For over five weeks we have been traveling with Jesus toward Jerusalem. Now we are, finally, almost there. We can feel the excitement of this glorious day, there is momentum! But they pause, unexpectedly, near Bethany and Bethphage. There are a few final details to take care of.
Jesus turns to two of his disciples: “Go ahead into the village. You will find a colt tied up. Untie it and bring it here.”
And here we might wonder a few things, including: Is this really okay? That they should just go in and take a colt that belongs to someone else? Might someone object to this?
Yes, actually, Jesus anticipates this, for he also tells them, “If anyone asks you what you are doing just tell them this: ‘the Lord needs it.’”
So they went in and they found the colt. They untied it and, sure enough, someone asked them what they were doing. They followed his instructions to the letter, saying, “The Lord needs it,” and apparently that was good enough.
The whole scene has an air of mystery to it, where somehow Jesus knew just where to find a young donkey. It is an intrigue where there are code words that need to be spoken: The Lord needs it. Well, so it shall be. They come back with the donkey and the procession into Jerusalem begins.
It is a boisterous procession – a parade! As he comes down the road, crowds of people are flocking to him. Many of them lay cloaks out on the ground before him, pretty much like laying down the red carpet for a celebrity. Jesus is a star!
Multitudes came near and “began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, ‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!’”
Careful listeners might have noticed that there are no palms in this version of the story. Nor are there any hosannas, which means “save us!” Those elements we will find in the other gospels. But, no matter, Luke’s version of the entry into Jerusalem is just as triumphant. Maybe a bit more political than divine. A message is being sent and received. Jesus enters the city like a king –
Something that is particularly dangerous for Jesus. Because Jerusalem already has a king and his name is Herod.
This was the time of the Passover, which was a huge event in Jerusalem. It was a time when Jews from all over the diaspora were making their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The city was packed, and tensions were high.
The Roman authorities were there, too. As much as the Jews loved Passover, the Romans hated it. Too many people milling about, too high a risk for a disturbance of the peace – the Pax Romana.
The Romans prized peace above all things. But for Rome, peace meant something different than what it means to me and you. For Rome, peace was their unquestioned, unchallenged authority. For Rome, peace meant that there was no dissent, that there was total obedience and loyalty to the empire. Rome prized their peace and was more than willing to use violence to keep this peace. The irony of this should be self-evident.
The Romans dreaded the Passover – because of the large crowds, of course, but also because of its meaning. The Passover is Israel’s remembrance and celebration of their liberation story. At this time of year Israel remembers that many centuries ago God freed them from the bond of slavery in Egypt. Many centuries ago God chose Moses to lead them out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and to the promised land. They remembered that God had given them freedom. But how could they celebrate this freedom, while suffering under the oppressive boot of the Roman Empire, and not be inspired to resistance? Rome dreaded the Passover for very good reason; they knew there was a heightened risk of uprising.
Around this same time, King Herod was also arriving in Jerusalem. He made a grand entrance through the northern city gate, on a war horse, with his soldiers, armed and astride their horses. He was not there to celebrate the Passover; his presence there was to ensure law and order.
Imagine King Herod making his grand entrance on one side of the city, representing the might of the empire, while Jesus makes his entrance from the eastern gate, near the Mount of Olives, on a donkey.
Everyone knew that this was a dangerous time in Jerusalem. Jesus knew that this was a dangerous time in Jerusalem. Yet he and his entourage entered the city gates, boldly, singing their praises to God and songs for peace – not the peace of Rome, but the peace of heaven.
These are the voices of resistance rising up.
Some of the Pharisees lose their cool; the tension is rising too high. Jesus shouldn’t be making an entrance like this. There are already reasons enough for the Roman authorities to be tightening the screws on the Jews, they don’t need another reason. The Pharisees order Jesus to quiet his disciples. But he says to them, it would make no difference.
It would make not one bit of difference, because the stones would shout out, all of God’s creation would shout praises to God, shout prayers for peace. This is what the Lord needs: the crowds, the shouts, the blessings, the parade, the song of all creation rising up –
Blessed be the king who comes in the name of the Lord! The king.
Now pause for a minute as we look back a few verses. Just before this entry into Jerusalem, Jesus tells a parable about kings:
There was a nobleman who was traveling to a foreign land hoping to be granted a kingdom for himself. He was a despicable man, and the people of his own country went to the trouble of sending a delegation to testify against him.
Before departing he called together his servants and distributed his property among them, instructing them to carry on his business while he is away.
Sometime later, he returned triumphant. He was granted the kingdom he desired and was ready to rule. He called his servants to whom he entrusted his money to find out how profitable they had been for him. The first two had success stories to report. He rewarded them, in exact proportion to how much he profited from them.
But the third man made no profit for the detestable new ruler. He honestly told the ruler that he was afraid, because he knew him to be a harsh man. The king took the money back from this man in disgust, then he ordered all his enemies, of which there were many, to be brought before him and slaughtered in his presence. Proving just how harsh he was. Vengeance is the order of the day.
It is a story that his listeners recognized, because they had seen many such cruel kings. The king in this parable had many names, and the people knew them.
As Jesus continued walking toward Jerusalem, an uneasy question hung in the air: Do you understand the difference between a king of this world and a true king? Will you recognize a true king when you see him? Or will you content yourselves with the kings of this world?
The crowds shout out songs of praise toward Jesus as he rides into the city. They scatter their cloaks on the ground to honor him and lay them on the donkey’s back to make a saddle for him. They sing praises to God and they turn to Jesus and cry out blessings to the one who comes in the name of the Lord. It is a joyful moment.
They shout, even in defiance of the Pharisees who order silence.
At the end of the parade, Jesus sees the city of Jerusalem before him, and he weeps. “O Jerusalem, if you had only recognized the things that make for peace – but now they are hidden from you.”
Now it is too late. The lamb will be sent to the slaughter.
Sometimes all you can do is bear witness. But bearing witness is what we must do.
Now we bear witness to dreadful things. In our nation we are seeing massive, erratic, sometimes sloppy changes being made, all for the sake of improvement. It is a choice our leaders have made, a choice that some of us call necessary and good. I do not disagree that change can be very good, that problems ought to be fixed when possible. I like change and I like making things work better. But in this process, there are things we are witnessing that are very wrong.
We see vengeance and greed and gleeful cruelty. We see lives carelessly cut down. We see our neighbors haphazardly picked up by authorities and taken away to places unknown. We see our friends randomly fired from their jobs, without notice. We see the very notion of treating people with dignity regarded as a sign of weakness.
We have seen these kings before. This king has many names. But is this the kind of king we choose? Is this the kind of king we need?
Two thousand years ago, on the day they approached Jerusalem, the Lord needed the colt, and he needed his disciples to go and get it for him. He needed the people lining the road with their cloaks and shouting, making a loud noise for him, proclaiming the arrival of the king. He needed this loud and insistent act of bearing witness to the world.
And if that failed, he needed the rocks and stones to take up the shouting on his behalf. The Lord needed all of creation to proclaim his name. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!
Many bad things have happened, and more bad things will happen. Will we bear witness to the suffering? Or will we be silent?
What does the Lord need from us?
Picture: I Believe, by Steve Prince, A Sanctified Art, LLC
