Palm Sunday and the Rise of Trump
12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 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 12:12-13
I have spent the last few months perplexed by the support of Donald Trump by Evangelical Christians. Here is a person that exhibits virtually no Christian values in his speech or behavior, yet he’s the guy that Evangelicals are rallying for. Some are even praying for him to be next president of the United States. One particular Christian leader even compared Trump to Jesus. This is the same group that denounced Bill Clinton, Gary Hart, and countless other politicians for extra-marital affairs. Now, they are backing a guy who has bragged about extra-marital relations in a published book and has marriages resulting from affairs. Conservative Christian denominations that denounce and prohibit the use of alcohol and gambling are backing up a guy who made a fortune from casinos. The same contingency that for decades rejected every political candidate that is not pro-life is now backing a pro-choice candidate. How can folks who follow Jesus, who elevated women above their status at the time now follow a person who is unapologetic in his misogyny? How can they believe word-for-word the teachings of Jesus and his disciples who proclaimed concepts such as ‘every nation, tribe, and tongue’ or ‘neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free’ proclaim a leader who tries to addresses our worst racist tendencies and encourages them in his rallies? The real kicker is someone claiming to be a Christian and saying how important it is in his life, while claiming that he has done nothing wrong that needs forgiveness. It goes against the John 3:16 signs the contingency proudly displays at sporting events. He openly rejects one of THE most basic Christian tenets that is valid across every denomination, and still Christians of all flavors consider the Donald one of their own. I just don’t get it. I really don’t.
That was until Palm Sunday. Then it became real clear to me. In the opening passage of this post, Jesus was making his grand entrance into Jerusalem as the king. People were shouting their praises and greeting Him as a victorious king. These included people who witnessed the miracles of Him healing the sick, raising the dead, walking on water, calming the storm, feeding thousands with a few loaves and fishes, and more. These were the people who heard the proclamation of the good news, rebuke of the Pharisees, forgiveness of sins, and inspirational teaching from God Himself. These people were waiting for the day when the Messiah would come and defeat Israel’s oppressors and bring God’s kingdom to the land. You better believe that they were excited about it after decades of Roman rule. But, in less than a week, it all changed.
6 Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. 7 A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. 8 The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.
9 “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate,10 knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.
12 “What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.
13 “Crucify him!” they shouted.
14 “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
– Mark 15: 6-15
The crowd that exalted Jesus as king became the crowd that shouted for His crucifixion. When the chance was given for His release, the crowd preferred a insurrectionist murderer to be released even though they knew the fate Jesus would have in store. They may have preferred Barabbas because he was willing to take a stand against the Romans. He was a man of action willing to fight, and more like what they expected. All Jesus did was heal the sick, feed the poor, get tax collectors to repent, forgive sinners, and make the Temple accessible for all. Who wants that? For all you know, people might have thought Barabbas had God’s favor since he was saved from crucifixion. Not only did people in this crowd call for the crucifixion of an innocent man, some mocked Him, struck Him, and spit on Him. Quite a big change from “Hosanna in the highest” to “Crucify Him!”.
I realized that if the people who witnessed Jesus perform miracles and fulfill prophecy with their own eyes turned on Him, I shouldn’t be surprised if Christians in the United States with secondhand knowledge would too. If people who heard Jesus proclaim the good news with their own ears wound up rejecting His teachings, why should I be surprised when Christians thousands of miles and years turn away as well? And the turning away can be just as quick as it was between Palm Sunday and Good Friday. There’s plenty of Christians who shout ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” on Sunday, while supporting politicians, businesses, and policies that go against His teachings Monday through Saturday. I really shouldn’t be surprised at all that many Christians are supporting our own Barabbas in Donald Trump.
We’re not that much different than the Jews of that time. We feel that we’re living in an unjust and unholy world. We want God to come and save us from it. We want a Messiah that will crush our enemies and usher in a new era where the Lord’s justice reigns supreme. But, when we get that Messiah we become disappointed because it’s not what we want Him to be or He requires us to live a life different than what we thought was righteous and pleasing to God.
After Jesus’s triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, Jesus did many things that were perplexing. First, He cursed a fig tree that bore no fruit. On the cover it makes no sense, but considering the traditions of the day it does. The norm was that a land owner wouldn’t harvest all the way up to the outside edge of their land. They would leave the outside edges unharvested so that travelers and the needy could eat the fruit on the outside edge. The owner of this fig tree did not follow the norm, and instead followed his own greed and left nothing for others. Thus, the fig tree is cursed. But, Jesus’ war on greed didn’t end there. He went to the temple, overturned tables, made a whip out of cords and chased out the merchants and money changers. He proclaims “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.” (Mark 11:17). He’s not only angry because of commerce at the temple, but because they were using the Court of Gentiles and creating an obstacle for Gentiles to worship God. Of course, this angers the religious leaders in power. When the religious leaders of the time try to reign Him in, He rebukes them and shuts them up using teachings and verses they were familiar with. They ask Him about the Greatest Commandment, and He replies with a succinct answer that can’t be rebuked. He warns against the teachers of the law and praises the generosity of the disenfranchised. He praises the devotion of a prostitute while rebuking the influential man that was hosting Him.
