Sadly, this was not preached, as I was suffering from food poisoning and couldn't go to Church - fortunately, i had been sharing the service with our minister and was able to warn her in time.
So today is Palm Sunday. It’s the start of Holy Week, when we begin that long, sad, strenuous journey to the cross. In other years, we might have all met together last night for a Circuit Passover Supper, to mark the beginning of Holy Week. Obviously, with the current restrictions that couldn’t happen either last year or this year, but maybe next year we will be able to do so. Anyway, then today we remember Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, and, indeed, for many churches today’s service is a journey towards the Cross; there isn’t a sermon but together they read what’s called the “Passion Narrative”, the story from today’s reading right up to Jesus’ death. Or we can, as we are doing this year, make the journey last for the week. On Thursday we will meet together on Zoom to remember how Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, and how he took the traditional Jewish Friday-night ritual blessing of bread and wine and lifted it, transformed it into something quite different that we know today as Holy Communion. On Friday, also on Zoom, we will remember his death on the Cross. And next Sunday, of course, we will be rejoicing and celebrating the Resurrection and being able to meet together once again to do so!
But for today, we are focussing on the journey to Jerusalem. Now, Jesus had often stayed in Bethany before – probably with Martha and Mary, do you think? – and walked into Jerusalem. It wasn’t far – only a couple of miles, probably not much further than from here to Streatham. So why, do you suppose, he suddenly wanted to ride on a donkey? And why this particular donkey, which had never been ridden before?
Well,
Mark doesn’t say, but Matthew’s version of the story reminds us
of the promise in Zechariah: “Shout
and cheer, Daughter Zion!
Raise your
voice, Daughter Jerusalem!
Your king is coming!
a
good king who makes all things right,
a
humble king riding a donkey,
a mere colt
of a donkey.”
That must have been a very odd image to the first hearers. We don’t know exactly what the prophet thought he was referring to – there was very often a local context, as well as one looking forward to Jesus – but obviously now was the time for this prophecy to be fulfilled. Again, we don’t know whether Jesus knew that, and was consciously fulfilling the prophecy, which he would have known from childhood, or whether he was just obeying the inner voice from God that was leading him step by step, inexorably, towards the Cross.
It must have been a very odd image, don’t you think, to those first hearers of Zechariah? I mean, a donkey is what the humble people rode, a beast of burden. Kings rode horses, or in chariots – they didn’t ride donkeys. Our Queen doesn’t drive a white van!
But this was the image. The King, God Almighty, riding on a donkey like any merchant or shopkeeper. Extraordinary, really, when you come to think about it.
But, of course, people didn’t know that this was God Himself in the Person of his Son Jesus Christ. If they recognised him at all, they saw the rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth, the teacher. The one who was getting up the noses of the Temple authorities. The one who said that God’s country was quite different from what you’d always thought, but that it was still worth giving up everything you had for. The one who said you should love your enemies. The one who had said some very extraordinary things about himself…. That he was the Light of the World; that he was the Good Shepherd…. And that, if you followed Him, you would be being God’s person even if you didn’t keep the Jewish law absolutely perfectly, even if you were not allowed to go to the Temple for some reason, even if you were a prostitute or a drug addict.
And, suddenly, it all came together and they began to cheer and shout. “Praise God! God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord! God bless the coming kingdom of King David, our father! Praise be to God!” The word “Hosanna”, which the Good News Bible translates as “Praise God” originally meant “God save him!” but it has transmuted into an affirmation of praise!
And they threw down branches on the road, and even their cloaks, which would have been ruined by the dust and the donkey’s feet! And they may well have been new cloaks, bought specially to go to Jerusalem for the festival, for this was the Passover, one of the most holy festivals in the Jewish calendar. You went to Jerusalem to celebrate the major festivals whenever you could, and especially for Passover – we know that Jesus was taken as a boy, all the way from Nazareth, and that he also went to the Temple when it was Hannukah, and possibly on other festivals, too. So there would have been big crowds going to Jerusalem. Those who had never heard of the new Teacher from Nazareth would have been told a bit by their friends and fellow-traveller when they saw him on the donkey and wondered what all the fuss was about.
And so they went to Jerusalem, cheered every step of the way, and, we are told, looked round the Temple for a bit and then went back to Bethany for the night, presumably returning the donkey to its rightful owners en route.
And? I mean, why does it matter? Why do we celebrate each year? Is it just a remembering thing, part of what happened to Jesus that we remember each year? Or is it something more.
It’s both, of course. Yes, part of it is certainly remembering what happened to Jesus. But it’s also about our own journeys towards God. And they are not always straightforward. People don’t shout and wave palm branches at us, which is probably just as well, as we are so prone to mess things up. Remember that lovely hymn we so often sing at this time of year:
“Sometimes
they strew his way
and his sweet praises sing,
resounding
all the day
hosanna to their king.
Then “Crucify!”
is
all their breath
and for his death
they thirst and cry.”
We all waver between singing hosannas and shouting “crucify!” To take a Bible example, look at Peter – one minute he was declaring that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and then the next minute he was being seriously unhelpful by saying he would never let Jesus be killed… which wasn’t what Jesus either wanted or needed to hear just then; Peter could and arguably should have given him a shoulder to cry on and bought him a pint! And later it is Peter who denies Jesus – but later still, he is able to accept forgiveness and be made whole again. Even Jesus wobbled a bit at times, as we saw in last week’s reading when he said he was scared and wished he could ask God to save him from this hour – but he knew he couldn’t. Similarly in the Garden of Gethsemane when he had a major meltdown and a real struggle to say “Not as I will, but as you will!” to God.
This year in particular has been so very difficult for so many people. I have struggled with not being able to see my family – thankfully the restrictions are being eased a bit tomorrow so we can go and visit my mother, out of doors, and take her her Christmas presents! And we did have a few weeks’ respite last summer as, I hope, we will have this summer. And I have had it easy – I did get the virus, and have struggled to recover, but I didn’t have to go to hospital and nobody close to me died from or with it. I’m retired, so the lockdown hasn’t impacted me financially. I live in walking distance of several “essential shops”, and we had plenty of loo paper to see us through the first shortage! But even so, it hasn’t been easy. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has asked God to just let it all be over, and to take this wretched virus away!
But we know, as St Paul reminds us, that God works all things together for good for those who love him. The bad is still bad – but God works it for good. We have been learning new ways of being church when we can’t meet in person. We’ve been learning that church committee meetings are a lot less onerous when you can do them from the comfort of your own chair!
It’s not easy to be God’s person all the time, and we all wobble. But Isaiah tells us that “If you wander off the road to the right or the left, you will hear his voice behind you saying, ‘Here is the road. Follow it.’” God won’t let us get too badly lost, however painful the road ahead may be.
So as we remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, let’s commit ourselves anew to travelling along with him, to being part of the crowd shouting “Hosanna”, and not the crowd shouting “Crucify him!” Amen.
