Two Crowds For Palm Sunday
Luke 19:28-46 Isaiah 50:4-9a
On this Palm Sunday, Jesus encounters two crowds of people.
There is the great throng we prefer to think about. Those who were coming to believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah. They lined the streets waving their palm branches and throwing their cloaks down before the man they were convinced would be their king. And they shouted their Hosanna’s at Him – Lord please help me, they cry. They were ready to put their trust in him there and then, as we would like to think we would be. And these good intentions surely gladdened the heart of Jesus as he rode humbly through the city gates.
But just off the main street, round by the temple precincts, there was another crowd waiting. These people could not have cared less about the Palm Sunday procession or the identity of the man riding on a donkey, not unless he happened to be interested in buying or selling that is.
For in those courts lurked the temple traders, with their tumbledown stalls. Their pigeons and their doves. Their money changing facilities offered at competitive rates. The ones who cynically made their fortune exploiting the religious guilt of others They trusted no one but themselves, cared for no one but themselves and they represent the part of us that we are not so proud of, out for personal gain and enhanced reputation, at the expense of well, anything upon which a price could be laid. And these people enraged the heart of Jesus, so much so that he immediately casts aside the mantle of humility, tethers up his donkey and strides into those precincts and sets about destroying everything those people stand for.
Two crowds for Palm Sunday. Two competing elements in our lives. The good we would like to do, but cannot quite fulfil. Standing with our palm branches, ready to acclaim Him king.
The evil we end up doing. Manning our stall in the precinct, seeing who we can catch out.
On this Palm Sunday we try to summon up the faith to let Jesus loose upon it all.
To let him lose upon our great desire for his just and gentle rule over us – but knowing he cannot become our king, not totally, unless we are prepared to stop being stallholders and renounce our greed for gain.
If you’re looking for a prayer though which you might make this vital move in your life, then look no further than our reading from Isaiah. For here, the prophet speaks with a mixture of expectation and dread. For it is a prayer that invites God to come near, but does not deny the opposition such a desire for personal transformation will stir up. Opposition within ourselves and beyond ourselves.
During this coming week we enter the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ on our own behalf. Not simply imagining what it must have been like for him, but also knowing what it is like for us as these two Palm Sunday crowds vie for supremacy in our hearts and lives.
What shall we crucify this week then? The part of ourselves that is not really interested in the kingdom of God, for we are quite content building up our own – shall we crucify him – or shall we rise up as the stallholders we are and turn our attention mercilessly against him.
For there is a third crowd waiting in the wings. Caiaphas and his High Priestly brigade – and they are waiting with interest to see if once again, the likes of you and I will come knocking at their door.
RH 28.3.10