When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,
“Tell the daughter of Zion, look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,
“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Matthew 21:1-11, New Revised Standard Version
I have said on other Palm Sundays that the story of this entire Holy Week is one of contrasts. The happy crowd of Palm Sunday, shouting Hosanna, and the angry crowd of Good Friday, yelling Crucify him. Celebration, and rejection. Joy, and abuse.
And another contrast is that there is more than one parade into the city. There is the one we just heard about, Jesus on a donkey in a crowd of excited pilgrims coming for the religious festival. That is one parade. The other is the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, who travels to Jerusalem each year to take personal charge during the festival. One parade has happy shouts; the other has the tramp of Roman boots. One parade has waving palm branches; the other has imperial shields and spears and helmets. One parade has a poor Jewish man on a donkey; the other has the Roman Emperor’s representative on a war horse wearing full armour.
It seems to me on this very unusual Palm Sunday of 2020 that these contrasts are still with us. Churches all over the world are breaking bread and drinking the cup in the simple meal to remember Jesus – but online, to keep each other safe, to flatten the curve, as we say now. And the contrast is with the empire, just as it was in the time of Jesus, the empire of political and business power that is ramping up its calls to get rid of these measures to flatten the curve, to get everyone back to work, to let the virus run unchecked while – so they say – protecting seniors and disabled people. Of course, in reality seniors and disabled people, and people of all ages, would die in great numbers, but that’s a cost billionaires are prepared to pay. And just as in the time of Jesus there were religious leaders who disapproved of his parade, in our day there are pastors who want exemptions so they can keep their church buildings open and services full, when this will bring sickness and death to the people they are called to safeguard.
Two parades. Two visions of how to love, or not, our neighbours, of commitment, or not, to the common good. You know, in this time we can live without church buildings. What we can’t live without is the church, without love, without loving, without being God’s people, followers of Jesus Christ, called to be the church and love and serve others here and now in the circumstances we are in. Easter is coming, when love can’t be kept in the grave, when life bursts forth, when Jesus is raised from death to triumph over the culture of death too many of the world’s political and business leaders want to entrench. The Lord and Son of God isn’t the Emperor in Rome, who had those titles. The real king comes riding on a donkey. Thanks be to God.
