Over the years, one of my favorite musical artists has been The Lumineers.  They wrote a song called “Big Parade” back in 2012 on the first album I owned of theirs, and the words instantly popped into my head on Sunday when Justin described several parade scenes.

Each verse of the song follows a different float in the parade: first, a political candidate rolling through in his black armoured car, closed off to the crowd, but still maintaining the prideful stance of a victorious candidate.  The second verse describes a float full of beauty queens, adorned with dazzling diamonds and white gloves, but covering up their sickness from their lifestyle of drinking and nightclubs. Then comes a boxing champ, appearing to be calling the shots in all his matches, but dealing behind the scenes to lose fights when he’s told so the bookies make a bigger score.  The fourth float holds a Catholic priest who decides to leave the church because he’s in love with a woman.  And the taunting words come across in this verse saying, “Torn between romance and Jesus, who will win the civil war?” Finally, the last float holds a rockstar who sings songs for the lonely, but gives his room keys to the girls who memorize all his lyrics - any girl that will idolize him.

Each float in the parade represents a different aspect of a worldly life: power, beauty/sex, money and greed, romance and shallow love, and fame. The words in the song approach each verse with a poetic style, which makes you first imagine every float with great anticipation and excitement, just as you would if you were there waiting for the floats to pass you by. But as the floats continue to pass, you hear of the underlying issues with all of these characters and clearly see just how empty their lives really are.

On Sunday, we read about the Triumphal Entry of Jesus at the start of Holy Week. The crowd’s anticipation was for one who would come in great power, maybe looking a lot like those on the floats that The Lumineers imagined: strong, popular, someone to admire and idolize as their savior from a tyrannical government and oppressive life. And that’s the crowd’s response, too, praising Jesus, crying out to him, because they believed this parade was leading to a salvation through government overthrow.

Justin reminded us that the entry into Holy Week through the Triumphal Entry is one that leads to an unexpected salvation.  While Jesus comes riding in on a donkey, palm leaves and cloaks are laid down for him, and people declare Him Lord, the big parade looks like it's hosted for one powerful man that will defend the people.  But this parade is leading to the death of a humble Messiah, one that is bringing salvation through his own blood spilled, through a humiliating mockery and torture, and through a gory public death.

The Lumineers song begins and ends with a chorus that says:

            “Lovely girl won’t you stay, won’t you stay, stay with me?

            All my life I was blind, I was blind, now I see.

Lovely girl won’t you stay, won’t you stay, stay with me?

            All my life I was blind, I was blind, now I see.”

And their final verse, their final parade float, is about this girl:  

            “Oh my my, oh hey hey,

            Here she comes by saving grace.

            Burn the car and save the plates,

            She’s arrived, my saving grace.”

I don’t think the Lumineers intended to imply any Gospel-centered message through their song, but I think we can clearly see some parallels to the Triumphal Entry of Jesus and the end result of this imagined parade.  Throughout the song, the idea is that the people watching are looking for every float to hold salvation, a Messiah, but every float is a disappointment, until the last.  And what does the last float hold for the songwriter?  A lovely girl named to be his saving grace.

As Jesus enters Jerusalem, the anticipation builds and the expectation that He will fulfill the people’s need for deliverance from worldly rulers is what’s celebrated.  But disappointment is going to follow when people watch their expectations crushed through the literal death of their foretold Messiah.  Yet, this is the avenue for our saving grace. The parade we enter into now at the beginning of Holy Week is one that leads to death, but that very death is our saving grace.

~Emily Spare