Midweek Faith Lift
April 17, 2019
Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week, a week of such significant events in the story of Christianity that we continue to try to discern the meaning of these events for us as 21st century followers of Jesus. Our intention is to grasp and experience the spiritual Truths of this week and detach them from the politics of the historical evolution of Christianity. And there are a lot of political entanglements for Christianity. One of those is the assertion that the Jews killed Jesus; they are responsible for the death of Jesus. Every Good Friday, that “human truth” that the Jews killed Jesus is reaffirmed as a justification for anti-Semitism by many who call themselves “Good Christians.” That is part of the political story of Christianity. It has been said by some historians that this was the reason that the Pope during WWII did not come to the aid of the Jews during the Holocaust and only recently did Pope John Paul finally made amends for this.
There is a lot of confusion about the meaning of Palm Sunday and all the events of Holy Week. One of the primary things to remember is that the people of first century Palestine were illiterate. Information was transmitted primarily by word of mouth and the idea of confirming the accuracy of anything was not in the collective consciousness at that time! Meaning was transmitted in actions, rituals, names, symbols and ceremonies and prophecy and created in the moment, spontaneously. That is the story of Palm Sunday!
Let’s take the name issue first. People generally did not have surnames, they were described as “son of” with the word bar. So when you hear Simon bar Jonah, it means Simon, son of Jonah. While Jesus was called “the Christ” that was not his surname. It was a designation given to him by the Jewish people, which in Hebrew means, “the anointed one” or the messiah. Literally, for the Jews living under Roman oppression, Jesus would be the earthly king who would restore the Jews to their rightful earthly power as it was under the last great ruler, King David. And Jesus’ lineage was of the House of David, so because that was such a symbol, they naturally thought he would become their King. This was especially true because of his healing powers and his presence in the community. The Romans were also well aware of and wary of the charisma of Jesus and his great following among the Jews.
So, with Jesus being designated as the “anointed one” let’s consider the rituals. While the Torah, or Hebrew Scripture was written in the scrolls, only the Rabbi’s could read it. The Jewish people experienced their sacred story in rituals and re-enactments of significant events in their history when God protected or saved them. One of these was called Sukkoth, or the Feast of Tabernacles/Booths, which normally happens sometime in late September or October. It was common practice during the Festival of Tabernacles/Booths (Sukkoth) for Jewish people to celebrate by living in temporary booths, performing animal sacrifice and rejoicing with leafy branches (palm branches). This specific festival was a reminder of God's faithfulness in the wilderness and also God's soon promise for the Messiah to come.
It was during this celebration (Feast of Tabernacles) that they would declare aloud the following verses from Psalm 118: "Lord, save us! Lord, grant us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you" (Ps. 118: 25-26, NIV). "Lord Save us" translates to "Hosanna,” which is what the people cried aloud on Palm Sunday. When you apply this festival to a passage from Zechariah, you get a greater picture of what was really happening that triumphant day Jesus arrived in Jerusalem. It was not a pre-planned event, it was a spontaneously created event that was perceived as a re-enactment of the Feast of Tabernacles. However, the timing was not correct, so they had to cut down the palm branches and throw their cloaks on the road, just as they did when they celebrated the story of Tabernacles.
Here is how the book of Zechariah describes how the King of the Jews would come onto the scene as the triumphant, victorious leader.
Zechariah 9:9
The Coming Ruler of God’s People
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (NRSV)
It is no great surprise that the Jewish people would see Jesus as their newly revealed king and on Palm Sunday, Jesus looks like that King. He looks like their “Messiah”, the anointed one that was promised in the scripture. When you connect Zechariah 9:9 to the Festival of Booths, then it is no surprise that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey for as Jesus says himself, it is what was prophesied. He told them to go and find the colt, and they did. And this is the Palm Sunday story as written in the Christian Scriptures:
Mark 11:7-10
7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. 9 Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,
“Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
10Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!” (NRSV)
This is the Palm Sunday story, one of triumph over the oppressor and a re-enactment of Sukkoth. Palm branches were a symbol of power and victory over enemies. In Roman athletic competitions, the winners were awarded palm branches as a symbol of strength. Metaphysically, palm branches represent strength, this kind of strength that endures great tribulation and suffering along with the power of Faith.
Once they started waving them toward Jesus, it became clear that they wanted Him to be their next leader. The people were trying to make Jesus as "the warrior King", but Jesus was arriving as "the King of peace," not taking up a battle against Rome but instead offering a path of peace, love and awakening! It is no wonder they turned on him. It was the perfect storm of Roman political needs to get rid of Jesus and depose him as a leader by the most humiliating means possible. Jesus did not die for our sins, Jesus was condemned as a political threat to Roman power. When the Jews saw that he could not conquer the Romans, that he was not a great General who could win, they turned on him and the crucifixion story unfolded.
So where does that leave us? We are not Jews, and we are not in the traditional Christian story of Jesus dying for our sins. What does this mean for us? Well, let’s go back to the symbol of being anointed. What did it mean for Jesus to accept his anointing? We read in Luke 4: 17-19 that Jesus accepts his anointing, and his purpose is so that we can all know that we too are anointed by Spirit.
Luke 4:17-19
He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
It is here that Jesus does claim his anointing by the Lord, not by the Jewish people. And it is here that he declares the purpose of his anointing, and it is not be the king of the Jewish people. He accepts this anointing so that all can see that they are anointed. Later the Apostle Paul claims this anointing in 2 Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 1:21-22
21Remember that it is God who assures us all, and you, of our sure place in Christ and has anointed us, marked us with 22God’s seal, giving us the pledge, the Spirit, that we carry in our hearts.
What does this mean for us in how we live every day? If we follow Jesus, it means we show respect to all of creation. Richard Rohr says it this way in his April 8, 2019 Contemplative message:
We all know respect when we see it (re-spect = to see a second time). We all know reverence because it softens our gaze. Any object that calls forth respect or reverence is the “Christ” or the anointed one for us at that moment… All people who see with that second kind of contemplative gaze, all who look at the world with respect, even if they are not formally religious, are en Cristo, or in Christ. For them, as Thomas Merton says, “the gate of heaven is everywhere” because of their freedom to respect what is right in front of them—all the time. The Christ Mystery anoints all physical matter with eternal purpose from the very beginning. We should not be surprised that the word translated from the Greek as “Christ” comes from the Hebrew word mesach, meaning “the anointed” one or Messiah. Christ reveals that all is anointed, not just him.
So, on this Palm Sunday, as we come forward to accept this symbol of strength in the Palm branch, let us embrace it to celebrate that we too are anointed, we are “Christed” beings who understand the Truth that it is in consciousness that we know that we are holy, we are alive with the whole Spirit of God that flows in and through all of creation. We are sacred, we are holy, we are Spirit, we are Love!
Blessings on the Path!
Rev. Deb