April 9thPalm Sunday Should be Renamed Donkey Sunday
- by Colin McCartney
It’s election season in Canada and as we think about which party to vote for, I am reminded of what my good friend Dr. Tony Campolo once said about politics and the church,
"Mixing religion and politics is like mixing ice cream and manure. It doesn't do much to the manure, but it sure does ruin the ice cream.”
I’d like to think that churches, at their best, are meant to be sweet, life-giving, and joyful. But when co-opted by the pursuit of power, that sweetness can quickly turn sour.
As we think about how faith and power collide, there's no better place to turn than the story of Palm Sunday - a moment drenched in political symbolism and spiritual irony. On one side we see Jesus, the Prince of Peace, coming to the city of Peace (Jerusalem means “city of peace”) to declare he is the King of Peace to a nation not experiencing any peace because of the power of the Roman Empire. What makes this political statement even more emphatic is how Jesus entered Jerusalem. We read that Jesus came from the Mount of Olives, which was located east of Jerusalem, which places him riding his donkey through the eastern gate of the city. Historians tell us, that at Passover, the governor of the area, would leave his imperial residence on the west side of Jerusalem, and enter the west gate riding on a war horse, accompanied by his army of soldiers, furling banners and trumpets, to remind Jewish pilgrims Rome was in charge.
Do you see the significance of all of this? One empire declared peace through violence.
The other declared peace through sacrifice. Jesus’ entrance was a subversive act of political theatre. As Pilate rumbled his imperial way through Jerusalem from the west, in a display of great military power, Jesus entered from the east, looking absurd, weak, and openly vulnerable. The problem with this is that people wanted a Pilate type Messiah, not a donkey riding King of Peace. This is where palm branches come in.
“They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Blessed is the king of Israel!”. John 12:13
This word ‘Hosanna” in English means, “save us”, and palm branches were significant because earlier, when Simon Maccabee drove Israel’s enemies out Jerusalem, people celebrated by waving palm branches. To them, Jesus was a warrior king justifying violence to destroy enemies. They cried "Hosanna!" expecting swords but Jesus never picked up a weapon. He picked up a cross. Jesus has nothing to do with palm branches. Jesus is a donkey King who wages war through sacrificial love. So maybe we should rename Palm Sunday to Donkey Sunday. Because Jesus didn’t come to meet our expectations of power. He came to overturn them with love. It might not sound as nice and let’s face it, waving pictures of donkeys, instead of palm branches, might seem to appear very strange, but the message of the donkey riding King of Peace speaks volumes more than ever today. So, this election season, let’s not be seduced by the war horses of our day. Let’s look for the donkeys. The ones who come not to conquer, but to serve.
- Colin McCartney is an MCEC pastor and co-founder of Connect Ministries.