We Shall Overcome: A Palm Sunday Sermon

 It has been a while since I've posted my sermons. That's how busy these past several weeks have been. And so let's get back in the saddle, so to speak, and share the sermons from Palm Sunday through Easter ( my seminarian preached Maundy Thursday and did it as Jesus having his internal monologue on how to say good-bye).

There was a particularly providential occurence this Palm Sunday. The day before was the third No Kings protest across the nation (and globe, for that matter), denouncing our U.S. administration and its steep turn toward authoritarianism. While I chose not to go head on into comparing the reasons for these increasingly large gatherings and the message that we don't like dictators with Jesus's ride into Jerusalem...No Kings was very much on my mind as I wrote this sermon. Maybe it was on your mind, too. See what you think.

Please note: I did NOT preach on the Passion of Christ from Matthew's Gospel. And if there is anyone with any influence over the lectionary reading these posts, please send a message to the church that we should be sticking to PALM SUNDAY and not slapping us with GOOD FRIDAY at the same service.

Text: Matthew 21:1-11

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Please be seated.

I know I’ve said this before and I am going to say it again: I wish the church didn’t assign the Passion Gospel for Palm Sunday.

OK…end of critique of the lectionary.

I want us to take a breath in…and breathe out…do that again…and once more….

That act of breathing is the means of calming the nervous system down…and resetting us…as we take a moment to rewind the tape of this morning…and go back to that entry into Jerusalem…with Jesus riding into the city on a donkey.

Because that march into Jerusalem is an important part of this story…and we shouldn’t race past it.

It holds symbolic meaning both back then when it happened…and it remains very relevant for us now.

If you want…pull out that Gospel lesson from your bulletin...and let’s do a quick refresher.

Jesus and his disciples are at the Mount of Olives….which is to the east of Jerusalem.

He tells a couple of them to go into Bethphage and get a donkey and a colt.

Now…this is actually a humorous point…and we had some discussion about this in our Midrash class the other night.

Matthew quotes “the prophet” but actually he’s taking words from both Isaiah and Zechariah about predictions of who will be coming to save them from their occupiers. What Matthew didn’t understand was the poetic language of Zechariah…that their king would be humbly riding on a young donkey…a colt…not that there would be a donkey AND a colt.

Always important to remember that Scripture should be taken seriously…but not literally.

The crowds are gathering…they’re shouting “Hosanna!” which means “Save us!”

“Save us, Jesus, from this oppression!”

“Save us, Jesus, from this tyranny!”

What we don’t hear in this account of Matthew is what’s happening on the other side of the city.

Pontius Pilate…who by historical accounts was a brutal and inflexible Roman Governor…was coming with the Roman Army from Caesarea Maritima…on the west side of Jerusalem.

The Roman Empire…which occupied Jerusalem…and stretched from points in Europe…Africa…and Asia…had no tolerance for upstarts challenging the authority of the Emperor.

And so it was customary that when a major Jewish festival such as Passover was coming…Rome would want to exert control.

Passover was a particularly tense time.

Jews from all over would be gathering and remembering the story of their liberation from slavery in Egypt.

Pilate would ride into Jerusalem in his chariot…his soldiers descending on the city with their spears and their war horses…to make sure the Jews of Jerusalem didn’t get some wild idea of rioting against their newest Pharaoh.

Jesus knew this was the routine.

And so his entry into Jerusalem wasn’t a coincidence.

This was an intentional action.

It was provocative…and it was a signal to Rome: We Shall Overcome.

Tyranny will not win.

There is another kingdom…a better reality.

Jesus was demonstrating to the people that there was an alternative to their world ruled by fear and intimidation…and this reality has come closer…and is right now.

It has come on a donkey…with crowds cheering and throwing coats and palm branches on the road.

This parade coming from the East was loud….more raucous than the precision march of the Roman Army.

A desperate and demoralized people have poured out onto the streets…looking to Jesus as the answer to their prayer!

Hosanna Son of David!

Hosanna to the highest heaven!

And while some welcomed the arrival of Jesus…with their shouting and singing his praises…we see in this story that his march into Jerusalem caused turmoil.

In fact…the Greek root for that “turmoil” is “seismo”…as in seismic…just like the earthquake that would shake the city at the death of Jesus.

Seems when Jesus shows up…things get shaken up.

And that’s the importance of this story.

When Jesus draws near and becomes manifest…it causes not only shifts in the earth…he challenges our very being to shift and change.

We see it in the Passion reading with the wife of Pontius Pilate.

While her husband is holding the fate of Jesus in his hands…she’s begging him not to have nothing to do with ‘that innocent man.’

Clearly…there’s something about Jesus that has rattled even her…a Gentile.

If only Pilate the politician had listened to the woman…how different things would have been.

He rattles those who want to keep the status quo…those who don’t want to make waves…and just go along to get along.

When the crowd assembles in front of Pilate….it is a convenient and curated gathering of those who would have been allowed into his courtyard.

When they cried out “His blood be on us and on our children!”—a phrase that has been twisted by Christians into a dangerously antisemitic trope—they had no idea that the blood he would be shedding would redeem them…and the whole world.

Jesus has a way of disrupting and disturbing us out of our hum drum ways.

He is the reminder to us that we should not live our lives based on the premise of doing what is good for me…and not for thee.

He tugs on those invisible cords that remind us that we are only one part of the creative order…and we must care for the world around us…the people…the plants…and the animals.

And when Jesus enters…as that king…triumphant and riding on the foal of a donkey…he is defying the idea we have of kings and Emperors…and is establishing that true power is not held by the political and religious elites: it belongs to the people.

What a message to have in our country today.

A vision of resilience and resistance to those who claim supremacy by force…by holding a procession in the name of love, compassion, and mercy.

That life force is still with us…and it is still facing sometimes violent opposition.

But it keeps summoning us to join the battle against brutality…and walk in the way of love.

May this Holy Week be a reminder to us to stick with Love because Love is the way…the truth…and the life.

In the name of Our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.