The Rev. Matthew Ichihashi Potts, Ph.D. '13, Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals in the Faculty of Divinity. Photo by Jeffrey Blackwell/Memorial Church
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By the Rev. Matthew Ichihashi Potts, Ph.D. '13
Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church
Plummer Professor of Christian Morals in the Faculty of Divinity
(The following is a transcript of the service audio, April 2, 2023)
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight. Oh God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
So thank you for being here this morning on this Palm Sunday, the beginning of our holy week, this holiest week in the church calendar, where as Elizabeth read in our opening greeting, we do begin this spiritual pilgrimage. We embark upon this pilgrimage with Jesus towards Jerusalem, to his passion and death. I hope you will accompany us spiritually, also physically here in the church. Please do come and join us for our observances throughout the week, especially on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
It feels like the beginning of something, the beginning of a week of these observances. And it is, as I said, we are embarking on this pilgrimage with Jesus. But in the gospel story, it's the end of something in the three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which tell the story more or less the same way, Jesus' entry his triumphal entry, I'll say more about that word triumphal in a minute. But his triumphal entry into Jerusalem marks a beginning, but also the end of something. He's been traveling. Most of his ministry was in Galilee, out in the country serving country people. And then in Matthew, the gospel that we heard from today when we read it on the Thayer steps, and we heard the account that Harriet read of the entry into Jerusalem.
In Matthew's version since around chapter 17-18, he's left Galilee and he's been heading towards Jerusalem. He's on his way and he has reached the end of his journey. So what feels like a beginning to us, is also the end of something for him. And he enters from the East, he enters from Bethpage. And that's important actually. I think it's important that he enters from the East. And the reason it's important is because somebody else was entering from the West, maybe not exactly at the same time, but around the same time. And I take this from the New Testament scholar, Marcus Borg. So Jesus has said to have entered from the east in the gospel versions of the story and all the gospel accounts, who's coming from the West?
So the Governor of Judea, the Roman governor of Judea, did not live in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was crowded. It's a dusty, dirty, it's a city. The Governor wanted something nicer. And so the Romans built a resort on the ocean, on the sea, Caesarea Maritima to the west of Jerusalem. And Pontius Pilate spent most of his time in Caesarea. Every once in a while, Pontius Pilate would come to Jerusalem. And one time he would definitely come every year, was during Passover because during Passover, tens of thousands, maybe even over 100 thousand Judeans, Jewish people from around the diaspora would come to Jerusalem to offer their sacrifice.
And this was a time when things were touchy, if you were a Roman governor. The people might be inclined to unrest or to protest or to uprising. And so it made sense for the governor to leave his resort on the sea and to march into Jerusalem for Passover. And because Caeserea Maritima is to the west of Jerusalem, he would enter the city from the west.
So there are two entrances into the city of Jerusalem. In fact, around the time of Palm Sunday, around the time of Passover, Pilate's entering from the West, and then we have Jesus entering from the East. And Pilate made a show of it. This was a big parade, a military parade, chariots, horses, soldiers, maybe even elephants, all marching in to Jerusalem, a show of strength, of martial strength, of imperial strength, a warning to the people, don't get any ideas because even though I spend most of my time on the sea, I am still in charge and you can and will feel the weight of my violence and my power. That's what that parade was meant to say to people.
And then another entrance from the east, Jesus on a donkey. We call it the triumphal entry, Jesus' triumphal entry into the city. But especially when you compare it with the other entry that's going on, Jesus on a donkey with some crowds against Pilate on an elephant with chariots and horses and soldiers. I mean, I think possibly the best way for us to think about it is it's more like a protest. This is a joke. They're poking fun at this entrance that Pilate makes every week with his army.
Jesus comes in on a donkey, but the crowds, I think the crowds don't get the joke. They think it is the beginning of a revolt. The disciples at least do believe it's the beginning of a revolt. They think that Jesus has arrived to conquer Jerusalem even on this donkey. And we know this because in the chapter before this chapter in Matthew 20, James and John two of the senior most disciples, their mom comes to Jesus. And as moms do, they're trying to angle, she's trying to angle for her sons a little bit. And she says to Jesus, when you conquer Jerusalem, will you put my two in charge of some stuff? Take care of my boys. And then the other disciples get mad at James and Johns' mom for doing this. But it's not because they asked. It's because they asked first. This is what the disciples expect.
