Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday

Mark 11:1–11

11 When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 2 and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. 3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’ ” 4 They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, 5 some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” 6 They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. 7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. 9 Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,

“Hosanna!

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

10Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!

Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

11 Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

Big moment, powerful moment...

I

Good morning!

And welcome to our beginning of Holy Week - Palm Sunday marks our transition into Holy Week towards Easter. It’s gonna be quite a ride of course! And we get a preview in the reading of the long section of Mark’s Passion narrative.

But I think there is a value to focus on Palm Sunday first. A pivotal moment that is captured in all four gospels - you know you have to pay attention to something if it is in the synoptic gospels (Mark, Matthew, and Luke), as well as John! And there is a lot of there. But to begin on a lighter note - Did the disciples ever return the colt? They promised they would, but then if you read on, it is never addressed! One of the mysteries of faith!

Anyway, the depiction of the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem - not the first and not necessarily last - is significant in many ways. Not only he is fulfilling prophecies left and right, but he undermines both the authority of the Roman empire and the religious leaders. And to top it off, he is showing everyone he is his own kind of a Messiah, a redeemer, not choosing one of the popular expectations.

He enters in a parade with many excited people as if he were an emperor, but he is doing so in a peaceful and almost perhaps silly way - on a colt, a foal of a donkey, a baby donkey up to one year! A small, fluffy, and cute donkey....he may have as well entered on top of a pony or mini horse wearing a top hat! A grown man on a baby donkey - just thinking about it makes me chuckle a little bit. Humor is often the last resort in the hands of the oppressed to fight back and I feel like it is not lost on Jesus here - he is showing the powerful people that they cannot control everything and everyone and at the same time he identified with the lowly and oppressed.

I think God calls on us to pay attention to the actors of the stories around us that some would rather hide - I confess that I no longer care for what the government of Israel says, all I see are suffering Palestinians as they continue their onslaught and it is clear that by trying to completely eradicate Hamas, they will create generations of Hamas recruits with nothing left to lose because they destroyed their homes, killed their family members, and shattered their hopes for the future. Any empire eventually ends up on that road, I think - being their own self-fulfilling prophecy breeding opposition in a bid to maintain control - Roman Empire, Austro-Hungarian empire, British Empire and so on! It ends up in a vicious circle that perpetuates violence and hatred until the bitter end.

So as we enter the holy week, perhaps let’s look for the little details in the narrative and try to see the hidden humor, irony, rebelliousness, out of placeness…in what unfolds. Let us imagine ourselves in the crowd welcoming Jesus on a colt - uncertain about the future, with mixed expectations and hopes...Jesus and the whole passion narrative challenges us to think out of the box and reflect on our ways we can challenge the narratives we are being told. Amen.