It doesn’t take much to see why Jesus’ parade makes Pilate nervous, why it might make him see Jesus as a threat to the tender peace of Jerusalem. As the Romans and the ragtag converge in the holy city, we parade into our worship spaces singing “Hosanna,” only to realize we’ve been following Jesus’ hearse—lights blinking, the whole time.

Jesus knows the consequences of what he’s done, riling up a crowd. He knows he has riled up his own funeral procession. He knows these powers of empire will kill him, and yet there he sits, on a donkey, laughing at the devil with a crowd of hungry, desperate, freedom-seeking people.

The words of Katie Kirk-Costas.