KAALAGAD Gospel Reflection – April 5, 2020
Palm/Passion Sunday
Matthew 21:1-9
1 When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” 4 This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,5 “Tell the daughter of Zion,
Look, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7 they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
10 When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” 11 The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Of Palm Sunday, Pandemic and Power
This Sunday we celebrate an important event in the Christian calendar- the triumphal entry which signals the beginning of Holy Week. As a young girl, I had lots of recollection of being a part of the Palm Sunday celebration. My lola would often bring me with her at church and we’ll have our palaspas blessed with holy water. Sometimes the blessing of the festal branches will be inside the church, in other times we have to join in the procession outside in the streets. What I was certain that time was that we used the palaspas as protection against evil spirits. We would nail it on doors and walls joining the other protection of our houses: makabuhay stems fashioned as crosses, salt in windows, garlic, and the tail of stingray. Aside from replenishing our stock of protection against evil spirits, I never understood, as a child, the significance of the event in the life of Jesus. It is good for us to remember the magnitude of this momentous event which made it a narrative common to all four Gospels.
In the Gospel, Jesus’ journey now reaches the peak as he approached Jerusalem. All the small details that the Gospel writer painted in the narrative portrays Jesus as the one told in the prophesies of old, its fulfillment, that he’s the awaited one. The two disciples going ahead of the group acted as advance agents preparing the royal entrance. The mere mention of “The Lord needs it” shows that the colt was requisitioned as a royal prerogative. When the people spread their cloaks, it was reminiscent of Jehu’s anointing as king by a young prophet sent by Elisha in 2 Kings 9:13. The whole story calls forth images of a royal leader, victorious in battle, entering the gates of the city. The people welcomes back the heroes of war, assured of their ruler’s capability to defend and fight for them. The story of the triumphal entry, then, is a story of hope placed upon a leader whom the people see as the person who would lead them into liberation and to a life of shalom, of completeness.
The narrative makes one wonder why and how Jesus had such a following. They lived in a time in which circumstances are not unknown to us. The gap between the rich and the poor was too wide.[2] Being extremely poor was a matter-of-fact for over 85 percent of the people. Infant and child mortality was so high and the life expectancy was low and, if they’d live past the crucial first decade of your life, the quality of life, in general, was not optimum. Taxes were skyrocketing high and those from different offices extract some more from the people. They were ruled by an empire offering faux peace—pax Romana was maintained by sacrificing the blood of those who criticized, resisted and revolted against those in power. Fear and precariousness are constants for them. But Jesus was a breath of fresh air, a hope for these poor folks.
After citing as an example Jesus’ dealing with lex talionis in Matthew and Luke as an example of a stark development in the trajectory of justice from the retributive form, one of our students in Penuel School of Theology asked why there was a rise in the number of leaders who are, as she described, violent and controlling, unlike Jesus. Zygmunt Bauman, in an interview by Aljazeera a few months before he died, noted the role played by power and people’s precariousness in the rise of populism.[3] Bauman’s magnum opus, Liquid Modernity, describes how people today live in a society wherein change is too fast, offering you a plethora of options but leaving you a sense of insecurity and fear of being left behind in all aspects of life.[4]
“There are two crucial values without which human life is simply inconceivable. One is security, a measure of security, feeling safe. The other is freedom, ability to self-assert, to do what you really would like to do and so on. They are both necessary. Security without freedom is slavery. Freedom without security is complete chaos where you are lost, abandoned, you don’t know what to do.” Bauman said that that we are definitely freer today than our forefathers were. But we paid the price by exchanging it for security. The precariat are “uneasy, lost, incapable of acting with certainty, with assurance.” This “liquid fear” is something a populist leader banks on.
People desire politicians who are assertive, leaders who are willing to affirm “Give me the power and I will take responsibility for your future.” Such leaders are capitalizing on the impression that democracy is “very strong in its mouth but not in its deeds.” The memory of totalitarianism has faded if not been lost in the younger generation (sometimes even those who had also been through it for years) so the rhetoric is acceptable. People are looking for “magic” in leadership which, given the fear that people have, is understandable.
