Luke 19:28-38
Jesus headed straight up to Jerusalem. When he got near Bethphage and Bethany at the mountain called Olives, he sent off two of the disciples with instructions: “Go to the village across from you. As soon as you enter, you’ll find a colt tethered, one that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it. If anyone asks, ‘What are you doing?’ say, ‘His Master needs him.’”
The two left and found it just as he said. As they were untying the colt, its owners said, “What are you doing untying the colt?” They said, “His Master needs him,” and they brought the colt to Jesus. Then, throwing their coats on its back, they helped Jesus get on. As he rode, the people gave him a grand welcome, throwing their coats on the street.
Right at the crest, where Mount Olives begins its descent, the whole crowd of disciples burst into enthusiastic praise over all the mighty works they had witnessed:
“Blessed is he who comes, the king in God’s name! Peace in heaven! Glory in the high places!”
Today is Palm Sunday and, as I often do for the every-year feasts, like Easter and Christmas, as opposed to the once-every-three-years readings from the lectionary, I read through all four gospel accounts just to compare and contrast them. We should normally be reading from Matthew’s version this year, but I decided to work from Luke’s version instead.
This is one of the somewhat rare stories that is given in all four gospels. The lectionary offers us Matthew in Year A, Year B gives us a choice between Mark or John, and Year C gives us Luke. The four versions all tell basically the same story but with marked differences.
John’s gospel, for instance, tells the whole story in only five verses: a lot of people were in town because of Passover; when they heard Jesus was coming they started waving palm fronds; Jesus found a donkey and sat on it; and the disciples didn’t understand what was happening. That’s pretty much it.
Luke’s version is a little longer, but still seems rather stripped-down in comparison with some of the other gospel versions. For instance, there’s not a single palm branch to be found here in this Palm Sunday reading, and Luke spends more time on explaining the donkey than anything else.
These things are just a reminder that it is very hard to piece together a coherent storyline when what we know of Jesus’ life and death comes from four different sources written at four different times for four different communities. The best we can do is take an educated guess at a progression of events.
Sometimes there are palms, at other times it’s cloaks. In some versions there’s a large crowd, seemingly well-planned. In others the crowd appears to be much smaller and somewhat ad hoc.
These are the things we can surmise: Jesus wasn’t headed into Jerusalem because he’d been told that he was scheduled to be the star of the big parade that day. He was simply heading into Jerusalem. Period. The cheering people were not penciled into his agenda. He was just leaving the outlying country and going into the city, for his own reasons, most likely because of the approach of Passover.
The crowd was not waiting for him, all lined up in advance. The people probably just showed up, one or two at a time as they heard he was there. Some, perhaps, were there because they had heard him teaching or seen him heal a leper or a blind man and they wanted to see more of him. They were excited to see and hear him again.
Some were possibly the first-century equivalent of ambulance chasers—ones who had heard that the authorities were out after him and were ghoulishly excited at the prospect of a little violence and maybe bloodshed. Human beings are, unfortunately, not always nice. Many possibly knew nothing of what was going on and simply got caught up in the exhilaration of the moment.
What we do know (based on the Bible) is that the reaction of the crowd and their cheering for Jesus was simply the final turning point in our story. Especially since in at least two of the gospels, Jesus appears to go straight from this welcoming to the Temple, where he kicked out the moneychangers. The religious authorities could not and would not allow this to pass.
Jesus now had to be stopped or there would be open insurrection, and the Roman empire was not known for its tolerance where any perceived threat to its dominance was noted. Retribution, when it came, would be swift and brutal. The Temple leaders immediately gathered to discuss how to deal with the threat offered by this teacher/healer named Jesus. The answer they came up with leads us into Holy Week.
One thing Jesus must have known about the joyous greeting he received from the gathered people that day, was that it was highly unlikely to lead him to a happy ending.
He was educated in the scriptures. He knew the history of Israel/Judah and its frequent rejection of those sent from God. He would have been something of a fool to not be afraid of where his storyline was leading.
But there would also have been, that day, as every moment of his life, an absolute trust in his God -- enough to trust the promises in spite of the path on which he was being led. From the very beginning, and now as he approached the ending, he trusted in the one he knew so intimately as “Abba.”
It was enough and more.
This is one of the somewhat rare stories that is given in all four gospels. The lectionary offers us Matthew in Year A, Year B gives us a choice between Mark or John, and Year C gives us Luke. The four versions all tell basically the same story but with marked differences.
John’s gospel, for instance, tells the whole story in only five verses: a lot of people were in town because of Passover; when they heard Jesus was coming they started waving palm fronds; Jesus found a donkey and sat on it; and the disciples didn’t understand what was happening. That’s pretty much it.
Luke’s version is a little longer, but still seems rather stripped-down in comparison with some of the other gospel versions. For instance, there’s not a single palm branch to be found here in this Palm Sunday reading, and Luke spends more time on explaining the donkey than anything else.
These things are just a reminder that it is very hard to piece together a coherent storyline when what we know of Jesus’ life and death comes from four different sources written at four different times for four different communities. The best we can do is take an educated guess at a progression of events.
Sometimes there are palms, at other times it’s cloaks. In some versions there’s a large crowd, seemingly well-planned. In others the crowd appears to be much smaller and somewhat ad hoc.
These are the things we can surmise: Jesus wasn’t headed into Jerusalem because he’d been told that he was scheduled to be the star of the big parade that day. He was simply heading into Jerusalem. Period. The cheering people were not penciled into his agenda. He was just leaving the outlying country and going into the city, for his own reasons, most likely because of the approach of Passover.
The crowd was not waiting for him, all lined up in advance. The people probably just showed up, one or two at a time as they heard he was there. Some, perhaps, were there because they had heard him teaching or seen him heal a leper or a blind man and they wanted to see more of him. They were excited to see and hear him again.
Some were possibly the first-century equivalent of ambulance chasers—ones who had heard that the authorities were out after him and were ghoulishly excited at the prospect of a little violence and maybe bloodshed. Human beings are, unfortunately, not always nice. Many possibly knew nothing of what was going on and simply got caught up in the exhilaration of the moment.
What we do know (based on the Bible) is that the reaction of the crowd and their cheering for Jesus was simply the final turning point in our story. Especially since in at least two of the gospels, Jesus appears to go straight from this welcoming to the Temple, where he kicked out the moneychangers. The religious authorities could not and would not allow this to pass.
Jesus now had to be stopped or there would be open insurrection, and the Roman empire was not known for its tolerance where any perceived threat to its dominance was noted. Retribution, when it came, would be swift and brutal. The Temple leaders immediately gathered to discuss how to deal with the threat offered by this teacher/healer named Jesus. The answer they came up with leads us into Holy Week.
One thing Jesus must have known about the joyous greeting he received from the gathered people that day, was that it was highly unlikely to lead him to a happy ending.
He was educated in the scriptures. He knew the history of Israel/Judah and its frequent rejection of those sent from God. He would have been something of a fool to not be afraid of where his storyline was leading.
But there would also have been, that day, as every moment of his life, an absolute trust in his God -- enough to trust the promises in spite of the path on which he was being led. From the very beginning, and now as he approached the ending, he trusted in the one he knew so intimately as “Abba.”
It was enough and more.
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