A Reflection for Palm Sunday 2002

Palm Sunday is a special day. It is a day of invitation. The invitation is to follow Jesus through the events of Holy Week. Holy Week has its origins in ceremonies devised for pilgrims to Jerusalem in the early Church. Indeed there are some signs that the passion narratives in the Gospel originated in very early Christian worship. Those early pilgrims were able to literally follow Jesus in the places where the events of the Passion happened. It is not easy for us to go to Jerusalem, where another sort of passion is now unfolding but we can enter into the Passion story. In imagination and liturgy we can spend time thinking through the significance of these events for our own faith and life.

On Palm Sunday we see a King entering into the city of peace. The prophet Zechariah spoke of this event (Zech 9 v 9).What is its meaning for us? Jesus came, said St Mark, riding on a colt on which no one had ever ridden. We read in the Old Testament that the cart which carried the Ark of the Covenant was drawn by two cows which had never been yoked before. The Ark symbolised the presence of God.. Also the ass was the animal on which a King normally rode. He only rode on a horse when going into battle. So we acknowledge a King who comes to bring his peace. We seek to find it and share it in today's world.

But Palm Sunday also carries a terrible warning. Those who acclaimed Jesus as King then became those who called for his crucifixion. To follow Jesus means being able to resist following the crowd. There is always a sense of rebellion about being a follower of Jesus. Jesus was a rebel, which is why he was crucified.

Discipleship is very costly. We follow Jesus, not only through the joy of Palm Sunday.
We are to sit at his feet in the temple. (Not all discipleship is doing things-much is attentive listening.)
We are to wash the feet of this weary world
We are to share in the Last Supper and like Him be broken and poured out for the world.
We are to watch and pray with Him in Gesthemane.
We are to be mocked and condemned with Him.
We and to suffer, be desolate and die with Him

It was Dietrich Bonhoeffer who summed up our discipleship in the words "When Jesus calls a man. He bids him come and die." This is the only way to Easter and to reveal the presence of God in our midst.

Robert Jeffery
Christ Church Cathedral