PALM SUNDAY
O
n the sixth Sunday of Lent
Christians remember the
entrance
of
Jesus
to
Jerusalem on a donkey, and the
jubilation of the people of Israel.
When I was a child, I was enthusiastic
about this story, of Jesus on the road
and the people waving palm
branches. This was a hero’s story
and welcome. But as Jesus is
acclaimed like a king, a peaceful
ruler, his destiny is already sealed
Jesus wanted to celebrate the
Passover festival with his disciples.
When he entered Jerusalem on a
donkey he fulfilled the expectations
connected
with the long
expected
king
of
peace,
as
written by the
prophet
Zechariah:”
See
your
king comes
to
you,
righteous and having salvation,
gentle and riding on a donkey, on a
colt, a foal of a donkey. I will take
away the chariots from Ephraim and
the war horses from Jerusalem, and
the battle bow will be broken “(Ze 9.
9) -The people welcomed him with
palm branches, which symbolise life
and victory. The hope of the people
then was, he would deliver the Jewish
people from the occupation of the
Romans, maybe by means of a
rebellion. Yet this he ro then was
brought
down
and
executed.
Christians see this weakness as his
strength
coming
from
God,
ambivalent, just as Palm Sunday is
not a hero’s story but overshadowed
from the beginning.
This means the end within the
beginning, the beginning within the
end. We need to think this as a
symbol for life itself, which is
threatened from the beginning by
death, just as it is in nature, where
new life grows from death, as the
German Poet Goethe said: ‘Death is
the trick of nature to have more life’.
Of course, Jesus’ death is violent,
while he himself set a sign of peace.
To place himself on a donkey was a
demonstrative gesture against all
violence,
neither
against
the
occupying forces, nor against
personal enemies or opponents. We
can learn from this his demand for
love of the enemy, to forsake violence
for a path of patient persuasion and
reciprocal help.
There is also a further message
included in this story: Go, start to
move, get on the way! Jesus talked
about himself as ‘the way’, he was on
the road, he was an itinerant
preacher.
This Palm Sunday
entrance marks the beginning of Holy
week, sometimes called: ’Silent
Week’. As we enter this week we are
going on the path to Easter, following
the events and mindful of each
happening. Often there is a
procession
included
in
the
celebration of Palm Sunday, in some
towns a pilgrimage from church to
church, marking a going forward
together and indicating to spectators
along the way that they could join and
get out of their ways, out of their
everyday tasks in celebration of their
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