Scripture: Palm Sunday, Luke 19: 29-39 Nigel Bunce
King on a donkey. But what sort of king? A king who wasn’t a king? Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, a parody of the arrival of Pontus Pilate. But this other-worldly kingship tells us that Christianity has to give up its prestige and primacy in today’s secular, multicultural Canada.
Palm Sunday: start of our annual Holy Week journey with Jesus
From the enthusiasm of the crowds who shout “Hosanna!” to his betrayal by Judas. From his “show-trial” and crucifixion, to the triumph of the Resurrection a week from today.
Jesus will go through almost every human emotion in the next seven days – adulation, betrayal, desolation, and finally triumph. The crowds will spit on him on Friday, but today they cheer when Jesus arrives in Jerusalem. You can follow my journey this year in the daily Evening Prayer series.
Pontius Pilate: the other major player in the drama
Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. Pilate has the authority of the Roman Empire behind him. Locally, he can do pretty much what he wants.
History recalls Pilate as a cruel man. That’s often true of people who have great power over others. They forget their humanity and that of those they rule. Pilate’s determined to keep order in his province. If that means nailing up Jewish trouble makers on crosses, so be it.
Vladimir Putin is Pontius Pilate on steroids
However, Pilate looks like a nobody in comparison with a contemporary autocrat, Vladimir Putin. Cruel. Determined to have his own way. The revelations of the past week are repellent, disgraceful.
Brutality to terrorize civilians. Atrocities. Women raped and left naked in the streets. Men shot in the head with their hands tied behind their backs. Vladimir Putin. How would you feel if gangs of thugs raped your two daughters and left them naked and lifeless in the street?
Crowds are fickle
Easily swayed. Yet, I can’t believe that the same people participated in the crowds on Palm Sunday and Good Friday. Good Friday’s crowd looks like a “crowd for hire.” Good Friday’s crowd is the sort that is assembled for so-called spontaneous demonstrations.
Think Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang or the ayatollahs in Tehran. Their crowds know why they are there. What to chant, and when. Probably, the Chief Priests organized Good Friday’s crowd. Because they saw Jesus as a blasphemer. Someone to get rid of.
But Jesus also did some planning
He had the disciples fetch a donkey. Then he rode into town in a parody of the arrival of a conquering hero. Maybe some of his followers organized the b ranch-cutting and coat-throwing ahead of Jesus. But the parody had a purpose.
The conquering hero rides into town after success in battle on a perfect (and huge) white stallion. By deliberate contrast, Jesus rides into town on a little donkey. The colt (or donkey) is part of the prophesy by the Old Testament prophet Zechariah.
“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.” The king on a donkey. This prophesy would be familiar to the Jewish crowd, and later, to the New Testament’s Jewish readers.
The king on a donkey
The people shout “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David.” But, that’s the point of the disconnect between that and showing up looking faintly ridiculous on a little donkey. The Messiah’s kingdom is coming. The kingdoms of Herod, the chief priests, and Pilate, are going.
However, when Pilate interrogated Jesus on Good Friday, Jesus did not claim to be a king of this world. Although that must have disappointed many of his supporters. They expected the Messiah to overthrow the Romans by revolution, and usher in God’s righteous reign.
But that misunderstands Jesus’ ministry. His kingship – if that is even the right word – was spiritual. It was worldly only in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets. Railing against injustice, corruption, and oppression of the poor. in other words, a king on a donkey.
To Pilate, the king on a donkey was a threat
However, Pilate would have found the idea of Jesus as any sort of king very disturbing. King on a donkey or not. Passover brought huge crowds to Jerusalem. Like a tinder box just waiting for someone to strike a match. Time for Pilate to chat with the Temple authorities and get rid of this potential trouble-maker.
However, the idea of Jesus as a king is problematic today. We Anglicans are used to seeing the kingship of Jesus – however imagined – in parallel with (e.g.) Canada as a Christian society. Thus, a society in which Christianity has automatic primacy.
Christianity’s loss of prestige
Today, Canadian society is secular. Also, other, increasing, segments of society follow non-Christian faiths. Today’s Scripture says that Jesus arrived in town with humility, riding on a common donkey. Not the Roman Governor Pilate in his chariot.
In some ways, the loss of status for Christianity may not be a bad thing. It allows us to ride, spiritually, on Jesus’ humble donkey. Not in Pilate’s chariot. Now, we can identify more easily with the “king who was not a king”. Whether a king on a donkey or othwewise.”
Different attitudes from Christians a century ago
We have more in common with Jesus’ early followers than with churchgoers of a century ago. Who supported residential schools. Who sent missionaries to tell the benighted peoples of distant lands that their beliefs were primitive and wrong.
We no longer sing the hymn From Greenland’s icy mountains from the 1938 hymn book – and with good reason!
“From Greenland’s icy mountains, from India’s coral strand/Where Afric’s sunny fountains roll down their golden sand./From many an ancient river, from many a palmy plain/They call us to deliver their land from error’s chain.” Not exactly a theology of humble donkey-riding! Amen.