Song "Make Way"
God of life we give thanks
For your wonderful world
For blackbirds and sparrows
For seagulls and robins
For worms and snails
For bees and beetles
For tadpoles and frogs
For your lasting love.
Reflection on Matthew 21v1-11
Jesus' entry into Jerusalem introduces the final days of his ministry prior to his arrest and crucifixion. Jesus spent at least a week in Jerusalem, from Palm Sunday to Easter. He was arrested and crucified at the final Jewish feast of Passover.
Jesus has told his disciples to leave the road and go to Bethany and there they will find the donkey. Jesus or somebody on his behalf has made arrangements with the owner and Jesus underlines his intention to return the animal to its owner when the task is finished. The animal is tethered out in the street, rather than in a stable or yard, ready to be picked up as arranged. They found the colt untied it and there were some people standing there who questioned the disciples actions. “What are you doing?” They answered, "The lord/master has need of it", which satisfied the bystanders. It smacks of an eye witness account and adds to the story’s truth, its authenticity. They threw their cloaks over it in place of a saddle and people spread out, strew branches - bits of straw, rushes, olive and palm branches.
Jesus was surrounded by people and they started to cry "Hosanna", which means, save us we pray, save us now. This was the pilgrims' blessing of Psalm 118:25-26. So Jesus is acclaimed by the people as the messiah and they are shouting Hosanna in the highest.
The context of the ride into Jerusalem we remember from John’s gospel, is the healing and raising from the dead of Lazarus. Why else would the people suddenly recognize who Jesus was...Why else would they process and chant in such a manner? Mary the sister of Lazarus recognized this when she took the perfume and poured it over Jesus "for the day of his burial"(John 12v7). The plot has thickened, the chief priests are planning to kill Jesus and Lazarus because of this raising from the dead, missing the big picture!
And so you get this commotion, this riot, this revolution.
When the secret is out, Jesus fully acknowledges who he is. In using the donkey he knows he is fulfilling the prophecies in the Old Testament about the Jewish Messiah. He enjoyed for a moment the adulation and the full meaning of him, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. For a moment the mood was different. And the disciples did not understand what was going on until they looked back on events.
Jesus has stirred up such feelings in people that some love him, worship him and some are threatened by him, because he is too powerful for them, too good, too popular. But hang on a moment don’t we have these thoughts too. Aren’t there people we hate, envy because they show us up and they’re more popular than us, nicer than us? Do we sometimes hurt them, consciously or unconsciously? Maybe there are people in our own families, amongst our friends at work, even in the church, who we feel in two minds about, or even in one nasty mind.
Time and time again the gospels tell us that Jesus knew the people and the implication is that he knew they were not sincere. It is the knowledge of a mature person. Someone who could self reflect. And how right he was. Do we know ourselves?
Unless we really understand this, we as Christians tend to become Pharisees, defined by our good works and feeling better than other people. This is not the gospel! We are all sinners, all on a level. We can all be forgiven and feel Gods peace and live new lives putting behind our old selves.
These crazy pilgrims that followed Jesus on the first Palm Sunday and recognized who he was were passionate. Maybe we need their passion. It will not come from cajoling. It will not come from sermons. It will come when something touches your life. It will come in prayer, in silence, through really hearing the gospels and through seeing love in action or being loved.
It may come through the difficult time we are going through. Maybe this will knock sense into us about what is really important in life.
May God be with us and our flakiness, our duplicity at this time. May God shape us to become more than our lowest selves and to let God work in us. Amen
Song “Hosanna”
The eyes of the blind will be opened
The ears of the deaf will be unstopped
The lame shall leap like a deer
And the tongue of the dumb shall sing.
