Donkey King

March 29^th 2009 Palm Sunday Communion Sunday
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
“Donkey King” Mark 11:1-11

I have never attended a Saint Patrick’s Day celebration in Saint Louis. From what I hear I am missing quite a few spectacles. In fact, over the last three weeks three people have commended the Dog Town parade in particular. From what I have heard the parade is one where the lines between spectator and participant are rather blurred, literally and figuratively. This, I believe, is what truly great parades are all about. When I lived in Northern Ireland, I was a witness and participant to the very first legally allowed celebration of Saint Patrick’s Day in the Belfast City Square. That historical event was quite a spectacle. As a participant-observer, it was abundantly clear that this celebration was charged with pride, politics, and ideology. The whole event was all about identity and loyalty. One of my favorite pictures from the day is the one where the statue of Queen Elizabeth the First is covered in shamrock stickers and a tricolor (Irish) flag stuck between her fingers.

That was a day that I will never forget. In that celebration the parade clearly blurred the line between the participants and the spectators. As the festivities began to wind down the group of friends I was with left the center of town to walk home. In the very next block we ran headfirst into a large group of police and the army which had encircled the event, just in case the festivities got out of hand. Although nothing happened on that day, it was a powerful reminder that this celebration of cultural heritage was intimately connected to issues of power, political loyalty, and identity. For me, celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day has never been the same, though I still wear green every year.

On that first Palm Sunday, the very same issues of identity, power, and political loyalty were at work. While this might come as a surprise it is only because the meanings and implication of the day are often obscured in our modern celebrations. In a book by Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan called: The Last Week: What the Gospel’s Really Teach about Jesus’ Final Days in Jerusalem, this is made clear. This begins to make more sense once they explain that Jesus’ procession was not the only one which occurred that day. They write:

Two processions entered Jerusalem on that day. The same question, the same alternative, faces those who would be faithful to Jesus today. Which procession are we in? Which procession do we want to be in? This is the question of Palm Sunday and of the week that is about to unfold.

We know a great deal about the procession of Jesus that included his followers and other admirers. Jesus rides down from the Mount of Olives on a donkey as branches are laid in front of him and the people yell: “Hosanna.” It is no accident this event looks like a scene from the prophet Zechariah. The intended similarity is meant to be a proclamation that Jesus stands in the prophetic tradition and claims the mantle of the peaceful king who rejects the ways of war and violence. This scene is God’s rejection of the ways of violence made clear through the witness of Jesus riding on donkey. A humble king who invites those who observe to come and join the parade is what this day is all about.

The second, or other, procession looks nothing like the one we know well. As Jesus enters from the east side of Jerusalem, Pontius Pilate enters from the west. And his entry is anything but humble. The contrast between the processions is amazing. Pilate’s procession into the city is an imperial show meant to terrify the population. At Passover, Rome wanted to make sure that everyone would know who had the power. To insure that this Passover celebration would not get out of hand, the imperial cavalry and soldiers were part of the procession. It was a massive show of force meant to show that the order of the empire would be maintained at any cost. It too was a procession which was all about identity and loyalty. But unlike the other procession, this is a parade which does not invite people to join in. Instead the message is for the population to remain passive and on the sidelines.

So, on this day, when we celebrate a King who rides a donkey by waving our palm branches, it is so much more than reenacting the event. It is not event where we can sit on the sidelines as observers alone. Today is a time where we are all asked to recognize the truth about our loyalties to the powers of this world in the light of Jesus invitation to follow him in the humble parade. In the journey of faith we are called to join this parade and blur the lines between observer and participant. And as we do, we must remember that the struggle between following the imperial parade and the parade of the donkey king is a life-time affair. Each day provides us with the opportunity to join in the procession. So let us wave our palms and join in this strange parade led but King Jesus, who chose to ride a donkey. Amen.