Peace March

Zechariah 9: 9 - 10

Psalm 122

Luke 19: 29 - 46


What a peculiar story we repeat year after year, ushering in the remembrance of a series of events in the life and ultimately death of Jesus.

 

Repetition helps us to keep the story close so that we might use it as a lens for our seeing. For our seeing how God has moved. How God still moves. How God will move in the world around us.

 

And so let’s revisit the story. Let’s do our work to begin to remember the chain of events.

 

Jesus has been out and about for three years, teaching in towns and villages, fields and valleys. He’s gathered a small group of men, chosen to learn from him and carry his teaching forward.  

 

And as he’s taught, the crowds that gather around him have gotten bigger and bigger.

 

Absent print media, social media…word about this man and his teaching has traveled far beyond his footsteps. He’s become something of a celebrity. People travel to hear him. He’s got a fan base. He creates a stir.

 

And now he’s turned his face toward Jerusalem. He’s spoken with his disciples about things that have to happen, but they don’t seem to fully understand.  They don’t seem to want to hear that something hard has to happen. That this trajectory that they are on has to change.

 

There is a plan. Jesus tells his disciples to go find a colt that has never been ridden tied to a tree. 

 

And when its owner asks what you are doing, Jesus says, let them know the Lord needs it.

 

Now these good Jewish folks traveling with Jesus would be thinking

   …a colt…riding on a colt…riding into Jerusalem.

 

They would hear in their faith memory and their muscle memory the echoes of the prophet Zechariah:

 

Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!

    Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!

Lo, your king comes to you;

    triumphant and victorious is he,

humble and riding on a donkey,

    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

 

Indeed then, as the disciples find and untie the colt, the owner asks why, and they are able to deliver Jesus’ message to the owner.  

 

The Lord needs it.

 

The Lord needs it.

 

Now I suspect the owner is thinking…the Lord needs my colt.  Caesar wouldn’t be riding on a donkey.  Something stirs in his memory about a king on a donkey.

 

And again, I suspect that good Jewish owner of the colt hears the echoes of the prophet Zechariah. 

 

Maybe he tells his family, his neighbors what he has seen and heard and contributed

…the previously unridden foal of a donkey.

 

And once the disciples have brought the colt to Jesus, they spread their cloaks upon it. And the text actually says, “they set Jesus on it.”

 

You know, for a traveling band of teachers and healers that have walked dusty roads, this suddenly feels out of place. It suddenly feels like pomp and circumstance. A little bit like theatre.

 

As they begin to travel the road toward Jerusalem, down from the Mount of Olives, people begin to gather…and they gather shouting hope and praise. Cloaks are being spread before him.  There is excitement in the air. 

 

Hope. Celebration.

 

What did those who gather know? Or what was their hope?

 

Author Brian McLaren paints the contrasting image of Jesus entering into the city on a colt with peasant crowds shouting their support, their testimony. Sharp contrast to Caesar entering in through another gate, on a big strong war horse, flanked by the military and state officials. 

 

Did the people gathering observe this contrast?

Did the disciples see this contrast?

Did they really understand all of the things they were seeing and feeling?

 

The crowd continues to grow larger and louder. Closer and closer to the city gate.

 

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD! Hosanna! Hosanna! 

 

If you listen hard, maybe you can hear contemporary echoes…

We shall overcome.

Lift ev’ry voice and sing,

‘Til earth and heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;

 

But the pharisees are alarmed by the noise and the size of the gathering crowd.

Teacher, order your disciples to stop, they say.

 

Before they get to the city, this clamor must be stopped.

 

As if…as if Jesus can get them to stop. 

Stop remembering what they have learned over these past years.

Stop remembering what God has placed in their hearts as they have learned and followed. As they have seen differently.

Stop what God has started.

 

Stop saying there is a power higher than Caesar. 

Than currency. Than economies and governments. 

Stop saying the meek will inherit the earth.

Stop saying that this man is the Son of God.

Stop saying that the person who looks different is my neighbor and is to be loved.

Stop saying that there is enough power in love to change the world. To bring about a new kind of Kingdom.

 

But Jesus knows that the secret is out…those who know, know.

Even if these people were silent, the very earth would sing out – 

There is a power greater than Caesar.

The meek will inherit the earth.

This man is the Son of God.

The person who looks different is my neighbor.

There is enough power in love to save the world, to bring about a new kin-dom.

 

Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

 

In this moment, there is a palpable vibration of hope and recognition, outside the walls of the city.

 

But the Pharisees are seeking a peace that resembles quiet, acquiescence, assent. Especially inside the city gates.

 

Jesus knows peace has nothing to do with silence. 

Peace has nothing to do with quietly accepting oppression, occupation, greed, dogma.

Peace has little to do with anything but LOVE.

 

As Jesus looks out over the city, before he enters the gates, he weeps. 

He weeps because the peace understood in this moment by these followers is fleeting.  It won’t last. It won’t hold. 

Other forces are at work. 

Forces that don’t understand God’s peace – a peace that has only to do with love. 

 

He speaks to Jerusalem herself…

If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! 

 

And then Jesus speaks about how the city will ultimately be destroyed.

…because Jerusalem failed to recognize how God and God’s love was with them.

 

Drawing on language found throughout the Hebrew scriptures, he bemoans the failure of the people to recognize God at work.

 

And so what began with shouting and joy turns…

We don’t really get to see how the shouts turn in real time.

 

Was it before the band of followers reached the city gate? 

After the Pharisees interfered, did the crowd begin to doubt?

Was it as followers watched Jesus weep?

Was it before Jesus entered the Temple and drove out the merchants and money-changers that were there? Selling in the Temple, operating an economy that made bank on the culture of sacrifice?

 

We don’t really know where the energy changes, gives way, gives out.

 

Becomes anxiety.

Becomes anger.

Becomes doubt.

 

How quickly faith turns to doubt when challenged.

How quickly…

 

(Silence)

 

From the letter to the church at Philippi:

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God,

    did not regard equality with God

    as something to be exploited,

but emptied himself,

    taking the form of a slave,

    being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

    he humbled himself…

 

 

 

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