Joy In All Its Many Forms

March 29, 2026

Philippians 2:5-11

            On this Palm Sunday… having already heard the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem earlier in the service… our second reading is believed by many scholars to be a piece of liturgy from the early church.  Listen as God continues speaking to you today.

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            I’m sure I’ve shared with you on some previous Palm Sunday that… when I became a minister… this is the Sunday that changed the most for me.  Before I had to stand up behind the pulpit and say something… I experienced Palm Sunday like most of you… participating in the usual traditions… waving the palms around.  Some of you… by the way… can be a bit more enthusiastic with your palm waving.  On Palm Sunday, there would be familiar hymns… sometimes special music with guest musicians.  For me, Palm Sunday carries with it all those good kid feelings.  It was one of those different days at church where I got to do something… like marching around and waving palms.  I mean… not even those sad palms that look like giant blades of grass… you know the ones I mean… not even those sad palms could dampen the excitement.  Palm Sunday meant Easter was close.  Not that I was all abuzz with the theology of it all.  Easter meant Easter baskets and candy.  As a kid, there was simple joy to Palm Sunday.

            As a minister, though, I do have to be all abuzz with the theology of it all.  That made this day harder… because I had to ask about the joy of the scene… and nowhere could I find how the joy of the people waving their palms around… and putting their cloaks on the ground before Jesus… nowhere could I find that those shouts of hosanna came from the anticipation of getting candy.  That would make this so much easier. 

The joy of the people in the procession into Jerusalem came from elsewhere… and to make it more difficult… their joy was misplaced. 

For some, Jesus on the borrowed donkey was the symbol of their savior.  A prophet, yes.  But more than that.  A prophet perhaps more like Samuel… or one of the judges of old… a prophet who was coming to save them in the way they expected to be saved… the way they wanted to be saved.  For some in the crowd their joy comes from a vision of a populist prophet… someone who would stand with them against the elites of their time… the religious authorities… the Pharisees, the Scribes… the Sadducees… Caiaphas and his priests… or others who had power over them… power that would put pressure on their lives instead of lifting them up.  Populist prophet Jesus would put all those enemies in their place.  God… the true God… favored the lowly over those in power… with their riches and rewards. Jesus on his borrowed donkey… Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee… when did anything good come out of Nazareth… Jesus could hold all their populist projections… all their dreams of breaking out of this life that held little for them.  Jesus spoke for the people who had no power… those were the stories that had been circulating about him… the stories that had filled their ears and given them this hope.  Hosanna in the highest!

For others… Jesus riding into Jerusalem at this holy time of Passover… Jesus was the symbol of freedom from the oppression of Rome.  For others, this may have been the source of their joy in the day… waving their palms in the air.  Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.  He was like Moses with his great works of power.  No one could have done the miracles and signs Jesus had done in all those stories that had been told about him if God wasn’t behind him.  The blind see.  The deaf hear.  The lame walk.  Like a new Moses he would confront Pharoah in his Roman finery… and with great signs of power like the plagues before… through this Jesus… God would set the people free once again.  The story of Passover would be an experience of today… not a just story of remembrance of the past.  Today their unleavened bread would taste sweeter than it ever had.  Today the mighty hand of God would be witnessed by all the world.  Hosanna in the highest!

Still others in the crowd might see Jesus as a different type of liberator.  Hosanna to the Son of David!  The joy of the coming victory filling their hearts.  The stories said this Jesus is a direct descendant of David.  The old Davidic covenant is not dead.  God… who is faithful and steadfast… will fulfill the promise of that covenant and place a descendant of David on the throne in Jerusalem.  Unlike Moses, David did not do great miraculous works.  His power was in his sword.  His enemies were defeated before him and his armies.  Soon the streets would run red with the blood of the Romans.  Soon it might be Pilate who finds himself nailed to one of his many crosses out on Golgotha.  The power of God in his right arm, this Jesus will bring the righteous violence necessary for the people to know peace and prosperity.  And even if the people were weak… even if the people could not themselves rise up behind this Jesus… then surely he would call down a legion of the heavenly host… so the stories about him would imply, this man who even has power over the demons.  Soon the Jews of Jerusalem will rise up and all will know that the Lord of Israel is a mighty and fierce God.  Hosanna in the highest!

