Transcript
When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil. Jesus is here. Guess what? Jesus is here, the Messiah, the prophet who is from Nazareth in Galilee, the one who the prophets promised. In fact, he even rode in on a donkey and a colt, just like Zechariah said he would. Now is the time for this Messiah to save us.
Now is the time for THE WORLD TO BE PUT IN ITS RIGHTFUL ORDER, to overturn the oppressors and set the oppressed free. After all, at the time the Israelites were definitely the oppressed. This mighty king, before him every knee will bow, and about him every tongue shall confess. Jesus Christ, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee, has entered Jerusalem.
And yet, what the people expect, what the crowd thinks is going to happen, what they so desperately want to happen, it’s not going to happen. At least not in the way they are expecting, because this crowd is expecting a king, the kind that rides in on a noble beast with crowds of followers cheering for him, and people protecting him from the very dirt on the ground. But, we all know that is not Jesus.
Yes, Jesus is a king and yes, knees will bend before him and tongues will confess to him. But Jesus is not the kind of Messiah that will overturn a government and reestablish a new government still made of men fallible and sinful. Instead, Jesus will overturn the very world order that creates fallibility and sinfulness in the first place. And he will begin by entering Jerusalem not on a gallant noble beast, but on a donkey.
It’s interesting, liturgically speaking, that today is both Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday. Because Palm Sunday is the celebration of a king entering Jerusalem and we reenact the palms, the branches, and the crowds, and the murmuring pride of what is to come and what we think is to come. We reenact the shouting of joy, the proclaiming, “Hosanna! This is the one who will save us. This is the Messiah. This is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”
And then, Passion Sunday is not that. It is not a celebration of a Messiah who has come to save us from our oppressors, who has come to take the throne as a king. Instead, Passion Sunday is the end. The mistake, so to speak. The part that if we could do it again, we would most definitely do it differently. For Passion Sunday, we will all shout, “Let him be crucified.”
That’s quite the juxtaposition with blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. And in this moment between the palms and the passion, we are here on the threshold between a king who will restore our power and a criminal who claims to be a king, but without power. On the threshold of blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord and “Let him be crucified.” On the threshold of crowds going ahead of him and following him and “What will you give me if I betray him to you?” This moment between the beginning when we blessed our palms and processed through the gates to celebrate our Messiah and the end when we desert and deny and reject. When we exit with our heads bowed, disappointed that this king was not the king, disappointed that we played a part in this betrayal, in passion, and death. Disappointed that death won.
If we don’t jump to the passion just yet, if instead we sit at this threshold, it’s almost like a mini advent. A moment of expecting, waiting, and hope. We, as in you and me, the people sitting here now, we know what will happen. And yet, we can also sit in the faith that what will happen Just maybe, perhaps, might not have to happen.
I think a slight disservice that happens today on Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday is that we are given the impression that the crowds went from blessed is the one who came in the name of the Lord and Hosanna in the highest to let him be crucified in the span of breaths, minutes, moments. Instead, if you notice the two gospel patches passages are chapters apart. A massive flashes of life apart.
In fact, the first thing that Jesus is does when he enters Jerusalem, it’s not Judas Iscariot’s betrayal. Instead, Jesus overturns tables and drives money changers out of the temple. And then Jesus gets angry at a fig tree and curses it for not being fruitful. And then Jesus tells a lot of parables, especially about being ready for what’s going to come next. And Jesus tells us to pay our taxes, you know, give unto Caesar, and gives us the greatest commandment, and even goes as far as to denounce the scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites and pretenders. That’s all between Palm Sunday and betrayal.
So today, in this moment, between blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord and let him be crucified, let us sit at the threshold of what was and what is to come, of Lent and Easter, of passion and death, and resurrection, and life eternal, of Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday. And let us experience this moment like a mini Advent with expectant waiting and hope. And also like a mini Lent with grace and forgiveness.
Because this moment between Lent and Easter, between Palms and Passion, between penitence and resurrection it deserves a moment of pause and a deep breath. And a resurrect a recognition that what happens next could really be anything. Let us sit in anticipation of what comes next. Amen.