I can remember all the way back to my childhood the images conjured up in my mind at each Palm Sunday. I could imagine throngs of people lining the busy streets of Jerusalem, shouting hosannas almost in a frenzy as the Son of God rode triumphantly into the city on a colt; (Mark and Luke use a donkey in their version) into the city only to be arrested the next day and then executed. Our very liturgy this Sunday bears out these images. Over the past several decades in New Testament scholarship, however, a new interpretation has emerged among formidable scholars, Marcus Borg and Dominic Crossan just to name two.
These scholars believe that this entry of Jesus and his followers into Jerusalem was a staged protest, an act of civil disobedience, mocking the pomp and arrogance of their corrupt overlords. When, say Herod Antipas, would enter Jerusalem the citizenry were required to strew cloaks and palms and shout hosanna, which in the Aramaic means “Save” or Savior” a common title for the emperor and his underlords. Josephus, a Jewish historian of the era points this out in his work, The Jewish Wars; and Herod certainly wouldn’t have entered the city on a colt or donkey. That would be beneath his royal station. The purpose of Empire at least in theory was to save the people; bring them dignity and well being. Borg points out that Jesus’ ministry was principally confined to the environs of Galilee, not in Jerusalem. In fact, As to ministry in Jerusalem. Josephus gives John the Baptist much more press. His only mention of Jesus in Jerusalem is that he was crucified there for sedition. Jesus would not have been known by the general population of Jerusalem; and in Luke this is his only journey there.
So what is the point to this? I believe the Synoptic writers, Matthew, Mark and Luke are making the case that this Jesus movement is a movement that not only practices compassion, love and mercy and inclusion, but it is also a ministry of critique towards the injustices of the world, its corruption and hypocrisy, chiefly lorded by the powers that be. This is a movement that is meant to call out, call attention to what’s not right in the world, and by any means necessary other than violence set things right (but we remember Peter cutting off the ear of Malchus with a sword). There was a very fine line between peaceful protest and violent insurrection. During the first century C.E. Jerusalem was a powder keg of insurrection; myriad groups bent on driving the empire out of their homeland, both by protest and violence. Finally in the latter decades of the first century the Romans had had enough and any form of protest was deemed sedition, the punishment for which was crucifixion. The fate that befell Jesus, and many others.
What does this mean for us as the modern church? I believe we are no longer to be the proverbial hospital for sinners…We are to be a staging ground for mission…the mission of salvation: healing, clothing , feeding, dignifying and bringing well being to our world…and that requires critique and protest as a part of the process. Our worship is to nurture this vocation to which we are called, and it is the means by which we celebrate the beauty of being called to be the ones who “save”. Don’t be surprised on this journey we share if out of nowhere you hear a hosanna, or see the waving of palms, for our work of bearing God’s love will surely be cause for the least among us to celebrate….strewing cloaks and palms…and the rocks and stones singing as well.
