Theological Journal - Toward the 8th Day: A Journey through Holy Week

Palm/Passion Sunday

-It is Palm Sunday because it is a festival procession of a Messianic claimant to the Holy City at Passover (the great festival of Jewish liberation contests. from Egyptian tyranny). Thus the songs, the palm branches and spread cloaks, and acclamations.

-It is passion Sunday because this was not the only royal procession entering Jerusalem that day. Romme was coming too! A power struggle is in the offing. And Rome (the Egypt of that day) seldom lost such contests.

The Messianic Procession (Mark 11)

-came in from east of the city, its leader’s “war horse” a borrowed colt! His attendants – mostly peasant riff-raff and ne’er-do-wells, no accounts.

-the leader’s platform is his claim to be bringing in the kingdom of God (Mark 1:15). Every Jew’s fondest hope! But this kingdom does not fight, bite, scratch and claw, back-stab, or shock-and-awe its way to power (against most Jewish expectation). Take a few minutes and read about the way of life of this kingdom in Mark 8:22-10:52.

-Even if not answering popular expectation of a messianic come to kick some Roman butt, this ”wannabe’s” procession did answer to the prophetic expectation of Zechariah 9:9:

“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.

-And the next verse tells us what kind of “king” this One will be:

He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
    and the war-horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
    and he shall command peace to the nations;
his dominion shall be from sea to sea,
    and from the River to the ends of the earth.

-If you take Mark 8:22-10:52, add Zechariah 9:9-10, plus the humble crowd and their makeshift parade and the colt, you get a clear idea of the kind of kingdom of God this messianic claimant, Jesus of Nazareth was making!

The Other Royal Procession

-Also coming into Jerusalem that day from the west was Pontius Pilate’s Roman imperial procession. They came to be in town during the festival to enforce Rome’s “peace” on any Jews who got out of hand.

-This procession had all the trappings, glitz and glamor of a “real” parade. Well-garbed and provisioned soldiers led the way announcing the imperial ideology and theology, which stood at polar ends of a spectrum from Jesus’ “triumphal entry”!

-”A visual panoply of imperial power: cavalry on horses, foot soldiers, leather armor, helmets, weapons, banners, golden eagles mounted on poles, sun glinting on metal and gold. Sounds: the marching of feet, the creaking of leather, the clinking of bridles, the beating of drums. The swirling of dust. The eyes of the silent onlookers, some curious, some awed, some resentful” (Borg, Marcus J.. The Last Week (Kindle Locations 136-138). HarperOne. Kindle Edition).

-Rome believed its emperors not just royal but also a “Son of God.”

-Augustus the greatest of the emperors was acclaimed  “son of God,” “lord” and “savior,” one who had brought “peace on earth.” They believed he ascended to heaven to take a seat among the gods after his death.

-Roman power and brutality were legendary as it pursued its empire.

-Thus from the ideological side and the practical side Rome’s kingdom and Jesus’ kingdom were antithetical in every way.

Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday?

-both, actually. Rightly, if also ironically, the people celebrated Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem with Messianic cries resounding around him. He was their long-expected Messiah! But how little the people really got of the kind of Messiah and kingdom he was and was bringing becomes evident throughout the week.

-And it was a contest of empires, Rome’s power vs. Jesus’ ”power.” And it was no contest! As already mentioned, Rome seldom lost such contests. The parade would become a passion play before week’s end.

Palm/Passion Sunday Today?

-Is it merely an historical observance of something then and there or is it relevant to us here and now?

-Empires have changed over the centuries but their way of operating has not: the political and economic domination of the many by the few and the use of religion to justify the resulting inequities and oppression.

-Many feel that the US has become this sort of empire called an oligarchy. I fear they might be right.

-Jesus’ kingdom is very different such ways of living. Too often, however, the church here has played along with the US’s imperial ways and blessed those ways as the will of God.

-the temple in the time of Jesus enforced Rome’s imperial ways on and over the people. That’s one reason why Jesus presented himself as a new temple, an anti-temple to the one standing in Jerusalem. And why he condemned (not “cleansed”) the temple. It had become so compromised with Rome’s ways it no longer could serve God’s purposes.

-Jesus called his fellow Jews to “repent” and take on his way of living out God’s kingdom (Mark 1:15).

-”Repent” has become a churchy word with all sorts of negative associations. But what it truly means is to “change our minds, turn around, and head off in a new direction.” And that’s what Jesus means by it and what it takes to join his way of being God’s people.

-for the peasants to whom Jesus primarily preached this way of life he calls God’s kingdom runs in the opposite direction of Rome’s (and our) imperial ways. Conflict between the two ways is inevitable.

-the church must embrace Jesus’ way and exhibit his different way so that others can see, taste, and feel it in terms of practical care and support our national way can’t and won’t deliver so the few can stay in charge.

-Theologians call this following the “way of the cross.”

-For Mark’s readers that meant risking earning a literal cross for following Jesus’ way like he did. And crosses were only used on those who defied or resisted the empire’s way. Jesus is realistic enough to know that is a price his followers then and now might be called on to pay for faithfulness.

-Later on “taking up one’s cross” was broadened to mean following a way of death and resurrection in our daily lives (for example, death to self in order to live sacrificially for others). Both the literal sense and this metaphorical sense apply to Jesus’ followers today.

-Toward the Eighth Day, then, is following the way of the cross. The rest of the week keeps unfolding that way for us