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Palm Sunday: Another March Mocking Emperors as Prophets Urge By Matthew Fox 3/30/2026 |
In Saturday’s
DM, we meditated on the meaning of marching on No Kings Day. No doubt many DM readers participated or supported those who did. |
In that meditation, I alluded to marches of Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel and Dr. King; the Buddhist monks from Houston; pilgrimages; the new woman leader of the Anglican church walking from London to her anointing in Canterbury; and the millions who marched Saturday against rising American fascism. Synchronistically, Christians celebrated Palm Sunday yesterday which commemorates a march or procession at the inauguration of Holy Week that leads to Jesus’ |
A hand-painted protest sign by Matthew’s niece-in-law, Lindsay Gordon, carried at the Chicago "No Kings" march. Used with permission. |
death at the hands of the empire and ultimately the Resurrection. We are told by Mark, the earliest gospel writer, that many people welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem on the first day of the week in a procession of rejoicing and celebration. He rode a donkey on the occasion to mock society’s
rulers who love to ride on horses. |
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| Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan interpret that procession this way:
What we often call Jesus’s triumphal entry was actually an anti-imperial, anti-triumphal one, a deliberate lampoon of the conquering emperor entering a city on horseback through gates opened in abject submission.* It’s hard to read this summary of the Palm Sunday procession without relating it to our moment in history. Many were the
lampoons depicted in speeches and signs at |
yesterday’s marches aimed at a particular emperor in our day who is without clothes, but wears his narcissism proudly for all to see. This wanna-be-emperor has unleashed his own personal army, thanks to a supine Republican congress, which has been killing citizens and violently breaking up
families because they speak with accents or are not white. This wanna-be-emperor is bent on building monuments to himself, whether giant ballrooms that swamp the historic and modest-sized White House, or a triumphal arch larger than other kings’ arches of past empires. He has already plastered his name on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts named in honor of a slain president who actually cared about and did not censure artists. |
On Monday, Jesus challenged religious leaders of the Temple who were too cozy with the imperial rulers of Jerusalem by overturning tables of those selling items in the Temple. Jesus cited the prophet Jeremiah who complained about a “den of robbers.” (7:11) |
Another attempt to make himself immortal: US currency now to bear his signature. Video by ABC News. |
In
a direct rebuke of Christian nationalism so prominent in today’s administration (check out the head of the defense department’s speeches), Jesus is alluding to centuries of warnings from the Jewish prophets about how both worship and justice have a place in religion, but justice comes first, and is the test of whether worship is authentic or not. Jeremiah warns: “If you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow…then I will dwell with you in this place….” (7:5-7) Notice: “the alien”—that means immigrants. |
A hand-painted protest sign in support of justice for gay marriages, by team member Rosanna Tufts. Used with permission. | Amos warns: “I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies…But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (5:21-24) Hosea: “I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” (6:6) Micah: “Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?...He has told you, ‘O mortal what is good; and what does the
Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, |
and
to walk humbly with your God?’” (6:6-8) Isaiah: “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood….Remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” (1:15-17) Justice matters and trumps religious hypocrisy. |
Queries for Contemplation Do you find the prophets cited by Jesus and called up in this meditation
especially relevant to what you feeling happening in America these days? Do they represent a healthy outlet for moral outrage and a spark to ally with others in holy resistance? |
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Matthew Fox offers a keynote at the Unity Earth Symposium V on The Future of
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