Palm Sunday Wasn’t a Celebration, it was an Act of Civil Disobedience

As wealth continued to become concentrated in the hands of the few, the more the masses became exploited for their labor, and were pushed to the margins of society. While the personal estates of the wealthy grew, the ordinary person fell into greater debt. Families that once owned their land lost it to foreclosure. Former home and business owners became permanent tenants living in other people's homes, working on other people’s land. The worst part was that the concentration of wealth and economic exploitation was justified through religious legitimation.

No, I’m not referring to the current state of America in 2025. What the above paragraph describes is first-century Jerusalem. Throughout human history, all civilizations have created domination systems. As the description above highlights, these systems always consist of 3 components:

1. Concentration of wealth
2. Economic exploitation
3. Religious legitimization

When we hear Palm Sunday taught in Sunday Schools and Sermons, it is often presented as a celebration. In my experience, it is usually treated as an impromptu parade celebrating Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem. In truth, Palm Sunday was not at all a celebration or parade. It was Jesus’ most significant act of civil disobedience against the Roman domination system that was oppressing the masses, exploiting the most vulnerable, and using the Jewish temple as the source of theological legitimacy.

Rebuilding the Temple with Ambition and Ruthlessness

To understand how the temple in Jerusalem played a central role in perpetuating the Roman domination system, we have to understand some historical context. To start, we must realize the reign and legacy of an Idumean man named Herod. Most people recognize this Herod as Herod the Great. He was appointed ‘King of the Jews’ by Rome and was a man full of ambition and ruthlessness.

Though history often remembers Herod as “Herod the Great,” most Jews living in Jerusalem during his reign referred to him as “Herod the Monstrous.” Herod demonstrated his ambition and ruthlessness through a massive remodeling project meant to transform his kingdom, including Jerusalem.

Outside of Jerusalem, he built a huge all-weather port on the coast of Caesarea Maritima. He also built fortresses and palaces at Masada, Herodium, Jericho, and Machareus. He also built many temples throughout his kingdom in honor of Caesar Augustus.

Within Jerusalem, Herod built for himself a massive palace. Herod’s palace was adorned with colored columns made of marble, multiple fountains, shaded pools, gold-painted ceilings, chairs covered in jewels, and mosaic floors. Herod’s palace was also used to house Roman governors who visited Jerusalem, including Pontius Pilate.

The other massive project that took place in Jerusalem was the remodeling of the Jewish Temple. The temple was a shell of its former self, reconstructed by Jewish pilgrims returning to the land under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah. Under Herod’s remodeling project, multiple courts and elegant colonnades made of marble and gold were constructed around the temple. By the end of the reconstruction project, the temple grounds covered more than 40 acres and were often referred to as the most magnificent temple in the Roman Empire.

Religion’s Role in Justifying Oppression

For some, reading how the Jewish temple was taken from a former shell of Solomon’s original design and restored to its former glory, brings thoughts of praise that God was still taking care of His ‘chosen people.’ Some may even read the above and think, “See, God can even use cruel and self-consumed leaders to bring about His will.”

Though I disagree with this perspective, I understand it. Before anyone praises the restoration of the Jewish temple, we need to ask ourselves a few questions.

“Why did Herod restore the Jewish temple? Where did he get the funds to complete this project? Why did Jewish leadership go along with it?

Let me say upfront, Herod did not restore the temple out of the goodness of his heart, or out of some desire to worship the Jewish God. For Herod, this project needed to happen for three reasons:

1. It made him look good in the eyes of Rome.
2. Remodeling the temple was good for business, as Jews traveled to Jerusalem yearly as part of a pilgrimage for Passover. The bigger the temple, the more tithes could be collected, which are also known as a “temple tax.” The same temple tax that infuriated Jesus led to another one of his acts of civil disobedience: flipping the money changers’ tables.
3. Collecting taxes ensured Herod and the Jerusalem elite could live in luxury while keeping Rome off their backs by ensuring the empire received its cut.

Herod was able to pay for the remodeling of the temple from a tried and true method used by all domination systems: economic exploitation. While the Hebrew Bible prohibited the buying or selling of agricultural land to ensure every family had a way to provide for themselves, Herod found a way to subvert this practice. The two ways Herod expertly used to get around confiscating land funds for his projects were by using a loophole that allowed the king to seize land. The second was by confiscating or “foreclosing” on land when a family could not fully pay off debt.

Essentially, Herod created a system where the non-elite would have to get into debt to exist. The more debt a family went into, the more likely they would never be able to pay it off, thus ensuring Herod could confiscate their land, sell it, and use those funds for his building projects. For those ready to praise God for a twisted ends justify the means way of using Herod to rebuild the temple, are you also going to praise God for the economic exploitation on which this project was built?

Here’s the real kicker. Why did the Jewish leadership go along with this plan? The same reason anyone would be willing to go along with a plan like this is that they benefited from it. Along with the Hebrew Bible teaching that agricultural land could not be bought or sold, priests were prohibited from owning land. Nevertheless, as Herod confiscated land and built wealth, the high priests and scribes benefited socially and monetarily by using temple theology to legitimize Herod’s behavior.

By attaching themselves to Herod, the Jewish leadership became part of the elite class and was able to live lives of luxury. All they had to do was use their platform to legitimize Herod’s behavior and ensure Rome received its financial cut through the temple taxes they collected.

Jesus’ Revolutionary Act of Civil Disobedience

This is the cultural situation Jesus finds himself in as he rides into Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday. Jesus wasn’t the only anti-temple revolutionary of the time. A Jewish group known as the Essenes protested against the temple's tributary domination system and Rome’s imperial domination system by leaving Jerusalem altogether. Jesus’ mentor and cousin, John the Baptist, preached an anti-temple message.

John’s preaching of the “forgiveness of sins” directly attacked the temple system. According to Jewish belief and practice, the forgiveness of sins could only be mediated in the temple by offering a sacrifice. By proclaiming forgiveness by God outside of the temple system, John completely undermined the system that Herod and the Jewish leaders were using to exploit the masses.

Something often unknown about Palm Sunday is that Jesus wasn’t the only procession coming into Jerusalem that day. In preparation for Passover and the influx of Jewish pilgrims into the city, Rome also had a procession that fateful Sunday. The Roman army, led by the Governor Pontius Pilate, also entered the city to ensure law and order.

Jesus’ procession was an act of civil disobedience, calling on the pilgrims and peasants to make a decision. Which procession would they be a part of? The imperial domination system concentrates wealth and economically exploits, and justifies itself in God's name. Or would they join the procession representing the Kingdom of God, a system built on justice through nonviolent conflict with oppressive authorities, a life led in and through love, and transformation through death and resurrection?

As I write this article, I can’t help but think of how so many Christians, pastors, and parishioners alike are participating in America’s domination system today. Whether they are driven by some false belief in a utopian past they believe we can return to, a false hope in American exceptionalism, or more pragmatic self-preservation. I can’t help but wonder if Donald Trump came riding into average town USA concurrently as Jesus, how many so-called Christians would attend the domination systems procession while wearing their God and Country swag or necklaces with a cross charm.