by Rev. Sara Bartlett
They brought the donkey and the colt, and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while other cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him, and those that followed shouted ‘Hosanna to the son of David!’” —Matthew 21:6-9A
…hope is subversive, for it limits the grandiose pretension of the present, daring to announce that to which we have committed ourselves is now called into question.” —Rev. Walter Brueggemann, from The Prophetic Imagination.
Hope can be hard to invite into our space, into our selves, into our souls as there are so many reasons to instead hold fear. Fear of the unknown can hold us from hope, but there is also the very human response of the fear that comes from feeling overwhelmed by the world’s suffering. We might ask ourselves, “will we as humans ever exist in a peace-filled, grace-giving, just world?”
When we encounter a sense that hope is lost, we must find those ways of re-connecting with it. One place we can look to are sacred stories, for they remind us of the hope that arrives in most subversive ways of living into our lives, and the lives of others.
In the Christian tradition, we explore the gift of Palm Sunday’s subversive hope. On this day, Christians honor the arrival of Jesus in through the gate to Jerusalem (meaning “City of Peace”) and his challenge to the status quo, his challenge to a society which enabled hunger of the body and spirit. For Jesus’ arrival on the donkey spoke to his humbleness, his desire to be with those who live on the margins of society—the sick, the poor, women, children—and arrive through a gate ready to meet a man who arrived on the other side of Jerusalem, through another gate. This man was named Pilate, one who represented the Roman Empire, who wanted to live in the power of society, this man who arrived on a horse.
A donkey vs. a horse. One man arrives humble, speaking to those who desire a just world where they are fed, another man arrives on a horse, speaking to those who want power in a world where they don’t care if others are fed. A world of love where all are equal vs. a world where one group dominates another.
Now, if you know the story, you know that Jesus was arrested, was tortured, and ultimately died by suffocation. This might seem like Jesus lost, his subversive hope didn’t work, love didn’t win.
But every year we can ask ourselves, what animal do we ride in on, the donkey or the horse? What can we continually do to bring in love to the world? How do we feed ourselves and others? Hope is not found for us, hope is found in us: we are hope. What we decide to do with our spaces, our souls, our selves, that is where hope lives on, it is where fear no longer is part of the human story of suffering.
Jesus’ subversive arrival in Jerusalem might seem like it was a hopeless journey that didn’t end well, but up ahead, in a place not yet revealed to those walking with Jesus riding the donkey, was the transformation, a transformation which brought the words from Jesus in his new form: “peace be with you my friends.” A reminder that the empire ultimately did not win. Instead love, peace, grace, and hope always win. Always.
Rev. Bartlett is a graduate of Andover Newton, now part of Yale Divinity and is the pastor and teacher of the Parish Church in Alfred, Maine. She serves on the Board of the United Church of Christ’s Maine Conference, is a chaplain at Pilgrim Lodge (an outdoor ministry camp), serves as Chair of the UCC York Association’s missions committee, and in the past served as a community chaplain at Bates College, and on call chaplain at Maine Medical Center. She is a trained facilitator for the UCC/UU human sexuality program Our Whole Lives, and is always willing to volunteer as “Chaplain of the Day,’ for the Maine House of Representatives. Rev. Bartlett currently lives in Auburn, Maine with her husband Jeremiah, sons Josh (16) and Tristan (6). Completing the family is their dog Amelia, and cat Merlin. Her places of hope are found by the ocean, walking in the woods, and in reading a good book.
