Palm Sunday

So, it is Palm Sunday, one of the high days in the Christian calendar, it suffers from being close to Easter so it’s date changes every year; but it’s sort of linked so there is no getting round the issue really.

I have attended quite a few services celebrating “Palm Sunday” over the years and the vast majority have tended to focus on a celebratory theme, telling the story of how Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem serenaded by crowds of people shouting out Hosannah, and Blessed is the son of David.

You can picture it now, a nice spring morning with dew settled on the grass, perhaps the sun burning off the dew in a morning mist when over the hill comes Jesus, side saddle on a donkey, wearing regulation white toga cum nighty, long golden hair caught in the breeze creating a halo effect.

Or perhaps not.

I want to invite you to join me on our own pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but set in the 1^st Century and to try and see the events with 1^st Century eyes and ears, and then I’ll bring you home again safely at the end.

To fully grasp the events of Palm Sunday we need to go back a few weeks before when in the early Spring of AD33 Jesus gets a message that a friend of his, a young man called Lazarus has fallen ill.  He hesitates; several arguments are put forward as to why but the underlying truth is there is a hesitation; and in due course Lazarus dies.  In an era before antimicrobials this is not something to be surprised at. Death was a common event.  Lazarus then is dead and his two sisters Mary and Martha are looking at disaster. They are likely to be homeless and they turn to the only man they can trust other than their brother, and this time he is too late. 

Then something very weird happens.  First century Jews believed in the resurrection but this was at the end of the age, not there and then so to speak.  Lazarus is very dead by the time Jesus arrives, he is warned by Martha “already there is a stench for he has been dead for four days” (John 11).  This man is very dead.  What happens next turns the world on its head and sets the timetable in many respects for what happens next.  Lazarus is brought back to life – I don’t know how and I can’t explain it; I doubt if the people present could either.  However, it was clear. Jesus had done something that sent a message as loud as you can imagine to the Temple spies in the mêleé.  Death no longer held fear as the ultimate punishment.  Not everyone was pleased though; the Sadducees who held power in Jerusalem; just over the hill, first of all didn’t believe in the resurrection or life after death and secondly Jesus had just removed their ultimate threat from them over the poor.   Healing and Resurrection are revolutionary acts, they came with deeply political impact, and as a result Jesus’ fate was sealed. A lesser known outcome is that Lazarus also becomes a marked man; his crime - dying and coming back to life.

Fast forward to March AD33; if you believe Nick Page March 29^th. An important date in history then as now it would seem.  Jesus has sent two of his disciples ahead to obtain a colt.  This isn’t prophecy by the way, Jesus had visited Jerusalem alone during the previous winter (it’s mentioned in John’s Gospel), and would have had ample time to make arrangements then.  It was clear then what direction the movement was going in, and there were people in his closest group who he didn’t trust.  Certainly among them were his brothers.  So Jesus climbs this colt, not quite house trained and commences a descent into the city explicity echoing the prophecy made by Zechariah 9, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, Your King comes to you”.  For those pilgrims on the hillside who knew the psalms, it was pure spectacle and the message was clear. The Messiah was coming!.  God himself was returning to Jerusalem.   The Lord was coming home.

This image needs some closer inspection before we leave it.  In the Hollywood films Jesus is seen rather regally astride a donkey surrounded by a worshipping frenzy.  A few things need to be said.  The colt was unridden and was several times probably too small for an adult human to ride.  We get therefore an image of a ragamuffin army of the poor and destitute probably with a few lepers thrown in at the back surrounding the slightly comical figure of Jesus riding the colt, imagine what it looks like riding one of your children’s bikes when you are three sizes too big. Jesus leads his army of fun loving slightly wildly joyful people through the gate at the East of the city.  This image is set against what is happening from the West of the city, where Pilate enters with the pomp and ceremony of the Roman Army, protected by his armed security, gold and silver on display. This is the choice; power or peace, who do you choose, the god of power and might or the God who breathes life into the world.

The other part is that for too long the crowd following Jesus have been given a gross and serious disservice.  We are told that within days they clamour for his death.  This is not true, in fact more fake news from the powerful elite.  They never fell away from their support.  The people who called for Jesus’ death were no more than a rent a mob hired by the Temple leadership.  No more than the thugs who turn up at demonstrations for the EDL.  You might then see the crowd who marched into Jerusalem as an original People’s March. 

The ride and entry into Jerusalem is a well planned piece of political propaganda. Don’t forget that politics and religion in the 1^st Century were intimately interlinked.   Imagery is key, everyone knows what is being said without Jesus saying anything – well not much anyway.

What happened next?  Well according to Mark, Jesus has a look around then goes back to Bethany. Is that it?  Matthew and Luke have Jesus entering the Temple and causing a fuss, John places this at the beginning of his Gospel almost immediately after the wedding at Cana, so it’s unclear as to when exactly this happened. It could have been the Sunday; it could have been the Monday as John’s Gospel is written as if to fit the days of a week, mirroring Genesis.

It is possible that something happened in the temple and in the Bodleian library in Oxford there is a clue to what that was. There is a scrap of scripture 45 lines long that contains a story that is not recorded elsewhere in the Gospel. However, the details are archeologically accurate.  The story has Jesus entering the temple and approaching the Holy of Holies, but having done so without washing his feet. Again we have Jesus showing up the purity laws as hypocrisy, because the way they are interpreted only enables the rich and wealthy to partake, the others are kept at arms length. The poor are actively kept out of the Kingdom of God (the community of worshipping).  This is what Jesus shows to be wrong in the eyes of God.  Jesus, and if you fully get it, God, has turned up in Jerusalem and the Temple leadership don’t know what to do because they can’t control him.

The scene is set.  Jesus has arrived, Pilate has arrived, Caiaphas has assumed High Priestly rites.  All the key players are here.  Who do you want to follow?  Caiaphas, a captive political mayor of Jerusalem who owes his position and riches to Rome; who has grown rich at the expense of the working classes.  Pilate; a thug who doesn’t flinch at despatching anyone who gets in his way; or Jesus a revolutionary in all senses of the word, a King of an altogether different type of Kingdom, someone who stands up for the rights of the underdog, who values Women and Children, who refuses the path of war, and instead will herald the judgement of the age and bring in the new age by showing how impotent in the end power and violence is.

We live in a time of political upheaval.  In some ways ironically similar to those that Jesus lived in.  We have a rich elite, highly charged feelings on all sides of the political debate.

Whose side are you on?

In Jesus’ name

Amen