Palm Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday. It is believed that, there behind me on that stone, Jesus mounted on a colt that had never been ridden before, and on it, he entered Jerusalem (from eastern side of the city). You may want to remember that we are told by Mark that many people spread their cloaks on the road and even others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. A crowd went ahead of him while another followed him. Both crowds were shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heat!"

In the course of this coming week, we will ask ourselves this question: if Jesus entered Jerusalem triumphantly on a colt on Palm Sunday, what went wrong in less than a week that these crowds turned on him on Friday and asked that He be crucified? Remember, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan inform us that on that very day (Palm Sunday) there was another process that happened in Jerusalem almost during the same hour. The governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate "led a procession of Roman Cavalry and centurions into the city of Jerusalem". From the western side of the city, Governor Pilate leads Roman soldiers on horseback. Each soldier was clad in leather armor. On each centurion's head, hammered helmets gleamed in the bright sunlight. What a contrast!

Governor Pilate entry into Jerusalem was a show of military strength and might while Jesus' was meant to show the opposite. Jesus says, 'Say to the daughter of Zion, see, your ing comes to you gentle and riding a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." These were the words pronounced before by Prophet Zechariah. Jesus is reminding these oppressed and occupied people that God will deliver them from the hands of the occupiers/oppressors but their king will come to them humbly, a king who comes in peace and tranquility and not on a steed of war. 

Needless to say that people who were shouting Hosanna had placed their faith in this Jesus who they thought was going to restore the glory of the nation to its splendor when David and Solomon ruled the invited kingdom. He might have disappointed them big time at a rate they could not absorb. They realized that he was not going to make their lives better, deliver them from the oppressors.  Actually, they realized that Jesus might make the life worse for them. He never defeated Romans, He never dissolved the unfair tax code he never put commoners in charge of the government and apparently he never would. So they thought that his actions will provoke Romans to come hard on them. 

So the question is, if you happened to be in the city of Jerusalem on that day which leader would you have chosen to follow? Jesus or Pilate? And what would you do if it happened today? Friends, it is the human tendency to choose power and might over humility. If anything, Palm Sunday should challenge us to think about choices that we make every day. Do you choose peace, love and humility or you choose power and might display? Please think again.