The Palm Sunday Exhortation

The story of Palm Sunday is oddly anticlimatic. Jesus enters Jerusalem surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd that acclaims Him as the Son of David.

We expect something to happen. Jesus will perform some stunning miracle that will finally convince His enemies. He will defeat them in debate and they will slink back to the holes they came from. He will take over the temple and turn it into a house of prayer for all nations. Instead, He enters the temple, looks around, and leaves.

What’s going on? When Romans had conquered a city, the conquering general would ride in, acclaimed by the crowds as king, and go to the temple to offer sacrifice and perhaps to receive a crown.

When a conqueror comes, the leaders of the conquered city are supposed to greet and acclaim him. They have to. If Pompey rides into a city in triumph, and the elders of the city refuse to greet him, they are in rebellion and are going to pay for it.

Jesus too stages a triumph, but the Jewish leaders don’t greet Him. He is their conquering King, but they don’t acknowledge His conquest. He is the Son of David, but they don’t celebrate His coming as Israel celebrated Solomon’s coronation. He is Yahweh Himself, coming like the ark into Jerusalem, act the leaders like Michal, watching the celebration from a scornful distance.

Today’s liturgical color is red, the color of blood, the color of fire, the fire both of Pentecost and of the destruction of the temple. Palm Sunday is Jesus’ triumph, but it also foreshadows the Jews’ rejection of Jesus. For all its atmosphere of celebration, Palm Sunday, at the beginning of the Passion Week, is colored red.