Meditation for Palm Sunday - April 1, 2007
Assist us mercifully with your help, O Lord God of our salvation, that we may enter with joy upon the contemplation of those mighty acts, whereby you have given us life and immortality; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Liturgy of the Palms:Psalm 118:19-29 Luke 19:29-40Liturgy of the Word:Psalm 22:1-21 Isaiah 45:21-25 Philippians 2:5-11 Luke 22:39-23:56 |
(Luke 19:29-40 NJB) |
 ne of my
most prized possessions is a little cardboard box that normally sits on
our piano. Inside this little box is a little velveteen bag. Inside the
bag is a small, broken, rough piece of concrete. It’s really not much to
look at, and it has little, if any, intrinsic value. Yet to me, it is,
as the MasterCard commercials say, “Priceless”.You see, this little piece of broken concrete is a verified, legitimate piece of the Berlin Wall. As a child of six years, I saw that wall in person. I spoke with Brit and Aussie soldiers who were stationed there at the wall, in defense of NATO. I have old black and white photos of myself, with them. And I have pictures of that damnable Wall. When the Wall finally came down, it was a time of celebration in my family. We watched TV transfixed as common men, women and children with axes, picks, shovels, and their bare hands struggled against and finally breached that Wall. This piece of it was given as a gift to my Mother, by her older half-sister. After my Mom died, it came to be mine. Its value is not just because of an accident of history, though. It isn’t valuable just because it was a visible symbol of the Cold War. No it has value because of what it represents. You see, I lost several relatives at that Wall; at least two, possibly more. I know for certain that an Uncle and a Cousin of mine were murdered there, shot and killed by their own countrymen simply because they sought to live as the free people God had created them to be. This little broken piece of concrete is, to me, a holy relic of them and of the scores of millions of others who were martyred under the persecution of the Communist tyrannies of Eastern Europe. Looking at, and caressing that little piece of broken concrete I am moved to reflection and prayer that the horror of totalitarianism might never again be visited upon free people. It inspires me to thankfulness for the great gifts that we here in North America have been presented with. And it motivates me toward vigilance in the defense of human rights, for without the complicity of my own German people, embracing first Nazism, and then later Communism, much despair, suffering, and death could and would have been averted for the whole world. By itself this little piece of broken concrete is just that; sand, gravel, and cement. It is only when what it represents is clearly understood that it truly becomes something of value. The same is true of today’s Palm Sunday Liturgy and the palms that we carry and wave in procession. Until we really understand what it is that is represented, we really can have no clear understanding of their value. One of the little details of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem is that while all four of the Evangelists record the event and three of the four make note that the people cut branches and strew them in His path and waved them as He went in to the Holy City, only St. John, the beloved Disciple, makes explicit reference to the branches being palm. Matthew simply says that they cut tree branches. Mark that they cut leafy branches from the fields. Luke makes no mention of the branches at all, only mentioning that the people strew there cloaks in his path. St John though, specifically says that the people cut palm branches and went out to meet Jesus as He approached the city. So what do the palm branches represent? To find out we must look at the history of Israel. After the empire of David and his son Solomon, the kingdom of Israel was divided and lost most of its power and glory. It became a vassal state and eventually was completely conquered and the people sent into exile. After the people were allowed to return to the land, they remained a conquered race. All that changed from time to time was which empire they were vassals of. In about the year 175 BC, a Syrian by the name of Antiochus Epiphanies came to power and in 168 BC he occupied Jerusalem. He was not satisfied with just taking control of the country and the Holy City though. He wanted to completely demoralize his new subjects, and so he erected within the Temple an altar to Zeus. He erected a statue of Zeus / Jupiter within the Temple, sacrificed pigs on the altar and burned the Books of the Law. This has come to be known as the abomination of desolation. It had an interesting result. Rather than demoralizing Judah, it did the reverse. Under the leadership of Judas