Gospel: Mark 11: 1-10
Today we meet a crowd of foreigners who have come from Galilee and beyond for the feast of Passover. They are familiar with Jesus, for he has been among them healing their sick, feeding their hungry, eating at table with them. They follow him into Jerusalem for the feast and in doing so provide Jesus with a certain protection for a time from those who would do him harm. This crowd will be sad later in the week when Jesus is put to death.
A very different crowd will appear later in the week, a crowd organized by religious leaders who have conspired against Jesus. This crowd will arrest Jesus under cover of darkness. They will conduct a sham trial under cover of darkness. Then, they will bring Jesus secretly to Pilate and urge the Romans to execute him outside the city gates.
With which crowd will we stand and identify? Will today's crowd be ours, the one that came to give thanksgiving for Jesus' ministry and love for them, the one that would like to live and act as he did? Or will our crowd be that of the religious leaders who seek the death of Jesus, the one that will choose a violent revolutionary and allegiance to imperial power over the Prince of Peace? Holy week is election week. It is our time to choose where we stand.
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