I planning, at least at this end of the week, to do a blog post for every day of what the Western Christian Church calls Holy Week. So we start with Palm Sunday.
Being brought up in an Anglican church every Palm Sunday we would get give Palm crosses. Little things of dried palm leaves woven into a cross.
As children we would then use them as swords and fight each other on the way home. The meaning totally missed!
But it got me thinking about the palms that were allegedly strewn as the feet of the donkey Jesus was on as he rode into Jerusalem. How big were they? Where did they come from? Who thought of it first?
Did you know that is it only in John’s gospel that it states palm leaves? In the other three gospels it says people lay their garments or cut rushes to lay in front of Jesus’ path. Always interesting how Church tradition picks on one thing and we all decide that was what it was.
I have just googled palm leaves and found out they are not as big as I thought. They would not have been that hard to gather and wave and strew.
They are a good size but not huge. I think this procession is a bit awesome. Though its a shame they aren’t stood at the side of the road so we could see how a donkey would have managed walking over them
But then this morning my husband went to church and this is what he came back with – being held by a small cuddly donkey I bought from the Isle of Wight Donkey sanctuary.
My first thought when I saw it was the Doug Horley song “Have we made our God too small?” Do click on the link and have a listen.
But in truth I do wonder if we have made our God too small. We give out small dry crosses when at the time the people grabbed whatever was nearest and acted out an honouring. In ancient Near Eastern cultures it was seen as customary to cover the path of someone seen worthy of honouring. So here were the local people maybe not quite realising who Jesus was but understanding he was something worth honouring, and so they honouring him with whatever they had at hand; whether their cloaks, palm leaves or reeds. That doesn’t matter. But they took what they had to hand to honour Jesus as he boldly but peaceably rode into the main capital city just a few days before the biggest Jewish festival of the year.
We do do this. Look at pictures of when our royalty die or are crown.
But we almost keep the whole doing that for Jesus as something quiet. I do know some churches do parades on Palm Sunday. The ones I’ve been involved in have been small, almost embarrassed affairs where we all huddle together for safety and talk to each other hoping not to engage with anyone else!!!
I was going to say if we really got the enormity of the whole Palm Sunday thing what would we do, but we have to remember these people mention in the gospels – whether fully true or exaggerated by writerly poetic license – did not know what the significance of Jesus riding on a donkey into Jerusalem meant but they still turned up. They still made a bit of a fuss. They still gave of what they had.
I think, because it is mentioned in all four gospels, it did happen and it was a big enough event for many people to say they remembered it. It is alleged that Mark interview Peter for his gospel, and also we have to remember that both Matthew and John were there. So even if they remember it slightly differently once they knew the significance it still happened.
Oh and I’ve also realised that we see Sunday as a day off or a day to be at church but for those ancient Near Eastern peoples it was a working day. For the Jews it was the first day back at work after Shabbat. They took time out of their working day to watch this enigmatic person ride by on a symbol of peace when they were in a country oppressed by a strong military junta. Now that is even more amazing!!!
So again what would I do, what would you do, if we were there and if we knew Jesus was coming to our town? We don’t know this is his final Sunday but we do want to do something honouring. We are willing to take time off work for this.
What would we do? I don’t think we would just shyly wave and fiddle with these woven things we get given at church on Palm Sunday. I’d like to think I’d take off my new DryRobe and let his donkey trample over it and not feel either disgruntled or proud that I had done that. What would you give?
Aspirational Adventures 