I think that we often miss the point with Palm Sunday, we think of it as a story for the children, we think of it as a simple story, a story of celebration, a story with humility, a happy story before the tough times leading up to the crucifixion. It is a moment of affirmation before the trouble starts, but it is perhaps not quite the story we think it is.
There is politics and complexity in the mix of this story.
There are four versions of this story in the four Gospels, but more than 4 voices being heard within those stories. The four gospel versions aren't simply four different people's accounts of the events. There are places where the versions cross over, places where they are identical and places where they are completely different. And in these variations perhaps we may be hearing echoes of the voices from the crowd who were there on that day.
These days we get used to the idea that even if you weren't at a particular event you will hear about it. It will be on the television, in the news paper, it will be posted on the internet, and someone will have taken photographs. If it was a big enough event, then there will be a record of the event somewhere, there will have been live coverage so you can probably buy the DVD. But back in the days of Jesus the only people who experienced that event, were the ones who were there. So the versions of the story that we have are very interesting. And they are interesting as much for how they differ as how they are similar.
Luke and John start their versions with a little introduction, but unlike all the others, John starts with the crowd and not with the disciples. John is interested in the public viewpoint.
Matthew, Mark and Luke spend a fair amount of time talking about Jesus sending the disciples off to find the donkey, they seem particularly interested in the fact that Jesus knew where to find the donkey, this is one of several slides that would have covered that aspect of the story had I included them all.
John doesn't talk about how the disciples are involved in this elaborate plot of finding the donkey, he is more interested in the quote from Zechariah 9:9, which is also quoted slightly differently by Matthew, who for some reason that I don't know about is set on there being both a donkey and a colt, but Matthew always wants to root his account in Jewish history and the inclusion of the prophetic words make sense in that light. I suspect that John was less interested in the idea that Jesus knew where the donkey was, and more interested in the thought that he would have known that quote before he chose to enter the city in this way, and the crowd would have known that too - and the temple priests would definitely have known that quote and the implications of these actions. This may have been a humble entry to the city, but it wasn't a naïve one. It was a calculated and dangerous move by Jesus, the eventual outcome was inevitable.
As for the bit about the palms, the reason why we call this Palm Sunday, the strange thing is that with four accounts we only have one mention of the palm branches. Matthew mark and Luke give us the spreading of cloaks on the road, Matthew and Mark also give us the branches, but only John mentions palm trees. None of that is particularly significant in itself, but this section in particular shows us the diversity of voices that seem to have contributed to this story and what that tells us about what draws those voices together.
It is Luke alone concentrates on the disciples praising God for the miracles, which is interesting because it is Luke who later picks up the political thread and runs with it.
And so we then turn to psalm 118 that we heard earlier. Matthew, Mark and John quote the Hosanna from verse 25, which translates as 'save us' or 'save please' and it is the only place in the Old Testament that the word is spoken. It is a cry for help but it is followed by the words blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, and so over the years between the writing of the psalm and its being quoted in the accounts of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, the meaning has shifted from 'save please' to something more like - 'salvation has come'.
Matthew of course wants to put Jesus into the context of the Old Testament narrative, so we have the hosanna to the son of David, whereas Luke interestingly offers no hosannas at all, perhaps because its meaning would have been obscure to his non Jewish readers.
They all follow with the next line of psalm 118 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. John's opening line about the crowd suggests that they were at least partly aware of the political impact that this arrival might have. When we realise that the crowd is quoting Psalm 118 we cannot avoid the probability that all four writers are believe the crowd was all too aware of the political overtones to this event, and Luke further emphasises that here by putting 'the King' in the place of the 'he' from the psalm.
Mark keeps the politics slightly more ambiguous by talking about the Kingdom of our father, David, whereas John sticks to the 'he', but then hits that nail with a sledgehammer and follows up with 'blessed is the king of Israel'.
Matthew and Mark give us more hosannas, this time 'hosannas in the highest heaven', but Luke replaces the hosanna with peace and glory, emphasising again his mission to gentiles who would have been unfamiliar with much of the meaning of the psalm.
Interestingly - each gospel arrives at a different conclusion.
Matthew is interested in the effect this event has had on the crowd, and the idea that they want to know who he is.
Mark - is not interested in reflection, he's onto the next thing. As if to say, you can reflect in your own time - I've got a story to tell.
Luke draws our attention to the inevitable friction that is now building up between the religious leaders and the crowd - at this moment, it looks as if a political revolution might be in the air. But John has moved his attention from the crowd, to the disciples and the fact that they didn't understand what was going on until after the resurrection.
John highlights the fact that the disciples didn't get what was happening, even though the crowd seems to get it, and the Pharisees, from a very different angle, also seem to get it. Matthew Mark and Luke concentrate on the inside story of the disciples and they get caught up in the tale of the finding of the donkey. Luke hones in on the political unrest but it's only John who begins with the crowd and it's only John who realises how much the disciples have missed the point.
This story is full of complexity, politics and it paints a picture of a potentially really dangerous situation. And what we see in this moment is Jesus laying his cards on the table. He is saying I am not here to be subordinate to the system, I'm not ignoring the system nor am I throwing it out, I am taking heed of the scripture, the tradition and the power structures, but I'm also declaring myself as leader, as bringer of salvation - humble, yes, but in charge.
Yet the thing he does next is to allow himself to be arrested. He doesn't take on that leadership, not in the way that our earthly political structures would expect him to do. There is no revolution, there is no political uprising - what comes next is something for us to reflect upon in holy week, but for now I want us to reflect on the way that the disciples eyes were fixed inwards on the activities within their group. They lacked the understanding of the politics, the way that the scriptures interacted with the political powder keg of 1st Century Jerusalem. They didn't get the way that the tensions between the Roman Empire, the Jewish religious leaders and the crowds in Jerusalem were likely to explode at any moment. They didn't see that the world was changing around them and the at Jesus was giving them salvation not just for eternity but also for now, not just salvation for the next world but also a plan of how God's people ought to move through the complex changes that were happening around them.
I wonder how much that might be our problem today, are we so focussed in on our churches and the way we do things, that we are unable to see what God is teaching us through what is happening out there in the world. Are we concentrating on how we get the donkey and missing why the donkey was there in the first place. Do we come and celebrate our God but fail to see what our God is doing? Do we see the miraculous wonders that God has done for us, but miss how those things fit into the bigger more volatile and complex picture of the world around us?
This is God's world, and we are God's people. We should perhaps from time to time, just like John did, look first to the crowd outside in the streets, to listen to the voices in the crowd, to find out what it is that God is doing and plans to do with us.
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