Luke 19:28-40 (NRSV)
28 After
he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
29 When he
had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives,
he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village ahead
of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been
ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are
you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’ ” 32 So those
who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. 33 As they
were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34
They said, “The Lord needs it.” 35 Then they brought it to
Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36
As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. 37
As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the
whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice
for all the deeds of power that they had seen, 38 saying,
“Blessed
is the king
who
comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace
in heaven,
and
glory in the highest heaven!”
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to
him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” 40 He answered, “I
tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”
Year C
Palm Sunday
March 20, 2016
Title: King
Cross~Wind
Introduction
All of us have giants to face.
Maybe you are a 69-year-old retiree
with chronic health problems. Maybe you are a 52-year-old man whom your
employer has laid off and you have trouble getting interviews. Maybe you are a
45-year old woman, struggling with guilt about choices she made as a young
adult. Maybe you are a 33-year-old immigrant with a minimum-wage job and a
family many thousands of miles away. Maybe you are a 25-year-old with the
beginnings of a drinking problem. Maybe you are a teenager feeling the
out-of-control expectations of his parents.
I invite you to think about
illness, unemployment, guilt, separation, substance abuse, and the expectations
of others. If you face them, every one of them is a giant.
So let us talk about giants.
You know the story of Jack and the
Beanstalk.[1]
Jack is a boy who lives with his
widowed mother, with nothing to support them but a cow. When the cow stops
giving milk, mom sends Jack to the market to sell it. On the way, he meets a
man who offers him a handful of magic beans in exchange for the cow. This
proves to be a big mistake. When he arrives home without money, his mother is
furious. She throws the beans out the window and sends Jack to bed without
supper. Then, while they are sleeping, the beans grow into an enormous
beanstalk, reaching up to a land high in the sky. Jack climbs the beanstalk and
discovers the castle of a giant. He breaks into the castle. Soon, the giant
returns home. He senses that Jack is nearby, and speaks a rhyme:
Fee-fi-fo-fum!
I smell the blood of an Englishman,
[We find these
lines in King Lear (Act 3, Scene 4)
as well]
Be he alive, or be he dead,
I'll grind his bones to make my
bread.
The giant falls asleep, so Jack steals a bag of gold coins
this time, a goose that lays a golden egg, and a harp that plays by itself.
Eventually, the giant chases Jack down the beanstalk. The boy makes it down
first, asks his mother for an axe, and chops down the beanstalk -- killing the
giant. Jack and his mother live happily ever after with the riches that Jack
stole.
Jack becomes the Giant Slayer!
This type of story is more about
the cunning needed by the small and insignificant in a world full of “giants,”
whether they are economic or political giants. You know the stories, such as
stealing treasure from the big dragon or some other monster. We miss the point
if we turn it into a morality tale. In fact, the only way to do so is to make
the giant bad so that he deserves what he gets. Still, granting that he showed
resourcefulness and cunning, do we really want to lift up this boy as a role
model? He shows terrible judgment in exchanging a cow for magic beans, and then
steals from a giant before he kills him. We can certainly sympathize with Jack
as he runs for his life from the angry giant, but we have to admit that he
brought much of his trouble on himself.
Jack is not innocent. He is a
sinner.
Just like us.
Yet, some desperately want to see
Jack as a hero. It at least appears that is why someone re-wrote the fable for
the movie Jack the Giant Slayer. The
story becomes a major morality tale. In this new take on the fairy tale, Jack
is a young farmhand who unwittingly opens a gateway between Earth and a land of
fearsome giants. Led by their two-headed leader, the giants are determined to
gain control of Earth, and they kidnap a princess as part of their invasion.
Jack leads an expedition to rescue the princess, entering an epic battle that
will shape the destiny of people everywhere.
Suddenly, the impossible has become
possible. Jack has become a hero -- not a cunning kid who slyly defeated his
giant, or even a kid with poor judgment and a touch of kleptomania. We all want
a champion who makes the impossible, possible; to make the improbable,
probable; who slays our giants, and make us feel good about ourselves because
we just might be able to emulate them.
I guess I could be more direct at
this point. The suffering and evil we find in this world are giants. It sure would
be nice to have a giant slayer.
Do we want God to fill that role?
Do we want Jesus to fill that role?
Application
We learn
much in this Holy Week about the way God is present with us in Jesus. The Jewish
people thought they knew their giants, that is, the Romans. They thought they
knew the form that liberation would take. Yes, we think of the outcome of this
week on Easter as victory, but what a strange victory it becomes. It reveals
the nature of the giants we face.
First, Jesus has victory through humility.
He is not
the hero who rides into town or into your life to save the day.
He begins
by entering Jerusalem on a colt instead of a warhorse, sending the signal that
he is a humble king who comes to make peace. Jesus connects his entry to that
of Jewish kings, to be true, but the Roman Empire occupied through the mighty warhorse.