Jesus even perplexed His closest followers, the disciples. He predicts the destruction of the temple, speaks of the end days, and tells them to be vigilant. On the on the high holy day of Passover, He tells the disciples how He is going to be betrayed, predicting His own earthly defeat. How can this be? The king who victoriously arrived in Jerusalem will be defeated by not just the Romans, but His own people? This is the Son of God that’s supposed to defeat the Roman empire and usher in a new Godly kingdom? If He is defeated, then He surely can’t be God….. And then it happens…. Jesus is arrested. Peter takes a swipe at a temple guard, cuts off his ear, and Jesus restores the ear and tells Peter to put the sword away. What kind of strong leader does that instead of destroying his enemies there and then? Maybe Jesus isn’t really God, and the last three years of the disciple’s lives were wasted. I don’t think being arrested and put on trial are what His followers wanted or expected. They expected victory, and to be considered the greatest so they could sit at His right hand in power. Instead, they ran away and denied Him out of fear and doubt. Doubt that Jesus was what He proclaimed to be, and fear of the consequences that awaited them for being His follower.
Jesus is led to his trial where He loses and is sentenced to death in a painful and humiliating way. As God, surely Jesus could have swayed the trial in His favor or could have just called a heavenly army to destroy the Romans to save Him from the cross. But He didn’t. He was scourged and mocked. He could have stopped them somehow, couldn’t He? How about a lightning bolt from the sky to destroy the mocking crowd, so He could show them who was boss? Didn’t happen. They nailed Him to a cross. Surely He could have stopped the nails from entering His body, but He didn’t. He hung on a cross to slowly die of suffocation. He could have been whisked away like Elijah, and some onlookers were even expecting that to happen. It didn’t. Jesus died penniless, next to two robbers. Fortunately, that’s not the end of the story.
Sadly, we as Christians follow much of the pattern of Holy Week in our day to day lives. We shout the praises of Jesus and proclaim Him as Lord and Savior on Sunday. Then on Monday, we try to live with Him and it’s harder than we thought. By the time it’s Thursday, we don’t know what do with Him, especially when He calls us to humble ourselves like He did when He washed the feet of His followers. From there, we put Him on trial to see if He’s really the Messiah. Can a guy who calls us to love our enemies, the least, and the lost really save us? Can we really get victory through love, grace, and mercy instead of wealth, power, and knowledge? We evaluate Him based on our earthy desires and concepts on what a savior should be. Then, we dismiss Jesus’ teachings because they don’t fit or we don’t think it will work. I mean you don’t have to be Darwin to figure out how loving your enemies puts you at an evolutionary disadvantage. By the time it’s Friday, we’re calling for His crucifixion rejecting His beliefs or interjecting our own beliefs and elevating them to the level of Jesus.
We’re not that different from the Jews of that time. We still want Jesus to be a triumphant warlord that crushes our enemies and elevates His followers to positions of power, prestige, and privilege instead of the Prince of Peace that tells us to love our enemies and serve the least of our brothers. We want someone who will enforce the laws and mete out punishment more than one who offers abundant grace to redeem the fallen. We want to identify with the rich and powerful, not the poor, weak, sick, and sinful like Jesus did. We want to protect our own and exclude others rather than welcome the immigrant, our Samaritan neighbor, or those we consider less than us. It’s our basest human nature, but Jesus calls us to more than that. When Jesus doesn’t fit in with what we want or expect from a messiah, we choose Barabbas because he better fits the image in our minds of a strong leader that’s a mover and shaker. Except now, we put a Jesus costume on Barabbas and refer to that as Jesus.
The merciful thing for us is that at the end of Holy Week, we have Easter. A time for resurrection and victory. We can choose to be resurrected with Christ, and shed our earthly identities that keep us from identifying with Him and as a citizen of His kingdom. We should let identities that prevent us from healing the sick, helping the poor, welcoming the stranger, and doing unto the least of our brothers and sisters take a back seat or fall to the wayside so that we can take part in His redemption of this world. We can choose to display love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, and self-control instead of fear, apathy, greed, discord, and hatred. However, we can also choose to have another Palm Sunday where we sing His praises, and then go put Him on trial, choose Barabbas, and crucify Jesus by the end of the week one more time.