SUNDAY SERMON: Pilate or Jesus?

By Rev. Stephen Baldwin

NT: Matthew 21.1-11

Appearances matter.  For good or ill, we make assumptions about people based on their appearance.  

My high school chemistry teacher asked me to stay after class one day.  He started talking about my appearance. “You look nice.  Your hair is combed.  Your clothes are clean.  You match,” he said.  

Then he pulled out a lab report I’d turned in the week before—handwritten, paper with frayed edges, no staple, white out all over the place.  “If you cared about the appearance of your lab reports half as much as you cared about your own, you’d get a better grade.  Understand?”  

I did.  It didn’t matter how good or bad the content of my lab report was—it looked terrible! The content wasn’t much better, but that’s beside the point…because of the way it looked, I didn’t have a chance at a good grade (which wasn’t unusual in chemistry).  I’ll never forget that lesson.  

Appearances matter on Palm Sunday too. And I’m not talking about us wearing our Sunday best or the flowers or palm branches. All those things are nice. They add to the meaning of the day. But I’m talking about Jesus’ appearance in Jerusalem. 

Picture it. Pilate enters Jerusalem from the west. Jesus enters from the east. Pilate is flanked by chariots and soldiers, all the pomp and circumstance of the crown. Jesus is flanked by fishermen and farmers. The city cheers Pilate. The city asks who Jesus is. Pilate rides a horse. Jesus rides a donkey. Pilate controls the city crowds. Jesus is followed by the country crowds. 

Two worlds collided. Pilate was everything you would expect in a powerful leader–might, strength, power, wealth, numbers. Jesus was the opposite–strolling down the road on a donkey in his workboots. 

Why did Jesus want it that way? Because he was making a point. He was a new kind of messiah. He ruled by grace, not by fear. He ruled by mercy, not might. He ruled by peace, not war. He was showing a new kind of strength and turning the world’s picture of strength on its head. 

This is why Palm Sunday is so important. The spectacle shows the difference between God and the world. The world is ruled by might, not mercy. By war, not peace. By fear, not grace. Jesus chose this spectacle to lay out the differences as plain as day for anyone watching.  

There was a buzzword for the way the world worked in Jesus’ day. Pax Romana. Which means Roman peace. The Romans required you to be at peace with them, or they nailed you to a cross. That’s no peace at all. That’s the power of self-preservation. 

In contrast to Pax Romana, Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God. Forgiveness of sins. Food for the hungry. Sight for the blind. The first will be last, and the last will be first. The dead shall rise. The blind shall see. The prisoner will be set free. 

And this is the importance of Palm Sunday…Jesus arrived in Jerusalem on the back of a donkey to change everything. He showed power by giving his up, dying that we might live. He was saying, “Look at us! Can you see the difference? Can you tell the difference between me and Pilate? Can you see how Roman peace and the kingdom of God are polar opposites?” 

Palm Sunday shows us what our minds cannot envision on their own.  And the impact it made, as people saw the contrast between Pilate and Jesus? Verse 10 says the whole city was in turmoil. Literally, in Greek, that means the whole city was shaking. 

We know that feeling. Of turmoil. Of shaking. Of something unsettling just around the corner, beyond what we can see but not beyond what we can sense. 

The temptation of this story is to make it about choosing a side. Because the choice is painfully obvious, isn’t it? Between Pilate or Jesus. And the choice we ought to make as people of faith is even more painfully obvious, isn’t it? We ought to deny Pax Romana, deny Pilate, and follow Jesus. 

But only Pilate would force you to choose him. The way of Jesus is different; he has already chosen you. The man riding the donkey has chosen you. The good shepherd has chosen you, leaving the 99 others to find you when you are the one that’s lost! The great physician has chosen you! The Prince of Peace has chosen you! He rode into town for the crowds, for Pilate, for the soldiers, for the disciples, for the doubters, for the believers, for the Pharisees, for the Sadducees, for the farmers, for the fisherman, for Gentiles and Jews, and for you! 

Everyone these days insists that you chose a side. And it’s exhausting, isn’t it? The good news of Palm Sunday is that Jesus has already chosen you. 

The reason the city is shaking is because it’s filled with hope for a new way of being. Appearances matter. Jesus comes into town humble and rising on a donkey to show that the path has already been chosen. You have already been chosen. You don’t need to fight. You don’t need to keep up with the Joneses. You don’t need to pick a side. You have already been chosen. On Palm Sunday, we say, “Hosanna!” Thanks be to God, Amen.