Palm Sunday Year A
Gospel Reading: Matthew 21: 1 -11
1 When they were near Jerusalem and had come in sight of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples,
2 saying to them, "Go to the village facing you, and you will immediately find a tethered donkey and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.
3 If anyone says anything to you, you are to say, 'The Master needs them and will send them back directly'."
4 This took place to fulfill the prophecy:
5 "Say to the daughter of Zion : Look, your king comes to you; he is humble, he rides on a donkey and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden."
6 So the disciples went out and did as Jesus had told them.
7 They brought the donkey and the colt, then they laid their cloaks on their backs and he sat on them.
8 Great crowds of people spread their cloaks on the road, while others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in his path.
9 The crowds who went in front of him and those who followed were all shouting: "Hosanna to the son of David! Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heavens!"
10 And when he entered Jerusalem , the whole city was in turmoil. "Who is this?" people asked,
11 and the crowds answered, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee ."
Meditation
The gospel reading for this Sunday is the passion of Jesus, St Matthew's version. The story of his triumphant entry into Jerusalem , which is read during the ceremony of palms, is not merely a highly significant event in the life of Jesus, it gives us the key to interpreting all that subsequently happened to him.
Meditating on this story is therefore an excellent start to Holy Week.
To understand this event it is essential to read two passages from the Old Testament:
Psalm 118, a song of thanksgiving as a victorious pilgrim enters Jerusalem and the temple;
Zechariah 9:9, 10, where the prophet paints a picture of God's chosen one coming to save his people.
Verses 1 to 3 of Matthew's text show us that Jesus made a deliberate choice to enter Jerusalem according to his own value system, and he was conscious that he was in line with Zechariah's vision.
You can meditate on the story from the point of view of Jesus: when have you experienced someone - perhaps yourself - making the choice that Jesus made? You can focus on the crowds instead: how does it feel to welcome someone (an experience or a reading) that clearly comes "in the name of the Lord"?
The climax to the story in verses 10 and 11 is significant too: this is the kind of thing that happens when God's messenger enters a city.
Prayer
"We must develop absolute patience and understand the fears of others."
Nelson Mandela
Lord, we thank you for the great public figures of our time who have chosen the way of nonviolence, Gandhi and his successors in India, Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement, Nelson Mandela, Caribbean people who resisted slavery and colonialism by peaceful means.
They have been for the modern world Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey.
Like him they fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah, coming to the children of Zion with humility, banishing chariots and horses and all the bows of war and proclaiming peace to all.
It is through people like these that your empire will stretch from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the earth.
"Forgive us, Lord, that we speak more of your death and ours, instead of the life and victory you have won for us all." Prayer composed by the Archbishop of Khartoum, 1994
Lord, we thank you for the times that you sent us someone who transformed our lives:
a great leader emerged in our nation or church community;
our family life was disintegrating and a counselor brought us all together;
we read a great book;
a friend gave us back our courage.
We felt a great joy, like the people when they saw Jesus entering their city, we welcomed this messenger who came in the name of the Lord, and cried out "Hosanna in the highest heavens!"
Lord, give us the gift of final perseverance, that like Jesus we may come to the end of our lives faithful to what you have called us to be, and enter Jerusalem as he did, knowing that we come in your name and welcomed by all the saints.
Lord, we pray for nations that are suffering from civil war. Send them leaders who will come to them humbly as Jesus did, banishing chariots and horses and the bows of war and proclaiming peace for their nations, so that their people may come out in great crowds to celebrate and shout with all their hearts, "Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heavens!"
"God does not want to be an idol in whose name one person kills other people." Closing message of the African Synod, 1994
Lord, we pray for the Church. Often we are tempted to enter the modern world with the methods that prevail there, putting our trust in money or advertising or threats. Help us, like Jesus, to deliberately choose our way,
concerned only that we are fulfilling the prophecies and that we seek the blessings of those who come in your name.
Lord, we thank you that in many countries today the Church is taking a radical stand,rejecting horses and chariots and all the apparatus of earthly power and identifying rather with the lowly.
Naturally the whole nation is in turmoil, but when people ask, "Who is this?" the crowds can answer truthfully, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee ."
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