Two Different Processions

A Palm Sunday meditation (RCL A) 4-17-2011, offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Matthew 21:1-11; Isaiah 50:4-9a; Ps. 31:9-16; Phil. 2:5-11; Matthew 26:14-27:66

And so we hear once more the entire sweep of this compelling, and amazing, and holy week. Beginning just outside the holy city of Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives, then entering into the city for a time of conflict and struggle, a time of judgment and pain, and ending once more outside of the city, at Golgotha, ending with a sealed stone across the entrance of a tomb.

But there is even more to this story than what we have heard here today. Every year in the springtime, just before the Passover festival was to begin, Pontius Pilate rode from his primary seaside residence in Caesarea up into Jerusalem. He entered the west side of the city sitting on his imperial steed, flanked by rows of Roman soldiers, in a clear show of force, intending to display to all the citizens of the city that Rome was in charge, and who it was they would have to deal with if they caused any trouble for the empire.

But this particular spring, there was another procession entering the city at the same time. This other procession entered into the east side of Jerusalem, coming up from the Kidron Valley, with Jesus of Nazareth sitting upon his royal mount – the humble donkey, flanked by rows of cheering, peasant disciples, in a clear show of spiritual force, intending to display to everyone that Rome was not in charge after all, and who it was that this empire would have to deal with from this time forward.

Do we wonder then why the whole city was in turmoil? Do we wonder then why, since those fateful days, every nation on earth, every human community has been challenged and changed by the message about what this Jesus has done, the truth told about who he is?

Are we ready for how this one – this one killed by the imperial forces and their allies – how he might continue to challenge us and to change our lives, our families, our communities?

This is Holy Week. Walk into it, enter fully into it, with an attentive mind, and an open heart, ready for surprise and wonder, and for powerful, transforming grace. Amen.