“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!’” — Matthew 21:9 NRSV
Today the Church remembers Jesus the Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. It is also a day that the Church has historically used to fuel anti-Semitism, and I must make a disclaimer that I hope what I am about to say does not fuel such sentiments.
The Jewish people clearly believed Jesus to be their Saviour, as they shouted “hosanna” (save us)! The irony here is that the kind of “saviour” the crowd was expecting was much different than the kind of saving Jesus was about to do… which didn’t look much like saving at all. In fact, the only person who was “saved” was Jesus Barabbas (this was his full name as depicted in Matthew 27:16-17).
The first clue that Jesus the Christ was a different kind of Saviour was in His riding a donkey upon entrance into the city. A donkey is not the steed of choice by any military general (yes, you heard this correctly).
The kind of saviour the Jewish people were hoping for was a military saviour to liberate them from Roman occupation. Honestly I don’t blame them; the Romans were brutal. They often taxed conquered people more than they could afford (to the point where many people starved), they saw themselves as far superior over any peoples they colonized, and they had the most torturous forms of execution for anyone who rebelled (the Romans “perfected” execution into the most agonizing, slowest death possible). All this on top of the fact that the Romans were the biggest and most powerful superpower the world had ever seen.
There was also historical significance to Jesus’ theatrics. About 150 years prior to Jesus, Judas Maccabeus led a revolt against the Seleucid Empire—a Hellenistic state—and won.
The waving of palm branches when Jesus rode into Jerusalem was significant, since the Maccabean precedent had been set before. The people were essentially asking Jesus to save them in the same manner they had previously been saved. This is why Jesus acts out in an epic display of political theatre: riding into the city on a donkey. Donkeys were a symbol of peace.
Jesus had other plans in regard to saving. While deeply concerned about the liberation of His own people, He was about to demonstrate what nonviolent resistance to powers and principalities looked like. Jesus would be arrested shortly after flipping tables in the temple (the temple had become a place where the rich exploited the poor; it had become a “den of robbers”). He was tried by Roman authorities in coalition with powerful religious elites. These same religious elites had a lot of sway in convincing the people to convict Jesus of death (in other words, they convinced the crowd to chose Jesus Barabbas, the insurrectionist who was willing to wield a sword to defeat the Romans over Jesus the Christ). Again, we cannot blame the Jewish people for choosing Jesus Barabbas. As Martin Luther King, Jr. so poignantly said regarding violence: “A riot is the language of the unheard”. The Jews had justifiable reasons to want revenge on their Roman oppressors. Still, only one Jesus is the Christ. Richard Rohr says that “you can tell a lot about someone by what they do with their pain. Do they transform it or do they transmit it?” Jesus Barabbas transmitted pain. Jesus the Christ transformed it and invites His followers to do the same. Christ would rather die than beget more violence.
This Palm Sunday, may we take heed of the warning in this story. What kind of “saviour” are we wanting Jesus to be?
Is He the “saviour” who defends our religious liberty; our personal “rights” and “freedoms”? Is He the “saviour” who upholds Christian nationalism or expansion of Christian empire? Is He the “saviour” who demands piety over all else? Is He the “saviour” who defeats His enemies wielding a sword (or a gun, or the biggest stockpile of nuclear weapons)?
Or is Jesus the liberator of the oppressed? Is He the one who is setting captives free, defeating the “enemies” of death and shame? Is He the one “saving” us by demonstrating that true life comes from laying it down; a fullness of life brought forth by laying down privilege and power and prestige? Is He the one who cares more about abundance for all over the prosperity of the few? Is He the one who teaches an upside-down Kingdom where the last are first and the first are last? Is He the one giving oppressed people back their dignity? Is Jesus saving us by saying “no!” to violence, which only begets more violence?
We need the Holy Spirit more than ever to help us discern which religious authorities of our day have authority over our lives. Are these authorities using Jesus to prop up their own agenda for personal gain, or do they recognize the significance of a colonized Jew who was executed by a co-mingling of toxic religion and state? May the Lord give us eyes to see and ears to hear as we discern said voices by their fruit. Many religious leaders are preaching Jesus as Saviour disguised as Jesus Barabbas. Many multitudes continue to be deceived by their perversion of the gospel.
Today, which Jesus will we choose to follow? Whom will we serve? Only one Jesus is the Christ, and Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Which Jesus is willing to transform the pain of the world, and bring forth new life from the shadow of death? May we choose wisely.