Maccabaeus the Jews revolted. A guerilla war began and over the course of twenty years, the Judeans finally won and once again became a free people. Judas Maccabeaus and his brother Jonathon died during the revolution. A third brother, Simon, lived to see Judea freed, and when he entered Jerusalem there was a great celebration. The Scripture says, “"On the twenty-third day of the second month, in the one hundred and seventy-first year, the Jews entered Jerusalem with praise and palm branches, and with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments, and with hymns and songs, because a great enemy had been crushed and removed from Israel" (I Macc. 13:51 RSV) So here in the Scripture, we find another instance of palm branches being used as the people entered the Holy City with their praises. Is this a coincidence? Or is John revealing something to us? Let’s think about this for a moment. Jerusalem and all Judea had been under the domination of a worldly, pagan empire and after a long struggle the conquering Jewish King is hailed with palm branches as He enters the Holy City. And then, Some 200 years later, when Jesus arrives, the city and country are once again under the domination of a hostile, worldly, pagan empire. As He enters He is greeted with crowds praising God and waving palm branches. Knowing this history, allows us to finally really understand what is going on in the Triumphal Entry. Jesus is not just being acclaimed as a prophet and miracle worker. He is being hailed as the conquering hero who, like the Maccabees before Him, will free Israel from the domination of a foreign military power. The palms, like my little piece of broken concrete, mean something far larger, far more important than what their physical manifestation conveys. Jesus did not rebuke the crowds for their cheers. He did not reject their praises. And He did not reject the intrinsic acclamation of Kingship which their actions bespoke. In fact He explicitly told the Pharisees that the rocks and stones themselves would cry out, if the people were silenced. But He did reject their methodology of Kingship. He did not approach Jerusalem mounted on a war horse, as a military man would. Instead, taking a page from the Prophet Zechariah, He comes to His City, His People, humbly, peacefully, riding upon the foal of a donkey. Jesus unequivocally accepted the offer of Kingship embodied in the palm branches the people of Jerusalem greeted Him with. But even in the midst of His acceptance, He proclaimed that His Kingship, unlike the Maccabean dynasty, is not based on military conquest, but is one of peace, of servanthood, of self-sacrificial love, embodied and displayed for all eternity in the nail prints in His hands and feet. Israel’s triumph, Israel’s glory is not to be found in military exploits, but is embodied in the message Isaiah and Paul proclaim today, that Yahweh is their only Saviour, and that He accomplishes this great salvation by the obedience unto death, on the hard wood of the cross, of His Son, Jesus. Praise be to God that this glory and triumph is not limited to Israel alone, but by the Grace of God, is extended and freely offered to all who will accept and embrace Him as Saviour and Lord. Our forty day journey is nearly complete. We have arrived in Jerusalem and with the Liturgy today we can see Calvary’s Hill clearly before us. The Cross beckons and we can do nothing but accompany Jesus to the inevitable conclusion of the story. It’s part and parcel of deciding to follow Jesus. Inescapably and inexorably the world gets set behind us and the cross gets set before us. No turning back. No turning back.
|
ow
it happened that when he was near Bethphage and Bethany, close by the Mount of
Olives as it is called, he sent two of the disciples, saying, ‘Go to the village
opposite, and as you enter it you will find a tethered colt that no one has ever
yet ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, “Why are you untying
it?” you are to say this, “The Master needs it.” ’The messengers went off and
found everything just as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its
owners said, ‘Why are you untying it?' and they answered, ‘The Master needs it.'
So they took the colt to Jesus and, throwing their cloaks on its back, they
lifted Jesus on to it. As he moved off, they spread their cloaks in the road,
and now, as he was approaching the downward slope of the Mount of Olives, the
whole group of disciples joyfully began to praise God at the top of their voices
for all the miracles they had seen. They cried out: Blessed is he who is coming
as King in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest
heavens! Some Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Master, reprove your
disciples,' but he answered, ‘I tell you, if these keep silence, the stones will
cry out.'