Gospel: Palm Sunday – “Hosanna, Hosanna”
5 April 2020
The celebration of Holy Week this year will be very different as it will be celebrated in the absence of the faithful due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This is a unique experience for all of us and it challenges us on the many things we have taken for granted – the palm leaves and the Mass. Today, we have to prepare our own palm leaves, attend Mass through live-streaming and do Spiritual Communion of the Eucharist. We miss the blessed palm leaves, the Mass, the church and the gathering of people.
A gathering of a large group of people featured in the two Gospel readings for today. The three annual feasts of the Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacle (Deut. 16:16) usually attracted a lot of Jews to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. As the days drew nearer to the Festival, more and more people would have arrived at Jerusalem. As the crowds grew, there would be tensions and chaos and it could easily be used as an opportunity for political demonstrations and uprisings. In such a scenario, Matthew even recorded that a “riot was imminent” (Matt 27:24). Set within this background was Jesus and his disciples, like the rest of the Jews, going up to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of the Passover. Centred round Jesus, we can see three examples of the gathering of a crowd.
The first example is in the first Gospel reading for the blessing of palms. The crowd gave a grand welcome to Jesus. Their garments and palm leaves were laid on the road for Jesus to tread on. Their cries of homage, “Hosanna, Hosanna”, to Jesus were so loud that as Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city “stirred”. The word “stirred” is a word used to describe the effects of an earthquake and this implies that so great was their shouting that even Jerusalem felt its tremors. Yet the “prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee” entered in a humble manner seated on a donkey.
The second instance where we see a large number of people was in the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. There Judas came with “a large number of men armed with swords and clubs”. The presence of a large number of men armed with swords and clubs in a tension-filled city of Jerusalem was necessary to prevent any potential riot. But their presence had Jesus proclaim, “Am I a brigand, that you had set out to capture me with swords and clubs?” The word, “brigand” does not have the same meaning as a robber or a thief but has a political connotation to it. Its meaning would be more like a modern-day political terrorist who would even carry out assassination even in the Temple, the most holy place for the Jews. In the eyes of the law, the brigand would be considered as a criminal; thus, Jesus was arrested as if a criminal. Yet, Jesus did not appeal to his Father to send twelve legions of angels to his defence but allowed himself to be arrested as a criminal so that the scriptures would be fulfilled.
The third instance where we see a crowd was in the trials of Jesus before the Jewish religious leaders and before the Roman authorities leading to a religious and political judgment of condemnation. In the first trial at the high priest’s palace, Jesus was found guilty as he had threatened to destroy the Jerusalem Temple and claimed himself to be the Messiah. In the second trial before Pilate, Jesus was presented as the Messiah or the Roman equivalent of “the King of the Jews”. In both trials, Jesus was found guilty as a religious and political criminal. Tried and judged thus as a criminal, he was exchanged for another criminal, Barabbas. Yet, through his trails Jesus maintained his identity as the Messiah and that all peoples “will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming on the clouds of heaven”.
It is by this title “the King of the Jews” that we celebrate Palm Sunday today. As “King of the Jews”, we discover three things about Jesus – (1) that he is in control of events, (2) that everything takes place according to the Scriptures and (3) that even though he suffers, he maintains his identity as Lord and Son of David. The crowd has helped us in this recognition, but they later disappeared into history on Calvary. There on the cross, Jesus was left alone with the Father and a few people.
In a very unique way today, we also find ourselves alone in celebrating Palm Sunday in the absence of a crowd, our church community. In the confines of our homes, we have only a palm leaf, a cross and a bible before us. There is no one beside us except ourselves or our family. It brings to the fore that loneliness we may feel as a Christian or that lack of support from our faith community.
Our church, which is a gathering of people, has helped and supported us in our growth, faith and spiritual life but where are they today? They seemed to have disappeared like the crowd of Jesus’ time. Today can be a blessing for us to rediscover who Jesus really is to us in the absence of our support system. Who are we as a Christian?, we may ask. Let us be assured that in spite of the governmental restrictions and the loneliness of our homes that we may feel, God is still in charge of our lives and history; it is He who is always faithful to us as laid down in the Scriptures for he is truly our Messiah. We are already assured of this through today’s Gospel readings as we have seen it in Jesus. Jesus is in control and he is with us today.
Let us stand therefore, in the confines of our homes, in solidarity with our fellow Christian brothers and sisters wherever they may be. Let us focus our eyes on the cross and stand in solidarity with the “lonely” Jesus being hung there. At the cross and from Calvary, we shall rise with the Lord Jesus, confessing to the Roman Centurion, “in truth this was a son of God”. So, let us pray that when the MCO is lifted, we may be renewed in faith and in turn be the voice who proclaims to the crowd that all knees should bend “at the name of Jesus and that every tongue should acclaim Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of God the Father”.
Fr Patrick Heng
Rector
Blessed Sacrament Church, BDC, Kuching
