A Tale of Two Parades

Reading: Mt 21:1-11; Is 50:4-7; Phil 2:6-11; Mt 26:14—27:66

Today we celebrate the feast of Palm Sunday as we begin Holy Week.  We come back to this great drama year after year in order to reflect upon the deep mystery of Jesus’ death and resurrection – a mystery that we participate in as well.  The readings are long and full of many themes, so I won’t try to unpack them here.  Instead I’ll offer some general thoughts, and they’ll be similar to reflections I have offered before, in part, because I think it’s important for us to understand some of these foundational ideas.

John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg’s book The Last Week has always been helpful to me in unpacking the events of Holy Week.  They go day by day and offer thoughts about what the events meant and mean for us today. [1]

With respect to Palm Sunday, however, they are clear that Jesus was establishing himself in opposition to the empire of his time.  In a form of “street theater,” Jesus has a procession with his followers on the “opposite” side of the city where – at about the same time – the Roman elite and military were holding their own procession.  They were demonstrating their might and power.  Jesus was demonstrating another way to live. 

On the Roman side, it was the who’s who of Jerusalem.  There was a lot of pomp and circumstance.  There were chariots and demonstrations of power and military might.  There was wealth and opulence and portraits of success.  This is what empire values.

What empire does not show you, however, is that in order to have all that, there must be a group or groups of people upon whose backs it is built.  That is who Jesus was with on the other side of the city.

On Jesus’s side, the outcasts, lower class and salt of the earth folk gathered.  There was little pomp, little wealth and almost no people of importance.  There were the homeless, the addicted, sex workers, day laborers, and people who were considered disposable by the other side of the city.

Which parade would we join?  Which parade are we in now?

I always love the phrase, “If you wondered what you would have done during the civil rights era, look at what you are doing right now because this is the civil rights era…”

A social worker named Paul Kivel who has deeply influenced my work invites us to reflect on 2 fundamental questions:  What do you stand for? Who do you stand with?

Palm Sunday offers us a powerful chance to reflect on our values and what we stand for.   Do we stand for justice? Equity? Fairness? Respect?  Most of would probably say, “Yes, I do!”

But when it comes to who we position ourselves with, most of us probably live at a significant distance from the people most affected by the deep problems affecting our society.  If we’re honest, we might find ourselves in the parade on the other side of the city from where Jesus is – with the people who have power, affluence, property, privilege, luxury and influence.

For today, reflect on who you would want to make sure that you are standing with.  Pray for the guidance and courage to find ways to stand more closely with those whom Jesus stood with.

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[1] To read a reflection on Palm Sunday by scripture scholar Ched Myers, click here.