Plans

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
March 24, 2024

Palm Sunday 

          The year my great-grandmother celebrated her 90^th birthday, which was 1971, my parents spent weeks if not months planning the party.  A festive meal was planned, invitations were issued, tables and chairs were rented, decorations were procured, beverages were purchased, food was cooked, gifts were wrapped, and the house was cleaned.  When the great day finally arrived, the guests arrived at 6pm and the whole thing was over by 8:30, not including clean up.  The ratio of time spent planning to time spent partying was absurd.  And most holidays were like that when I was a child.  Weeks and months of planning for a joyful delicious event that was over in half a day.  My mother believed that hospitality and good food were worth almost any amount of effort and that every detail was important.

Mark’s account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem reads like an account of one of my mother’s great parties. Jesus spends eight verses preparing for his entry into Jerusalem. Only three verses describe the trip itself and of those three verses, most of two verses is spent quoting psalms. Jesus’ planning for this event seems to be at least as important as the trip into Jerusalem itself, if not even more important. So, what do we learn about Jesus from all the verses leading up to the actual procession into Jerusalem?

The first thing Jesus does is arrange for a colt. Jesus sends two disciples off on this errand and says to them "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find there a colt that has never been ridden." Jesus knows exactly where the colt will be and that the animal has never been ridden. Why a colt? Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem will demonstrate humility. 

Then Jesus says "If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’" The people were used to having Roman soldiers co-opt their property on a moment’s notice. The promise that Jesus will return the animal is something new. Jesus is on a different kind of mission from one the Roman soldiers would typically engage. Jesus’ mission is not of a military nature. He has to borrow a colt. Jesus is not organizing an event that will highlight raw power and wealth.  In addition to humility, Jesus entry into Jerusalem will demonstrate a different kind of power. 

Lastly, if Jesus was planning a military procession into Jerusalem, now would be the time to acquire some weapons. Instead, we hear that the people threw their clocks on the poor unsuspecting colt that has never been ridden. Then Jesus sat on the colt and the people spread their cloaks and leafy branches on the road. Quite frankly, this sounds like a recipe for disaster. One young animal, never ridden, Jesus sitting on cloaks on the colt, and riding over more cloaks and leafy branches. This does not look like a recipe for success, even success grounded in humility.  Jesus is going to show us a new model for success, one that involves risk.  Then Jesus rides into Jerusalem, to shouts of “Hosanna,” goes into the temple, looks around, and leaves.  All that planning leads to a rather anti-climatic ending if one is looking for drama. 

What do we learn from all that planning? We learn to watch for humility, a different kind of power, and a new understanding of success as we enter into the events of holy week.  We learn about a kind of power that is joyful and humble, a kind of power that draws the people in and engages them without force, and success that takes risks and emerges from the appearance of failure.  That joyful yet humble demonstration of a different kind of power and success plunges us into Holy Week. On the one hand, as disciples of Jesus, we know that we are called to walk this journey with the one who rode into Jerusalem on a colt to turn our notions of power and success upside down. On the other hand, I can identify with the crowds who say "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord" and the Psalmist who says "Hosanna, Lord, hosanna! Send us now success!" Can’t we just fast forward to Easter?

The truth is that Easter will come next Sunday whether we journey with Jesus or not. But if we leap from "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord" to the great Easter acclamation which involves the use of the word we buried on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, we are thinking like the crowds and missing the message of Palm Sunday. We will move from the request for a great display of human power and might to the great display of God’s power without allowing our understanding of real power to be transformed. The details of the Palm Sunday story tell us that Jesus is up to something new and we need to keep our eyes open. As we walk through the events of Holy Week, the mighty power of God will be revealed in ways that are consistent with the arrival in Jerusalem of a humble Messiah on the back of a colt with little likelihood of success.

Amen.