The difference could not be sharper. As Paul put it,
"He humbled himself and became obedient to
the point of death -- even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:8).
We also need to humble ourselves and become
obedient if we are to face our giants.
Second, He achieves victory by laying down his life.
I think
many people struggle with this today. I want to try to say it in a way that can
help us enter into the life into which Jesus invites us.
His
journey to the cross shows just how far God will go to show us the love God has
for us. One of the metaphors the New Testament uses to explain this derives
from the business world. Think of our lives as on loan from God. Think of our
sin as the way that we refuse to re-pay the loan. We are in default. Yet, the
Son takes our sins on himself, and satisfies the debt through his love for God
and love for others that each of us owes and can never pay. Jesus pays it all,
in order to make peace between God and us. This is true whether we are cunning
thieves like little Jack, guilt-wracked middle-aged women, substance-abusing
young adults, or people with a variety of sins on our consciences.
Third, He achieves victory by inviting us to join him.
Jesus
calls on his followers to help him, as he did when he instructed his disciples
to claim the colt with the words, "The Lord needs it." The mission of
Jesus is not one that he can fulfill alone. He needs people who will follow him
on his path.
I want to
invite you to do that today. Do not let this Holy Week go by without being sure
that you are on his path.
The
impossible becomes possible when we join with Christ to participate in his
saving work, and to practice his self-giving love whenever we comfort a
grieving church member, lend an ear to a discouraged friend, give a welcome to
an immigrant neighbor, offer a hand to a coworker in need, or reach out to a
classmate who is becoming isolated. As Paul put it,
"Let each of you
look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. "Let the
same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:4-5).
Fourth, He achieves victory through resurrection.
The
multitude points us toward heaven by its praise,
"Blessed is the
king who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest
heaven."
They
grasp that Jesus is doing the work of God and that this divine mission is to
bring peace to earth and heaven. Some of the giants we face will have to await
their defeat when God redeems creation.
Although
the Palm Sunday crowd cannot see beyond the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, we
know that Christ's work will continue throughout the week that follows, and
even beyond the sacrifice of Good Friday. When God raises Jesus on Easter
morning, God slays the last giant -- the enemy called death. Through his
perfect obedience, Jesus overcomes the power of anything that can discourage,
divide, diminish or destroy us.
Conclusion
Jesus
faced some fearsome giants, far more powerful than the oppressive Romans. I am
sure the people in the first century knew what they thought was the giant they
faced, but they were wrong. They needed to face the giant of their sin and
disobedience to God. Christ gained victory over sin and death, and did it for
people of every time, place, race, and economic condition.
Alan
Culpepper puts it this way:
"Jesus was a king, but no ordinary one.” He was
"the king of fishermen, tax collectors, Samaritans, harlots, blind men,
demoniacs, and cripples. Those who followed Jesus were a ragtag bunch."
(Alan Culpepper)
That is
us -- a ragtag bunch. Being disciples of Jesus Christ means God has called a
ragtag bunch to transform the world. And on Palm Sunday we welcome him as our
champion, because we, too, have giants we're dealing with, giants we might
recognize as unemployment, guilt, poverty, bitterness, a critical spirit, a
feeling of being unloved, a sense of aimlessness and meaninglessness. We need
Jesus who has already demonstrated an ability to make giants vanish, to do the
impossible.
On Palm
Sunday, we praise him and ask him to do the impossible for us.
So let us
give a shout-out to Jesus: our Lord, our King, and our Giant Killer.
Going deeper
Luke 19:28-40 relates the story
concerning the royal entry into
Jerusalem. The source is the material unique to Luke in verses 28, 39-40,
and Mark in verses 29-38. We find the story of the triumphal entry of Jesus
into Jerusalem in all four gospels. Luke makes interesting changes in the
account of the entry into Jerusalem he received from Mark, even though the
basic structure remains the same. The
story is filled with images evoking both Old Testament themes and secular,
semi-militaristic rituals of the Roman Empire.
28 After he had said this, he went on
ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
29 When he had come [Jesus
and his disciples have just come up from Jericho and through a desert area] near Bethphage and Bethany, [two
small towns just on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives] at the place called the Mount of
Olives, he sent two of the disciples, [The first royal image is that of Jesus dispatching the disciples.]
30
saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will
find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31
If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord
needs it.’ ” [The first Old Testament text that influences this
passage is Zechariah 9:9,
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.
The second royal image is that
of commandeering an animal for personal use was a prerogative of the Roman
occupiers, and of a king of Israel. Riding a donkey into Jerusalem follows
Zechariah 9:9, explicitly cited in Matthew 21:4-5. Barth points out that the sixth
day of creation is the creation of human beings and beast, so that at this
important time, the story mentions the presence of the beast as well.[2] To Western eyes, the donkey is a humble animal - very
"un-kingly." However, to the ancient Israelites, it was the animal of
choice for hill country chieftains like David. Horses, though more powerful
runners and more exotic as imported features of advanced chariot armies, tend
to be vulnerable when forced to participate in battles on rocky, uneven ground.
