The World Has Gone After Him
Year B: Passion Sunday/ Palm Sunday
As Jesus’ life unfolded, his awareness of his personal union with the Father constantly increased. As he approached the end of his life, he revealed the God of Israel, not as a God of armies, of fear or of sheer transcendence, but as the God of compassion, a Presence that bends over creatures with incredible tenderness, care and affection1 —Thomas Keating
Year B, Palm Sunday/ Passion Sunday, March 24, 2024
Liturgy of the Palms
Psalm: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Gospel: Mark 11:1-11 or John 12:12-16
Liturgy of the Word
First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm: Psalm 21:9-16
Second Reading: Philippians 2:5-11
Gospel: Mark 14:1-15:47
Sermon - The Whole World Has Gone After Him
Today, we will be reading two separate accounts of Jesus’s entrance into Jerusalem because both have something different to offer us, but before we read these texts, we must keep in our mind where Palm Sunday leads. Jesus’s triumphal entrance into Jerusalem is not a path towards worldly victory. Jesus is not headed towards a throne in the Jerusalem below.
Instead, it is the prelude to the Cross. Palm Sunday is not an end in itself, but it sets us up for the Passion of the Christ.
The shouts of joy turn to shouts of rejection. The palm branches become a scourge. The donkey upon which he sits becomes a cross which he must bear.
But the language of Palm Sunday is prophetic in that the people spoke truly; they just missed the true meaning to the things they were saying. Like the high priest in John 11, they spoke a truth that was not of themselves but was something they unknowingly needed and longed for.
With all of this being said, let’s read:
When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this: ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’ ”
They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” They told them what Jesus had said, and they allowed them to take it. Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it.
Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple, and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. Mark 11:7–11
This first passage reveals something important about the relationship between Jesus and his own suffering. He knew it was coming. As he had predicted on several occasions, the Son of Man would die and be resurrected on the third day. This account of Jesus’s insight is further confirmation, at least in Mark’s narrative, that Jesus submitted to the pain of the Cross before it ever arrived. He knew how things would play out and organized the means of his own arrival in Jerusalem.
The people cried, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!”
The first half of this quotation comes from Psalm 118. The second is a reference to a long tradition of anticipating God fulfilling the promise made to David that a descendant of his would sit on the throne forever. Many times this hope had been frustrated (Psalm 89), but now it seemed as if it would be fulfilled!
Craig Kenner offers some helpful thoughts in his commentary on the biblical background of the New Testament:
Pilgrims to the feast were typically welcomed by crowds already there, so it is unlikely that the whole crowd recognized the significance of Jesus’ entry. In view of the crowd’s acclamation in 11:10, however, the image that may have come most readily to the minds of Mark’s ancient readers is probably that of a royal entrance procession.2
Now let’s look at John.
The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord— the King of Israel!” Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”
His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him. So the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to testify. It was also because they heard that he had performed this sign that the crowd went to meet him.
The Pharisees then said to one another, “You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him!” John 12:12–19
Like in the first text, the people shout, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” But there’s an added twist here: they recognize Jesus as the king of Israel. How does Jesus respond to this acclamation? Unlike Mark where he already had a donkey. here Jesus then sits on a young donkey he finds to counter their militaristic expectations (see the comments on Mark’s account of this by Keener). Keener observes, “One expected military heroes to ride horses or be drawn in chariots; Jesus came as a meek, nonmilitary official would, following Zechariah 9:9.”3
The full text of Zechariah 9:9-10 says,
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. 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
The king, then, doesn’t come to wage war but to end war. He commands peace from his humble perch upon the back of the colt.
What the Pharisees don’t understand in John’s account of things is that Jesus is not intending to take the people up on their offer to become king (like in John 6). Instead, Jesus fully intends to die. Though the whole world may have gone after him (including the Greeks in the passage from last week which immediately follows this text chronologically), Jesus intended to be “lifted up” to the Cross instead of being lifted up to a throne here on earth.
When Pilate had Jesus crucified, he placed a sign above him which read “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” (John 19:19). This sign was written in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. The good news that Jesus is king was publicized so people of every quarter of the Empire could read it—Latin for the political powers, Greek for the common people, and Hebrew for the religious leaders. Truly, the whole world has gone after Jesus. His message is one for all people of all time.
But there is no good news without God’s love being lifted up on the Cross. There is no resurrection without death. And there is no king without this resurrection.
As we work and play, eat and sleep, and spend time in solitude and with others this week, let’s mediate on the Cross and what it means for us, but just as Palm Sunday points towards the Passion, keep in mind that the Cross points to resurrection.
As Paul almost “corrects” himself,
Who is to condemn? It is Christ who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Romans 8:34
Second Reading: Philippians 2:5-11
Instead of a normal bulletin article this week, take time to read each line from this early Christian hymn preserved for us in Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi. As you read it, pick out one or two lines to commit to memory this week as Christians all over the world remember the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. And as Paul says, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…”
“who, though he existed in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be grasped,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
assuming human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a human,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
Therefore God exalted him even more highly
and gave him the name
that is above every other name,
so that at the name given to Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”
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Keating, Thomas. The Mystery of Christ: The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience. New York: Continuum, 2008. Print.
Keener, Craig S. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993. Print.
Keener, Craig S. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993. Print.