Jesus Enters Jerusalem
Jesus Enters Jerusalem
Apr 10, 2022
Luke 19: 28b - 40
The last week of Jesus’ human life began on what we now call Palm Sunday, what we are remembering today. The synoptic gospels report that Jesus focused his ministry in Galilee for most of one-year. Then he took maybe a couple of weeks to walk to Jerusalem, entering on this Sunday of about year 30 – as we now number years.
The biblical record – regarding what the historical Jesus probably did and said does not really make clear what Jesus planned and hoped to accomplish in Jerusalem. His disciples and a lot of his followers seem to have understood that He came into Jerusalem to reestablish Judea and its capital Jerusalem as the political and military center of at least the eastern Mediterranean area – to reestablish the powerful kingdom that was under King David and King Solomon.
Remember, a day or two away from Jerusalem the disciples James and John (or their mother) asked Jesus to let them sit at his right and left hands – be his first and second in command – in his kingdom that he was about to establish; they certainly had no understanding that Jesus would die in Jerusalem. And the crowd of followers welcomed Jesus by putting their cloaks and tree branches – represented by our palms -- on the road before him as kind of “red carpet” to show his importance. And they shouted over and over again, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.”
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! The disciples and the crowd of Jesus’ followers understood that he was coming to Jerusalem to reestablish the throne of Kings David and Solomon. The Roman legions would be defeated and driven out; Jesus would establish God’s Kingdom to rule the world; and all of the patterns of this world would be turned upside down – the poor and hungry would prosper, everyone would get his or her own farm; life would finally be like God intended it to be.
According to all four gospel writers, Jesus did not correct the disciples and crowds’ understanding.
But Jesus did not raise an army to bring with him into Jerusalem to defeat the Romans as several want-to-be messiahs had done. Nor did he try to raise an army from all of the Jewish people who came to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. He didn’t act like a military or political leader; he came into the center of the Jewish faith and institution to confront the powers-that-be with teachings and verbal confrontations. And during the first few days he seemed to be gathering support from the many people on the Temple Mount, that huge public area where the life of the City happened.
Jesus’ teachings seemed to work in Galilee where he gathered many followers who began changing their attitudes, activities, and behavior to each other, gradually bringing in the ways of the Kingdom of God. But in Jerusalem he encountered the Jewish leadership whom he challenged with misrepresenting God’s will and ways and who had leadership connections with the Roman authorities. Neither the Jews nor the Romans wanted what Jesus was offering and developing.
We read this morning about what happened during this week in about year 30. It wasn’t what the disciples expected; instead of sitting at the right and left hands of power, James and John were hiding in a locked room fearing their own deaths. It wasn’t what the palm-branch-carrying crowd expected: Jesus was neither the new king nor the General leading the attacks on the Roman legions.
We end this week in a bleary, betrayed, and hopeless morass.
But, that is not the end of the story! Only, we have to wait until next week for me to finish telling you about Jesus and the Kingdom of God. It has a surprising and fantastic next part. Make sure that you are here next Sunday for the next page.
Amen.
Sermons/Lk19_28b-40.4b22