Palm Sunday
Psalm 118: 20-29
All glory, laud and honour
or a more contemporary version
Prayer:
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, when we contemplate the vastness of the universe, and the length of time it has existed, and try to conceive the purpose for which you created, we confess ourselves out of our depth, quite unable to answer our own questions. Yet we believe you have a purpose. We believe you created us and gave us minds capable of responsing to you. We believe you have given us true knowledge of yourself in Christ. We ask you to help us play the part we should in your grand design, and to complete your work in us and in all creation.
I love the enthusiasm of the singer of this hymn, a favourite for Palm Sunday.
Children of Jerusalem
Zechariah 9: 9-13
We have a King who rides a donkey
Matthew 21: 1-17
Cloaks and Branches
When I was a boy, it was part of our tradition to decorate the chapel for Palm Sunday. It may come as a surprise to you to learn that in the small Pennine town where I lived, we did not have many palm trees, but that did not deter us. Each year, the chapel was decorated with Pussy Willow branches. Of course, with the variations in the timing of Easter, and the seasons, some years, they were little more than bare twigs, and other years they had rather gone past their best. If the timing was fortuitous, and we had managed to pick male willow branches, they came out in beautiful golden pollen and looked glorious. Such was the link in people’s minds that the branches were referred to as “Pussy Palm”. This was our way of celebrating one of the great events in the Christian calendar, but to people of another culture it may mean less than it did to us.
Much of the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is bound up in the culture, especially the religious culture of the time, and does not always easily translate from the different language, location and time. We don’t do things like this as much now. Whilst we are familiar with parades and marches, in modern times we have banners and posters to say who we are, and what we are marching in favour of, or against. With modern technology we have loudspeakers to tell people what we want, and to whip up the crowd with enthusiasm. Cries of “What do we want?”, “When do we want it?” fill the air. Such events are often planned months in advance, and carefully stage-managed to have maximum impact. Often the planning for next year’s event will start as soon as this year’s is over.
The entry into Jerusalem was apparently a fairly spontaneous event. There is no suggestion of there having been any planning committee meeting for ages in advance. Of course, we must assume that Jesus knew what he was going to do, and the likely impact. This is a deliberate act to gain attention. A provocation to the various authorities of the time, civil, military and religious. It is loaded with symbolism and meaning
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” is from Psalm 118 and we associate it with Palm Sunday. For the Jews, it was associated with the feast of the Tabernacles, which occurs in October. This was a bit like singing Christmas Carols in June. It was calculated to attract attention. And it did! “Who is this?” the people asked. “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” But more than that, they would have realised that by riding in this way, he was claiming to be a king in the line of David. He has been delivered by the Lord, and has been restored.
Are you familiar with the Shrek films? One of the main characters is Shrek’s sidekick, donkey (brilliantly voiced by Eddie Murphy). In Shrek 2, Donkey is magically transformed in to a stallion, what a contrast between the two! Character, image and style are all totally different. Donkeys symbolise poverty, humility, peace, carriage of burdens; stallions convey images of grandeur, military might, conquering. It would be inconceivable that a general would head a parade riding on a donkey.
This apparently simple, humble procession is dynamite. Riding on a donkey, singing an out of season psalm, Jesus is claiming to be the promised Messiah, the heir of David, the ruler out of Israel, the Deliverer who will rule the whole world in a kingdom characterised by peace not war. He will liberate the people from oppression, but not by military force.
He must have known that this would attract attention. He must have known the consequences of a course of action which rocked the boat in this way. He must have known where this would lead. He must have known that in less than a week the crowds would be shouting something else.
We tend to talk about “The crucifixion” as if it is unique, something reserved for Jesus. The reality is that it was quite commonplace, the norm for the times. Jesus would have seen and heard of many similar acts. He would have known what was likely to lay in store for troublemakers. The theory behind such acts of brutality was the discouragement of others. Until relatively recently, this was common thinking in Britain, and in some countries, still is. As an aside, in the 19th century, when this way of thinking was common in the U.K., Robert Peel came up with the alternative theory, that the best deterrence was the certainty of detection. From this thinking came the establishment of the police service as we now know it. If you are familiar with the Scooby Doo cartoon, you will know that they nearly always ended with the villain saying “I’d have gotten away with it, if it hadn’t been for you pesky kids!” People think that they can get away with their crimes and not be detected, that is why they perform their crimes.
Jesus did not try to “Get away with it.” He did not conceal his actions by setting up a secret society, or pretending to go along with what he thought was wrong. He was rather like the burglar of the cartoons, advertising his presence with a black and white striped jumper, face mask and large sack labelled “Swag”. He went into the city effectively shouting “Look at me, I’m challenging the accepted order.”
Whilst Jesus may not have known the timescale, he may not have known that he would be dead within the week, but he knew where he was going, you don’t upset as many people as Jesus did without consequences.
He knew that he had upset;
The Zealots: he was not a warrior.
The Romans and the civil authorities: he challenged the status quo.
The religious authorities: he did not accept their monopoly on interpretation.
But he was not afraid to stand out, to stand alone in the tradition of the prophets. In the word of the old hymn he was prepared to,
Dare to be a Daniel,
Dare to stand alone!
Dare to have a purpose firm!
Dare to make it known.
Dare to stand alone!
Dare to have a purpose firm!
Dare to make it known.
And he went on. Through the next few days he continued to upset and criticise people.
Ofcourse, he knew what lay ahead, but he also knew what came afterwards. He knew that he had to let go of things he valued in order to see the full glory that was to come.
There is along standing tradition of distributing palm crosses on Palm Sunday to show that we know that the shouts of “Hosanna” and the waving of palms, led to quickly to the cross. I can’t distribute a cross via the internet, but here is a video to show you how to make your own. If you haven’t got a suitable leaf, perhaps you could use a strip of card coloured green. If you can’t give it to someone, perhaps you could put it in your window.
Make a Palm Cross.
People also used to put a poster in their windows saying “This is Holy Week”. There are plenty of ideas for this online, perhaps you would like to search, find and print one, or you could make your own.
Ride on, Ride on in Majesty
or an alternative arrangement,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB889PGqmus
It is intended to post ideas and thoughts for Good Friday as well as next Sunday.
It is intended to post ideas and thoughts for Good Friday as well as next Sunday.
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