Midweek Faith Lift
April 5, 2023
Palm Sunday-Not What It Seems!
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
Daily Reflection
March 24, 2023
A music school uniting Syrian and Turkish cultures survived the powerful earthquake that struck the region a few weeks ago. The area was devastated, but the Nefes Foundation for Arts and Culture remained standing with only some minor damage. "This school is my sanctuary from the stress of being a Syrian refugee in Turkey," said Sidra Mohammed Ali.
“What give us an edge over all other animals and turns us into masters of the planet is not our individual rationality, but our unparalleled ability to think and act together in groups.” - Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
Affirmative prayer: Today, I live and work in concert with my sisters and brothers, bringing empathy and compassion – a sense of Oneness – to my interactions and outreach. I hold them all in the light of God’s love. Amen.
Friends it is Palm Sunday and this story seems especially poignant because it is music that unites the Syrian and Turkish cultures and this music school survived the recent catastrophic earthquake in Turkey. The music school is a sanctuary for Sidra Mohammed Ali who is a Syrian refugee in Turkey. How powerful that it survived! And like the events of Palm Sunday, it is much more than a music school, more than it seems! What are the events of Palm Sunday?
There is an account of Palm Sunday in Matthew 21:1-10
Jesus’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem
21 When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” 4 This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet:
5 “Tell the daughter of Zion,
Look, your king is coming to you,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7 they brought the donkey and the colt and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
10 When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” 11 The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.” (NRSV-UE)
This is such a powerful image, one of a conquering hero riding into the major city of Jerusalem on a donkey. It clearly stirred up the crowd as “the whole city was in turmoil,” wondering who Jesus was to attract so much attention. It was the archetypal image of the temporal or earthly ruler, or as we would say today in more modern terms, a person of great importance. If there were eyewitness reporters and news people present, they would be reporting “live from the road to Jerusalem” kind of like all the hype about the “Road to the Final Four” or Steve Hartman’s “On The Road” segment about an especially meaningful story.
It seems like Jesus wanted to attract a lot of attention and in First Century Palestine, he knew how to do it…no social media required! And it was bound to attract the attention of the Romans who would not want the Jewish people to be stirred up during the time of Passover when there were great numbers of them in Jerusalem. The “Pax Romana” or Roman Peace was imposed by very oppressive and terrifying means. The Romans would routinely crucify people and line the roads into Jerusalem with these bodies during the week of Passover to remind the Jewish people that they had no power or authority with respect to Roman rule.
So what is the point here, why did Jesus want to attract so much attention? In preparing the talk for today, I came across a quotation from Garrison Keillor who said, "Jesus rode into Jerusalem and was greeted with applause and palms. People thought he had come to overthrow the Romans, but, no, he had come to change them.” The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is followed by his crucifixion at the end of that same week. These two events taken together powerfully illustrate what the life and the message of Jesus was really all about. You cannot understand the one without the other! So often we are distracted by the hype, the loudness of the crowds and all the attention it attracts. We don’t pause to get the true meaning of what is happening, both in Biblical times and now, for that matter!
The meaning of Palm Sunday is only clear when we also acknowledge that by the end of the week, the same mobs of people were yelling “Crucify him! Crucify him!” The same mob energy that was shouting “Hosana!” which is the highest praise was now calling for the demise of Jesus. Clearly, the Israelites did not understand the true message of Jesus, the messages of healing, of loving your enemy, of forgiveness. All of that is lost in the fear and frustration of the moment with little attention given to the ultimate meaning of the life of Jesus.
Christianity can still get caught up in that hype! It is unfortunate that the message of the whole Holy Week experience is that Jesus died for our sins and that if we only believe, we will be saved and live with him for eternity in heaven. The whole message about how to live with each other here on earth that Jesus was teaching got lost in the hype and the focus on the afterlife, which no one really knows about or understands for sure. What a tremendous loss! Garrison Keillor was spot on in his statement that Jesus had come to “change them.” Not an easy sell, for sure!
One of the big messages is that we are not alone in our suffering because we have the story of how Jesus suffered. The other really powerful message is that we are NOT defined by our suffering. When we experience unearned suffering that is cruel and hideous like the ongoing slaughter of innocent children in their schools, we are not alone in that and we are not defined by it either. We have the capacity for suffering to be redemptive, for it to impact us in such a way that we do embrace change, we do wake up to the reality that there is more, and that things could really be different. We need a change in consciousness for that to manifest, for real change to happen collectively!
At the beginning of the talk today, there was a quotation by Yuval Noah Harari, from 21 Lessons for the 21st Century that said that the edge we have as humans is not our individual ability to think rationally. No, he says it is our” unparalleled ability to think and act together in groups.” Harari is an Israeli intellectual who is a professor in the History Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has written several books relative to the history of human capacity to think and act. His intellectual observation of our “ability to to think and act together in groups” really offers us the challenge as we consider the message and the life of Jesus. There is much more to our human capacity than mob psychology, mob violence and fear, much more. Jesus was trying to show us that and to teach us how to live with that awareness. Let those who have ears to hear, listen!
I found a quotation from Ernest Holmes from Spiritual Awareness that seemed to offer an entry point for the joy of the Spirit and it is not unlike our music school in the opening story. Holmes was a contemporary of the Fillmores and also metaphysical teacher who founded Centers for Spiritual Living. He said this about Jesus:
Jesus spoke of the joy which he had and which he desired us to have, that our joy might be full. There is music at the center of everything. The melody is real. We must uncover the song and permit it to saturate our souls with joy. The ancients said the wind whispers, the leaves clap their hands, and the morning stars sing together. Spiritual living is not a droll affair; it is the triumphant entry of the soul into the secret place of the Most High, where the scroll of life is inscribed with the joyous words, ‘I am the Lord thy God in the midst of thee.’ - Ernest Holmes, Spiritual Awareness
And finally, today, I close with the words of Scott Awbrey, who is the author of most of the Daily Reflections, which I share on Sunday. He said this in special message for Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter:
"Jesus knew depth of the human heart and soul, that we are so much more than mortals trying to eek out a comfortable life here on earth. He knew that people need a model for one who lives in this Light, so he became the great example and showed us how to attain the same spiritual brightness. In the face of ignorance, superstition, and persecution, he boldly proclaimed, 'I am the light of the world. Ye are the light of the world. Even so, light your light shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify God within you.'" - Scott Awbrey
As we enter this last part of the season of Lent, of letting go, let us do so aware of what our heart’s desire is, of what we want to invite, to let come into our awareness and our lives. Let us prepare the way in our hearts, minds and will for the full expression of our divine/human selves!
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb