Two Very Raucous Crowds Headline Holy Week

Jesus prepares to make his entry into the capitol city of Jersualem from the Mount of Olives.
"Flevit super illam" (He wept over it); by Enrique Simonet, 1892

Newly coronated kings, distinguished rabbis and would be Messiahs were often welcomed into ancient Jerusalem with a rousing parade. 

Centuries before Jesus's heralded Palm Sunday entry into the city, his ancestor Solomon, a first "son of David" and Israel's second king, was escorted into the ancient capitol city astride his father David's mount, the royal mule. A cheering throng greeted him with trumpets. cymbals and shouts that were said to shake the earth.

At the time of the first "Palm Sunday" at the beginning of Passover nearly 2000 years ago, Jesus was at the peak of his popularity. As an acclaimed rabbi, prophet and miracle worker, he was hailed as "son of David" by an equally enthusiastic, flag waving (palm branch waving) crowd. It is likely that he entered Jerusalem through the Sheep Gate, in the shadow of the Antonia Fortress from which Roman troops watched for any signs of unrest or insurrection.

The procession was on the very day hundreds of lambs from the surrounding Bethlehem hills were being brought into the temple area through that same gate for Passover sacrifice, the very best, unblemished and specially cared for animals raised solely for that purpose.

As was always the case at Passover, Messianic hopes were at a fever pitch. Throngs of pilgrims from all over the Jewish world gathered for the annual celebration of God's miraculous deliverance from Egyptian oppression a millennium before. Their shouts of Hosanna ("God save us!") was a heartfelt expression of their longing to see another Moses appear to deliver them from the chokehold of Roman rule. Their laying down their cloaks in Jesus's path symbolized their willingness to subject themselves to his authority and rule.

But Jesus's popularity, along with his bold denunciation of the religious elite and the trashing of the tables of the money changers and hucksters in the outer courts of the temple (profiting from the sale of lambs and doves for sacrifice), also aroused extreme ire. Some members of both the political and the religious establishment saw him as a serious threat, which led directly to his arrest and execution just days later.

At his trial, Governor Pilate, offered another raucous crowd a choice between releasing Jesus, the non-violent Deliverer and Prince of Peace or Jesus Barabbas. Barabbas, often portrayed as a common criminal, was most likely a notorious Zealot member of the insurrectionist group intent on overthrowing the Roman army by force, just as their Maccabean heroes had overthrown the Syrians and ushered in a century of independence several generations earlier.

So in Holy Week, three competing world's meet and collide:

1) The world of the Roman empire and the temple establishment, representing the status quo, offering a measure of security and stability, but at the cost of oppression and subjugation for all but a privileged few.

2) The world of anti-government insurrectionists, represented by Jesus Barabbas, a revolutionary freedom fighter and violent seditionist.

3) The new non-violent reign of God ushered in through a Servant-King willing to sacrifice his life to bring shalom and healing to all the world's lost and oppressed, destined to be not only the Lamb of God, but King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Sadly, then as now, the majority of people choose the way of Barabbas.