The heart of the Palm Sunday celebration this year is God coming to God’s people in faithfulness and love. Jesus enters Jerusalem as the one who will suffer – this is the doorway to his passion – and in his suffering invites people into God’s grace and presence. And this arrival of God will not be resisted or stopped. It can only be received and enjoyed. It is interesting to note that only Luke includes the Pharisees’ plea for Jesus to ask the crowds to be silent, and Jesus’ response that if the people were to stop singing, the stones would cry out. It is most likely that the Pharisees were concerned for how Rome would interpret this procession and the songs the people were singing. The last thing they wanted was a revolution – for both personal and national reasons. But, Jesus’ response demonstrates Luke’s understanding of God’s salvation that comes in Christ. God’s Reign, which for Luke is the expression of God’s salvation, and the reality into which the saved are brought, is unstoppable. It is personal and social, and is as concerned with justice as it is with personal restoration and forgiveness. In proclaiming that even the stones would cry out, Jesus declares that God’s Reign will not be silenced by the powers that be, and that it includes and impacts the whole of creation. When God’s Sent One comes, the entire created order knows it and responds to it. In a similar way, we who witness this event again at Palm Sunday, are called to know and respond to the One who brings God’s irresistible Reign into our world.
SERMON – Palm Sunday – C
