A Palm Sunday sermon:
Today’s Gospel at the beginning of the Liturgy of the Palms and reflection :
Matthew 21:1-11
“When Jesus and his disciples 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 through 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 others 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."
Often, Palm Sunday sermons focus on the second reading, the trial of Jesus. This year I want to focus on the fact that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to signify his kingdom was one of peace rather than riding on a horse, which would indicate his intention to bring about his kingdom as a warrior. I’ve never heard anyone focus on where he got the donkey, and why it is significant enough to be such a focus in the Gospel. I’m going to focus on that this year.
The Gospel accounts tell the story of Jesus’ slow progress to Jerusalem from Galilee, teaching and healing all along the way, and always just outside the control of the Jerusalem authorities. He is now entering Jerusalem coming directly from Jericho, where he had just healed the blind man, and multitudes of Jews and Gentiles were following him all along the way up the steep pilgrim road to Jerusalem, shouting with joy, “Hosanna (Save us now!) Son of David!”, signifying that the coming of Jesus is for the salvation of all people, Jews and Gentiles, and also “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the LORD”, echoing the Gospel saying of Jesus, “I am come in my Father’s name.” When they got to Bethphage, Jesus told his disciples to get a donkey, saying simply “The Lord needs it” if anyone asked what they thought they were doing taking a donkey.
Now, Bethphage was a small village created for the priests of the Temple, situated on Mount Olivet, one mile from Jerusalem. For the priests who ministered in the temple for their their apportioned time (there was a rota that shared out priestly duty amongst the priestly class), at the end of the day they would journey to this village to rest before the next morning’s worship commenced. Because it was commanded by the Law that none should travel on the Sabbath more than a mile, there were several such priestly villages.
Imagine the sight of thousands of people following Jesus into Jerusalem…the same Jesus who often preached in the Temple that God’s saving love was present in him. He preached always about repentance, that is turning away from the false idea that we can save ourselves and turn to God who alone can save, and about the coming kingdom of God, saying that if the people of Israel did not turn their hearts again to the LORD rather than to false dreams of political power and domination of their neighboring kingdoms being propagated by the Jerusalem hierarchy, that the Temple would be destroyed, because of the Judean hierarchy had corrupted the Temple and had been turning of the people’s hearts away from trust in the LORD’s plan of salvation and towards false dreams of overcoming their enemies by their own strength through war. This is at the heart of why the Judean aristocracy and false Temple hierarchy goaded Judeans to clamor and riot for the release of Jesus bar Abbas, a revolutionary military leader and son of a former high priest of the aristocratic Abbas family, rather than the gentle healer Jesus bar Joseph, who dared to call himself the Son of God. It was this corrupt cabal whom Jesus confronted openly and fearlessly, especially in their financial corruption of the Temple by requiring special Temple currency, an act which led to Jesus overturning the money changers’ tables and driving out all the animals being sold with an improvised whip.
Jesus was a controversial character, someone whose words or even silent presence required decision (the meaning of ‘crisis’), but amongst the poor, the outcast, the downtrodden, he had a great many sympathetic listeners, even within the ranks of faithful hereditary priestly clans, many of whom had become his disciples. (The current High Priests were not hereditary priests but aristocrats who had been placed in authority over the Temple after the Maccabean revolt, and who then took over the Temple after the defeat of the last Maccabean king by Rome. They broke with the Torah when they assumed religious roles given by God to the descendants of Aaron, and so there was division in the Temple). What an amazing act of faith, some might say defiance, on the part of the priests in Bethphage, some of whom, at least, were joining in with Jesus, seeing in him the long awaited Messiah. I imagine that they were terrified even as they felt the joy of throwing off the spiritual shackles of the corrupt, illegitimate Temple hierarchy, hoping, praying, that this Son of David would indeed bring salvation to the people of Israel and restore the true worship of God in the Temple.
This simple act of choosing to join with Jesus set in motion not just the events of Holy Week, including the Crucifixion of Jesus, but also the Resurrection! It set in motion a confrontation between the legitimate and illegitimate control of the Temple, which we read about in the first several chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, which includes the line that says because of the the Resurrection of the Son of God, Jesus, who was seen alive by thousands, and the coming of the Holy Spirit upon his disciples, making the suddenly fearless royal heralds of God’s risen Son and the coming of the kingdom of God, performing miracles before the masses of Jerusalem, “And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.” (Acts 6:7).
My friends, choosing faith, choosing which side to follow, choosing which Savior to love has never been easy. We all have family ties, religious and ethnic loyalties, political affiliations, and philosophical beliefs. Many of these, if not most or all, threaten us that if we make a break with them and turn wholly to God in Jesus our Savior we will be rejected and alone. I understand how hard these are. But this is the call being made to us. Sometimes all it takes is an almost unnoticed, anonymous act of lending someone your donkey to change not only your world, but the whole world. I pray that God will enlighten all of our hearts and give us the grace and courage to follow this humble Savior who came riding, not on a stallion for armed conflict, but on a donkey to show us the path of peace, faith, righteousness, self-sacrifice, and salvation.
Amen.
