Palm Sunday 2026

Mattew chapter 21 & 27

Rev. Neli Miranda

 

            In Jesus’ time, the Passover celebration was central to Jewish life. Every year, devout Jewish pilgrims traveled from different regions across the country to Jerusalem to participate in various religious and social activities commemorating their liberation from Egypt, where their ancestors had been enslaved. Under the occupation of the Roman Empire, this feast of freedom also became a powerful symbol of resistance and hope. During Passover, Jerusalem received many people, offering a fertile opportunity for political activism that encouraged the people to seek a new deliverance. This was a tense time; some previous Passover celebrations had turned violent, and many rebels had been murdered. Consequently, a detachment of Roman soldiers kept watched the streets of Jerusalem during the festival, watching for any sign of revolt. It is in this charged context that we must imagine the teachings and actions of Jesus.

            After some days of pilgrimage from Galilee, Jesus is near Jerusalem. He is accompanied by his close circle of disciples—women and men, a large crowd of followers who have traveled with him, and many others who had joined them along the way after hearing his teachings and witnessing his miracles. In the light of the coming celebration of liberation, the atmosphere is charged with enthusiasm; a sense of hope is in the air. Jesus’ followers were, in essence, peasants—the common people and the poor, the marginalized who saw in him a Messianic figure who spoke to their reality.

            Today, we read that as Jesus approaches Jerusalem, he sends two of his disciples to find him a donkey. A donkey? In the ancient Near East, the horse was the animal of war, used for conquest and military parades. The donkey, in contrast, was the animal of peace. A king arriving on a horse was coming for battle; a king on a donkey signified he was coming in peace to serve his people. By choosing a donkey, Jesus deliberately fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah and explicitly rejected the image of a military messiah who would overthrow Rome by force.

            Following Jesus’ instructions, the disciples brought the donkey and its colt; they placed their cloaks on both animals, and Jesus sat upon the colt to enter Jerusalem.  The crowd accompanying Jesus also spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road as a humble carpet for Jesus (this was no red carpet!). Then, the crowds who went ahead of him and those that followed began to shout: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

            Let us pause and envision that procession entering Jerusalem. A Galilean carpenter, a prophet, riding a young colt with its mother walking alongside, followed by an enthusiastic crowd of the poor and forgotten. On his entry into Jerusalem, Jesus did not replicate the model of the violent hierarchies that oppressed the people. He entered as a peaceful Messiah, and his very presence served as a denunciation of the abusive power of kings and rulers.

            As theologians Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan point out,  two processions entered Jerusalem that day. One was a peasant procession, the other an imperial procession. From the east, Jesus rode a donkey down the Mount of Olives, proclaimed by his followers as the One sent by God. On the opposite side of the city, from the west, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, entered Jerusalem at the head of a column of imperial cavalry and soldiers—a display of military might (Borg & Crossan, 2006).

            Matthew does not mention palms; it is John’s Gospel that specifically tells us about the people waving palm branches and proclaiming Jesus as the One sent by God. Matthew, however, lets us know that when Jesus entered Jerusalem, “the whole city was in turmoil, asking, who is this?” The crowds with him answered, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee”. 

            Today, are you one of those asking, “Who is this?”—or one of those answering, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee”?

            In Jerusalem, the capital, there lived a wealthy religious and political aristocracy in grand homes alongside a struggling working class of artisans and laborers. It was the religious and political aristocracy that ruled and controlled the city. No wonder there was turmoil in Jerusalem, with common people celebrating a Galilean prophet as the Messiah.

            After entering Jerusalem, Jesus performs a profoundly meaningful act: he goes to the temple, expels the merchants, and denounces how the house of God has become a “den of robbers”. Whit this action, Jesus begins a series of direct confrontations with the religious and controlling elites in Jerusalem. It is no surprise, then, what Matthew tells us happened a few days later: “When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people conferred together against Jesus in order to bring about his death. They bound him, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate the governor” (Matthew 27:1-2).

            On Friday, the leaders of the two processions finally meet. Pilate is seated on the judgment seat, representing imperial power. Jesus, having been tortured throughout the night by the religious authorities, is brought bound before him. We know what awaits Jesus. Matthew tells us of a crowd in Jerusalem—distinct from the one that followed him from Galilee—asking Pilate to crucify him. In the end, the powers of Jerusalem choose Barabbas, a man of violent insurrection, over Jesus. The elite choose power, violence, corruption, and the status quo instead of the peace of Kingdom of God.

            Dear sisters and brothers, whom would we choose today: Barabbas or Jesus? In which procession do we enter Jerusalem today—with those who hold power and rule the world with violence, or with the One who proclaims the peace of the Kingdom of God?

Borg, M., & Crossan, J. (2006). THE LAST WEEK: THE DAY-BY-DAY ACCOUNT OF JESUS’S FINAL WEEK IN JERUSALEM. Perfect Bound. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alice-Deken/post/Bibliography_on_Jesus_life/attachment/62d7c017df58b43f605f169c/AS%3A1179837477728261%401658306583370/download/BorgCrossan-TheLastWeekADay-by-DayAccountofJesusFinalWeekinJerusalem(book).pdf