(Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Three Parades”,
originally shared on March 25, 2026. It was the 405th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams
of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my
wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)
Parades were once an expression of community identity. That they have become fewer in number and less substantial is not surprising. Today, we’re going to look at three that create Christian identity.
Why? Because people weren’t coming to Good Friday services (crucifixion)
much less Maundy Thursday services (foot washing, beginning of Holy Communion,
giving of the new commandment to love one another as God loves us, and the
stripping of the altar).
Palm Sunday has followed the downward trend that parades have, and for
the same reason: the loss of our identity.
Do
you like parades? There are two parades that have shaped our lives forever. And
a third one that will. And all three are all about our identity as children of
God.
I’m sure you
have seen parades. Have you ever seen one live? Have you ever been in a
parade?
Have you ever
seen a parade that started because people were so excited that the whole
community was in turmoil? That’s the one we’re going to focus on today.
I love a parade! Especially one with marching bands. They are why I
started playing drums.
I remember watching the Memorial Day Parade in my hometown, Manitowoc,
Wisconsin, as a child. I remember standing at the curb, hearing the rumble of
the percussion coming closer and closer, and my excitement growing.
I remember feeling the thumps on my chest as it drew nearer, the
staccato pulse of the snare drums, the crash of the cymbals, and the massive thud
of the big bass drums.
I wanted to do that!
I tapped out rhythms on every surface I found in front of me for years.
Actually, I still do that. 😊
I made my own drums out of empty cardboard boxes, Quaker Oats
containers, my legs, whatever I could find. I destroyed the child’s drum set my
parents bought me for Christmas when I was in 5th Grade playing
“Rock Around the Clock”.
I played a violin for a year because our school system started its
orchestra program a year before its band program, and I thought it would help
me learn to read music.
When I couldn’t play drums because I didn’t own a concert snare drum, I
played mellophone (a French horn with trumpet valves) for a summer until my dad
talked with the high school band director, who sold him a surplus used drum
from the high school band.
I started practicing on a practice pad and played that snare drum. I
moved immediately into first chair and stayed there for four years, all the way
through high school. I still have that drum.
I became that guy who played the drums, marching down the same
street where I had been a spectator, but now I was in the parade.
When I chipped my left wrist vaulting over a “horse” in gym class, I
wore a groove into my cast and played in the parade anyway.
I saved up and bought a Ludwig “Super Classic” drum set with the silver
sparkle finish, just like Joe Morello’s, the drummer with The Dave Brubeck
quartet.
I took it to college and played in jazz bands through college and
seminary and beyond. Playing drums had become a part of who I was, my identity.
And
it all started with a parade. Today, we’re going to see the Christian
message in three of them.
Parades bring people together, whether they are in the parade or
watching it. They create a sense of focus, an expression of identity, and a
common experience, even a common cause.
That
brings us to today’s first parade: Jesus entered Jerusalem at the head of a
parade. He would be dead in just a few days, but for that shining moment he
brought people together, at least some of the people anyway. He knew that he
would die there, but he rode into town like a champ.
Here’s what happened, in Matthew 21:1-11
1When they had come near Jerusalem and had
reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2saying to them, “Go into the village
ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her;
untie them and bring them to me. 3If
anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will
send them immediately.” 4This took place to fulfill what had been
spoken through the prophet, saying, 5“Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your
king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal
of a donkey.” 6The disciples went and did as Jesus had
directed them; 7they brought the donkey and the colt, and
put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8A very large crowd spread their cloaks on
the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the
road. 9The crowds that went ahead of him and
that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one
who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 10When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city
was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” 11The crowds were saying, “This is the
prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”
I don’t know if there were any bands in that parade, but I imagine small
children watching, running along with it on the sides. Caught up in the
excitement, finding branches to throw in his donkey’s path. Asking their
parents if they could throw their outer clothing onto the path for Jesus’s
donkey, like they saw that some of the adults were doing, and hearing a firm, “No”.
I imagine that
it was exciting, but that it was also kind of scary. Who were these people?
Crowds can become mobs, and mobs can go out of control, they can get
destructive.
But here he
came, Jesus. The Messiah? The one they had been waiting for for 1,000 years? A
deliverer, but from what? Deliverance from the Roman empire’s army of
occupation (the empire threw palm branches to greet successful military
leaders)? Something else?
Was the
excitement contagious, or did many look at it with horror, or indifference? Did
they think that the Messiah was coming as a military leader to organize a
violent resistance against the Roman occupation: one quick surprise attack to
knock them on their heels and get rid of them?
How did Jesus
feel, riding into Jerusalem like that? What did he think about the cheers of
the crowds?
Was it big
news in the big city?
Today,
“Breaking News!” barely registers. It’s usually a new twist on old news. Unless
it’s something truly life-changing, it will be forgotten after the 24-hour news
cycle. He did seem to draw a crowd, though.
But Jesus knew
that crowds are fickle.
Jesus knew
what was about to happen. He knew about the deadly violence that he was about
to experience.
