Palm Sunday. The image of adoring crowds greeting Jesus as
he rides into Jerusalem waving palms and shouting joyously jumps
to mind. Interesting that only John's Gospel mentions palms in
connection with Jesus' arrival.(1) Matthew and Mark simply say
that people cut leafy branches from trees and put their garments
in the road.(2) Luke just talks about the clothes(3) - an ancient
version of rolling out the red carpet.
So why then PALM Sunday? What is the big deal with palms?
Actually, for that first century crowd, a story from their
heritage would have been vividly in mind, the story of the
Maccabees.
It had taken place 200 years before, during the reign of the
brutal Antiochus Epiphanes, the Saddam Hussein of his day. In
167 B.C. Antiochus precipitated a full-scale revolt when, having
already forbidden the practice of Judaism on pain of death, he
set up, right smack in the middle of the Jewish temple, an altar
to Zeus and sacrificed a pig on it. Hard to imagine a greater
slap in the religious face to good Jews.
Stinging from this outrage, an old man of priestly stock
named Mattathias rounded up his five sons, all the weapons he
could find, and a guerrilla war was launched. Old Mattathias
soon died, but his son Judas, called Maccabeus (which means
"hammer"), kept on and within three years was able to cleanse and
to rededicate the desecrated temple. But the fighting was not
over. It would be a full 20 years more, after Judas and a
successor brother, Jonathan, had died in battle, that a third
brother, Simon, took over, and through his diplomacy achieved
Judean independence. That would begin a full century of Jewish
sovereignty. Of course there was great celebration. "On the
twenty-third day of the second month, in the one hundred and
seventy-first year, the Jews entered Jerusalem with praise and
PALM BRANCHES, and with harps and cymbals and stringed
instruments, and with hymns and songs, because a great enemy had
been crushed and removed from Israel."(4) So says the account in I
Maccabees - a story as well known to the crowd in Jerusalem that
day as George Washington and the defeat of the British is known
to us.
Knowing that history of the Maccabees allows us to read the
minds of those who are waving their own palm branches. They are
going out to meet Jesus in hopes that he is coming to crush and
remove another great enemy, this time Rome. What is the message
of the palms? Simply this: we are tired of being kicked around;
we want to be Number One again; we are ready to strut our stuff
once more. Here is our agenda, and you look like just the man we
need. Welcome, warrior king! Hail, conquering hero!(5) Let's
PARTY!
William Stringfellow once said that Christians go to church
on Palm Sunday because they love a parade.(6) True enough. At
churches all over this land this morning, we parade all the
children down the center aisle waving palm branches while the
congregation sings something appropriate for the day. It is
wonderful, as I am absolutely certain that the first Palm Sunday
parade was monumentally wonderful. But above all the day reminds
us, and especially in this year that has seen the release of "The
Passion of the Christ," that Jesus was here for a reason, a
mission he was ready to fulfill.
We who see the story from the perspective of 2,000 years of
history know how it turns out. In fact, we are sorely tempted to
yell to Jesus, "DON'T GO! They are going to turn on you. There
is beating and torture coming. A crown of thorns, nails, a
cross."
Could they not see? A king bent on war rode a horse, but
one seeking peace rode a donkey. The Jerusalem crowd was
remembering the earlier triumphal entry, one that Simon had
decreed would be marked annually as a Jewish independence day.
Jesus' mind, however, was on something farther back:
Rejoice greatly, 0 Daughter of Zion!
Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and having salvation,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
on a colt the foal of a donkey.
The palm wavers see triumph in Jesus, and they are right.
But they misunderstand it. Jesus has come to conquer not Rome
but the world. He comes to the holy city not to deal death, but
to meet death head-on. He will conquer the world and even death
itself...by dying.
Perhaps we should confess our own misunderstanding. We,
too, come to the parade, agendas in hand, amid crowds lined up as
though Santa Claus were coming to town. In a world that
routinely places ultimate value on less than ultimate things,
even the faithful are tempted to come ready to remake Jesus
according to our own expectations. If we are Republican, we
expect Jesus to be Republican. If we are Democrat, we know Jesus
is a Democrat. That is why we can have this past week's bizarre
scene with advisors to Mr. Bush, that most publically pious of
presidents, actually complaining of Mr. Kerry's quoting scripture
to make a point. Amazing! Even so, regardless of party, ALL of
us know that Jesus, in his heart of hearts, is as American as
apple pie. Sure!
The message of the palms is that such an approach has been
taken before, but has been found wanting. Let King Jesus be King
Jesus, but remember, as he himself said, "My kingdom is not of
this world."(7) The waving branches say that we still
misunderstand, as did his disciples. Perhaps the simple truth
can begin to break through as we gather at a simple meal.
Amen!
1. John 12:13
2. Matthew 21:8, Mark 11:8
3. Luke 19:36
4. I Maccabees 13:51
5. Byron Rohrig, "What Do the Palms Say?", The Christian Century, 3/9/88, p. 236
6. John Buchanan, "In Adversity," The Christian Century, 4/6/04, p. 3
7. John 18:36
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