Was Palm Sunday was a peaceful parade or a prophetic protest? The following ideas come from the March 15, 2017 Christian Century, "Reflections on the lectionary."
"Jesus' retinue is a crowd of common people---people seeking hope and justice, . . . . his first act is to cleanse the Temple, driving out merchants and money-changers. . . . Jesus appropriates the symbols of the prophet. . . . the town is in an uproar---a shaking (eseisthe), like the earthquake that strikes days later as Jesus dies. But even as the city explodes in chaos, the crowds do not really know whom they are greeting or what his full agenda is. . . . All of which leads me to wonder: as we enter Palm Sunday this year, instead of a sweet children's parade, . . . what if we treated this day as the protest it really was."
Some additional thoughts: The so-called cleansing of the Temple, Jesus called "a den of robbers." This phrase comes from Jeremiah 7; it is important to read 7:1-15 for context of this hugely prophetic action. In other words, the whole religion-politico-economic system was corrupt and oppressive---a religiously legitimated system of oppression.
The current religious system needed to be replaced by a new agenda---the kingdom of God which is described in some detail in Isaiah's Messianic passages---9:7; 11:1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; and 61:1-4.
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