Text: Matthew 21:1-11
Parades!
Parades are a common feature in many societies and cultures. In America parades are frequently associated with celebratory events and holidays. They represent a coming together of communities, a display of diversity, pride in community, and an expression of joy and celebration.
In certain
other parts of the world, parades are often militaristic in nature. They are a
means by which authoritarian regimes seek to retain power by threat and
intimidation, both against their own citizens and to the watching world.
And after a
long but victorious conflict, nearly all nations honor those who fought and
served by hosting a parade in which the victors march and are given accolades.
In our small
community, we have parades in which all are welcome to participate. We have a
parade for the Christmas Tree lighting, for St. Patrick’s Day, during the
Little Norway Festival, and for Fourth of July. We also have parades that honor
achievements by students: for sports teams that return with championships and
for the graduation class.
When Elise
and I visited New Orleans several years ago, we learned about the “Second Line”
that forms after nearly all parades and processions in that city. The parade might
be for a festival, it might be for a wedding, or it might be for a funeral.
Whatever the reason for the parade, there is celebration, even for a funeral,
and anyone is allowed to join the Second Line to participate in the occasion.
When I thought
about parades and New Orleans, my mind next went to Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras is most
frequently associated now with drinking and debauchery, but there are colorful
parades, costumes, and masks. The name and the event came from the French and
their celebration of Fat Tuesday. And then with the virtual hop to France, it
isn’t difficult to think about the elaborate costumes and masks and imagine the
Carnival in Venice, Italy, which Elise and I both visited and saw some of these
in person.
Costumes, Masks, Reversals
A theme runs
through celebrations and festivals predating Christian Carnival, through
medieval Carnival, and into today’s expressions of the festival. The theme is a
part of the costumes and masks that are frequently used during the festivities.
This theme is that of reversal of social roles and norms, that of equalizing
social status, and through theatrics expose issues found in maintaining the status
quo. Many festivals, at least for one day a year, through use of costumes and masks remove the usual social status markers, allowing some semblance of equality to occur, from slaves to kings.
One can find
similar themes in the Jewish celebration of Purim, which coincidentally or not,
occurs around the same time of year. Masks and costumes may be seen. Men
dressing as women, and women dressing as men may be part of some celebrations. Encouraged
too, was drinking to excess so that one could no longer distinguish between
Haman and Mordecai. These means of celebrating may sound odd to our ears, but
they can each be (arguably) traced to themes found in the story of Esther and how
justice eventually prevails.[1],[2]
The idea of
reversal of social structures and the status quo as a means of finding a path
to justice, thus, is not unique to a single culture or religion, but could be
understood as a common theme across many of them.
Palm Sunday Entry as a Parody
In the Palm
Sunday story of Jesus entering Jerusalem, he too, employs theatrics to parody
the social structures, religious systems, and political powers emanating from this
city to support them.[3]
Secrecy of a Planned Act
First, when
we read carefully, we can see that the precise details of Jesus’ entry into
Jerusalem was most likely a planned action. When we read that Jesus sent a
couple of his disciples on ahead to bring back a donkey and a colt, it could be
divine foreknowledge, but a more obvious interpretation is that this was
prearranged, with code phrases and a cloak of secrecy around it.
Why so much
secrecy? If word got out too early and to too many, the activity happening could be
misinterpreted and misunderstood. Those who had had been following Jesus for the
past few years seem to have gotten to the understanding that Jesus was likely
not going to overthrow the Romans and their Jewish collaborators as the coming conquering king. So, their response to, “Who is Jesus?”, from the
inhabitants of Jerusalem was, “This is the prophet [emphasis mine] Jesus
from Nazareth in Galilee.”
There were
at least two very different visions of what the Messiah might be when he
arrived. The first was as a Davidic king to take back the throne and reign over
the Jews. But there was another Messianic expectation, that he would be more in
the lines of a prophet or a priest. Jesus proclaimed a kingdom of God, but it
would not have as its head a traditional king in the ways of human
expectations.
Thus, to reduce
the risk of any kind of false expectations of Jesus arriving into Jerusalem as
a conquering king might have triggered, he kept things quiet and hidden until the last possible
moment. For anyone parading into Jerusalem riding an animal such as a horse or
even a donkey could be interpreted as an entry of a king. When the succession
of Solomon from David was in question, one of the acts employed to legitimate
David’s choice was to have Solomon ride one of David’s mules to the location of
his anointing as the new king.[4]
A Political Act
The riding
of an animal into Jerusalem was a political act. But the manner of doing so,
without an army and instead, only peasants, can be seen as a parody of the
dominant powers and practices of that time. For around the same time, perhaps
even on the same day, Pontius Pilate would have also arrived in Jerusalem. This
was Passover week, the week in which Jews celebrated the long-ago deliverance
from Egyptian oppressors. The air would be pregnant with unspoken “what if?”
and “when?” questions by the Jews. Pilate’s arrival was to enforce Roman
authority, to keep the peace (through threats, force, and violence), discourage
any would-be rebellion, and quell any disturbances as quickly and efficiently
as possible. He would have arrived on a horse, at the head of his imperial
cavalry and soldiers. It would have been an impressive sight of Roman might,
armor and weapons, and sure to discourage anyone from carrying out nefarious
plans. Most of the city would likely have been quiet while the procession
passed, with only the beating of drums, the clip-clop of the hooves, the pounding
of the ground, and sounds of armor against armor.[5]
Jesus’
entry, while following a pattern of a royal entry, mocks the reigning powers
and domination systems. There is nothing grand or impressive about it. Yet
there was celebration and expectations and shouts of acclamation, quite unlike that
of Pilate’s arrival.
