A
Palm/Passion BFC 2017
Matthew
21:1-13
April
9, 2017
Crowds of people descend on
Jerusalem. It is the holy time of
Passover, and Jews from all over the known world, are making pilgrimage to the
city. Some, to see the pomp and
circumstance associated with the celebration.
Others, come to the city as curious onlookers. Still others, come as a form of devotion to
their God with a recognition that Jerusalem, the “City of Peace”, had a long
history within Jewish faith and life.
Imagine,
from the west of Jerusalem, comes the annual imperial procession, like one that
had come from the imperial rulers of Judea and Samaria before and after Rome
and Rome’s Pontius Pilate. These
processions took place during the major festivals of the Jewish people, as a
way of enforcing the identity of the Jewish people--as conquered and occupied
people. Such imperial displays would
have been incredibly important during the festival days of the Jewish Passover,
a celebration remembering the Jewish liberation and deliverance from imperial
power. Passover remembers the Jewish
people as liberated and delivered by God.
The imperial procession reminded the Jewish they were enslaved and occupied
by Rome and its Caesar, the current boot on their neck.
The Jewish
pilgrims flocking into Jerusalem would have known this imperial procession
well. Rome wanted to make sure the
Jewish people knew this procession well, expected these processions every
Passover.
Imagine the
imperial processions arrival in the city—a visual panoply of imperial
power: calvary on horses, foot soldiers,
leather armor, helmets, weapons, banners, golden eagles mounted on poles, sun
glinting on metal and gold. Sounds: the marching of feet, the creaking of
leather, the clinking of bridles, the beating of drums, the swirling of
dust. The eyes of the silent
onlookers: some curious, some awed, some
resentful. Pilate’s procession displayed
not only imperial power but also Roman imperial theology. According to this theology, the Emperor was
not only the ruler of Rome but the Son of God.[1]
If you can
hold both the throng of Jews in Jerusalem in your imagination and the imperial
procession entering in from the west of Jerusalem, the stage is now set for
carefully choreographed religio-political street theater about to take place on
the other side of Jerusalem intended to critique Roman State power and
Messianic triumphalism, rooted in violence, found in a strand of Judaism,
within Jesus’s own people.[2]
Another planned political procession
arrives from the east. We know it is
planned because, in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells the disciples that there
is a donkey and colt in the town ahead of them, and that they are to go and
retrieve that donkey and colt. Whatever
your view of prophecy in Scripture, whether Jesus is fulfilling prophecy or a
gospel writer is characterizing Jesus’ actions as the fulfillment of Scripture,
this processional invokes a Scripture from Hebrew Scripture or the Old
Testament. Either Jesus is attempting to
invoke a Scripture known to the Jewish people or the gospel writer is using the
passage to define the content of Jesus’ mission and ministry. For according to the prophet Zechariah, in
Hebrew Scripture or the Old Testament, a king would be coming to Jerusalem
humble and riding on a colt and the foal of a donkey.[3]
That
Scripture reads as follows:
Rejoice, greatly,
O daughter, Zion! Shout aloud, O
daughter, Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes
to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, a colt,
the foal of a donkey. That king will cut
off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle
bow shall be cut off, and the king shall command peace to the nations.[4]
Notice,
first of all, that the title is a political one—king, one who is at the same
level as a Roman Caesar. And this
king shall banish war from the earth.
Chariots and war horses shall be no more. Bows shall be broken. Peace shall be commanded to all the nations. This king shall be a king of peace.
This procession occurring on the east
side of Jerusalem is to directly counter what is known to be going on to the
west of Jerusalem. Pilate’s procession
incarnated the power, glory, and violence of Empire. Jesus’ procession incarnated the Empire of a
nonviolent God. This counter, this
conflict and clash between two Empires, sets the stage for all of the rest of
Holy Week. Peace by one Empire was
achieved through military might, retaliatory, escalating violence, and economic
domination. All the trappings were
present in this procession to remind the Jewish people how peace would be kept
and pursued—armor, helmets, weapons, war horses. Peace by the other Empire removed the
remnants, the uniforms, the tools, and the mechanisms of war—chariots and war
horses removed, battle bows are banished.
