Sunday 01 April 2012

Background

Today is Palm Sunday, when Christians recall Jesus' ceremonialentry into Jerusalem a few days before his crucifixion, riding on adonkey and surrounded by cheering sightseers.

A few years ago the BBC broadcast the story of the passion, making a very noticeable contrastbetween the arrival of Jesus on a humble donkey, and the arrival ofPontius Pilate the Roman governor, who came on a war-horsesurrounded by heavily armed soldiers to make sure there would be nodisturbances in Jerusalem over the Passover festival.

Jesus was clearly quite intentional about what sort of entry hemade into the city, and had made arrangements ahead of time (verses1-3). And while a donkey was not a high status method of transport,his actions will have had a big symbolic impact because they seemedto act out the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9. Matthew's account (Matthew21:4-5) of the event makes this clear: "This took place tofulfil what was spoken through the prophet, saying 'Tell thedaughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, andmounted on a donkey.'"

The meaning was not lost on the crowds, who greeted Jesus as if hewas a king of the royal line of David, come to deliver the cityfrom its occupation by the Romans. They laid both palm branches andtheir own cloaks under the feet of the donkey in tribute, as ifJesus had been anointed by God as their king. (Compare the story ofJehu, 2 Kings 9:13, where people similarly laidgarments on the ground before him).

So, Jesus was claiming to be a very different kind of king fromPilate or the arrogance of Rome - but it was still a highlyprovocative act to stir up popular sentiment like this. Hecertainly wasn't slipping into Jerusalem discreetly, butdeliberately making a bold claim aiming at controversy, so hisarrival couldn't be ignored by the authorities.

To Ponder

Have you or a group you have been involved withever made a visible political stand about something? What have beenthe problems in communicating the right message?

Can you recall a time when you were part of acrowd, and got caught up in its mood? What happened? Did you enjoythe sensation or find it worrying - at the time, andafterwards?