On this day, the church is called to reckon with the great paradox of both triumph and rejection.

Two realities of human life: victory and defeat.

Today... the cheering crowds, thrilled about the “savior” finally arriving... right in the middle of the cruel machinery of the powerful who lock their stranglehold on the rabble with uncompromising contempt.

This is our world today in perfect mirror. We see our situation, trapped between those who care about Earth and those who are oblivious or who exercise cruel selfishness.

We are celebrating both Jesus’ praise-filled entrance into Jerusalem on that donkey with all those palm fronds and then, in the same hour of worship, immediately watching his execution because this is the most central challenge to our faith:  Both winning and losing happen all the time together. And Jesus is right IN there with us in that complex journey.

This day is an image of the God who comes as a power so great that resurrection defeats even cruel execution.

Jesus’ story of riding into the great city of Jerusalem amid joy and then of the people turning against him shows us that the people are of two minds. They rejoice and then they go along with the powerful who fear Jesus, the truth-teller. Why do they go along? Why do the people in our time, who stare at the fury of wildfires and floods, tornadoes and melting ice caps, turn away?

We have to take note of the fact that in the story of Jesus’ entering Jerusalem, the powerful plot against him, neglect the serious nature of their mad plans, and finally kill the one who is truly good. This is an all-too-familiar story. We see what the humans who “lord it over” Jesus––especially Pilate–– do, asking if Jesus is deaf to the accusations against him. Doesn’t he know what’s in store for him? Isn’t he afraid because of the anger of the mob? Rulers like Pilate don’t give up. They blame the victim. By doing this, the powerful maintain their manipulation of the people, drowning out threats to their own self-serving status.

When you blame people who want renewable energy sources instead of the oil and gas that has fueled human energy needs for decades, you speak of those people by saying things like what was asked of Jesus.  Pilate’s taunt, “Are you the King of the Jews?” (translated into our eco-faith language) is kin to the sort of taunts we hear: “Who are you to tell us what to do with our resources?” In these such exchanges, the word “resources” is spoken as if Earth’s God-given gifts are only here to accommodate human desires, or can justifiably meet the insatiable drive for profit of the most wealthy. As if they aren’t created to be part of a whole treasure that is the ecosystem, beautiful in its own right. As if imperial domination (read political and corporate) guarantees immunity from the consequences of endless rapacity

Look at how Jesus is depicted, how the power of the holy one is portrayed. Look at the words Jesus speaks in this story.

When Pilate asks if Jesus is the King (which would be a treasonous offense), Jesus says: That’s your view. He doesn’t play his cards. He doesn’t argue. He just says what is true. And for Pilate and for all the other power players in our world, Jesus’ response is infuriating. It doesn’t feed into the symbol they want to make of him.

Pilate is alive in our world today and always. This story is an unmasking of the power that shows us what happens to those who stand for a more excellent way.

Individuals and whole communities today are answering the cries of Earth with a resounding NO to the powerful: We are not afraid of you or of your mobs or your icy hearts.

When we look carefully at this story, we see that those who plot against Jesus are shown to be petty and small and pathetic. They shame themselves by being so obviously threatened by him.

These are people who should not have as much power as they are given.

The powerful in this story are threatened by someone who walks the hills of their land teaching about forgiveness and about God’s presence with those who suffer in poverty.

The power brokers are threatened by a rabbi who heals people... who speaks with women who are otherwise considered merely property... who embraces children not thought to have value until they are older. Jesus is The Number One threat to the status quo, to the way of conventional life, to the status quo.

Pilate cannot let him live. If he did, the throngs of people shouting for Jesus’ death may soon turn against Pilate and come shouting for his head.

Who, we should ask, is today most threatened by Jesus’ call to care for children, the poor, and an Earth that gives us life every day? Whose policies, whose corporate interests today deny the command to be keepers of our sisters and brothers?

Jesus’ teaching about generosity is frightening to some people. His compassion is resisted because it denies the rulers their perceived rightful societal structure. It is easier to ignore tough problems or silence the advocates of justice than to create a just society. This dangerous truth is ripe for Palm/ Passion Sunday.

This story is also a proclamation of faith. God knows all victims in human history intimately.

God’s own self knows the pain of victims. God knows the cries of Earth in its torment, too.

Jesus’ only other words are his cry from the cross... asking why God has abandoned him. This is our evidence that he was truly human, as are we who are also capable both of feeling abandoned and of knowing resurrection.

The earth itself shook when Jesus breathed his last. And Earth is shaking today. We know it. We hear it and see it. We also hear Pilate threatening and belittling us. Then we look to the cross and see Jesus’ forgiveness which, of all the words we need to hear, ought to be thrusting us out into the world with our arms open for whatever can stop the madness.

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Hymns to consider:

In ELW:

343 My Song is Love Unknown

342 There in God’s Garden

In All Creation Sings:

927 Christ is the Life

1042 May this Church be like a Tree