Image: Columbans
The long awaited hour had come for Jesus to fully reveal himself and his message of God’s love and new life for all. He chooses the great feast of the Passover, when thousands of devout Jews descend on Jerusalem to give thanks and recall the gift of liberation from centuries of slavery in Egypt.
He tells his disciples to acquire a donkey, and when they get near Jerusalem he sits on it. The disciples, some pilgrims and children from the city cut palm and olive branches and begin to acclaim Jesus with shouts of “Hosanna.” The dye was now cast for Jesus’ future!
Same of the Jewish elders who witnessed this and protested for to silence the shouting. Jesus responded saying: “If the keep silent the very stones will cry out” (Luke 19:40). In other words, Mother Nature will shout!
From there Jesus goes straight into the Temple and confronts the corrupt system of buying and selling in the space that is designed to be a house of prayer. Jesus reclaims sacred space as a deliberate confrontation with the religious authorities. His message was confronting and unsettling – No wonder they wanted to eliminate him!
At around the same time another type of authority arrived in Jerusalem, the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate. The differences could not be more marked. Pilot on a horse, Jesus on a donkey. Pilot surrounded by armed soldiers shouting orders, Jesus by fishermen, women and children, carrying of all things, palm branches and shouting for joy. One came to sow fear and control, the other freedom, truth and love. This is the Kingdom of his Father and stands in stark contrast with the kingdoms of this world.
Palm Sundays in Peru:
In Lima I enjoyed two very different versions of Palm Sunday. The first, I was still in language school, and so understood very little of what was happening. The procession was held in a new Columban parish in a developing barrio.
For music we carried a battery-operated record player. We set out from the cane-matting chapel as night fell. The accompanying crowd consisted of some eight adults, twenty excited children, and about the same number of mangy dogs. As we passed shops and houses people came out to stare and shake their heads and return to their activities or Sunday rest.
The second, many years later, also in another developing barrio on the northern edge of the city, reflected what is generally the busiest day of the year in Church. Everyone wants to have a blessed palm to place somewhere in the home. I do not exaggerate when I say over a thousand people came. We had to divide the consecrated hosts to share with all. The blessing of the palms was quite an exercise and the Mass had to be celebrated outside on a dusty football pitch.
Choose Your Procession:
From the dusty streets of Jerusalem to the developing barrios of Lima, Palm Sunday continues to echo with the same revolutionary tension. Jesus’s entry was not just spiritual, it was a prophetic act, set against the backdrop of imperial power and religious corruption. He chose the symbol of the donkey over the warhorse, the chorus of children over the marching of soldiers, and the reclaiming of sacred space over compromise with oppressive economic systems.
Palm Sunday asks us to choose which procession we are in. Will we march in the parade of Pilate - the way of coercion, fear, and control that still manifests in our systems and, at times, in our own hearts? Or will we take up a palm branch and join the counter-cultural parade of the donkey-riding king - the way of vulnerable love, joyful defiance, and liberation that prioritizes the child’s shout over the elder’s decree?
Were Jesus here today, you could probably find him in the barrios of Lima, walking alongside the faithful and challenging oppressive systems that strip people of their human dignity. This is because the kingdom that Jesus proclaimed did not locate itself in the thrones of worldly power, but among the poor, the hurt, the vulnerable, and the ordinary. The triumph of Christ was in the hearts of the people rather than worldly powers or treasure. This is why 2000 years later in countries far from Jerusalem, the re-enactment of Jesus’ entrance is memorialised through palm branches and shouts of “Hosanna.” Not as a distant memory, but as an invitation to journey with Christ from joyous palms, to the temple, and to the cross, where his life would be poured out so that we could enter eternal life.
Columban Fr John Hegerty lives at St Columban's, Essendon.