Which of these joys and expectations do you think filled his disciples?  Those who had witnessed so much and had left everything behind to follow him?  Populist joy?  The joy of the religious prophet?  The Son of David coming for his throne.  With Matthew… and the other two synoptic gospels… this coming into Jerusalem was no small thing for those who had been following Jesus as he traveled around the sea of Galilee.  This wasn’t just another stop in his travels.  Jesus had been telling them how he was going to Jerusalem.  Something had changed.  Now was the time.  He was going to Jerusalem and something was going to happen… something big.  Surely everything that had occurred was just a precursor to what was about to happen in Jerusalem. 

Of course, in the gospel stories he had told them many times what was going to happen when he arrived in Jerusalem… but those words don’t seem to stick in their minds… perhaps because they were pushed out by their rising joy and anticipation.  That part about being crucified… that part about rising again.  No joy… no hope attaches itself to that part of what Jesus has said was going to happen.  It’s almost as though there isn’t enough known reality contained in those words… not enough of what they know to be true already for the people to feel joy.

As a minister, I now come to this story of Palm Sunday… and it has become a cautionary tale.  There is the Jesus who is the word of God enfleshed.  The Jesus who does meet all people where they are… be it in positions of power or of weakness… and he does tell them a message of liberation… that we don’t have to stay in the same place of entrenched sin.  That there is a way forward that is of God… a path to know God and walk with God that doesn’t rely on the perceived optimal conditions.  But the joy of this path… the joy isn’t in the destruction of the elites… or the killing of the Romans in whatever form they take.  The joy in Christ doesn’t come from the satisfaction we would gain knowing that others… others who had had power over us… were now suffering and paying dearly for their actions.  The joy that is to be found in Christ comes more from sharing in the humility of Christ rather than pain of others.  To humble ourselves away from the sword… and the money… and the need to have our material possessions define our worth.  The suffering servant was entering into Jerusalem.  The suffering servant was giving the invitation to follow.  Triumph in humility.  Hosanna in the highest!

Jesus does not fulfill any of the joyful expectations of those waving the palms at this entrance into Jerusalem.  The cautionary portion of this tale is… of course… how many of us still reflect the crowd in our joyful expectations… this crowd… who when their expectations don’t get met… will turn on Jesus and call for his crucifixion.  The populists who will enable the elites to do their work of lies and false righteousness as they use the system to kill this Jesus.  Those who long for freedom from slavery will mock Jesus by calling on him to come down off that cross… come down… perform that last great sign in our sight so that we may believe… show us you are worth the risk of losing what little we have.  The fleshpots of Egypt will always be better than the manna of the wilderness.  Give us Barabbas.  Those who cry “Hosanna to the Son of David” will pledge themselves and their descendants to the power of Rome.  Let this so-called Messiah be crucified!

Jesus on this borrowed donkey enters the Temple.  He clears out the lenders and the moneychangers.  He tells them this place… this is a place of prayer.  In the days that follow, the Pharisees will test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest.”  Perhaps with joy in his heart… with joy in his voice and on his face… Jesus will say to all who will listen, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” 

Maybe—surrounded by all these misplaced joyful expectations and waving palms—this was the joy of Christ on the borrowed donkey: the joy of the One who came to stop the sacrifices of others, to end the cycle of violence and retribution, to be the final sin offering that opens the way to the joy of resurrection. Not the joy of victory over enemies, but the joy of loving God with heart, soul, and mind; the joy of loving neighbor as oneself; the joy of humility that leads to life. Amen.