Palm Sunday column

Priests and pastors of many long-established Protestant churches go to seminary, a three year professional degree program. Perhaps the most important work one does is to be introduced to methods of careful Bible study. Usually, the fruits of this labor are hidden or watered down when we actually serve in congregations. Basically, one questions the passage with care in trying to garner meaning from it, what is said and perhaps what is not being said. On this Palm Sunday, let’s look a bit at this day through the lens of the four gospel passages (Mk.11:1-10, Mt. 21:1-11, Lk. 19:28-40, and John 12:12- 19). For instance, only John mentions palm branches explicitly.

Meaning derives from context. Jesus was crucified by Rome. Palm Sunday gives a hint of the rationale. John explicitly has Jesus enter Jerusalem to prepare for Passover. The Romans would learn, and quickly, that Passover was redolent with political message, as it was all about freedom from the oppression of Egypt and a march toward freedom. Insurrections had started around Passover time before. Apparently, Rome would station a cohort of 500 troops during religious festivals. Matthew has the entrance of Jesus draw a multitude, but Luke mentions only many disciples, and Mark is silent on the issue. It is possible that Rome took note, if the crowds were large. John Dominic Crossan imagines the Palm Sunday procession as a counter demonstration, similar to the marches for gun control yesterday, as a counter to the military procession of the cohort marching to their fortress, while Jesus heads to the temple. No gospel mentions a disturbance of the public order. This is a telling sign: the followers of Jesus were not crucified, only Jesus on Good Friday.

Usually, John’s gospel has no parallel with the synoptic gospels, synoptic as they seem to share a basically Markan template. With Palm Sunday, we have some coherence, albeit with differences. One point of contact is that reference is made to Zechariah 9:9. I often imagine that the early Christian communities scoured the Scriptures through the lens of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to try to get a deeper picture of his religious significance. There, a king is portrayed as a conquering her of peace, not military prowess. Remember this is after the temple was destroyed. When the gospels were circulated, the temple had been destroyed by Rome in 70, forty years after the crucifixion.

What may have caught their intention would lead to the sign over the cross itself-King of the Jews (Lk.19:38, Jn.12:13). We do not know how much Rome took into account a religious expectation for an anointed one, a messiah, to have an entrance into a new world. This was indeed an open consideration in the time of Jesus. The Dead Sea Scrolls community expected a priestly messiah who would purify temple activity in Jerusalem, for instance.

It seems possible that the very people who acclaimed Jesus on Palm Sunday were among those who shouted for crucifixion that very week. Crowd responses can be changeable indeed. To me Holy Week reflects life in that movement. Triumph and tragedy can be twins.  We may have a spectacular experience on one day and be in the very depths not long thereafter. Jesus seems carried away with the response and the bringing together of his vision on Palm Sunday (Lk. 19:40) where the very stones would shout. Soon he would be in the garden praying his heart out, as his very soul was troubled at the prospect of impending death (Lk. 42-44). His prayer would fall to the wayside, as so many prayers often do. My prayer would be that we take time to reflect on the readings that comprise Holy Week, as a glimpse into our souls and the very soul of