Some Thoughts on Palm Sunday

This week like every Palm Sunday we are invited to journey with Jesus down the Kidron Valley from Bethany into the temple joining the ambivalent crowds who have come to Jerusalem for Passover, and on through the maze of streets and events until we reach Golgotha and the cross. We are invited to notice how we respond as we enter this week and how this story helps us see our world differently and to live compassionately.

It begins with a small crowd from the country waving branches welcoming their “king” who rides a donkey into the city. They cry Hosanna!! Each Sunday we join them crying Hosanna as we gather around the eucharistic table. Hosanna is both our plea for God to save, and a shout of praise and exaltation. As we join that procession what is it we long to be saved from? And for what do we give thanks and praise?

This king is unlike most other kings. Pilate and Herod Antipas enter on war horses surrounded by cavalry and infantry and symbols of brutal power. Jesus rides a donkey in a peace parade, timed for Passover, the ancient festival celebrating God’s act of bringing Israel out of slavery from a foreign empire. Outside the city the crowd respond singing the Passover psalms proclaiming God’s liberation. Jesus has come to redefine royal power – found not in violent grandeur but on a cross, bringing God’s healing and compassion to all. With so much ongoing war in our world today how hard is it to join this way of peace?

Jesus comes in humility. But as his small group enter the city with its crush they are met with confusion and scorn. How do we respond to Jesus’ way of peace this Holy Week and Easter?