Palm Sunday and Kings on Donkeys

As we enter into the drama of Holy Week, Jesus enters Jerusalem for the last time riding on a donkey. Listen in as Pastor Katie, David, and Keith talk about how this compares to other kingly entrances into cities and how the cries of Hosanna play into the story. 

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Scripture quotations from the COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. © Copyright 2011 COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:03

So, welcome to uh this episode of Facets of Faith. This is a slightly shorter episode, not because there's less to say, but because there is so much happening. We're breaking it out into a couple of episodes for you because we are diving into Holy Week. And Holy Week in the church is the week before Easter. In the Western tradition, it starts on Palm Sunday when we talk about Jesus riding seemingly triumphantly into the city of Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover feast, and we talk about the crowds shouting and laying their palms about him, and it's this celebratory and glorious entry into Jerusalem.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

So our reading this week is from Matthew, 21st chapter. And it begins When they approached Jerusalem and came to Beth Page on the Mount of Olives, Jesus gave two disciples a task. He said to them, Go into the village over there. As soon as you enter, you will find a donkey tied up and a colt with it. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that their master needs them. He sent them off right away. Now this happened to fulfill what the prophet said. Say to daughter Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble and riding on a donkey, and on a colt the donkey's offspring. The disciples went and did just as Jesus had ordered them. They brought the donkey and the colt and laid their clothes on them. Then he sat on them. Now a large crowd spread their cloths, their clothes on the ground. Others cut palm branches off the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds in front of him and behind him shouted, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. And when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up. Who is this? They asked. The crowds answered, It's the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Thanks. I got so used to the 40, 50, some verse readings, I was waiting for you to keep going further. So just to orient ourselves here, this is kind of an odd jump for us because we've been in the Gospel of John for the past four weeks. And we've been kind of marching steadily through the Gospel of John, following characters, Jesus going from one story to the next, and now all of a sudden we're jumping to Matthew. To be honest, the reason we do that is just because of liturgical tradition, church tradition, and that's because technically we're in what's called year A, and we read mostly from Matthew and year A, with John intermixed in. And so we then are planning on doing the Gospel of Matthew reading for the story of the Passion and also then the resurrection. And so to prepare ourselves for that, we jump to Matthew's entry into Jerusalem. So before this, because we haven't been in Matthew since the Temptations, which, if you remember, was chapter, I think it was four, so long time ago. We've missed a lot. But basically, Jesus is teaching, there's some conversation about who's going to sit on the right and left hand of Jesus, and so we're starting to lean towards the cross a little bit, but not nearly as heavy-handed necessarily as John has been. But so that's where we get to. Beth Page is a couple miles away from Jerusalem, so he's been in the area, and now it's time for the final procession, I guess you could say. This is the 21st chapter, Matthew is 28 chapters long, and so the rest of the story, the rest of the gospel here is about from this time of entry to the crucifixion and then the resurrection. So we kind of spread the story out a bit here. So this story, I think a lot of folks know this one too. The idea of Jesus riding in on a donkey. Matthew's kind of funny, and that the way he talks, it sounds like he's riding on a donkey and a colt at the same time. There's so much conversation about this. It's not totally critical. Some of it could be hitting back to from some Old Testament references and things like that. Some of it could be because Matthew does a lot of things in pairs, and so it's just another pair that Matthew likes to do. So there's a lot of thoughts behind it, but I don't want to get bogged down in that because that's that's really not the big part of the story. But um, how have you all heard this story at St. John? We frequently use this as the entrance or the processional gospel. We do it at the very beginning of Palm Passion Sunday, and then it feels like we quickly drop it and we move into the Passion. So I want to take a few minutes to just settle into this story and hear what it says to us. So, what does it say to you?

