The Dynamics of Palm Sunday

Monday of Holy Week

The Dynamics of Palm Sunday

     I hope most of you got to listen to Tobi's sermon yesterday. I particularly liked her take on the powerful Pilate coming into Jerusalem with his military entourage on the west side of the city while Jesus came in on the east side on a donkey with his motley crew of Galileans and a few others. It's a stark contrast of power and weakness, reminiscent of Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 1. Indeed the Romans hated the Christians for their weakness, for their caring for the poor and disabled, for their having women and slaves in places of prominence in their churches. The Empire was based on strength and power. Christian values were a threat to the empire.

    Jesus intended his entry into Jerusalem to be both symbolic and prophecy fulfilling. Many of the Jews of Jesus time believed in the soon coming of a messiah, an anointed king of the dynasty of David who would lead a military overthrow of the Romans and reestablish an independent Jewish state. Jesus was the messiah, but not that kind of messiah. 

     A less popular but more Biblical understanding of the messiah is found in the OT in Zechariah 9:9,  "Lo, your king comes to you 

         Triumphant and glorious is he, 

         Humble and riding on a donkey,

               on a colt the foal of a donkey.

     The gospel writers saw Jesus as the fulfillment of this prophecy. Jesus consciously sought to fulfill this prophecy. Matthew begins and ends his quotation of the prophecy with Zechariah 9:9. But Zechariah didn't end there. Jesus didn't end there. We need to look at the next verse, Zechariah 9:10, as well:

      He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim

             and the war horse from Jerusalem,

      and the battle bow shall be cut off,

             and he shall command peace to the nations.

      his dominion shall be from sea to sea.

             and from the River to the ends of the earth.

     Ephraim, incidentally, was the largest of the 12 tribes of Israel. It's name comes to signify the entire people of Israel. The "River" is likely the Euphrates, possibly the Jordan.

     Jesus came to bring the message of peace. Why do we have so much trouble hearing him?

    Tomorrow's blog will deal with Jesus' overturning the table in the Temple courtyard the day after palm Sunday. Why did he do that? The question is much more complex than you might imagine.  My posts for the rest of the week will concern the other events leading up to that first Easter. Saturday's blog will be on the Easter event itself. 

Faithfully,

Christian