PALM SUNDAY OF THE LORD'S PASSION
Behold, your king comes to you, meek and riding on an
ass, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.
The story of
God revealed in Jesus has and continues to confound the world. As we enter into Holy week, I find it
difficult to place myself in the immediate context of Jesus’s entrance into
Jerusalem. My problem is that I know how it all ends, so I do not find myself
convinced by the proclamation of the crowds that come out to greet him and
announce, “This
is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee.” In my own mind I know beforehand the
role the crowd plays in the passion we read as today’s Gospel.
Certitude
about how this story ends spoils all the remaining plot twists. The Romans are
not kicked out of Palestine, Jesus dies, and then is raised from the dead. More
importantly, certitude cuts against one of the major themes of the Gospels;
God’s actions in our lives does not conform to our expectations or rules for
how God should act in our lives.
That Jesus,
“The Son of David” entered Jerusalem on a beast of burden confounds some human
expectations. Instead of entering the
city as a conqueror, as King David did, Jesus enters on an ass. The crowd tries
to dress it up by cutting palms and throwing their cloaks before him – royal
enough in a pinch. By the end of today’s Gospel there is no dressing it
up. The Son of David is dead, unable to
throw off the yoke of foreign conquerors and restore God's Justice among the
people of Israel.
This is not
how it was supposed to go. The Messiah – The Son of David was supposed to
restore the good-ole days. God is not bound by our expectations and rules. I re-encounter this fact every Sunday, and
especially during Easter when so many of our stories are contain this theme.
The Son of David washing the disciples’ feet.
Peter denying Jesus and going on to become the rock the Church is built
on. The multiple renditions of Jesus’s death on the cross as a convicted
criminal. The challenge is not to figure
out how God is going to act, but being present to and recognizing God's Grace
at work in our lives.
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