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Well, I was always fascinated that, like you said, this is the beginning of a holy week, and we have this big triumphant hi. I mean, we're coming in, we're singing hosanas, uh, usually uh the Hosanna hymn or something like that, after this reading procession, we're waving poems, and then as the service goes on, all of a sudden we get into the Passion. And it it's it's kind of like we just missed a whole bunch of time between his entrance and now the Passion. And there's a hole there that I wish I was able to fill in my mind of what happened during that week. I know they were getting ready for Passover, so you know they were kind of making all the preparations, but then all of a sudden, boom. I mean, there must have been a lot of this uh stuff going on in the background with the high priest saying, Yeah, we gotta get them, we gotta get them, because we hear about that in the other readings. What are we gonna do? We've got to set them up for the fall, and so all of that must be happening in the background, but we never really hear about it.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Yes. Well, I mean, yeah, I j I agree. It does seem very we we gloss past this particular event pretty quickly in the in the service on Palm Sunday, yes, and it does seem like it might take it, it might be a good opportunity to slow down and uncompress the story a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Yeah, because we do, I mean, we've got this entry into Jerusalem in chapter 21, and then it's not until I think it's 26 that we start to get into some of those Holy Week stories that we actually read as part of the passion. So we do skip over five chapters of material here. And it's not quite as um the the tensions building are not quite as overt necessarily as they are in John. Uh we've got some parables that are happening, we've got some teaching. Jesus does cleanse the temple at the end of Matthew, he does it at the beginning of John, and that's when, if you're not familiar with the story, Jesus is does the famous flipping of the tables when people are uh using the temple for non-holy acts and whatnot. So we we do have some of that kind of, like you were saying, dude, under the current tension building. Um there is a chapter in here where Jesus does a lot of critiquing of the hypocrites of religious leadership. Because for Matthew, that's one of Jesus' heavy hitting points is thinking through we as church leadership or people who are in church leadership, people who are responsible for the faith of others, the added responsibility that those people have. And so that's part of why Matthew comes hard down on the caricature of the Pharisees, is because the Pharisees are the ones who are responsible for the faith of the people, and so therefore, when they act in ways that are not in keeping with the traditions with their faith, they get hard critiques, and the disciples too. The disciples get called out a few times by Jesus and Matthew. And so we get to the, we do all of that, and Jesus is coming down on them, and there's a lot of concern. Matthew or Matthew's Jesus start to talk about um the coming crucifixion, the coming suffering, things like that. We got a couple of other things, but it is a little more low-key, I guess you could say, that tension building, um, than it is than we've been talking about in John. Like we don't have where we ended last week's gospel with Lazarus, and then they started to plot how they would kill him. We don't have that in Matthew. Um not in the same way, at least. So the question then comes why does why does Jesus ride a donkey into Jerusalem? Um because in John, there actually is a Palm Sunday procession in John. We never read it. It's an alternative reading, one of the three years. And that's because John doesn't really make a big deal of it, because Jerusalem has been looming the entire time throughout all of John. Jerusalem, Jerusalem. We've got um Thomas was saying, let's go to Jerusalem with Jesus so that we can die with Jesus. And so that sense of constant movement towards Jerusalem and the cross has been present for John. Matthew has a lot more of the parables, a lot more kind of dwelling and going through those stories. And so for Matthew, entering into Jerusalem has much more of that all-glory lot and honor, and it's a much more dramatic entrance because this is Matthew tying Jesus back to Messiahship, back to what was expected for Jewish kingship and whatnot.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

For me, it almost seems like riding on a donkey is the symbol of the humbleness. Um this might be an odd connection, but when you think about Mary before she gave birth, she was riding on a donkey into Bethlehem. And here now Jerus Jesus is coming into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey. Again, it's it's this this new coming. Um he was coming in the first time uh in Bethlehem, and now he's coming into Jerusalem to establish his kingdom here on earth, and yet being humble enough to come on a donkey, rather than on a big carriage or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Yes. The Greek word that is used to describe Jesus as humble in this reading is actually the same word that is used back in the Beatitudes from meek. And so we've got that full circle too of Jesus, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. And now here Jesus is embodying that meekness, that hum, that humility, and he does inherit the earth, just not in the way that people expected.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Well, they expected the Messiah to come in and establish a whole new reign. You know, that things would be so much greater and and better, and uh they they must have that must have been the the joyfulness that they had on that triumphant entry. Um but then they turn on him very quickly, it seems. You know.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Well, some of that's the way that we have the lectionary set up uh because Jesus comes into Jerusalem, Matthew tells us it's for the to celebrate the Passover, and this is we do Holy Week the way we do it because it kind of matches what's happening in the stories. Palm Sunday is around Sunday-ish on the week, and then right after this, Jesus goes to the temple, flips the tables, does the whole cleansing of the temple, which I'm sure did not make him any friends. Right. So I imagine we started a little rough on his entry there, but then as you go through, it's a lot of teaching and a lot of uh people listening and asking questions and things like that. And so I'm not sure that we get to the crucify him, crucify him as quickly in scripture as we do in Sunday on our on our lectionary readings. Um you were talking earlier about the people and how they were gathering, right, for this triumphal entry. And one of the words that always sticks out to us is this Hosanna, Hosanna, however you want to pronounce it. Um and we frequently use it as this big celebratory praise thing, um, kind of like a Lent-friendly hallelujah. But actually, Hosanna is related to an Aramaic word that means save us, God save us. And so what the people are saying here is they're seeing Jesus come, and they believe that Jesus is the one who will redeem the people, who will return Israel to what it once was and save them from the oppression of Rome. And so they're celebrating Jesus coming because they think he is coming to turn the city upside down and restore Israel to a position of leadership in the area.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Is that a I I realize this that this question is going to be dependent upon putting ourselves on a time machine and going back 2,000-ish years. But I would like or have to assume that there are some members in the crowd that have seen Jesus' works and are may well, it may be even the disciples that are maybe getting it, right? Like, and and if they're if they're saying, maybe not all of them, but some of them, if they're saying Hosanna, save us, they're not necessarily speaking, you know, hey, overthrow the Roman oppression. Welcome God's Son, welcome the Jesus, as we spoke last time, and save us from you know the the this life, right? I mean, like literally bring your salvation. Or or like really was it still hidden, Jesus' mission still hidden from the people at this at this point.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