And when the crowd rises up and cheers, as we said, as Harriet read on the Thayer steps, when the crowd stands up and cheers, they say Hosanna to the son of David, David, the King, David who conquered Jerusalem. This is the memory that they are echoing. Jesus preached peace, especially in the gospel of Matthew, more so than anywhere else in the other gospels. Matthew is the gospel where Jesus says, love your enemy. Matthew is the gospel where Jesus says, bless those that curse you, turn the other cheek. This is the message of peace.
But when Jesus is entering and the disciples are expecting conquest, they're okay with war. They just want a war they can win. They're okay with a man like Pilate as long as that man is on their side. And when Jesus proves to be something else, as Jesus will prove this week, when Jesus reveals himself to be a man, utterly unlike Pontius Pilate a man, absolutely opposed to the brutality and the marshall and imperial tactics of the man who condemns him to death. These people, we, his people refuse the kingdom that he promises.
Well, not all the people, there is a voice in the margins of the gospel. And it's one that we ought to listen to and pay attention to. The crowds do call Jesus the son of David. And I think when they say that they are echoing the conquering vision of David the king, who established Israel, but others. Others also call Jesus the son of David. And they are remembering another part of Israel's history, another part of Israel's legacy.
As the crowds are gathering at the end of chapter 20, just before chapter 21 and the triumphal entry, as the crowds are gathering and they're walking along the road, there are some blind men it says, along the road. And the blind men call out to Jesus and they call out to him and they say, "Jesus have mercy upon me," and Jesus does. And he heals them and they call him the Son of David.
Think about this scene, crowds gathering, everyone walking around, these men on the side of the road are asking anyone to pay attention to them. And no one is, except for this one man who answers their call and shows mercy. And they also call him Son of David. And it happens a couple other times in the Gospel of Matthew as well.
In chapter 15, the Canaanite woman, a descendant of the people King David conquered, a Canaanite woman comes to Jesus and asks him to save her daughter who is dying, and Jesus does. And she calls him, son of David, recalling Israel's prophetic legacy to care for the stranger and the foreigner among you. And in the scene after this triumphal entry, Jesus goes into the temple. And we all remember, when Jesus gets to the temple, he cleanses the temple and throws out the money changers and yells at everybody and that's very dramatic. And it's important that we remember this.
This is part of what Jesus was tried for and condemned for. But in the Gospel of Matthew, after this happened, Jesus hangs around the temple and people come to him, people who are disabled and poor and blind, and they ask him for healing and he offers it to them. And he heals so many people, the children who are hanging around the temple. I don't know why there are a bunch of children hanging around the temple. I imagine them as street children. Jesus is helping so many people there that the street children raise up and they sing to him, "Hail to you, son of David."
And when they say it, when they recognize Jesus as the son of David, these children, these street children, having seen Jesus' healings when they recognize him as the heir of David, what they recognize him is the heir of Israel's promise to love the neighbor and love the stranger, and love the widow and the orphan. There is this other voice. It's not just the voice from the streets crying for violence. It's also the voice in the margins, recognizing Jesus' holiness and goodness and sanctity.
Jesus has come into Jerusalem, he has entered the city today, but as is always the case, what is at stake for Jesus this morning and each day, is love. The kingdom that Jesus promises is one of love. And love seems harmless enough. But what is threatening about love? What is frightening about Jesus' love is that Jesus' love is boundless. It reaches beyond ourselves to the people we do not love. It reaches those we neglect and forget. It reaches those who do not love us. It reaches our enemies. Jesus' love reaches those we hate.
It's easy to believe in a kingdom where we are the ones who are loved. I like that kingdom. We're so easy to love, but a kingdom built upon love for the ones you don't have time to love or energy to love or resources to love, a kingdom built upon love for the ones you would rather forget or rather dismiss or rather condemn, this is too much. This is where Jesus goes too far.
As we will learn later this week, it turns out that we would rather forsake Christ than remember the lost. We would rather kill Jesus than love our enemy. Fifty-five years ago this Tuesday, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a man who posed no threat other than peace for all, a man who sought only justice and love for all people. A man who proclaimed his own vision of a beloved community, a vision indeed inspired by Jesus.
Fifty-five years ago this Tuesday, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. We, who claim to follow Jesus have not come far, this 2,000 years. We would still rather forsake love than remember the lost. We would still rather kill our peacemakers than love our enemies. And yet this day and this week, after so many years of our failure, Jesus enters his kingdom, his kingdom of love, and of justice and of peace. Jesus enters it once again. May we at last have courage to follow.