Matthew 21.1-11
Matthew 21.1-11
When they had come near Jerusalem and
had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying
to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a
donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone
says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send
them immediately.” This took place to fulfill what had been spoken though the
prophet, saying, “Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The
disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and
the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd
spread their cloaks on the road, and other cut branches from the trees and
spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed
were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in
the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” When he entered
Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” The crowds
were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Today is Palm Sunday; churches around the world will
celebrate by sharing the gospels’ message of Jesus’ triumphal entry into the
city of Jerusalem. The week which follows is the most important season in the
Christian calendar; it’s the time of year that we celebrate our Saviour’s
death, burial and resurrection from the dead and during this week we celebrate
the gift of salvation and redemption that God has given us.
But there is important background information that the
Gospels don’t give us but which can be discerned from contemporary records and
which should help us to understand better the events of this day and the days
to come.
It was standard practice for Roman governors to be present in
Jerusalem at the Passover Festival: not out of religious sensitivity but to be
in the city in case there was trouble – and there often was at Passover, a
festival that celebrated the Jewish people's liberation from an earlier empire,
the empire of Egypt. Pilate's military presence was a demonstration of both
Roman imperial power and Roman imperial theology because according to Roman
imperial theology the Emperor was not simply ruler of Rome, but the Son of God.
So, two
processions entered Jerusalem on that spring day in the year 30 at the
beginning of the week of Passover. One was a peasant procession, the other an
imperial procession. From the east Jesus rode a donkey down the Mount of
Olives. His message was about the Kingdom of God and his followers came from
the peasant class. On the opposite side of the city, from the west, Pontius
Pilate the Roman governor entered Jerusalem at the head of a column of imperial
cavalry and soldiers. Pilate's procession proclaimed the power of empire. These
two processions embodied the central conflict of the week that would lead to
Jesus' Crucifixion.
Jesus' procession deliberately countered what was happening
on the other side of the city. Pilate's procession embodied the power, glory
and violence of the empire that ruled the world. Jesus's procession embodied an
alternative vision, the Kingdom of God. The confrontation between these two
kingdoms would continue through the last week of Jesus life.
The Gospels make it absolutely clear that the ruling Jewish
authorities worked through the approval of the Roman authorities and were
therefore collaborators. The local people were oppressed not just by the Romans
and their taxes but by the puppet authorities - which included the Temple
Authorities whose primary obligation to Rome was loyalty - and their taxes.
This was the Jerusalem Jesus entered on Palm Sunday. His
message was deeply critical of the temple and the role it had come to play as a
tool of empire and Jesus pronounces forgiveness apart from temple sacrifice.
Jesus' message and activity put him in conflict with the temple authorities
from the moment he arrived in Jerusalem.
As we consider Palm Sunday we need to be clear that the
conflict which led to Jesus' crucifixion was not Jesus against Judaism. Jesus
was part of Judaism not apart from it. Jesus' is a Jewish voice arguing about
what loyalty to the God of Judaism meant. He was arguing against a religious
system fatally compromised by collaboration with Rome.
We need also to remember that the long hoped for Messiah was
generally expected to be a warrior King who would drive out any occupying force.
The Jews loved Passover because
of the hope it offered. It was a national day of Jewish pride. At Passover the
Jews remembered the freedom of God’s people from the Egyptians. It also looked
forward to the future freedom of the Jews. The people of God had been oppressed
for hundreds of years. Under the Assyrians, under the Babylonians, under The
Persians, under Alexander the Great and the Greeks, under corrupt Jewish
leaders and now under the harsh rule of the Romans.
It was this expectation of military might that Jesus subverted in his humble
arrival: an arrival which those who knew their scriptures might recognise as a
fulfilment of Zechariah’s prophecy, “Be full of joy, O people of Zion! Call out
in a loud voice, O people of Jerusalem! See, your King is coming to you. He is
fair and good and has the power to save. He is not proud and sits on a donkey,
on the son of a female donkey.”
No self-respecting king would ride a donkey. If you wanted to
make an impact, you would come in on a white war-horse surrounded by soldiers,
but that wasn’t the way of Jesus, nor of the Kingdom he sought to usher in.
What, we might ask ourselves, does it feel like to have less
than a week to live?
That’s the situation in which Jesus finds himself when he
makes his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The crowds don’t know what’s coming.
The disciples have been given hints and overt predictions from Jesus that the
Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of sinners and killed, but they
haven’t fully understood the implications.
To the disciples and the crowds, this is a moment of
incredible potential and excitement. Those who travelled with him have seen the
miracles Jesus is capable of – and word has spread of his approach, so who knew
what that power might do if they could convince him to turn it against Rome?
What a lonely moment this must be for Jesus, to be surrounded
by screaming supporters but burdened by the knowledge that this is the point of
no return. By entering Jerusalem on a colt with the crowds laying down their
cloaks before him and shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David!” he has triggered
one prophetic tripwire too many. The Roman rulers and the Jewish religious
authorities can no longer pretend that he is insignificant, that he is not
dangerous. Jesus was deliberately provoking the crisis that would end with him
on the cross.
And our immersion in these scriptures this week, moving from
the palm procession to the Passion, is deliberately designed to provoke a
crisis within ourselves. The transition in Jesus’ fortunes in less than a week
from adulation and joyful allegiance to rage-filled demands for him to be
crucified; the disciples moving from proudly walking at his side through the
streets of Jerusalem to slinking away in stomach-clenching fear, insisting they
don’t know who he is, should give us pause for thought because it reflects, in
brief, our own lifelong journeys with Jesus.
Holy Week, which begins today, is our opportunity to immerse
ourselves in this move from the false joy of Palm Sunday, a joy that is centred
around expectations of power and reward, through the pain of finding that our
faith is often so weak when Jesus needs us the most, finally to the deep and
profound joy of the day of Resurrection, the day of forgiveness and new life.
We have the opportunity to walk with Jesus in real time as the hourglass runs out,
as he struggles with the knowledge that he has less than a week to live.
Today we make a choice. We can choose to be present with
Jesus as his disciples throughout this week, confronting the ways in which we
betray him and loving him as we see him struggle for the courage to endure his
death or we can let the meaning of these events pass us by.
The only tools we need to be present with him are the
scriptures and open hearts to make this journey with Jesus.
Two processions entered Jerusalem that day. Which procession
are we in? Which do we yearn to be in? This is the question of Palm Sunday and
of the week that is about to unfold. Let’s spend that week with Jesus.
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