Peace March

Luke 19:29-48
(You might also want to take a look at Psalm 122 and Zechariah 9:9-10
and Chapter 32 from We Make the Road by Walking by Brian McLaren.)

So, while we all LOVE Palm Sunday and the waving of the branches during the procession and the uplifting way it makes us feel (It's my favorite day of worship of this Lenten/Easter season, to be honest), it is often not exposed for what it really is.  We mistake it for a good time. For a time to worship Jesus, triumphantly riding into Jerusalem, recognized at last by the crowd as the King who comes in the name of the Lord.

But it's not like that. It's not really a parade like the kind we might see on the Fourth of July in Niwot. The Niwot Fourth of July parade is a fun and celebratory parade, a touch of true Americana. Beginning with pancakes and kicking off a day of fireworks and barbecues, it's just delightful!  And this Palm Parade is just not that kind of parade, though we do make it feel that way.

Instead, it's more like a march... Brian McLaren calls it a Peace March.  It's a protest parade in the eyes of Jesus.  Sure, the people on the sides of the road place their coats over the road to form a regal path and wave palm branches as if greeting royalty, but Jesus has a different mission in mind than celebration.  He is headed to confront the gross injustices that have run rampant.  He isn't smiling, instead he is crying! He says "if you had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes."He is crying for Jerusalem and the ways that they have let the  corrupt caesars ruin the way of peace.

And in this gospel, the gospel of Luke, Jesus doesn't stop there. He goes into the temple and turns over all the moneychanger tables and animal sale stalls and declares it to be a den of robbers instead of a house of prayer.  He alludes to Psalm 122 that suggests the temple is a place to come for prayer. He suggests that it has instead become a place to hide for those who have completed acts of violence against the poor. A place to pretend they care.

When we consider what the Palm Sunday parade actually symbolizes, it does sound less like a parade and more of a peace march, like perhaps the March on Selma fifty years ago, or the student protests during the Vietnam War, or the protests surrounding the Iraq wars, or the protests that have bubbled up related to police and race relations.  This march of Jesus is a march that demands peace and right relations, rather than violence and manhandling. A protest that ruffles the feathers of those who are meting out the violence and seeking to stay in control.  And, of course, it is a threat to the established corrupt order and they will mete out even more violence to continue their reign... we are all well aware what happens to Jesus, after all, at the end of this week.

What does it mean to take a celebration and turn it into a time to contend for those who need our voices supporting them?  How could we turn our eyes, and hands and hearts, toward seeking justice and peace, rather than just accepting the status quo?  What could we make the Palm Parade mean in today's context?

Thoughts?  Email me at peverhart@niwotumc.org or comment below.