palm sunday: the entry into jerusalem

anna was with us yesterday evening for the eucharist. not just the prophetess anna of luke's gospel, who stayed in the temple to recognize the child messiah. she of course is always there, with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, whenever the eucharist is celebrated. but last night also we had anna a two-year old, who was about as two-years-old as it gets, making demands of us adults because she has just begun to be able to make demands, the way we who are old enough to know better sometimes make demands of god; making joyful noises because they are joyful; and sometimes singing the hymns and texts of the liturgy.

the reading was the entrance into jerusalem from the gospel according to st. matthew:

"when they were near jerusalem and had come to bethphage on the mount of olives, then jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, 'go to the village facing you, and you will at once find a tethered donkey and a colt with her. untie them and bring them to me. if anyone says anything to you, you are to say, "the master needs them and will send them back at once."' this was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet: say to the daughter of zion: look, your king is approaching, humble and riding on a donkey and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. so the disciples went and did as jesus had told them. they brought the donkey and the colt, then they laid their cloaks on their backs and he took his seat on them. great crowds of people spread their cloaks on the road, while others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in his path. the crowds who went in front of him and those who followed were all shouting:

"hosanna to the son of david! blessed is he who is coming in the name of the lord!"

and when he entered jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil as people asked, 'who is this?' and the crowds answered, 'this is the prophet jesus from nazareth in galilee.'

jesus then went into the temple and drove out all those who were selling and buying there; he upset the tables of the money-changers and the seats of the dove-sellers.
he said to them, 'according to scripture, my house will be called a house of prayer; but you are turning it into a bandits' there were also blind and lame people who came to him in the temple, and he cured them. at the sight of the wonderful things he did and of the children shouting, 'hosanna to the son of david' in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes were indignant and said to him, 'Do you hear what they are saying?' jesus answered, 'yes. Have you never read this: By the mouths of children, babes in arms, you have made sure of praise?'" (njb)

this passage recalls another story from matthew, which we were reading less than three months ago: the story of the earlier herod's attempt to eliminate the new-born king by killing all the male children less than two years old (matthew 2:16), a story remembered in the beautiful coventry carol.

but herod had failed, and the children are here to remind us of his failure, a reminder also of matthew's literary prowess. it is the children who once again are annoying those in power, the children are central to they hymn we sing each year on palm sunday: "all glory, laud and honor, to thee redeemer king, to whom the lips of children make sweet hosannas ring." no one's hossana's were sweeter than anna's.