Holy Week is upon us, and it is my intention this year to do something I have never really done--to celebrate it. I know that in the past I have preached Holy Week services, and done Maundy Thursday and Good Friday Services, Palm Sunday and Easter. But as far as the week is concerned, I have never really entered into the drama of it. This week I want to follow that drama like I've never done it before--drink it to the dregs and feast upon it to the marrow. Then perhaps I will finally come to understand better what my Savior did for me.
Yesterday was Palm Sunday. I wrote about the service I attended for it, but the real Palm Sunday was nothing like the worship service.
I picture a town of sixty thousand people lining a less than a mile stretch of road from Bethsaida to Jerusalem. These people were a powder keg of rebellion. They were farmers, shepherds, merchants, beggars, all kinds of people. They hated the Roman oppression--their high taxes, their arbitrary and severe laws, their daily rapes and nightly debaucheries. They could not stand their contempt of everything Jewish. When Pilate called Jesus "king of the Jews,” we think it was a compliment. In his mind, he may as well been saying "king of the rats" because that was the way he thought of Jews. His earlier behavior, recorded in Josephus, indicated that Hitler had nothing on him when it came to hating Jews.
The history of Jesus' period, the whole period of the Second Temple, was a mishmash of rebellions and reprisals. Fanatical Jews would launch a rebellion; the Romans would suppress it, and kill hundreds of innocents. This would make the fanatics mad, they would launch a rebellion, killing hundreds more innocents. The Romans would launch another reprisal, etc. This went on for more than seventy years, until in 70 AD, the Romans burned Jerusalem. This didn't stop the violence, and in 120 AD the Jews were banned from Israel. It was a mess.
Anyway, this group of ordinary people had had enough. If only they had leader who was tough enough to bring peace to Israel--which they took to mean a final, once and for all defeat of the Romans.
Enter Jesus. He was the Messiah. He had the power of heaven on His side--the power to heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, and feed a multitude. In their minds, he was the perfect leader.
When Jesus attended the feast that year, everyone wondered if it meant He was going to assert himself as leader. Then he did something very Messianic. He rode a donkey into the Eastern Gate--the Messiah's gate--in Jerusalem. To them, it was a clear sign that the revolution was about to begin. They followed and shouted and sang, "Save us, son of David!"
Then He did something no one was expecting. He turned around and went home. He didn't cast anyone out. He just went home to pray.
Don’t we do the same thing today? Don't we look for Jesus to fix our temporary strife, to take our side and our country's side, and act like one more charismatic rebel? We seem to forget that one generation’s freedom fighter becomes the next generation’s dictator. Look at Cuba. Look at Russia. Do we really believe the next crop of leaders will learn anything from the last crop of leaders?
We are lost, fallen people, morally weak and basically flawed. That goes all of us. When we take arms to force our way on others, we just become lost, fallen people with machine guns.
The coming of Jesus was not just another go round at the same unprofitable cycle. It was an olive branch from God to break it. "My kingdom," Jesus said "is not of this world." He wasn't here to create another short-lived social utopia. He was here to change our insides. His supper with the disciples, His prayer in Gethsemane, His anger at the priests, who were supposedly the Good Guys against the Roman Bad Guys, all pointed to a person who wouldn't dance their dance of death again. He came to build in us a close, intimate relationship with God, which could sustain us, whoever was running the world at the moment. He knew that as long as the cycle of violence, social, social and political power continued, nothing would change. But creating a people who could be free of anger - through forgiveness, free of greed - through Spiritual fulfillment, free of isolation - through a lasting relationship with God, and free of sin - through redemption, would make a difference in the world
Today we're trying to do the same old things, making the same old mistakes. We're still trying to create a social utopia by worldly power and beating the Bad Guys, and think that Jesus has the same agenda. He doesn't. Holy Week teaches us that.
This year, I want to follow that journey to the Cross. Maybe then I'll be on His side, rather than trying to make Him be on mine.
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