13 April 2025 Palm Sunday
Readings: Lk. 19.28-40; Is. 50.40-9a; Phil. 3.5-11; Lk. 23.1-49
Theme: Palm Sunday
Today we commemorate the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem. This is the start of what is called ‘Holy Week’ in the church’s calendar, and it is the time of the liturgical year when we focus on the passion of Christ. The setting of the scene in the gospels is meant to be a parody on the enthronement of the Roman rulers who would enter Rome on a horse and be admired by the cheering crowds. But rather than enter in all their finery, as would be the case with the Roman Emperors, Jesus enters Jerusalem on a simple colt. It is a scene which is meant to tell us something about the way in which the imperial power of Rome is being subverted by Jesus for this is the city, Jerusalem, in which he will be put to death. It is really quite shocking. This is the Son of God entering the path down from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem and being lauded by the crowds. But within a short time he will be tried and condemned to death. And, this will happen with those same crowds cheering on for him today, on Palm Sunday, and then later calling for him to be crucified. It is a chilling testimony to the fickleness of the crowds and of the tendency of all of us to simply go with the majority.
Today is also the day, as well as on Good Friday, when the Passion story is read. The point of this is to allow us to hear the whole story a couple of times so that it can really sink in. The events of the passion are so powerful that they require us to dedicate time to them so that the full impact of their meaning can sink in. The sending of Jesus between the two rulers of the people, Pilate and Herod, the Roman Prefect and the Tetrach of the region respectively, indicates that both the Roman and the Jewish authorities are being judged in this scene. They do not realize who this man really is, even though there are ironic words uttered of this man as being a king.
What is the lesson for us from these Scriptures as we prepare ourselves to enter into the drama of Holy Week? We might single out two areas for us to reflect on. The first is the fact that a new understanding of power is being displayed for us by Jesus. The overturning of the imperial entrance scene by the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on a colt tells us what true power is really all about. This is why combining with the reading of the Palm Gospel is the hymn from the Letter to the Philippians, which speaks to us of the self-emptying of God in Jesus. The notion that God could become a slave for us, to be found in human form, is an extraordinary fact. It means that God is not a distant god who does what he likes, but rather that our God is the one who searches us out. He enters into our own human situation so that all that dehumanizes us can be transformed into his eternal life. Even death itself will be transformed by this God into the way of life. The first message of our readings today is that God is the God who saves us from the power of death.
The second message that our readings today convey to us is given by our long Passion reading. One thing that is easy to miss in this reading is the fact that Jesus says very little. He is acted upon by others who take control and do practically all of the talking. In other words, this is the moment when Jesus surrenders himself to others. He has conveyed his message over the time of his public ministry and now is the time for the events to speak for themselves. There is a logical progression through the Gospels in this sense. We hear Jesus preaching about the Kingdom of God and what it means and now is the time for this Kingdom to be fully displayed for all to see. It is not a kingdom of imperial power, as displayed by the Roman authorities, but rather it is a kingdom whose power has been displayed in the healings, exorcisms and miracles of Jesus throughout his public ministry. All of these interventions of Jesus display his power to overturn the forces of dehumanization and oppression. This is why in our Palm Gospel; we hear people praising him because of all the deeds of power he had displayed. The demonstration of this power to heal and to repair is the display of the reconciling power of God that can even reconcile former enemies like Pilate and Herod as we hear in our Passion narrative.
So, as we journey through Holy Week, it is good for us to take time to allow the events and the drama of it to teach us about our faith. The faith that we profess in Jesus Christ is something which should transform us from those imperial ways of operating to the Gospel centred ways of living. The figure of Jesus should pattern the contours of the journey of our own faith stories as we, with Jesus, make our way into Jerusalem. May this message and the events of the Passion accompany us as we take this special time to be with Jesus during Holy Week 2025.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.