In their book, The Last Week, scholars and theologians Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, brought to mind that two separate processions from opposite ends of the city actually occurred on Palm Sunday: one a peasant procession, the other the imperial procession of Pontius Pilate. As Jesus entered, the people shouted hôsî-âh-nā, or “Save us now!” This was not a cry of praise but a cry of desperation.
As we consider our Palm Sundays, we, too, cry for salvation from injustice and the systemic evil that surrounds us. Palm Sunday is a day to consider the cost of that salvation. It is a day that hearkens back to Mary’s song predicting that the poor will have good things to eat and the rich will be sent empty away.
We usually don’t think of ourselves as rich, and although we may not be in comparison to the Warren Buffetts of this world, in comparison to many other places in the world, we are incredibly wealthy – and powerful. The question for us on this Palm Sunday is whether we use our wealth and power for good or just for our own comfort. This is the challenge we face as we respond to the One who calls us to do justice and love mercy.
Prayer for the Day
Afraid, not just of the changing world around us,
But of where our questions sometimes lead us;
Troubled because the old answers no longer apply
We feel adrift as a ship without a rudder,
Help us, O God, to explore new ways of serving you
With hope and to be always open to your surprises.
We ask this in the name of the One who lived to bring us hope,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.
- Edmund Burke, British Parliamentarian (1729-1797)
Truth is powerful and it prevails.
- Sojourner Truth, American abolitionist (1797-1883)
Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them,
But the righteous live by their faith.
Moreover, wealth is treacherous; the arrogant do not endure.
They open their throats as wide as Sheol; lie Death, they never have enough.
They gather all nations for themselves, and collect all peoples as their own.
Habakkuk 2: 4-5.