by Rev. Canon David B. Tabo-oy
8And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. v9And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! v10Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” (Read Mark 11:1-11)
This Sunday begins the most solemn liturgical observance in the church that is Holy Week. We carry coconut fronds and similar palm fronds, branches or leaves. This is Palm Sunday (Domingo Ramos) and is also known as Passion Sunday.
It is now liturgically known as Sunday of the Passion because it opens the observance of the Holy Week with the reading of the narrative of the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. The service starts with the traditional reenactment of the triumphal entry of Jesus to the city of Jerusalem with people holding palm branches in procession that ends inside the church.
We remember this very significant segment in Jesus’ ministry by bringing palm fronds and proceeding to the church with hymns such as “All Glory Laud and Honor” and other hymns and anthems proclaiming that Jesus is the most awaited messiah, the redeemer King.
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As we begin the observance of the Holy Week, so near the cross, as we remember Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, his suffering and death, we cannot help but be humbled by his example. God came to us in Jesus. Like a lamb led to slaughter, he died on our account — with humility and with love. What devotion our God shows us! And the question that must be asked is: What response can we make for all this? We need to join the crowds that welcomed Jesus as he entered Jerusalem. We need to join the chorus of children who sang his praise. We need to offer our lives to him in service and praise, to bow our knees and to use our tongues to give him praise, for he offered himself for us.
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With the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on a donkey, the Messiah promised in the prophets is officially presented to the Jews. His coming into Jerusalem fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah,
“v9Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9)
In this passage the Messiah is depicted as a victorious king bringing salvation and peace to a rejoicing nation. Zechariah’s king was “gentle and riding in a donkey”, but his dominion “will extend from sea to sea” (Zec. 9:9-10). In verse 10 of our gospel lesson the crowd shouts, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David,” but by the following verse the crowd is gone as quickly as it came. Lightning rally? With only his disciples, Jesus left the city he had just entered and returned to Bethany alone. Thus very quickly Mark has turned our attention to the rejection of Jesus. He has not dwelled long on the initial, and short-lived reception. The narratives that follow will provide more details about what happened to the people’s hope. This is the first and last popular show of support of Jesus in Jerusalem.
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Sunday of the Passion. It is rightly so called for somehow today the triumph of his entry is diminished by our knowledge of the tragedy to follow. Somehow our shouts of praise are tempered by the cries of “crucify him!” that would echo in the streets later. Our voices may sing, “Hosanna,” but our hearts want to cry out, “Turn back.” Our worship may welcome him with praise, but part of us wants to say, “Get away from this place, Jesus! For only death awaits you here!”
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The journey that begins today is not a long one in terms of distance. Calvary, the place of crucifixion, stands just outside Jerusalem. But every moment of this week will widen the gap between acceptance and rejection. Each succeeding day will leave Jesus with fewer supporters and make their voices less audible amid the growing clamor of the opposition. By week’s end, the leaders who see Jesus as a threat to their power and who want to be rid of him will have their way, and Jesus’ allies will be frightened into silence. Those earlier shouting “Hail to the King!” would now part of the crowd shouting “Nail him to the cross! (crucify him!).
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On the night before he died, just after the supper they had shared, Jesus and the Disciples sang a hymn and went to the Mount of Olives where Jesus told them they would all desert him. Then he cited the prophet Zechariah, who said, “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.” Sure enough, as the night wore on, especially after Jesus was arrested, his followers did fall away.
Plenty of people witnessed Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, and they had a host of reasons for participating, or at least for allowing it to happen. All were in some sense accomplices, because of things they either did, or failed to do: sins of commission or sins of omission. These were real pe.ople with homes, families, and jobs. They had personal concerns and ambitions. They had their own political and religious beliefs. Some are known by name, although most are unnamed.
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Consider those described in Mark’s Gospel as “the crowd.” Artists painting the crucifixion have traditionally shown a diverse collection of people scattered around the landscape. Many were there simply to watch a happening, the same way curious drivers today cause traffic jams on one side of a highway, as they strain to glimpse an accident being cleared away on the other side. Many of the bystanders probably had no strong feelings one way or the other about what was taking place. They may not even have known who was being crucified. The Gospel says the chief priests stirred up the crowd to call for Jesus’ death, and the release of a murderer named Barabbas.
Those chief priests, along with the scribes and the elders — the ruling party — had a vested interest in what was taking place. Seeing Jesus arrested and put to death had long been their goal, so they made sure that once he was in custody, a death sentence would follow — even if it had to be based on false testimony.
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Then there were the soldiers. One could say they were just following orders. They mocked Jesus. They spat on him. They beat him. They nailed him to the cross. It was the soldiers who had brought Jesus to Pontius Pilate, the governor, for questioning.
Pontius Pilate wielded a lot of authority, but he lacked courage. Even after admitting to the crowd that he did not find Jesus guilty of any crime, he still went along with their demand for Jesus’ death.
And what about the Disciples? Most were in hiding, fearing for their own lives. Peter had assured Jesus that even if everyone else fled, he would remain by his side. But in the face of armed soldiers and jeering crowds, Peter could not maintain his resolve, and he denied three times that he even knew Jesus.
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There were, however, men and women whose courage did not fail them. It took courage for John, known as the Beloved Disciple, to be so visible that Jesus could speak to him from the cross. It took courage for Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and the other women who had followed him during his ministry, to be present and openly supportive at the cross. It took courage for Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy and respected official, to go to Pontius Pilate at dusk and get permission to take Jesus down from the cross and bury him.
The people gathered that day in Jerusalem looked on with different perspectives and a variety of motivations. One thing they did share was a limited field of vision. For them, Jesus’ crucifixion marked an ending, with no possibility of anything beyond. His life that had held so much promise was over, and their hopes for the future died with him. And yet, not many hours later, some of the women would discover the empty tomb, and the story would be changed forever.
From commonplace to extraordinary; from narrow boundaries to limitless horizons; from utter despair to endless hope — everything turned upside down, because God was present at the cross. God was on the cross and all around it, and God’s presence transforms the crucifixion from a finite event in time to an event transcending time. All those negative forces and emotions that led to Jesus’ death came together on that cross where they were transformed and reflected back to the people as love, because that is what God does.
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The drama of Palm Sunday involves Christians in a journey they have to take, uncomfortable though it may be. Christians have to arrive at the cross in order to get beyond it. Christians have to see themselves among the bystanders in order to understand their participation with them. Christians have to see how God transforms the cross from an instrument of death into a symbol of eternal life.
“At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” Not yet, but some day. Amen. (Sources: NIV Compact Bible Commentary; Sermonsthatwork)
Let us pray.
Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take our nature upon him, and to suffer death upon the Cross, giving us the example of his great humility: mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (ECP-BCP Sunday of the Passion Collect)**
