Palm Sunday begins as we walk into our Cathedral of St. Thomas Aquinas

Today is Palm Sunday and Bishop Randolf Calvo is the Celebrant at the 0930 AM Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas Cathedral in downtown Reno. Father Bruce has just led the Bishop in with the processional branches. Joe and Pam Bell have read the First and Second Readings and been the narrators for the Gospel reading. It is now time for the Bishop's homily.
 
The Bishop began his homily by stating that not one, but two of the 12 apostles abandoned Jesus when Jesus was arrested. Judas turned Jesus in, and St. Peter denied Jesus, not one, but three times. Indeed, all the apostles ran the other way, leaving Jesus to fend for himself. Jesus was unfazed by this. Jesus own, the leadership of Israel, mocked him and jeered at him, and turned him over to Pilate, a foreigner. Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." Jesus, forever a man of forgiveness, was unfazed by this.

The women see things in the short term, Jesus sees what is coming

Jesus sees the women of Jerusalem. More concerned for his flock than for himself says, "Don't weep for me, but for yourselves."

He sees that in picking Jesus Barabbas over Jesus Bar Abba, violence over non-violence, they are bringing destruction upon themselves.

This hurts him more than his own pain of the Passion. Jesus hangs with two convicted felons. His next to the last act in this life was to give hope to one of them. "Today you will be with me in paradise." His last act is to always trust in God, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit."
 
This brings the question, "Why do we, the parishioners, read the words of the crowd on Palm Sunday? We are duly handed branches to remind us of the crowd as Jesus enters the Great City of Peace in triumph. There is a donkey that Jesus rides on. In downtown Reno, this is created with a real donkey at Winfield Park. It reminds one of the old reminder, "There were donkeys, oxen, and sheep at the nativity. Jesus rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. There were oxen and sheep being sacrificed in the temple. OK so where were the elephants?" Old of us Democrats love this reminder. My republican friends, no so much.
 
The answer, of course is that we, like the first century Jews are looking for Judas Maccabeus of Maccabees 4, who will smash the Greek armies at Emmaus, along with their war elephants, (there are your elephants), ride into Jerusalem, purify the liturgy and put God back into our schools and our sports events. When Jesus seems to be doing just that, the crowds gather like piranhas at a pool, waiting for the bloodbath of the Romans. The problem is that Jesus is Jesus Ben Joseph. The tradition is that Messiah Ben Joseph comes after Elijah and is defeated by Gog and Magog (Gog is the Hebrew word for roof, Magog means from the roof and the temple is one big roof.) He is then raised by Messiah Ben David and destroys God and Magog, along with Rome. When it becomes clear that Jesus is not the Messiah who will run the Hellenized priests out of the temple with violence, the crowd turns and the piranhas turn on Jesus.

We are like piranhas we all like to see a good lynching. Jesus sees a bigger picture

The reason we read the part of the crowd is to remind us that we are no different. When our leaders give us what we want, generally the blood of someone else, we are the piranhas eager for the sport. That is why we like such violent TV programing, video games and movies.

When our leaders do not give us the blood we want, watch out. We are the blades of grass swaying in the wind. Jesus is constant throughout the whole event. He sees the bigger picture of what will happen.

He sees how to lose the battle and win the war. The reason we read the part of the crowd, and the reason we read the Passion on Palm Sunday is to remind us to become more like Jesus, a man of Peace and hope for all in the world.
 
Can we do that, or do we listen like the women of Jerusalem, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.’ At that time people will tell the mountains, ‘Fall upon us!’ to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry?”
 
Even a person weaker than us can put knots on us as we put bigger knots on them. The first century Jews faced a person bigger than themselves, Rome, and chose to try and puts knots on them. Those who choose violence choose to undergo a process. Those who choose peace and good will choose to undergo a process. Which process do we choose to undergo? Do we choose to follow Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus Bar Abba? That is the question this Easter Season.