Palm Sunday:
A Triumphal Entry?

April 5, 2020 • Palm Sunday
Reading: Matthew 21:1-11
Pastor Alexis Waggoner

I purposely titled this sermon "A triumphal entry"… question mark. Not exclamation point. The “triumphal entry!” - exclamation point! - was reserved back then for celebrations of Rome: Return from war, recognizing rulers, other leaders. We view Jesus’ triumphal entry as triumphant because he was setting himself against these powers, but in its time, how that played out wouldn’t have felt particularly triumphant! In fact, Jesus’ journey, and the journey of those who loved him, involves a lot more questions marks than exclamation points. 

So… the triumphal entry… Question mark. Here’s the thing: I don’t know that Palm Sunday was set up to be taken seriously. Or, it was set up to be taken seriously … as farce. It reminds me of Monty Python! No, I’m not equating Jesus to Monty Python but there are some similarities in their theatrical behavior here. I’m thinking of how Monty Python always pretends to ride a horse, with great believability, even to go so far as to have his sidekick behind him, clicking coconuts together!

What Jesus is up to is obviously mimicking the triumphal processions we just talked about. This is SO CLEARLY not that type of procession, that we can only imagine the distinctions were drawn on purpose. 

Was there a majestic war horse? Nope. A donkey - and a baby donkey at that!  

Was there a chariot with the elite following behind? Nope. Jesus had a band of disaffected followers. 

Were there laudatory crowds throwing money or flowers? Nope. Just his friends waving palm leaves — probably one of the easiest, cheapest things to find. 

You get the idea. It’s so clearly NOT a traditional triumphal entry something else is going on in this story. 

To look at what IS going on, we find in this text important clues from elsewhere in Israelite history. The prophecy that the passage refers to is from Zechariah, which says: "Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

The author of this story wants to be sure to create a connection between the prophecy in Zechariah, and what’s happening with Jesus. Zechariah sets God as a king not in the traditional sense but in establishing divine reign that is triumphant over all enemies  — including those IN Jerusalem. And that becomes important for where the story of the triumphal entry is going.

There are echoes of Psalm 118 in this passage as well — where God is set up as defender of the righteous, as a loving God that the righteous turn to.

We’ve already experienced a bit of Psalm 118, singing Hosanna and praising God this morning - part of this Psalm says: 

"O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever! Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. … The LORD is God, and he has given us light. Bind the festal procession with branches, up to the horns of the altar. O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”

So the storytellers, and the people who wove this story together to be as we have it now, I think they’re saying: There’s something special about this person, Jesus. Something tied deeply to our past, but something that is also pointing a new way forward. 

Because, the critique — the bit of good street theater with the donkey and palms and cloaks on the ground — it  wasn’t just an indictment of Rome. It wasn’t just a way of poking fun at their grand processions and unnecessary displays of power and wealth. There are these connections to Zechariah and to the Psalms, because Jesus is critiquing ALL that is not righteous, ALL economic injustice, even that which is happening within the Israelite community.

He is also addressing the community in another way. He is addressing those who are suffering because of this injustice — those following him, laying down their coats, and crying “Hosanna!” By gathering these followers together, and implicitly calling out the systemic evil of the culture, he offers them salvation through their action, through solidarity with one another. 

So, Jesus’ Palm Sunday processional appears as a critique of those buying into empirical power however it was manifest. … and a support of those suffering from it. It's an invitation to consider that a goofy donkey might speak more to the human situation than victory parades do. 

But it’s that. An invitation. A question mark. How will the folks in his day — how will we — respond? Jesus lives in the middle of this question mark. 

Will people see what he’s saying about the roles of economic power and exploitation?

Will they see that the donkey is more than a donkey - it’s a commentary on those within his own faith tradition?

Will the people who cried “HOSANNA”  see that through their gathering together they are saving one another? 

Will folks see all too clearly what he’s up to an be threatened by his message?

WE know the answers to these questions. We’re about to commemorate the stories behind them in the upcoming week. But in the middle of the Palm Sunday story, they are open questions — questions for Jesus and questions for his followers. And in the midst of them  we find Jesus using unconventional methods to carry forward the story of God’s care for the people crying HOSANNA, save us!!  

There are plenty of places we are crying out Hosanna, too right? Plenty of questions we don’t know the answer to. 

What does the goofy donkey and the “triumphal entry … question mark?” have to say in the middle of THESE questions and outcries? Just as Jesus existed in the midst of so many questions — precisely because this was the reality of his existence — his ongoing presence and love is with us today, to hold these questions, this space that we’re in. I believe, because of the Easter we will end up celebrating, that there is hope in the midst of despair, that there is life in the midst of death. We hang on to that message of our faith.

AND we acknowledge we don’t have the answers to most of the questions we’re asking. But guess what? We’re in good company. In the middle of Jesus “triumphal entry..?” he and those who loved him didn’t know the answers to the questions we can only guess were swirling around in his head. 

We are Easter people after all, but we are also in the middle of Lent;  in the middle of a global catastrophe. I suggest we take a page from Jesus’ book. Probably not with the full-on street theater, and the donkey, and the palm fronds … we are supposed to be staying inside and, y’know, not going out to start any parades!

But let’s go back to the scene we set with regards to the historical context - Jesus using this spectacle to send a message both to Rome and to those in his own community.  He’s saying, I see you. I see the injustice that is happening. I see that you’re suffering. I see the questions you’re asking. AND … I am right there with you. 

Jesus is part of, and invites us to continue to create, the community that can hold these questions — that can be the conduit for the answers to our cries of Hosanna.

We have Jesus' example, that in the midst of his own questions, he addressed both his followers’ need for communal salvation and solidarity, and those causing their exploitation.

And did it, even, with a bit of humor. 

May we go and do likewise.

(c) 2020 Alexis Waggoner
All rights reserved.

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