In 2010 I attended the Passion Play in Oberammergau. What an amazing event! The Passion is divided into two parts and takes most of the day - morning and afternoon, or afternoon and evening. The performance we went to was afternoon and evening so it started in the day light and ended at night.
The Play begins with the entry into Jerusalem. The stage is huge and it was filled with hundreds of people - men, women and children; soldiers, priests; animals - live camels, sheep, goats, chickens, doves - all milling around. And they weren't waving palm fronds - they had huge branches of trees.
Mary Oliver - The Poet Thinks About the Donkey
On the outskirts of Jerusalem
the donkey waited.
Not especially brave, or filled with understanding,
he stood and waited.
How horses, turned out into the meadow,
leap with delight!
How doves, released from their cages,
clatter away, splashed with sunlight!
But the donkey, tied to a tree as usual, waited.
Then he let himself be led away.
Then he let the stranger mount.
Never had he seen such crowds!
And I wonder if he at all imagined what was to happen.
Still, he was what he had always been: small, dark, obedient.
I hope, finally, he felt brave.
I hope, finally, he loved the man who rode so lightly upon him,
as he lifted one dusty hoof and stepped, as he had to, forward.
The only calm spot was Jesus on the donkey.
He is who they had come to see, their Saviour! The one who was going to save them from Rome! The prophet from Nazareth! They are looking for the One who will bring salvation and hope.
They were not looking for "Gentle Jesus Meek and Mild". They wanted the political activist. The one who would strike down their enemies and lead them with power. Actually they didn't get either of those figures.
They got the Son of God who came to save them in God's way, not their way.
And so they turned on him. And we move on through Holy Week through the Last Supper, the Garden, the betrayal, the trial and the Crucifixion.
The Resurrection is the realization that Jesus was right. He had not come to change the world, but to change us.
Amen.
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