Palm Sunday | Year B | Mark 11:1-11 | Christopher Miner
I type this with sore fingers on my left hand. Once in a blue moon I am called on to play guitar in my church's worship band, and tonight was rehearsal for that most recent occasion. It's been a long time since I've played and my calluses have worn off, hence some sensitivity. (Think Summer of '69, played until my fingers bled, but far less dramatic.) As we were leaving rehearsal, we were reminded that on Sunday kids would be walking around the sanctuary with palm leaves during one of our songs. One of the singers then remarked, "Don't we have to play the Hosanna song for that?" (I'm pretty sure she meant this song, and the link is to my favorite version of it.)
While we don't have to play that song, it's certainly appropriate. Sunday is Palm Sunday, where were remember Jesus last entry into Jerusalem. The images are likely familiar to you if you have been in any kind of church for any length of time. (As an aside, I've never been able to fold a palm frond into a cross. Not that I've really tried, but it still seems kinda magical to me.) The disciples go into town and borrow a donkey. Jesus sits on it and clops into town as great crowds put down a carpet of branches and coats, celebrating the coming of their (hoped for) king and savior. I have to remind myself not to over spiritualize this. Christians often speak of Jesus as 'savior' in an etherial way, relating it to being individually rescued from vice and punishment in the afterlife. These folks, however, believed Jesus was coming to quite literally save them from the rule of Rome, to overthrow their oppressors and set them free! It makes their actions far more understandable to me - if you thought you just saw your new leader coming to set you free from poverty and near slavery, you'd likely whoop it up a bit too.
There's another reason the crowd saw Jesus entry into Jerusalem as a political (and likely military) takeover. Some historians believe there were two parades in Jerusalem that day - Jesus's parade, coming from the east, and Pontius Pilate's parade coming from the west. Remember, this was the beginning Passover, the largest religious festival for the Jews. And the Jews were known to be unruly even in the best of times. Pilate making a show of coming into Jerusalem made sense - it was a reminder to the people of who was really in charge, and a warning of the potential consequences of stirring up unrest. The contrasts, however, were clear. Pilate would have ridden in on a war horse, with legions at his side, banners flowing in the breeze, and all the trappings of Rome's power displayed for all to see. Jesus is on a borrowed donkey. His legions are the people, oppressed, poor, and downtrodden, showing no power as Rome understood it, but having been earlier dubbed by Jesus as having first access to God's new Kingdom of the Sky. (These are the folks called 'blessed' in the first three Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount.)
There's another parade that happens later, when Jesus is arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced by Pilate to death. Mark's readers would have likely seen parallels here, too. When a Roman military leader, or even the emperor, led a great victory, he would be paraded into Rome as a hero. The recipient would be given a crown of laurels, dressed in purple that normally adorned the temple of Jupiter, and carried in a chariot to the temple while crowds shouted "Hail, Caesar! Hail, the son of god!" At the temple a bull would be sacrificed to the victor, showing his place among the gods, and he would then ascend to a throne of honor above the people.
Jesus, by contrast, parades into Jerusalem on the aforementioned donkey. He goes to the Jewish temple, but instead of sacrificing he clears out the money changers and upsets the sacrificial/economic system there. Later, after his trial and sentence, he is given a crown of thorns and dressed in purple while the soldier's mockingly 'hail' him as king. He is then paraded through the streets, but the crowds do not adore but mock, spit, and curse. Jesus then ascends above the people, not in honor but execution. No bull is sacrificed for him; instead, he is the sacrifice. The entire thing is backwards, upside down, and a mockery of Rome's triumphal parades.
I highly doubt this description of events was an accident. It's likely Mark is trying to help his readers understand something about what Jesus did, and about the new kingdom his death and resurrection brought about. Rome paraded power in ways we all understand - might makes right, soldiers, swords, crosses, torture, and ultimately death. Jesus, by the same measure, also displays power, but he does so by being the subject of soldiers, swords, crosses, torture, and ultimately death. But his power is proven superior three days later at the Resurrection. Jesus took all Rome could dish out, the full measure of it's power. He absorbed the punishment and then triumphed over it. Mark's readers would have seen the parallel - Jesus parade to the cross was more powerful than any emperor's triumphal parade, but this power acted entirely differently than Rome's.
Jesus entry into Jerusalem is often called the Triumphal Entry, and it would have seemed as such to anyone there. I doubt anyone would have said the same for Jesus route to Golgotha and the cross a short time later. In light of the Resurrection, though, that route is a parade of triumph, but in a shockingly unexpected way. May we have the grace to follow the way of Jesus, whether it looks like Palm Sunday or Good Friday, knowing that because of Easter Sunday they are both a parade of triumph.
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