Cas Mudde and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser gave apt descriptions of populist leaders.[5] Here are some:
Populist leaders call for the kicking out of political establishments but have no
specific plans for replacement.
They are dividers; they do not unite. They split society into two homogeneous
and antagonistic groups. They are not pluralists; they recognize only one group.
They claim that they represent the people- the silent majority, the real people.
Trump, for example, says he is the representative of the masses though he is utterly
rich. Duterte also said that they were poor; but he also said that even as a kid, he
had flown the private plane of their family.
They claim to be victims while in the height of power.
They say that their boorish behavior makes them like real people.
They claim that “I alone can fix.”
Narratives about populist leaders are written in the pages of history. Again, it is understandable because people want to feel secured. Their situation and lives desperately calls for hope. Because of this, wolves clothed in sheep’s skin would prey on them. Those who can see how they can use power to their own advantage often succumb from it, and, usually, there’s not a point where they can return.
Again, let us revisit the portrayal of Jesus in the story of the triumphal entry. The Lord Jesus was consistently aware of the dynamics of power and how it would affect the lives of many.[6] The narrative that we have shown Jesus riding a colt, a donkey, not a mighty warhorse as he entered the city. The unridden colt marks a direct enactment of Zechariah 9:9.
Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he;
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Verse 8 stresses Jesus’ large following. It was said that as he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples. They began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen.
“Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
The first line is the common reception to Passover pilgrims (from Psalm 118:26). In Luke’s Gospel, “king” was added. He was deemed king who comes in the name of the Lord. Also, Jesus has always been described by the crowds as, “the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.” In Luke’s rendition of the narrative, Jesus was described as the bringer of peace, of shalom, of completeness.
This pandemic, this crisis has revealed the core of people. Now we know of the innovators who respond compassionately and prioritize the welfare of the citizens. We have heard stories of volunteers and of selfless heroes, of leaders sharing best practices of service to their citizenry.
Disappointingly, we have known those who are insensitive to the plights of those who are fearful if they will still have something to put and share in the table simply because they have much and none to worry. We know of politicians who throw fits of tantrums upon having their incompetence revealed. And more than ever, we are more aware of those who abuse the power entrusted to them by the people. Instead of bringing security, they cultivate fear. Instead of feeding the people’s mouths, their lips hurl threats.
The stark difference between those who succumb to the temptations of power and of Jesus who is mindful of it guides us as we try to choose the path where we will walk. We, as followers of Jesus, are then confronted with the same test with power as we evaluate our choice of leaders and also of ourselves.
Are we mindful of our tendencies with power? In our relationships and dealings with all people, do we bring security and hope or fear and anxiety? Do we bring people down or do we lift people up? Are we secure and settled with ourselves that we are never afraid to develop people towards eudaemonia, a fulfilled and complete life with their full potential developed? Are we bringers of peace, agents of shalom? Are we trying and striving to follow the path of Jesus, the hope for the poor and the weak, the bringer of peace?
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Ana Rica “Rix” S. Navarra
Penuel School of Theology
[1] Cf. Luke 19: 28-40; Mark 11:1 – 10; John 12:12 – 19
[2] Steven J. Freisen, Destiny or Oppression? Early Christian Explanations for Poverty and Wealth in the Roman Empire. Lecture at Ateneo de Manila University.
[3] Aljazeera. Zygmunt Bauman: Behind the world's 'crisis of humanity' Accessed at https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/talktojazeera/2016/07/zygmunt-bauman-world-crisis-humanity-160722085342260.html
[4] Bauman, Zygmunt. Liquid Modernity. Cambridge, UK : Malden, MA :Polity Press; Blackwell, 2000.
[5] Cas Mudde and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser. Populism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
[6]
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