“Who is this?” Colchester Federated Church, March 29, 2026, Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:1-11)

One of the best times of the year for many of you is here—it’s officially baseball season!  In the 1990s, the Cleveland Indians (now Cleveland Guardians) were one of the best teams in baseball.  The 1995 team got Cleveland back to the World Series for the first time since winning way back in 1954.  The Indians went on to lose the World Series twice in the 90s, and if you ask for details you may still see me well up.  At the time, one of the best players was left fielder Albert Belle.  Now Belle had a combative personality and we found out later that he used to have corks in his bats, totally illegal.  Though the ultimate betrayal was Belle signing a large contract with the Chicago White Sox, leaving Cleveland in the lurch right after that tough first World Series loss. 

So when Albert Belle came back to Jacob’s Field with the White Sox for the first time, it got really nasty.  People threw trash and even binoculars onto the field.  The game was delayed twice.  When one fan caught one of Belle’s foul balls, he threw it back onto the field and almost hit him.  But the kicker was people throwing wads of Monopoly money throughout the game (which is what stayed with me as a child) the Monopoly money floating in the air all over the ballpark.  Honestly, here was this baseball player who was a hero, but once he defied expectations, fans turned on him like you wouldn’t believe.  Maybe Clevelanders are just crazy.  Or maybe adoring fans can turn into an angry mob if their hero doesn’t fulfill the expectations fans may have of them.[1]

One of the fascinating aspects of Holy Week is how people react and respond to Jesus in the final days of his life.  We see what various groups expected of him.  First we’ll discuss how people responded and we’ll end with expectations folks had of Jesus.

Now the notion of the unified angry mob present throughout Holy Week might not be historically accurate.  At minimum, the angry mob is not always easy to identify.  New Testament scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan argue in The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’ Final Days in Jerusalem that the Temple authorities did not represent the Jewish people as a whole since they were the local collaborators with the Romans.[2]  This is why Jesus is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane and tried before the religious authorities at night, away from the crowds.  Judas has to look for an opportune time to betray Jesus, a time when the crowds were not there to possibly come to Jesus’ defense.  Those who arrest him are the small military police force of the religious authorities, not these hopeful people we heard today earnestly shouting their hosannas and laying their branches and cloaks at Jesus’ feet! 

The people who shouted crucify on Friday were more likely a small crowd gathered by the chief priests and other religious authorities to decide the fate of Jesus and Barabbas, who both defied imperial authority.  Jesus did so with symbolic actions and defied power nonviolently.  Remember that Jesus clears out the Temple right after he enters Jerusalem in the Palm Sunday Parade.  For the Synoptic Gospels, all of these events are linked and align Jesus with the prophetic tradition.[3]

So we have the religious authorities, the chief priests, and their cronies going after Jesus in the Garden at night.  Their hand-picked mob is likely the folks who shout crucify Friday morning.  The Romans persecuted anyone who got out of line and disturbed the peace.  They were all too happy to get rid of this Jesus of Nazareth who stirs up the people and causes trouble, preaching love of neighbor and the realm of God.  This crowd shouting their hosannas and looking to Jesus with hope should be contrasted with the religious leaders and the Romans who did not approve of Jesus’ movement.

One of the worst parts of Holy Week is the desertion of Jesus’ disciples.  This is one of the most painful responses.  It all begins on such a joyful note to go get a donkey and shouts of, “Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest!”[4]  Yet there’s an ominous undertone just like we heard last Sunday with the raising of Lazarus.  Matthew tells us that the whole city is in turmoil and people are asking, “Who is this?”[5]  In the very next verse, Jesus enters the Temple complex and drives the moneychangers out, sealing his fate and giving those in power a plausible reason to destroy him.  And giving the disciples a reason to fear and all too soon a reason to flee into the night.  Many of the women stay at the foot of the cross.  Though Matthew simply states, “Then all the disciples left Jesus and ran away.”[6]

We see varied responses and reactions to Jesus this Holy Week.  We do have angry crowds of people, but this all wasn’t so clear cut.  The arrest and the first trial against Jesus happened at night because the crowds of your regular Jewish men, women, and children present for Passover would have probably rather heard from the humble teacher from Galilee than some religious official who worked with the Romans to oppress them in the first place!  The disciples desert and flee, but many of the women followers stay.  Holy Week has a complicated cast of characters.

Now let’s move onto expectations.  We can recall that one of the expectations that people had of the Messiah was that he would be the ancient version of a superhero, a supernatural figure who would come to secure the victory of the Jewish nation over its oppressors.  This would be a miraculous event and end in all-out war and victory for the righteous.  Others thought the Messiah would be a powerful spokesperson from God, almost like Moses but greater.  The Messiah would tell the people the will of God.  Some thought the Messiah would be a priestly leader who could provide authoritative interpretation of God’s law.  Finally, there was the belief that the Messiah would be a David-like King—a political leader who would once again establish Israel as a sovereign state.  But no one thought the Messiah would suffer and die on a Roman cross.  Jesus rewrote the role of Messiah.[7]

Jesus is rewriting peoples’ expectations, which is why Palm Sunday is like a planned political demonstration.  According to the Prophet Zechariah—the king is supposed to cut off the chariot and the war horse and the battle-bow.  The king will come in, riding on a donkey and will command peace to the nations.  This is what Jesus is trying to do.[8] 

Because on the other side of Jerusalem, Pilate and his troops are in town for Passover.  Passover is when Jews celebrate their liberation from another empire that oppressed them.  Pilate and his troops are there to keep the peace and demonstrate who is really in charge.  They might as well be having a full-on Roman Triumph.  So we have two processions—Pilate’s military procession all about Roman power and might and Jesus’ peaceful political parade with palms waving in the air.[9]  The king riding on a donkey, commanding peace to the nations and a vision of God’s realm where the first will be last and the last will be first and love of neighbor and God will rule.  Those who witness the peaceful demonstration can’t help but turn to their neighbor and ask, “Who is this?”

 I know that you probably know this story by heart.  We hear it every year and we’ll keep hearing it every year, the seasons of the church year are funny that way.  But every year it’s worth turning to each other and asking, “Who is this?”  Palm Sunday is one of these stories we get to hear again, every year.  It is such a good story of varied reactions and responses, an introduction to a complicated cast of characters, and expectations being turned upside down.  Jesus riding on a donkey, palm branches waving in the air, a parade of peace, rewriting who the Messiah is for everyone to see.  This is a story of hope; of the way the world could be.  Knowing that soon, just on the horizon, there will be pain and sorrow.  But love will have the last word.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1] Ken Berger, “Cleveland Fans Forget Baseball is a Business,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, June 5, 1997, http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19970605&id=xykhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=T30EAAAAIBAJ&pg=6825,6088107
[2] Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Final Days in Jerusalem, 128.
[3] Borg and Crossan, The Last Week, 144.
[4] Matthew 21:9, CEB.
[5] Matthew 21:11, CEB.
[6] Matthew 26:56, CEB.
[7] Dr. Benjamin Valentine, Systematic Theology II, Andover Newton Theological School, Spring 2008.
[8] Zechariah 9:9-10, NRSV.
[9] Borg and Crossan, The Last Week, 2-4.

Photo by Rev. Lauren Ostrout.