Celebrating No-Palm Sunday
This twelvemonth, Palm Sun is cancelled, so y'all demand to practise away with your palm crosses, and change the choice of hymns. The reason is that nosotros are reading from Luke'southward gospel, and Luke makes no mention of 'palms' during Jesus' 'triumphal entry' in Jerusalem, riding on a donkey. Instead, we only get mention (Luke 19.37) of people spreading their cloaks, or outer garments (himatia) on the road. And so this twelvemonth we gloat Cloak Sunday. (If you are role of the tradition which keeps the palms and burns them for next yr's Ash Wednesday, I would advise confronting doing this with your coats.)
But Luke'due south account raises another question for us: what kind of king practise we want reigning over u.s.? I am not here referring to Charles and Camilla—but to the kind of authorisation that nosotros are set up to submit to. At that place are many authorities which do influence over our lives, both formal and informal—and in fact all those around us exercise some kind of power over us, through their opinions, personalities and evaluation of united states of america, as nosotros practice ability over them.
The reason Luke raises this question for usa is that this whole section of his gospel is shaped to relentlessly press habitation the question for his readers: who is Jesus?
It starts in this passage with the mention of Jerusalem. Although Jesus must have visited the city many times before, Luke has been arranging his narrative since chapter 9 around this, climactic visit (Luke nine.51, 13.22, 17.11). Why does Jerusalem course such a vital focus? Certainly because this is the place where prophets are killed (Luke 13.33–34), just too considering Jerusalem was the middle of spiritual, religious and political power. It was from Jerusalem that the influential Jewish leaders had come up (Luke 5.17) and where people expected the kingdom of God to be revealed (Luke 19.11)—not least considering it is the City of the Great King (Matt 5.35, Psalm 48.2). We might also annotation (every bit we have seen before) that Luke's writing appears to be oriented to a non-Jewish readership who take received the gospel—and he wants to make it clear that, whilst the gospel isfor the gentiles, it comesfrom the Jews and Jerusalem (compare John four.22).
As Jesus approaches the city, Luke slows down the narrative dramatically; Bethany and Bethphage are only a couple of miles from the city, and the Mountain of Olives only several hundred metres away, with a panoramic view over its walls and temple—glistening in the lord's day with its limestone, marble and gold decoration. Up till now we take covered mile after mile with Jesus; at present we ho-hum right down so we can trace his every footstep.
Luke'south focus on detail doesn't tell united states of america some things we would like to know—like which disciples go alee to find the filly, exactly which village the filly comes from, who the owners are, or what they felt when the colt was taking. Just it does tell u.s.a. about the colt existence untied—five times! The disciples will find a colt that is tied up; they are to untie the filly; they might be questioned about the untying; they did untie information technology; they were asked nearly untying. Why all the focus on untying?! Because, co-ordinate to Gen 49.10–11, this is the sign of the Coming One who is the true ruler of Judah, to whom the nations of the world will submit, and he is the one who ties and unties the ass. Every bit Joel Green comments, 'the whole procedure is wrapped in the interpretive fabric of eschatological expectation and scriptural innuendo.' Uniquely in Luke, information technology is the colt'southward 'lords' (in most translations, 'owners') who question the disciples (Luke 19.33); they respond to these 'lords' that the filly is needed by the Lord.
The filly hasn't been ridden on before, because that is what is required for the king'south mountain. And the format of the entry into the city follows the pattern of other examples from Scripture and from civilisation. What is near striking is that such events do not marker the crowning of the king, only the recognition of the king who has already won his victory. Matthew and Mark hint at this in the way they tape the acclamations of the oversupply. 'Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the Coming One…!' (Matt 21.ix); 'Blest is the coming kingdom of our male parent David!' (Mark 11.10). Just Luke makes information technology explicit: 'Blessed is the coming King!' (Luke 19.38), adding to the quotation from Ps 118.36.
And so Jesus is coming to the city of the king; he comes in the manner of a king; and he is acclaimed by the crowd of his disciples as the male monarch who hope the kingdom will now be announced. Simply what kind of rex is Jesus? And what does his kingdom look like?
Outset, he is a king who brings peace. Luke likewise records the crowds as acclaiming: 'Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!' Do you lot recognise that acclamation? I hope and so; we heard it at Christmas on the lips of the angels equally they made their announcement to shepherds in the field (Luke 2.14). When Zechariah celebrates the birth of his son, John the Baptist, he anticipates that his ministry will 'give light to those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death and guide our feet into the manner of peace' (Luke ane.79). Peace is a major feature of the theology of both Luke and Paul, then much and so that Paul begins every letter not just with the customary greeting of 'grace' but besides with 'peace'.
Secondly, Jesus is a king who claimpraise and brings joy. This is not just true for people, but the whole of the creation. If the people stop praising, then the very stones themselves (on the road? of the temple building?) will cry out (Luke 19.forty)! Commemoration is a consequent theme in Luke, not least in the parables of the lost who are found (in Luke 10).
Thirdly, Jesus is a king who brings power. The disciples welcoming Jesus gloat the 'works of power' they have seen him doing (Luke xix.37). Luke has a distinctive interest in the question of power; when the Spirit comes on Mary, then power from on high residue upon her, the same ability that will rest on the disciples when the Spirit comes in Acts i and ii. And Jesus himself, who goes into the temptations in the desert 'in the Spirit', returns in the 'power of the Spirit.' Merely this power is not to be used to command, dispense or restrict, but to bring down the proud 'in the imagination of their hearts' (Luke 1.51) and to requite 'freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the bullheaded, and to set the oppressed costless' (Luke 4.18).
This is a different kind of king to any yous've met before. And the reason for that is that the journey upwards to Jerusalem is non a journey to power and celebrity, but (as Paul makes very clear in Phil 2.5–11, the other lectionary reading for (No-)Palm Sunday), information technology is a journey down in obedience to death. This is why he brings peace: he has turned us from enemies of God to friends through his death. This is why he brings praise and joy: because his expiry and resurrection have dealt with the things which dissever the states from God and from one another. This is the power he offers: power to know forgiveness and peace of listen.
And this presents each of us with a challenge. Will nosotros stand with the disciples and welcome this male monarch of peace, praise and power? Or will we stand with the Pharisees who are like the resentful tenants who 'volition not have this human being to reign over us' (Luke 19.xiv)?
(This is based the content of a sermon I preached at the sex-offenders prison house HMP Whatton in 2016).
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