Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday, Liturgy of the Palms

Here we have Jesus arriving in Jerusalem during the Passover celebration.

Passover being the time that Jews remember God delivering his people from slavery in Egypt.

A perfect setting for the life and ministry of Jesus to come to a crescendo as well.

This event is layered with meaning that won’t really become clear until the events of the week play out.

We know it as the TRIUMPHAL ENTRY, but there’s a lot of irony in that name.

Because the people cheering Jesus on were most likely expecting a different kind of triumph

In relation to their hopes and dreams the events of the week would turn out to be more tragic than triumphal, more disappointing than anything

Given that Jesus will be killed by the end of the week, one might ask, “How exactly is this Triumphal?”

And THAT is the perfect question to ask

So there were actually multiple processions entering the city around this time, coming to town for the festival.

Two of them in particular are worth contrasting.

The first being Jesus, coming from the east.

He’s surrounded by a crowd that’s mostly peasants and common folk

He’s seated on a donkey

which actually separates him from common folk who would have been walking on foot

but the donkey carries humble symbolism

for instances historians record that princes would enter cities on a donkey when they wanted to signal that they were coming in peace

it’s pretty disarming, not grand or threatening in any way

It also fulfills a prophecy found in Zecharia 9

Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

The other procession is from the west, that of Roman governor Pontius Pilate, coming to town for the festival

Pilate didn’t live in Jerusalem, he lived in a palace in Caesarea on the coast

Entering the city Pilate would most likely have been surrounded by soldiers and seated on a war horse

His entry was a show of strength and an assertion of dominance, meant to elevate him above others

Pilate and Jesus

These two men would obviously meet later in the week.

But even here they represent two very different ideas for how the world works

Two very different visions for life itself

Pilate represents worldly power and the way of the Empire

power attained through political cunning and economic shrewdness

power attained and defended through violence

power that subordinates and oppresses people groups

power that exploits the poor for the comfort of others

In our day we would view Pilate as a “successful” dude

A good education, a sharp suit

Probably a bit ruthless

Probably had some questionable ethics

But you gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet right?

So the pragmatist power players say

Jesus represents godly power and the way of the Kingdom

but one of the great revelations of Jesus is that godly power isn’t like worldly power

and it’s not just that it’s mightier

it’s actually kind of like opposite

The crowds that saw Jesus as an answer to the Empire most likely expected Jesus to simply be a STRONGER version of what Pilate represented

stronger and on THEIR team

playing the same worldy power game but WINNING for them

conquer with force and rule with dominance, subordinating the ROMANS this time … see how they like it

they shouted “Hosanna” which means “save us!”

Of course Jesus doesn’t play that game

And the fact that Jesus is making claims to be the promised king and NOT conquering the Romans just didn’t compute

The fact that he was arrested, humiliated and killed would have, to them, signaled that this man didn’t actually have any power

He didn’t even put up a fight and die a military martyr’s death

What Jesus represents of course is that the way of love is more powerful that the way of violence

Jesus absorbs the full impact of the way of violence and emerges victorious

Not with power for himself at the expense of others

His victory breaks the power of death to open life for all people

Two men coming into the city

The familiar way of the fallen world.

The way of the kingdom.

Now, we can lay all that out and make that neat little contrast between the two

But we have to recognize that both of these men had their followers when entering the city

Pretty much everyone abandoned Jesus by the end of the week as he actually lived out the way of non-violent love

Truth is, many churchgoers in the west still operate more in the way of Pilate than the way of Jesus

We’ve made a whitewashed version of it and wrapped it in religious language

But it’s still the way of competition, victory for our tribe over others, manipulation, and SOMEHOW, many churchgoers are not only OK with violence but seem to celebrate it

I’ve sat in church services where guest singers sand patriotic songs over full on video montages of the military.

That’s Pilate stuff.

And look, the world’s complicated and we can be thankful for our military and love our country, but the people of Jesus are called to something different than chest-beating celebrations of force against “those people”

The marketplace manipulations and competition for influence.

That’s Pilate stuff.

The unhealthy, hierarchical power structures that pass as “good leadership”

That’s Pilate stuff.

All this to say, in the events of the week following Jesus’s entry he doesn’t just go through the motions to complete a transaction

He models the way of the kingdom

The way of non-coercive, non-violent love that leads to life

It is fundamentally different than what is natural to us

And to accept what Jesus accomplishes during Easter we are called to pick up our crosses and follow him in the way of love that leads to life

By the end of the week Jesus will be mocked with the worldy powers asking

“This is your king?!”

“This is the way you choose?!”

“This is where you think hope is found?!”

We who believe answer, “Yes.”

The eternal triumph of Jesus over sin and death is greater than any temporary triumph attained by worldy power.

This is our king.

Hosanna.