Palm Sunday is filled with pageantry and excitement, at least that is what I remember from my childhood. In one of our churches, we had a wooden colt that was pulled down the aisle of the church each Palm Sunday. The rider, one of the “bearded” men of the church, was dressed in “biblical” clothing. Worshippers were at the ready, and with Palm Branches in hand, they would throw them down on the central aisle of the sanctuary yelling “Hosanna!” and “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”
It was quite a scene and was rather fun watching the children of the church push and pull a wooden donkey with a fully grown man riding over carpet and palm branches. While pageant parades are a stylized version of the story, they create memories.
On Palm Sunday, the procession will be remembered in song, spoken word, scripture, and a physical procession at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. But what really happened that day? Mark, the Gospel writer, offers us a few clues. Much is similar to our childhood memories, but there are some stark contrasts. I was always confused that such a celebration on Sunday turned to an execution on Friday. Everyone seemed to be “WITH” Jesus on Sunday and completely absent on Friday. Even denying him more than once, and in Mark’s first ending of the Gospel, running away in the direction of Galilee. This made no sense to a kid in 5th grade, wearing biblical clothes, trying to pull a wooden colt down the aisle of the church.
Maybe Holy week has been confusing to you too. Today we will spend some time considering place and purpose. The place of the procession of Jesus is from the Mt. of Olives, down the hill, across the valley, and up into the gates of Jerusalem. Jesus’ purpose was to protest the abuse of power that the collaborators in the Temple hierarchy had been engaged in for some time. But more than protesting collaborators, there is the protest of the colonizing power, Rome. As the story develops, we get an idea of the stress of living under the thumb of Rome and the hope of the long promised Messiah.