I mean, I think it's very much about Rome still. Um it's because it's very much about the day-to-day life. And a lot of the times throughout scriptures, we actually miss the point a little bit when we talk about God's kingdom, uh, because we talk about God's kingdom come or heaven or whatever, as if it's only something in the hereafter, something that we're eventually gonna get to. Uh but for Matthew 2, the idea that God's kingdom has come near in the person Jesus is this idea of redemption and reconciliation and all that stuff happening in real time in that space with Jesus. And that's where uh like the tradition of writing the Gospels came about, because Jesus, in I forget which of the Gospels, but one of them, he says something along the lines of um, you know, the the kingdom will come before this generation passes away. Well, then the generation passes away, and then people panic because they said, well, we thought that everything will be rectified by now, and it's not. And so then they write these stories down to kind of pass on this faith, pass on this trust and hope of God's kingdom being fully realized. And so for God's kingdom to be fully realized is not necessarily about uh or just about saving people from uh like this esoterical uh good and evil good and evil battle, it's about saving them from quite literal oppression and literal um hardship in their lives. And so I I think uh, and I could be wrong, but I think when they say save us, they're saying save us from Roman oppression. Uh because even as he continues talking on, they're talking about, oh, he's king of the Jews. A king meaning someone who would step in and replace Caesar on some level, which is why they didn't want him around, because he was gonna cause an insurrection, and that's not okay. Um and that's where when we get to the end at the resurrection, and that's why you can't take this story in piecemeal sometimes, you get to the resurrection, and there's kind of an aha moment then of like, oh, it's not about Rome, it's not about um the specifics now, it's about this life, this abundant, merciful life we have in God.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Right. I just it was a it was a question. I'm wondering I'm just wondering, is any when like where does the oh I'm starting to get it take place in in society, you know, in human society. Like modern society? No, just in general, like when do like the disciples, we we know that the disciples are still not getting it at this point, you know, like don't do that, Jesus. You don't, you know, what are you talking about? You can't die, and then Jesus turns around and says, you know, go behind me, Satan, whatever gospel that's that's in.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

Um yeah, I mean, and in Matthew, the disciples are over and over again called you of little faith, you of little faith. Like they don't get it. And um, this is jumping gospels, but Mark is particularly well known for the um the messianic secret, where Jesus basically does something and then says, shh, don't tell anybody. Um and that all comes about this idea from the idea, or this all comes about from the idea that you won't understand parts of the story until you know the whole story. And the whole story is the death and resurrection and ascension. And so without having that picture, Jesus riding it on a donkey doesn't make sense. So for the reader, the first readers of this, they would have had the whole story. So, yes, they understand there's a duplicity there. But for the people gathering at Jerusalem as Jesus is riding on a donkey, it would have been a confusing imagery because it's a donkey and not a war horse, but it would have been that idea of here is a messiah come to save us physically, literally. At this time, there was something called the Pax Romana, which was the peace of Rome. And the Pax Romana was this idea that Rome was creating peace for the land. However, as we've been alluding to, the peace of Rome comes through oppression and putting their thumb on people and cutting down people who might disrupt status quo. Um, and so it wasn't, it's like a false peace. And then Jesus comes about with this peace of God, which is a very different kind of peace. This is um wolf and lamb lie down together, kind of peace, shalom kind of peace. This is a very unity, harmonious peace that Jesus is bringing. And so what would happen is when Rome would go and conquer a new area or put down an insurrection or something like that, they would ride in a parade, probably on a horse, not a donkey. Um, they would ride into the city so that they could declare their victory. And they would declare that they have um brought the Plax Romana into a new area and things like that. And so this idea of a victory march into Jerusalem or into a city would have been a common imagery. And so to have Jesus riding in that matches with the idea of Jesus riding in in victory, of bringing about the peace of God, the peaceable reign of God. And so it's just kind of this contradiction of imageries where we've got what Rome does, and Jesus does it with a twist, a donkey, and it's about something totally different than what Rome is doing. Oh, and to take it another step further, they would ride in and they would read out the good news of their victory, the um evangelion of their victory, which is the same word we use for gospel. And so, once again, we're taking this idea or these the language that Rome's already using and putting a twist on it to talk about what God's up to. And so it's almost like redeeming the language in a way, for the way Jesus is using these words, or the gospel writers are using these words. Because we're taking Pak's peace of Rome and saying, no, this is what peace actually looks like. We're talking victory of Rome, and then Jesus is saying, no, this is what victory looks like. It looks like humility, servanthood, etc. Or we took, do we take good news of Rome? And Jesus says, no, this is good news. Blessed are the meek, blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are. Thank you for joining us for this Palm Sunday episode of Facets of Faith as we explore the celebration that we have in Jesus and the way that Jesus sometimes turns our expectations on the head and invites us into a new way of seeing what God is up to in this world. Before we end our time together, I invite you to join me in a word of prayer. Sovereign God, you have established your rule in the human heart through the servanthood of Jesus Christ. By your Spirit, keep us in the joyful procession of those who with their tongues confess Jesus as Lord and with their lives praise Him as Savior, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.