As a side
note, Matthew makes a distinction between the crowds that followed Jesus into
Jerusalem and the inhabitants of the city. Commonly, the crowd that turned
against Jesus at the trial is equated with the crowd that shouted acclamations to
Jesus, but that may not be the case, as many recent biblical scholars have
pointed out.
The Messiah's Rule, According to Matthew
Matthew
includes a quotation that is derived from Zechariah 9:9. We read this during
the readings. I am reading it again to remind us of what this prophetic text
says about the kind of Messiah that Matthew wants his readers to see and
understand about Jesus:
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall command peace to the nations;
his dominion shall be from sea to sea
and from the River to the ends of the earth. (Zechariah
9:9-10 NRSVue)
The Messiah does
rule, but not with any of the conventional methods and tools employed by human
rulers. His attitude is humility. He does away with war, violence, and the
tools used to make war and cause violence. By extension, too, because these
tools are done away, there can be no threats and coercion as means to rule and
maintain authority. Peace is the only tool and method employed by the Messiah.
Fools and Foolishness
I think that
“What kind of a fool is this Messiah?” is a legitimate question.
When you and
I think “fool”, it could mean someone who does or says things even when they
should know better, someone who is unwise, and someone who acts unintelligently.
That’s probably the most common present-day understanding of a fool.
But a fool
could be a (capital-)Fool, a position held in some medieval royal courts, also
known as the Jester. This Fool was at the court to entertain, but they
generally enjoyed what was held as Jester’s Privilege. This privilege allowed
the Jester or the Fool to parody those in authority, including the monarch,
without fear of punishment. This meant that the Fool was in a unique position
to speak truth to power, through the use of theatrics and comedy, that no one
else could. This Fool was no unwise person, nor someone unintelligent. This
individual had to be extremely wise, intelligent, and creative. Shakespeare’s King
Lear has the character of a Fool who is the only one able to speak the
truth to Lear, but the real fool (using our more common definition) is Lear who
refuses to listen to the Fool.
It could be
said that Jesus played the part of the Fool in the Palm Sunday theatrics. He
parodied the reigning powers of Rome, and the authorities in Jerusalem that
collaborated with Rome. He rode into Jerusalem, ahead of a procession, with an
alternative kingdom vision. But Jesus did not enjoy the Jester’s Privilege, for
his alternative vision collided with the status quo, and by the end of the week
the status quo determined that their place in society and history must remain
and Jesus must go.
But the
foolishness that Jesus embodied and the foolishness of the gospel would outlast
the Roman empire. We aren’t told where Pharisee Saul, who would later become
known as Apostle Paul, was at the trial of Jesus. But if he was there, he most certainly
would have been forcefully demanding the execution of Jesus.
But by the
time Paul writes the First Letter to the Corinthians, his tune had completely
changed. In the first part of the letter he writes,
18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who
are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For
it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scholar? Where is
the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the
world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the
world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of
the proclamation, to save those who believe. 22 For
Jews ask for signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23 but
we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to
gentiles, 24 but to those who are the called, both
Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For
God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger
than human strength. (1 Corinthians 1:18-25 NRSVue)
Reversals as the Gospel's Foolishness
The gospel and
the kingdom of God is foolishness because it is a complete reversal of the
world’s structures and systems. To any reasonable mind, if the gospel is fully
embraced, it cannot work. The idea that there is no hierarchy, there are no
power differentials, everyone receives what they need and give everything else
away, etc. makes no sense in this world. The principles of the kingdom simply
cannot work. Anyone trying it would become impoverished, taken advantage of,
and become a laughingstock.
Yet… That is
what Jesus is calling for his followers to do.
24 Then
Jesus told his disciples, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny
themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For
those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life
for my sake will find it. (Matthew 16:24-25 NRSVue)
Jesus, in
very clear terms, states that to follow him is to take up the cross, embrace
its foolishness and become a Fool.
Called to be Fools?
And once
again, I don’t have answers, because like you I’m attached to this world. I
have a life here, that even if not perfect, is pretty good. I find it mostly easy
to refuse to succumb to using violence and its tools to get my way. But going
down the list, I find that coercion and threats can be useful at times. And
then I get to the more socially acceptable power structures based on wealth,
position, and social status. And using those methods to advance my agenda is
far more difficult to reject and avoid.
And yet
Jesus, in the hours leading up to his crucifixion and death refused to employ
any of them to save himself. Jesus responded to violence with forgiveness.
Jesus refused to defend himself with any kind of threats or coercion. Jesus
could have called on his divine powers and asserted his position and status,
yet he did not.
As we enter Holy
Week, let us look to Jesus and how he navigated the tension of living in this
world yet living by the principles of God’s kingdom. May our thoughts be guided
by God’s Spirit as we examine our own lives and perhaps find those places where
we are too attached to this world and its ways.
After his entry into Jerusalem, Jesus overturned tables at the Temple. Do we have the courage to allow God to overturn our attachments to the ways of the world and instead become wise, intelligent, and creative (capital letter-F) Fools for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God?
[1]
Episode
235: Aaron Koller - Biblicizing Esther - The Bible For Normal People (https://thebiblefornormalpeople.com/episode-235-aaron-koller-biblicizing-esther/)
[2]
A
History of Purim | My Jewish Learning (https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/purim-parody-and-pilpul/)
[3]
See Bible
Study: Parody and Subversion in Matthew's Gospel: Episode 53: Palm Sunday,
Making an Ass Out of Rome, Matthew 21:1-11 on Apple Podcasts for a full
discussion on this approach to reading Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.
[4]
1 Kings 1.
[5]
Borg, Marcus and Crossan, John Dominic. The Last Week, chapter 1, “Palm
Sunday”. This chapter contains an imagined account of Jesus’ entry and Pilate’s
entry into Jerusalem occurring on the same day.
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