The royal animal of Israelite Kings, therefore, was a mule or a donkey, who
could be relied upon not to break a leg while racing up to higher ground. Jesus'
entrance into the city on a donkey, therefore, was not a humble rejection of
royal symbolism, but a direct reference to the inauguration of David's original
son, Solomon. It was the first ceremony of inauguration for a Davidic ruler,
and through Jesus, it was also the final such ceremony.]
32 So those who were sent departed and
found it as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its
owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 They said,
“The Lord needs it.” 35 Then they brought it to Jesus; and after
throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 As he
rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. [A third royal image in this passage is that
of the crowd throwing garments on the road before Jesus. This calls to mind II
Kings 9:6-13, the inauguration of Jehu, destroyer of Ahab’s dynasty and
claimant to the throne of the Northern Kingdom.] 37
As he was now approaching the
path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began
to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they
had seen, 38 saying,
“Blessed is the king
who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven,
and glory in the highest heaven!”
[The second Old
Testament text that influences this passage is from Psalm 118:25-26,
25Save
us, we beseech you, O LORD! O LORD, we beseech you, give us success! 26Blessed is the one who comes in
the name of the LORD. We bless you from the house of the LORD.
Luke omits this part of the citation and adds to the end of
it a phrase that is not in Psalm 118, "Peace in heaven, and glory in the
highest." Luke also adds the word "king" to the rest of the
citation (Psalm 118:26a), which in the original merely reads, "Blessed is
the one who comes in the name of the Lord." In their enthusiasm, the
disciples recite, “in loud voices,” a version of Psalm 118:26, a psalm composed
for pilgrims to Jerusalem. The fourth
Old Testament allusion in this passage is one that only Luke makes. As the
disciples come down from the Mount of Olives, they begin to praise God “for all
the deeds of power they had seen.” Testifying to the great acts of God is
something that Israel traditionally did as part of their covenant renewal
ceremonies. Moses, before he begins to give the law in Deuteronomy, spends
several chapters describing what great deeds God has done for the nation.
Similarly, Joshua, Samuel and Solomon also list God’s deeds of power prior to
charging the nation to renew their covenant with Yahweh (Joshua 23-24; 1 Samuel
12; 1 Kings 8). The covenant which God established with David’s house, however,
was an eternal promise of adoption, whereby the king of the covenant people
would be considered the adopted son of God (2 Samuel 7:14). Thus, the
relationship between the people and the Davidic royal house involved renewal of
three covenants, those between God and the people, between God and the king and
between the people and the king.]
39 Some of the Pharisees in the
crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” 40 He
answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”
[Jesus’ concluding statement to the Pharisees echoes Habakkuk 2:11. Luke
ends his account with a clear indication that Jesus intended the crowd to
understand this royal symbolism. The Pharisees obviously know what the
symbolism implies because they urge Jesus to silence the crowd. Should the
Romans come to understand the symbolism of the occasion, the whole crowd could
be in danger, in addition to Jesus himself. Here at the last, Jesus wanted to
show himself to Israel as their true king - more like David than like Herod,
but a king, in truth, beyond any they had known before. However, in the days to
come he would once again refuse any claim to earthly kingship, and follow
instead, the peculiar path of his own destiny that led, not to the throne, but
to the cross.]
[The text raises the question
whether this is a portrait of an earthly king, one from whom Jesus has come to
release creation. In fact, the way Luke selects the elements in his portrayal
of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem suggests that Luke understands Jesus to be
standing in a distinctly different line from these earthly kings.]
[A processional entry of a
personage like Jesus into the capital city would also recall the Roman triumph
of a victorious general surrounded by his conquering troops. The troops would
sing songs in praise of their leader, just as do the disciples. Like the
returning hero, Jesus is headed for the temple of his God. However, there are
also notable differences that the first-century listener would notice. Unlike
the returning hero, Jesus wears no crown. Jesus’ crown comes later. Barth sees
here in this welcome a fulfillment of the heavenly situation of the will of God
being done on earth as it is heaven.[3]]
[The cumulative effect of these
changes is to deny that Jesus’ kingdom is in any way to be considered a
secular, militaristic kingdom. Jesus comes as a pilgrim who is hailed as a
king, and prepares for his destiny.
Though entering as king, it is clear he is not a political ruler. Jesus’
triumphal entry into Jerusalem depicted here in Luke 19:28-40, is richly
evocative of Old Testament passages related to kingship in ancient Israel.
There are at least five separate images from the Old Testament echoed here
which call to mind the coronation of Israelite kings and the divine covenant
between God and the royal representative of the Israelite people.]
[1] This version is from an annotated version of the
story told by Joseph Jacobs and you
can find a simpler version here.
[2] Church Dogmatics, III.1 [41.2], 180.
[3] Church Dogmatics, III.3 [51.2], 446.
No comments:
Post a Comment