Down through the centuries, that clash
of Empires has offered faithful Christians those same distinct choices—two
arrivals, two entrances into Jerusalem, two processions. Biblical scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic
Crossan ask the questions: “Which procession are we in? Which procession do we want to be in? This is the question of Palm Sunday, and of
the week that is about to unfold.”[5] Are we still sure we want to walk that hard
road Jesus is walking? Are we still sure
we went to be about that kind of faithfulness to the Christian
journey—faithfulness to a king who leads with non-violent confrontation?
Borg and Crossan go on to write,
“[O]ur Christian Lent is about repentance for being in the wrong [procession]
and preparation to abandon it for its alternative.”[6] In other words, much as our children have
been teaching us every Sunday, Lent is about turning and returning. Lent is about preparing to abandon Pilate’s
procession for the processional of a Mediterranean Jewish peasant from a small
town just outside of Sepphoris. Jesus
made space for his ministry and message through creative, confrontational
non-violence. In that process, Jesus
helped his followers imagine a God who was not only engaged but courageous and
non-violent.
Jesus
had a ministry and message that was about sharing food and freedom, healing and
hospitality—a belief that God did not look upon people and see them as Roman subjects
but as Children of God. That is how God
always sees us. No matter how we may see
ourselves, God looks and sees us as dear, beloved, and a precious creation. That title, “Child of God” is not meant to
indicate that we remain children. “Child
of God” is a mythological title meaning we are birthed and re-birthed, that we
turn and return time and time again to a path.
That blessed path forever communicates God’s deep and passionate love
for the world. That is God’s hope for
us, that we live out that mythological title regardless of what the
consequences for doing so, no matter what the Empire would do to us.
Two processions are about to take
place in Jerusalem, from opposite sides of the city. Which one are we in? Which one do we want to be in? Repent.
Repent. Amen.
[1] John Dominic Crossan and
Marcus J. Borg, The Last Week: A
Day-by-Day Account of Jesus’s Final Week in Jerusalem (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006), audiobook. This book is the basis for today’s sermon.
[2] Ched Myers, “Palm Sunday as Subversive Street
Theater: Sixth Sunday in Lent (Mk.
11:1-11),” Radical Discipleship, March
26, 2015. https://radicaldiscipleship.net/2015/03/26/palm-sunday-as-subversive-street-theatre-sixth-sunday-in-lent-mk-111-11/. Myers
goes on to say that this action by Jesus even repudiates the Messianic
triumphalism found within Judaism.
Images from the parade called to mind several biblical precedents: the
colt signifying triumphant Judah (Gen 49:11); the return of the Ark to Israel
(I Sam 6:7ff); the declaration of Jehu as upstart king (2 Kg 9:13); a royal
processional hymn (Ps 118:25f). And the fact that the parade began “near the
Mount of Olives” (11:1) would have brought to mind the final apocalyptic battle
between Israel and her enemies spoken of by Zechariah (see Zech 14:1-5). This theater also alludes to more recent
events. It recalls the victorious military procession of Simon Maccabaeus, the
great guerilla general who liberated Palestine from Hellenistic rule some two
centuries before. According to I Maccabbees 13:51 Simon entered Jerusalem “with
praise and palm branches…and with hymns and songs.” And there was an incident
of Messianic posturing contemporary to Mark as well. Mid-way through the Judean
revolt against Rome (66- 70 C.E.), according to the Jewish historian Josephus,
the guerilla captain Menahem had marched through Jerusalem heavily armed and
“like a king,” in an unsuccessful attempt to become the sole leader of the
rebel provisional government. But Mark
uses all of these popular Messianic images precisely in order to subvert them. This
is the point of the odd story about “commandeering” a colt, which occupies
fully half the parade narrative (11:2-6). Mark is consciously re-organizing the
symbolism of this parade around a different Zecharian image which is expressly anti-military. See also, Bo Sanders, “Palm Sunday Is the
Most Political Sunday,” Home-Brewed Christianity, March 25, 2013. https://homebrewedchristianity.com/2013/03/25/palm-sunday-is-the-most-political-sunday/
[3] Zecharaiah 9:9. Scholars believe that Matthew read the
passage wrong and saw two animals involved in this poetic mythology. It is believed that Zechariah is, instead,
using repetition to talk about one animal, a donkey/colt.
[5] Cross and Borg, The
Last Week.
[6] Marcus Borg and John
Dominic Crossan, “Jesus Final Week:
Collision Course,” Christian Century, March 20, 2007, p. 29
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