Jesus knew
that much of that crowd that was shouting “Hosanna!” on Sunday would be
shouting “Crucify him!” on Friday.
I wonder if Jesus felt a momentary urge to just end the chain of events
that he knew was coming, right there. To just stop with the cheers, and spend
the rest of his life as a popular rabbi, a miracle worker.
But he didn’t.
Someone posted a poem on a Facebook page for Lutheran pastors a while
back that began,
“We want the war horse
Jesus rides a donkey”
In
Jesus’ physical time on earth kings rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, not
a war horse, to show that they came in peace. Palm branches were waved as a
sign of goodness and victory.
Why did Jesus
ride into town on a donkey? Was it a conscious reference to the Old Testament
prophecy, as we read in Zechariah 9:9?,
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
I think that
he had a particular kind of triumph and victory in mind, just not what the
crowds expected.
He chose to
ride a donkey as a symbol of humble service: death on the cross, because he
resisted the temptation to take the easy way.
He got that
donkey when the disciples just went and untied it and, when the owners asked
them to explain, they said “The Lord needs it”. And they said, “OK”!
How did that
happen?!
Either I’m
missing something, or it was another world back then.
Did they know
about Jesus? Was he that respected, that popular? Jesus had a lot of disciples
outside of his inner circle of twelve and his second circle of seventy.
The Bible says
that a “multitude” of his disciples began to loudly praise God. Right there. In
broad daylight. In public. It
says that when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil. What
would it take to put a whole city in turmoil?
Jerusalem at the time of Jesus had an estimated population of 55,000
under normal circumstances, and 180,000 (some estimates go much higher) during
major festivals like Passover, which was going on when Jesus was crucified.
That’s a lot of turmoil!
But it’s easy
to follow Jesus when he’s there at the head of the parade. Top of the charts.
It’s harder
when he’s headed to the top of the cross.
That brings
us to the second parade, the parade of Jesus to the cross.
The governor’s
soldiers humiliated and tortured Jesus. Then this happens in Matthew
27:31-37,
31 After mocking him, they stripped him of the robe
and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.
32 As they went out, they came upon a man from
Cyrene named Simon; they compelled this man to carry his cross. 33 And when they came to a place called
Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), 34 they
offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall; but when he tasted it, he would not
drink it. 35 And when they had
crucified him, they divided his clothes among themselves by casting lots; 36 then they sat down there and kept watch over
him. 37 Over his head they put the charge against
him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”
Do you know
how many of the “multitude” who were in or who watched the Palm Sunday parade
followed Jesus all the way to the cross?
Zero. That’s
right. Zero. The power of that parade, the one we celebrate as “Palm Sunday”,
was very temporary. Jesus knew that.
His humble service
would change everything. It would lead to the salvation of all who put their
trust in Jesus to save them, to transform them, to produce a life of love for
others in response to the sacrificial love of God in Jesus Christ for us. But
that’s a story for next week, a week of love and shame. Holy Week.
I don’t want
to say much more than that today, I encourage you to go into the valley next
week, the valley of Holy Week, with Jesus. Find a Maundy Thursday service and
worship God there. Find a Good Friday Service and worship God there. Find your
identity. Let the Holy Spirit restore you as a Christian. Steep in it. Feel it.
It’s the only way to understand the glory of Easter!
It’s also a
story that doesn’t end with Holy Week. In fact, it doesn’t come to its end at
all but to its beginning, a beginning that happens much later.
That brings
us to the third parade, the parade of those who are in the end being saved
through faith by Jesus Christ for all eternity. The parade of the multitudes
who believe and are baptized, who do not desert Jesus at the end, but the
multitudes who are received into his perfect presence forever.
We get a
glimpse, in Revelation 7:9-10,
9 After this I looked, and there
was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all
tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the
Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. 10 They cried out in a loud voice,
saying,
“Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to
the Lamb!”
Salvation
belongs to God and God gives it to all who receive it in faith, in a living
relationship with the one true living God that transforms lives.
So, as
community identity flounders and parades decline in number, participants, and
crowds, we offer three parades. They form our identity as the
children of God and, as long as our focus is on them and on what they
tell us, we have something better to offer the world.
We offer a way
of living that is truly life. We offer what we have first received by the grace
of God in Jesus Christ on the cross.
We provide the
communities we serve with the sense of connection and transcendence that our
culture so desperately needs. We live by it, we offer it, we communicate it,
and we grow by invitation to it. We serve others in response to it.
We introduce
Jesus for a second chance, a new life, for transformation through a living
relationship with God for to all who will receive it!
That is the
gift of God in Jesus Christ shown to us in three parades: the one where
Jesus triumphally enters Jerusalem, the one where Jesus goes to be the only
acceptable sacrifice for the sins of humanity, and the big one, the big parade,
the one where, having received the gift of God in faith and in trust in Jesus
as our only savior, and are thereby drawn to him before the throne of God,
forever.
Three parades:
Palms, Passion, and Perpetuity!
This coming
Sunday we will enter the valley.
Holy Week will
arrive, but Easter is coming!
Share the good news.
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