Palm sunday column

My favorite sporting event is March Madness, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. It has such agony and ecstasy. I watch or listen on the radio for upsets, and it rarely fails to disappoint. (Indeed, I am proof reading this piece with a game on right now).Palm Sunday arrives with the tournament this year, and I am taken with this odd pairing of events.

In many churches, Palm Sunday collides with another set of readings that walk us through the suffering of Jesus as Holy Week starts.I always recall, with a smile, an older pastor who told me that he could only work with a small parade so many times. I liked Palm Sunday as a child, as my brother and I had sword fights with them on the way back to church.

One advantage of Palm Sunday readings to start Holy Week is that  we get a yearly demonstration on how fickle crowds can be. They shouted, Hosanna (save us). So it has  a positive  sense of a cheer,such as Viva, but  in the back of it is a plea for help. I would bet that some of the same people who shouted the acclamation,lAter in the week, were in the group who shouted, Crucify Him, just a few days later. So many churches bray about constant blessings and mountain top experiences. Life rarely stays on the mountain top.

It may be a salutary spiritual practice to examine the accounts of the entrance into Jerusalem in the four gospels (Mt. 21:1-11, Mk. 11:1-11, LK. 19:28-44, Jn.12:12-19). The similarities are oftne obvious, but look for the differences, subtl or large and aks why they appear in this way.Following the suggestion of John Dominic Crossan,one may see Palm Sunday as a counter-demoinstration to the parade of Roman  troops getting ready for possible unrest during the Passover season.Jesus does not enter the city like a triumphant military ruler.In roman culture, palm branches had become a bsic symbol of victory, especially military victory. Drawing from Zechariah 9:9, Jesus enters as  an emissary of peace. In Luke, Jesus weeps over the city right after Jesus has the cheers ringing in his ears (v.40).

Part of the reason we celebrate Palm Sunday is to relieve the gloom of Holy Week, especially the liturgies of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. It gives us a bridge to the celebration of Easter.When the positive thinking  push hit the church, I recall that the cross was removed from some churches as “too negative.” Jesus lays ahold of an entire life, not only the ins or the virtues, but the fullness of human life.

By Thursday of Holy week, Jesus would be in the garden of Gethsemane in desperate prayer, as foreboding was moving inexorably toward tragic reality.All of us have Gethsemane moment. Sadly, they are more frequent, often, than the rarer Palm Sunday moments of triumph and energy. Both highs and lows are fleeting, evanescent.they acquire stability in reflection and memory. I wonder if the Palm Sunday cheers sounded hollow to him by them, or did they give him courage? I wonder if the cheers and the cloaks being laid before him gave rise to a memory of the temptation to power at the start of his work.

By and large, we rarely praise God fully or well. Rarely do hideous words such as crucify him drip from our lips. Silence is our most common mode. It may be an angry silence, a silence of assent, or not bothering to even respond. Perhaps during Holy Week, we do well to reflect on the moments of our lives that find resonance in the events of Holy Week, and go to church.