by Rev. Dr. Steve Berry

Throughout recorded history, court jesters have made fun of the Powers That Be while telling the truth about what’s really happening. My favorite contemporary court jester is comic Jimmy Dore. Jimmy brings me his commentary on America and the world through YouTube. If he understood the behind-the-scenes happenings regarding Palm Sunday, he’d find what happened hilarious. Perhaps we all would if the start of the most troubling week of the Christian calendar was de-sentimentalized. Let me see if I can help achieve that objective.

The year Jesus was executed there were two notable entries into Jerusalem for the Passover – a large procession and a small one. The large one featured the important Roman legion. They anticipated that the population of Jerusalem would swell from fifty thousand to well over two-hundred thousand due to the pilgrims who would come for the celebration. To ensure that no Jews would be causing any revolting developments, the Roman governor ventured forth from his coastal palace with an entourage of hundreds of horses and riders along with foot soldiers marching to the beat of imperial drums. They paraded forth wearing leather armor and helmets, wielding deadly, shiny weapons and holding aloft colorful banners and golden eagles mounted on poles. Through this procession Pilate pompously imposed himself on Jerusalem, stirring up dust and resentment. 

On the other side of the city, Jesus approached on a female nursing donkey with her little colt running along beside her. New Testament scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan say that Jesus’ “Triumphal Entry” was not a spontaneous event. He wasn’t a passive recipient of impromptu adoration. They say Jesus knew what he was doing. They interpret his entrance as a staged joke, an act of political theater designed to mock the obscenity of Empire.  In their book, The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’ Last Days in Jerusalem, they argue that the ragtag crowds around Jesus paradoxically made the entire Roman procession look ridiculous and absurd – “a deliberate lampoon of the conquering emperor entering a city on horseback through gates opened in abject submission.” 

 Jesus had previously offered other comic relief: “turn the other cheek”, “go the second mile” and “if he asks for the coat, give him your underwear, too.” The people would have grasped the tongue-in-cheek humor. They would have understood that each of these sayings were advising them on specific ways to address their predicament while ridiculing unjust authority and burlesquing pretensions of law and order. What we interpret as Jesus’ invitation to inaction and supine compliance to the system was actually strategic measures for empowering people who were oppressed. His entrance into Jerusalem was, therefore, essentially a parody on the Powers. In today’s world, this role is being filled by comedians like Jimmy Dore. These men and women know they aren’t safe when they deride the dominators. 

So Palm Sunday, with a crowd ripe for revolution, had to settle for a parade of oddballs and outsiders and a comic donkey-ride. In the end it was a culminating action that led to the event that exposed everything. Writer Deb Thomas brings the idea home: “Jesus was no fool; he knew exactly what it would cost him to spit in Rome’s face. Like all good comedians, he understood that real humor is in fact very serious business; at its best, it does more than entertain.  It points unflinchingly at truth — the kinds of truth we’d rather not see.  The kinds of truth people kill not to see.” And that’s the way it was and still is two thousand years after the fact.

Rev. Dr. Steve Berry, is the Pastor and Teacher at the Congregational Church of Rupert, VT. He is Associate Producer of the new documentary film, Things Hidden: The Life and Legacy of Rene Girard.