Palm Sunday: The celebration beforethe storm

Palm Sunday: The celebration before the storm


Palm Sunday concludes the 40 day fast we go through in Lent. It is a commemoration of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, where for a week (many scholars believe) Jesus preached until he was arrested, tried, convicted, tortured, and left to die on a commonly used Roman execution structure. In Israel, Judaism was not just a religion but a political system as well, where laws in the Torah were enforced as laws of the land. The Roman occupation and oversight allowed expression of religion and some self-governance as part of the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace. But, there were limits to Roman tolerance, and Jesus' challenge of how Jewish law was applied indiscriminately to people was a threat to that tolerance. Jesus also challenged the inequalities he saw, the injustice to the poor, the sick, those who were different, and those who were unpopular with the Jewish religious authorities. He dared the authorities to look differently at those they wrote off as undesirable, those that they excluded by unequal application of the law. Jesus was a political and a religious radical, telling the religious leaders how far they had strayed from the spirit of the Shema, one of the most holy prayers in Judaism:
 

       Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.
 

       Blessed is His name, whose glorious kingdom is forever and ever.

       Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your might. These

       words that I command you today shall be upon your heart. Repeat them to your children,

       and talk about them when you sit in your home, and when you walk in the street; when

       you lie down, and when you rise up. Hold fast to them as a sign upon your hand, and let

       them be as reminders before your eyes. Write them on the doorposts of your home and at

       your gates.

For Jesus, to love God with all heart, mind, and might was not to obsess over who broke what law, and how they should be punished, but to consider

       what does the Lord require of you
       but to do justice, and to love kindness,
       and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

or to follow the example of Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers only to later become second only to the Pharaoh in Egypt:
 

       Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could

       not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence. Then Joseph said to his brothers, 

       “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom 

       you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you

       sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life (Genesis 45:3-5).

or to hear God say

       Those who love me, I will deliver;
        I will protect those who know my name.
       When they call to me, I will answer them;
        I will be with them in trouble,
        I will rescue them and honor them.
        With long life I will satisfy them,
        and show them my salvation (Psalm 91:14-16).

It is not enough to do abide by the law, but to show love to your neighbor. And sometimes, that means breaking the law when we hold it higher than God and Jesus' teachings, and then rewriting it to restore our humility and follow God's will for us. Jesus taught us to treat others with love, mercy, compassion, putting their needs before our wants. When we put the rule of law ahead of that love, mercy, and compassion, then it is time to turn over the tables. It is time to call ourselves to do justice to those we persecute, reach out in kindness to those we scorn, and really, truly, humbly be Christians.