Palm Sunday 2026 – Gethsemane
What we did this morning is called
The Triumphal Entry
Here is a man
Entering the city
Knowing that he is going
To be brutalized
Assaulted
Defamed
Tortured
And ultimately die a horrible death
He knows absolutely that that is how this week will end…
Triumphal entry?
I am not sure that word means what we think it means.
What we just did here
when we gathered in the parish hall
and processed in with our palms
What we were recreating was not a parade.
It was a protest.
Here is this history
That we were reenacting
With this sacred liturgy
The people in Judea,
who were being oppressed
by their Roman rulers
Gathered on one side of Jerusalem
at the gates of the city
to welcome
A man who preached justice
A man who promised a world of peace
A man who taught kindness and compassion
They were drawn by the vision
Of a world
Where those on the margins
are brought to the center
where the least and the last and the lost
Are no longer “them”
Rather, we are all a part of us.
The citizens of Jerusalem
Are streaming into the streets to see
This inspiring and charismatic leader
Who is called
the prince of peace
The Son of God
The Messiah
And the vision that he promises
is the kingdom of God here on earth
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”
That is what the people came to see
They voted with their feet
They assembled with their faith
To get a glimpse of Creation
The way the Creator intended it
And on the other of town
and the other side of the issue
Was another gathering
This was also not a parade
It was a deployment
This happens every year
The Roman governor
who lives way out on the coast in Caesarea
Comes to Jerusalem
on the occasion of Passover
Because that was the time
when so many Jews would gather here
That he knew
That there could be some kind of trouble.
Pilate is worried
Because the usually peaceful Judeans
Will gather in very large numbers on this day
And they will tell the story
Of how Yahweh freed them from slavery
And drew them into the promised land.
Pilate is remembering what happened to Pharoah
So he is bringing a legion.
On this other side of Jerusalem
The Roman governor
Is being escorted in
By an army.
Soldiers, cavalry, chariots,
horses, armor, weapons,
They have come
to reinforce the law-enforcement officers
that were already present in Jerusalem
Can you see them?
Row upon row upon row
Of trained soldiers?
In body armor
And helmets
With their weapons on display
Marching
In lock step
You can’t see their faces
They are entirely anonymized
They are dressed for combat
They are anticipating conflict
And they are streaming into the city
Why?
The wonderful Marcus Borg describes it like this:
It is clear what Pilate’s procession was about by proclaiming the pomp and power of the empire, its purpose was to intimidate.
Meanwhile, across town
Are the people
that those Roman overlords
Seek to suppress
The people who pay astronomical taxes
The people who are not eligible to lead
The people who are restrained from gathering
The people who are hungry
Out of power
Struggling with a corrupt government
That is communicating the corruption
Into all the other areas of their lives,
including their temple
The ritually unclean
The socially outcast
The impoverished
The oppressed
They stand
lining the streets
of the other side of town
as Jesus comes in
And if Pilate was intentional
in the message he was sending with his optics
Jesus was no less obvious
about the symbolism of his appearance
He rode a donkey in reference to a passage from the prophet Zachariah:
Shout aloud, oh daughter of Jerusalem
your king comes to you,
triumphant, and victorious is he
humble and riding on a donkey
on a colt, the foal of a donkey
But this protest,
this rally if you will,
is unlike the one across town
across town people are standing on the sidewalk,
well-behaved, quiet,
watching the soldiers streaming in
On Jesus’s side of town.
People are crowding onto the sidewalks
And falling in behind him
as they walk,
a large larger and larger and larger crowd
Is constantly forming
They’re not quiet
they’re not well behaved
they have palms in their hands
and they are yelling,
“Hosanna!” Hosanna!”
Hosanna, which means save us
The principal action of this day in our liturgy
recreates a moment
when oppressive forces of government
roll into town
with a super abundance of military presence
in the face of a protest march
led by an itinerant rabbi
and a rabble of the lowest of the low
And they are coming together
in the conflict
that will kick off the transformation
of all creation
for all time
That’s what we just did.
We were just that rabble
That’s what Palm Sunday is.
