Palm Sunday 2020 - The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem: More political than you thought

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, “The Lord needs them.” And he will send them immediately.’ This took place to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,
‘Tell the daughter of Zion,
Look, your king is coming to you,
   humble, and mounted on a donkey,
     and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,
‘Hosanna to the Son of David!
   Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!’

When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, ‘Who is this?’ The crowds were saying, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.’

Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He said to them, ‘It is written,
“My house shall be called a house of prayer”;
   but you are making it a den of robbers.’

The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’, they became angry and said to him, ‘Do you hear what these are saying?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Yes; have you never read,
“Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies
   you have prepared praise for yourself”?’ 

[Matthew 21.1-16]

Palm Sunday 2020 - Arrival into Jerusalem: more political than you thought

So here we are, Palm Sunday. Normally we'd be processing round the Churchyard singing 'All glory, laud and honour', but today in light of the Coronavirus restrictions we find ourselves beginning our Holy Week dispersed across Purfleet, and Aveley and South Ockendon. But we can still be church, even if we are separated from one another, and our separation is a reminder of the Disciples, who by Good Friday had gone into hiding, or were making their way back to Galilee.

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Palm Sunday is perhaps one of the most overtly political days of the Church's year, alongside Christ the King of course. Today Jesus enters the holy city Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. He is greeted by rejoicing crowds who cry out that here comes the King! For a nation under occupation this is a deeply symbolic and political act. On the other side of town arrives Pilate, seated on a war horse and escorted by Roman soldiers. (I can't imagine for one moment that the people of Jerusalem looked forward to his arrival, bringing with it a reminder of their subjugation.) Jesus on the other hand arrives on a donkey, a peasant's beast of burden.

His arrival on a donkey is not an insignificant act. In 1 Kings 1.38 the newly anointed King Solomon arrives into Jerusalem riding another borrowed beast of burden, his father King David's mule. Solomon was to be a peaceful ruler, one who would consolidate his father David's rule and the unification of Israel. (David had been a warrior, the leader of a warband, and it had been under his leadership that Jerusalem had been conquered.) By arriving into Jerusalem on a donkey Jesus is saying that he comes to rule the city of Peace as Prince of Peace, juxtaposing the arrival of Pilate on his warhorse, surrounded by soldiers. 

But in riding his father's mule Solomon is also showing his authority to rule. David's rule had not been, it had been troubled by the rebellion led by his son Absalom, who for a time had deposed David and ruled in his place. Solomon was also the result of a adulterous relationship - his mother was Bathsheba, he is therefore saying to his critics 'I have the right and the authority to reign'. So in arriving into Jerusalem in the way Solomon did, Jesus is proving a political point, 'It is God, not Rome or Pilate or Herod who is the righteous ruler of Jerusalem and of Israel'.

So the arrival of Jesus on Palm Sunday is a political one, as it challenges the unjust power of Empire and violence.

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But them Jesus goes on to do something equally as political, he cleanses the Temple. In doing so he challenges the powers (temporal, spiritual and economic) who control Jerusalem and the Temple site. He has come to bring peace, but that peace will be won through challenging the powers.

Response: Take time to pray for the Queen, Prime Minister, Cabinet, Government and Parliament. That they may both remember from whom their authority comes (God: Romans 13), and the call to 'do justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly with God' (Micah).