Triumphal Entry
“Jesus drew near to Jerusalem ... He entered Jerusalem, and went into the Temple...”
Twisting and abstracting the familiar image of Jesus’s Triumphal Entry, the Australian artist Nathan Simpson invites us to think differently about the episode. From the lone palm frond strewn along the way, the donkey (oddly fused to his rider, who — bruised and contorted — seems almost to be crucified already) ascends along the vertical axis. Jerusalem, it seems, is founded upon the outstretched arms of Jesus, rather than sheltered beneath it (per Mat 23:37); and most oddly of all, it seems there is a dead bird lying upon his face. Indeed, this one tired, vertically transgressive donkey seems to be the only living thing in the whole image, bearing the weight of a dead city, a dead Savior, and a dead bird (spirit?). One wonders if these disturbing aspects of the depiction aren’t deliberately rooted in Simpson’s post-Catholic and atheistic religious orientation. Yet this scene of utter desolation is appropriate for the feast. Beneath the faux triumph of Jesus’s entry to Jerusalem is the anticipation of his death upon the Cross, for he is not the conquering Messiah that the adoring crowds crave …
He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
— The Apostle Paul (Phil 2:8)
Palm Sunday
Texts for Today
Prayer
Almighty and everlasting God, in your tender love for us you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon himself our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and come to share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Ride On, Ride On in Majesty
The ever-edifying BBC One program Hymns of Praise brings us a robust congregational performance of Ride on, Ride on in Majesty from St. Mary-le-Tower Church in Ipswich. The setting of the hymn to the tune WINCHESTER NEW echoes the clarion Advent hymn, “On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist’s Cry,” emphasizing the continuity between the preaching of the forerunner before the coming of the Messiah, and his advent in the Holy City to bring to completion the work to which the baptizer heralded.
