Hosanna!

[Our lessons were Mark 11:1-11; Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians 2:5-11; and Mark 14:1-15:47.]

Holy Week is a time of contrasts. We begin Palm Sunday in seeming triumph, which quickly turns to what seems to be final, utter defeat, which in three days itself turns into the victory of Easter Day. One of the things that makes Holy Week difficult for us is these sudden mood swings back and forth.

Around the year 380, a Spanish nun named Egeria visited the Holy Land and described the Bishop and people going in procession from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem, carrying palm fronds and olive branches, re-enacting Jesus’ triumphal procession into Jerusalem.

In his method of entry, Jesus carried out a bit of street theatre, parodying the triumphal entry of a victorious Roman emperor. Instead of the emperor’s war horse, he rode on a donkey, signifying that he came in peace. Much of the symbolism no doubt went over the head of the crowd and probably a part of the crowd was simply attracted by all the commotion. As much as any of them saw that Palm Sunday, Jesus was preparing to chase the Romans out and re-establish David’s Kingdom.

Is it any wonder that these events upset the powers of the time—the Romans and the Priests? When you’re on top, change is not a good thing because you can only go down. A claim that Jesus would re-establish the Kingdom of Israel would be seen as sedition and treason by the Empire. And while the Jewish authorities had no real love for the Romans, it didn’t take much wisdom on their parts to see that the type of Kingdom of God that Jesus was proclaiming didn’t have a place for them. Both groups had a vested interest in bringing about Jesus’ death.

And there’s little doubt that Jesus knew this. He knew that the end of this procession led not to a throne but to the Cross. (No Jew of that time could have any doubt about how the Empire punished treason and sedition—a cross.) He knew that this “triumphal” procession was in truth a funeral procession, as we do when we sing

Ride on! Ride on in majesty!
In Lowly pomp ride on to die;
Bow thy meek head to mortal pain,
Then take, O God, thy power and rein.

Unlike the people of Jerusalem and the Apostles, we know where this is leading. As much as we wish for Jesus to stay away from Gethsemane, for Judas to not betray him, for Peter to not deny Jesus, we know that the Cross is the destination that Holy Week leads us to. Jesus would not avoid it and we cannot avoid it either. It is the Passion that gives the entry into Jerusalem context.

Jesus did not want the Cross; he did not want to die. He could have turned aside from that path and he asked God to let “this Cup” pass from him. But he accepted death and remained obedient to God, knowing the price he would pay. And because he did so, death could be defeated.

Without Good Friday, Easter can’t have meaning. Without death, there can be no resurrection.

Palm Sunday is the beginning of a week-long journey from seeming triumph to utter despair to endless hope that Christians must take, no matter how much we would avoid it. To get past the Cross to an empty tomb on Easter day, we have to go to the Cross first. We must walk the way of the Cross this week so we can reach Easter next weekend.