In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem marks the end of a long travel narrative which Luke describes in the course of ten chapters (9:51-19:27). This journey brings Jesus and his followers up to the Mount of Olives, just on the outskirts of Jerusalem. From there, Jesus sends two of his disciples into a nearby village, where they are to find a young donkey—a colt. Jesus instructs his disciples to untie the colt and bring it back with them to the Mount of Olives. Before they leave on their errand, Jesus advises his disciples, “If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” (Luke 19: 31)
The
two disciples return with the colt, explaining that everything had been just as
Jesus described. Then, Jesus mounts the
colt and begins his entry into Jerusalem.
As he rides, Jesus’ followers begin spreading their cloaks on the road
in front of the young donkey. People began
joyfully shouting, “Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is the king who comes in the name of
the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in
the highest heaven!” (Luke 19:38) As Jesus rides, more and more people begin to
come out of their shops and homes. They
join in the shouting and singing. Jesus’
entry into Jerusalem becomes a huge, triumphal parade.
To
be honest, I have always found Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem to be a
puzzling story. First, I’ve always
suspected that I did not fully grasp the significance and symbolism of Jesus’
triumphal parade into Jerusalem. Second,
it is perplexing that so many people would turn out to cheer Jesus as he rode
into Jerusalem, and yet just a few days later all of Jesus’ Palm Sunday
supporters seem to have vanished, replaced instead by an ugly mob shouting, “Crucify
him!”
It is likely that many of
those Palm Sunday supporters were strong supporters of Jesus, who loved him
dearly. We can imagine that in the crowd
that day were persons who had witnessed Jesus' power; others who had been healed
by Jesus; prostitutes and other social outcasts who had been affirmed and loved
by Jesus were also probably in the crowd; as well as many persons who had listened to Jesus teachings and
considered him to be a great teacher.
But, perhaps there were many others who were both in the Palm Sunday
crowd shouting, “Hosanna!” and
in the crowd later in the week, shouting:
“Crucify him!”
Let’s look at these two issues in
more depth.
What was the significance and symbolism of Jesus’ triumphal entry
into Jerusalem? Biblical
scholars believe that each of the four gospel writers carefully structured
their accounts of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem so that they correspond
with entrance processionals by Jewish kings or generals of conquering armies. These entrance parades were not unfamiliar to
the Hebrew people of the first century.
Although the processional for a victorious king would be substantively
different from the processional of a general, leading a conquering foreign
army, both processionals had some key similarities:
1. The conqueror/king
would be escorted by his army or the citizenry of Jerusalem.
2. The parade would
include songs or chants or other acclamations
3. After arriving in the
city, there is a “ritual of appropriation,” such as a sacrifice, at the Temple, where the ruler symbolically
appropriates the city of Jerusalem.
Alexander
the Great’s entrance into Jerusalem provides an historical example of this grand
processional entrance. According to Josephus,
the Jewish-Roman historian, “…all the Jews together greeted Alexander with one
voice and surrounded him… [then] he gave his hand to the high priest and, with
the Jews running beside him, entered the city.
Then he went up to the temple where he sacrificed to God under the
direction of the high priest.”[i]
Immediately,
we can see some important parallels between Jesus’ triumphal entry into
Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and these formalized grand entries by kings and
conquering generals. Just as the
prototype, so also Jesus is escorted into Jerusalem by his disciples and
followers. As he rides through
Jerusalem, his supporters pour out into the street from their shops and
homes. Similarly, Jesus’ parade is
accompanied by songs and chants of adoration, “”Hosanna! Blessed is the king
who comes in the name of the Lord!”
Yet,
there are also two key differences between Jesus’ triumphant parade and the prototypical
grand entrance of conquerors. First,
Jesus rides a donkey, instead of the more traditional warhorse—or, war
chariot. And, the message conveyed by
riding a donkey is radically different from a warhorse. Whereas a warhorse conveys power, authority,
and war, a donkey conveys humility and peace.
This symbolic difference would not be lost upon those in the streets as
Jesus rode by—or, by readers of the four gospels.
A
second difference is that Jesus deviates from the standard model when he passes
through the gate and into the city of Jerusalem proper. Recall that normally the entering king or
conqueror would go to the Temple and perform some “ritual of appropriation” of
the city of Jerusalem. Jesus does not
follow this part of the protocol. Rather
than “appropriating” Jerusalem at the Temple, Jesus pauses before entering the
city gates to weep and lament Jerusalem’s rejection of him as the Messiah.
When Jesus finally does arrive at
the Temple, it is not to make a sacrifice.
No. Instead, Jesus overturns the
tables of the moneychangers and drives away the merchants. As he does this, Jesus quotes prophecies from
Jeremiah and Isaiah, saying: “My [God’s]
house shall be a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of robbers.” (Luke 19:46)
To summarize, Jesus’
triumphal entry into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday follows the basic
protocol used by returning kings and conquering generals. Luke and the other gospel writers intend for
us to see that Jesus was a king. Yet, at
the same time, there are significant discrepancies between the standard
paradigm and the type of king which Jesus represents.
Jesus was not a king who rode a warhorse, but rather a king who rode a donkey. That is, Jesus was not a king of power,
authority, and war. Rather, Jesus was a
king of humility, servanthood, and peace.
Where did all the people go? I believe that the answer to this question is
embedded in what we have just discovered about how there are deviations or
discrepancies between the standard model of being a king and the kingship portrayed
by Jesus’ during his Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem.
In
my sermon on Palm Sunday, I will suggest that many of the people who lined the
streets of Jerusalem wanted Jesus to be a Messiah in the traditional sense of a
powerful and authoritarian king. Keeping
in mind that at the time the Hebrew people had been conquered and subjugated by
the Roman Empire, I will suggest that many in the crowd desired a strong,
warrior king, who would lead a revolution to overthrow their Roman
occupiers. In other words, they very
much wanted a king riding on a warhorse.
Instead, they got Jesus riding a donkey.
When
some of them discovered that Jesus did not intend to be the warrior king whom
they were dreaming of, then they rejected and abandoned Jesus. Having already rejected Jesus, these persons
were easily persuaded to move from the “Hosannas” of Palm Sunday to the “Crucify
him!” of Good Friday.
Of
course, from our perspective in the twenty-first century, it is easy to condemn
those who rejected and abandoned Jesus because he wasn’t the type of pre-conceived
Messiah for whom they had wished. Yet, perhaps
we should not rush to condemnation. In
my Palm Sunday message, I will suggest that sometimes even today we have a
tendency to turn away from God, when we discover that God is not the same as
our pre-conceived image of who God should be.
If you live in the
Lincoln, Nebraska area and do not have a regular church home, I invite you to
join us this Sunday, as we celebrate Palm Sunday with our own parade through
the church building, before our worship begins.
Christ United Methodist Church is located at 4530 A Street. Our classic worship services are at 8:30 and
11:00 on Sunday mornings.
Everyone is welcome and accepted because God loves us all.
[i] Quoted
by R. Alan Culpepper in his commentary on Luke for the New Interpreter’s Bible commentary series. Accessed by CD-ROM.
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