We live in a country now
That is rife with division
Regardless of how we feel about
who our president is
or who our representatives are
And how they are running this country
Regardless of whether you are “red” or “blue”
It is clear to us all
That we are in a season of division,
polarization and animosity
That is virtually unprecedented in the history of this country
And we stream into the streets
Either on one side or the other
Divided by politics
Divided by the media
But all of us are saying essentially the same thing
Save us
Bring us the kingdom
Set us free from the things that imprison us
Whether we are on this side
or this side
of our deeply polarized country
What we are asking for
What we are begging for
What we are protesting for
Is thy kingdom come
thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven
We are looking for ways
To unhinge the injustice in our culture
To resolve epidemic loneliness
To put an end to hunger and homelessness
We are seeking justice
Compassion kindness
We don’t know where to look
(I advise you not to look at the television)
And we don’t know how to do it
We don’t know who to trust
We don’t know where to find the truth
We don’t know what will work
Or do we?
Here we sit
Like hundreds of thousands
of Christians and Jews and Muslims
And the faithful of every religion
Here we sit
Speaking words of prayer that are hundreds of years old
Reading stories of the intervention of God in the world
That are thousands of years old
Here we sit
Marinating in a tradition of faith that
Compels us
To be uncompromising
in standing up for those who cannot
Speaking up for those who cannot speak
Carrying out the will of God
Which is always compassionate
Which is always just
Which is always kind
And … sacrificial
We struggle in our country right now
to find a path back
To a time when
the largest gathering in the nation
Was a parade for the World Series Champion Chicago Cubs
Remember the days?
When we used to gather in support of something?
We know our path back there
We know what we have to do
Pray without ceasing
Protect the widow and the orphan
And yes, the alien in our midst
We know the path
We just walked it
It is the path of Jesus to the Cross
“Triumphal entry”
In our scripture this morning
Jesus prays
the most dangerous prayer you can pray
Jesus
who is both entirely divine and entirely human
Utters
The most humble
and courageous
Words that can be spoken any creature
Not my will
But yours be done
Not the will of a human being
Who is flawed
Who is egotistical
Who has their own agenda
Who is motivated by greed or avarice or fear
Not my will
But God’s will be done
These are the most dangerous words we can pray
Because if we commit
ourselves to God’s will
God will take us to places that make us uncomfortable
God will surround us with people who frighten or alarm us
God will act for change at a speed that all alarms us
Too fast perhaps for some and too slow for others
And we will arrive in a place
we would never have gone on our own
We will be asked to speak out
Even if we are shouted down
We will be asked to stand
in front of the vulnerable
Even if we are injured by
We will be asked to call out cruelty
Even if it means becoming the victim of that cruelty
If we like Jesus
Pray the most dangerous prayer
Not my will
But God’s will be done
Then we, like Jesus
Will be asked to do the very hard things
To heal what is broken in Creation.
We look around our world today
and we think we don’t know what to do
But we do
Look at what’s in your hand
We have already chosen
To walk the pilgrim way
In the footsteps of the Prince of Peace
We here gathered
have already made the choice
We already know
We may wish to pray to God and say
Please don’t make me do the hard thing
Please take this cup from my lips
But we know
We already know
That the only way to restore what is broken in Creation…
The only way to the Kingdom…
Is to walk in the footsteps of Jesus
Into the city
Into the conflict
Into the garden
Into fear and dread
And prayer
And if necessary into sacrifice, suffering, lament
Triumphal entry indeed.
Not the most uplifting sermon you’ve ever heard
Right?
Not the “Good News of Jesus Christ”
That you would like to hear
Not the good news that
All of Creation is saved
And transformed by the radical act of love
That we hear about today
Death has no dominion…
But that’s not what this reading is…
That’s not what this day is…
That’s not what this week is.
This is a week to mindful
That Jesus knew what was coming
He knew what would be asked of him
And he went forward in fear and dread
With love.
It is a week to be pensive, prayerful and reflective
To think about
How it is that we ae all saved
By his courage in these moments
This is the week for each of us to ask ourselves…
Can I walk in the footsteps of Jesus?
Can I pray the most dangerous prayer?
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