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.
(John 12:12-16)
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I’m intrigued by the words "the next day." It’s how our reading today begins. "The next day." So it was the day after. But - the day after what? We’re reading John’s Gospel, John’s version of the events we know today as Palm Sunday. I checked back over the last 11 years and discovered that I’ve never actually used John’s version of the Palm Sunday story with you before. I suppose that really isn’t all that much of an oversight. When you compare John’s version of the story to Matthew’s, or Mark’s or Luke’s - it’s really not that much different. Same basic story, same events. Jesus arrives in Jerusalem, he’s hailed by the crowds who greet him with palm branches, Jesus then sits upon a lowly donkey and enters the city. It’s Palm Sunday as we’ve always known it. And if I had read the account from any of the other three Gospels, it would have been basically the same. In fact, Palm Sunday is one of the few stories that’s recorded in basically the same terms in all four of the Gospels - so that’s a sign that the event really did happen in basically the way it was written. The different Gospel writers didn’t spend much time editing it or interpreting it. It was a real event that was seen as important enough to be preserved. So there you have it. This is what happened a few days before Jesus would be arrested, tried and crucified. He was welcomed, as all of us who have ever taken note of Palm Sunday know, by cheering crowds hailing him as a King; as the Messiah. So why do I care that this is John’s version rather than any of the others? Why do I take note of the fact that I’ve never used John’s account of Palm Sunday here before? Well, it’s worth noting because - even if this story is basically the same one you find elsewhere - John’s Gospel is different. That’s what makes John’s version of Palm Sunday noteworthy. It’s not that John’s version of Palm Sunday is different; it’s that John’s Gospel is different - and that perhaps puts a different spin on the story than we’re accustomed to.
In both Matthew and Mark, there’s a long, extended period of Jesus teaching his disciples along with a series of parables right before Jesus enters Jerusalem, capped off with a very quickly and only barely described healing miracle. Luke chooses to ignore the healing miracle altogether and has two chapters of Jesus’ teaching right before the Palm Sunday event. Now, of course I’m not saying that Jesus’ teaching isn’t important, but I find it fascinating that John doesn’t include much teaching in his story leading up to Palm Sunday. So, "the next day" - the day after what? - is a key to understanding what John is trying to say; what point John is trying to make for his readers. What actually happens before Palm Sunday in John’s Gospel? In John, you have the story of Lazarus.
Lazarus is the key to understanding what John’s Gospel is all about. Lazarus is at the centre of John’s Gospel. Everything else in John’s Gospel revolves around Lazarus. In the other three Gospels, the central event is Peter’s confession of faith - as he says to Jesus, "You are the Christ, the Son of God." Words are the centrepiece of the story there. A confession of faith; a proclamation of who Jesus was; an expression of faith. But not for John. Action and miracles are the centrepiece of John’s account of Jesus’ life, and it revolves around Lazarus - a friend of Jesus who gets sick, who dies, and who is raised from the dead by Jesus as an expression of the power that Jesus possesses. Now think of the Palm Sunday story in that context.
We usually focus on Palm Sunday as a show of humility by Jesus. He’s hailed as a king, yes, but he rides a donkey - a lowly beast - into the city rather than a horse, an animal more fit for a king. And, in John, the donkey is still there, and it’s still the same symbol - but Jesus seems not quite so powerless in John’s version - because of the Lazarus event. In the other Gospels there’s already a sense of tragedy about the entry into Jerusalem - as if the battle is already lost. We want to skip ahead. We want to get to resurrection; we want to fast forward to Easter. We want to avoid Good Friday. But in John’s Gospel - if we’ve read it in context - we’re braced for a battle. Think of the last few verses that came immediately before John’s Palm Sunday story:
A large crowd … found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
So there’s already a sense of wonder here - about Lazarus who’s come back from death and about Jesus who brought him back. And then the account continues:
So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many … were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him.
A battle is breaking out - between Jesus and his opponents, but also between those whom Jesus came for and those who choose to follow Jesus (including Lazarus) and the religious leaders of the day who didn’t want anything to happen to upset the apple cart. Lazarus - and all those who follow Jesus - are almost as much of a threat to the establishment as Jesus himself. And, for John, there is the crux of Palm Sunday - not the humble king riding into Jerusalem to die meekly on a cross, but the powerful Messiah who’s going to upset a lot of apple carts before and after that happens! For Matthew, Mark and Luke the Jesus of Palm Sunday is almost a tragic figure riding to his death; for John the Jesus of Palm Sunday is a conquering figure who will not be beaten down by any earthly power and who cannot be contained by any religion. I want to suggest that this is the Jesus we need in the church today; this is the understanding of Palm Sunday we need in the church today.
If Jesus and his original followers were a threat to the established order of the day, then what happened? Are we seen as a threat today? Are we seen as a challenge to the established social order today? Are we seen as those who stand against the powerful on behalf of the oppressed? And, even if we do those things in some ways - are we seen as those who are willing to take a risk for standing up for the way of Jesus and for standing out in the crowd?
There’s the power and challenge of Palm Sunday - it’s an encouragement to stand up, to stand out, to be noticed, to take risks and to try to make a difference in the world around us.
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