Sunday 29 March 2026 | The Rev'd Clare Barrie
Homily based on:
Matthew 27:11-54
May I speak in the name of God, +creating, redeeming, sanctifying.
+ + +
It is our tradition on Palm Sunday to hear the story of Jesus’ Passion. This day is a hinge between the journey of Lent and the more intense days of Holy Week. And it is also our custom not to preach a full sermon, but simply to let the story dwell in our hearts and minds.
So I will offer only a few brief comments this morning.
Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem was intended as a statement. The gospel is very clear: when Jesus rode into the city, the crowds greeted him as a returning king. The hosannas they shout carry both religious and political overtones. They greet him as God’s Messiah and expect him to overthrow the Romans. And though this is not Jesus’ intention, the Romans take note.
This helps to explain why Jesus was crucified. It was not just an accident. It was not only because he offended the religious authorities of the day. It was because he proclaimed the kingdom of God, and called people to give their deepest allegiance not to empire, but to God. He was, in other words, a political threat.
But those who welcomed Jesus with shouts of joy misunderstood his promise. He had not come to bring regime change by violence. He came to reveal the love of God poured out for the world: a love that breaks down the divisions we create, and teaches us to see ourselves and one another as God’s beloved.
And in a disturbing sense, the religious and political authorities recognise something real: Jesus is indeed a threat. He threatens our habit of defining ourselves over and against others. He threatens the way we seek to secure our future by hoarding wealth and power. He threatens our habit of drawing lines and making rules about who is acceptable and who is not.
But they are wrong in thinking that this threat can be eliminated by violence. Jesus’ resurrection affirms that God’s love is stronger than hate, and God’s life is stronger than death.
Today Jesus continues to threaten our reliance on anything other than God’s love and mercy — our wealth, position, political identity, good works, relationships, or even our limitations and life tragedies.
What is hard about this message is that all of us, at times, build our identity and try to secure our future on things other than God.
But the blessing of this message is that none of those things are up to the job.
No matter what else we trust in, we will finally be disappointed, because only God can declare us not merely acceptable, but blessed and beloved. Jesus’ journey to the cross shows us just how far he was willing to go to demonstrate God’s unconditional love, acceptance, and solidarity. Jesus journeyed — and journeys still — into the depths of human struggle and suffering, so that we might know there is no darkness in this world beyond his reach.
Amen.