Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ in unity with the Holy Spirit.
Let me introduce myself. My name is Yusef bar Shimon. You can call me Joseph the son of Simon. I’m a businessman in Jerusalem and I make garments from wool and linen. I want to tell you about a spectacular day in which I met a very special man who changed my life. If you could have been with me that day, you would know how wonderful He is.
But first let me tell you about the situation I found myself in. Being a businessman in Jerusalem at that time was difficult on the best days. There was so much civic unrest it was hard not to have sympathy for the prefect, Pontius Pilate. His job was to represent the emperor in Judea which mostly involved collecting taxes and keeping the peace. That was a very difficult job among a proud people that rejected the very idea of foreign rule over our land that God had given to us. For many of the Jews, paying taxes to Rome was treasonous. Before Pilate was appointed by Rome, there had been four other prefects in twenty years. Most of them were unable to handle the population. The prefects had to walk a tightrope between pleasing Rome by collecting the taxes they expected and not upsetting the people so much that they rioted. It didn’t help that the Romans could never seem to understand the Jewish faith.
The Romans had lots of gods that they worshiped and they could usually appease a conquered nation just by worshiping their gods and introducing them to the Roman gods. My people weren’t so easily pacified. We worship one God and only one God. We were not going to worship their false gods and they were not allowed to enter our Temple. But even our own people were not united except in our hatred for the Romans. The Pharisees saw themselves as the pious moral judges of society. They had an ongoing dispute with the Sadducees who were the elite priestly class and were happy to accommodate the Romans as long as they could retain their power as guardians of the Temple and collectors of the people’s tithes. The real trouble makers were the Zealots. They refused to accept Roman rule and were constantly trying to find ways to bring about a revolt. Thankfully for my business, most of the people were more sensible about it, recognizing that the Romans wouldn’t go away without shedding an awful lot of Jewish blood. It was a province that was always on edge. It seemed that open rebellion could break out with just the slightest provocation from the Romans.
It was tough to be a businessman in this situation. I once landed a large order for tunics and cloaks for the Roman soldiers in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. I thought this would really make my business grow. But when it became known that I was selling to the Roman military brigade, I lost the business of all those who sympathized with the Zealots and many of my customers who were Pharisees. It’s taken me a long time to rebuild my customer base. Because of this, I’ve learned to try hard not to offend anyone and that means not being aligned with anyone. I go to the Temple on the major holy days and I bring the required sacrifices, but I don’t get into the theological arguments between the Pharisees and Sadducees. And I try to avoid any political discussion at all. Politics and religion can be bad for business.
And that’s how I ended up in the situation I was in on that very special day - because I was clueless about what had been happening around us. I had a big order for some wool blankets and my supplier of wool was a week late with his shipment. So on this day, I decided I was going to have to go pay him a visit at his place in Bethany and see what was holding him up. He’d always been very reliable before. It was just a couple of miles away and I could be back early in the afternoon. But as I was heading out of the city gate, I saw that there were a lot more people than usual. Jerusalem was always packed with Jews from around the Empire at Passover, but today there were a lot more people and they didn’t seem to be trying to go anywhere. They were standing in the road and on the sides of the road. Some people were climbing the trees so they see over the crowd. Others were cutting palm branches and giving them to people in the crowd. I tried to elbow my way through the crowds but I wasn’t having any luck. It looked like the road was packed all the way down to the Kidron Valley leading to the Mount of Olives. There were thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of people and all of them seemed to be expecting something or someone. This reminded me of the time when I was in Rome negotiating a contract when the emperor returned from a victorious war campaign. It seemed that the whole city came out to greet the emperor with shouts of Hail Caesar! Was a king coming to Jerusalem? But we didn’t have a king at this time. The emperor was unlikely to come to Judea and Pontius Pilate wouldn’t receive this kind of greeting.
I was utterly confused but then I happened to be pushed by the crowd into a customer of mine, Benyamin, who seemed to be particularly enthusiastic what was going on. He told me very excitedly that Yeshua of Nazareth was coming! Now I’d heard some rumors about this Jesus, mostly from the Pharisees I did business with. They didn’t like Him very much. They considered Him to be at best a misguided fool and at worst a son of Satan. Benyamin couldn’t believe that I didn’t know all about Yeshua. He told me that Yeshua had become well known throughout the land for all the miracles that He had done. His uncle had been in a large crowd that Yeshua had fed with fish and bread. He had no idea where all the food could have come from. He told me that Yeshua had been healing many people of diseases and even claimed to forgive sins. But even more spectacularly, Benyamin told me that he had raised a friend of his, a man named Lazarus, from the dead. I was skeptical about that. Raising the dead is impossible! But Benyamin said he had been in Bethany with the mourners after Lazarus had been laid in the tomb. Then Yeshua came after a few days and he called for Lazarus to come out of the grave. And he did, still wrapped in his gravecloths. This was an unbelievable story, but I knew Benyamin pretty well. He had always kept his word with me. I just didn’t know what to think.
And then something started to happen. Some of the people who had climbed up in the trees started shouting “He’s coming! He’s coming!” That really got the crowd buzzing. They started waving the palm branches over their heads and shouting over and over “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Benyamin told me that many believed that Yeshua was the long awaited Messiah who would come and with a mighty hand overthrow the Romans and He would rule from Jerusalem as the powerful King of the Jews, bringing peace and prosperity to God’s chosen people. The crowd got louder and louder and then they started to move towards the side of the road. In all the commotion, I got pushed to the ground. As I brought myself to my knees, a man on a colt was directly in front of me. He didn’t say a word, but He looked me directly in the eyes. I could have sworn that He was looking into my soul. At that moment, I couldn’t hear the roar of the crowds. I was rooted to the spot, just looking at this very special man. After what seemed like an eternity, I stepped aside to let Him continue on His way. I picked up a palm branch and began shouting at the top of my lungs “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Glory in the highest!” as He entered the city.
What a glorious day that was! We never spoke a word to each other, but I knew that Yeshua was a true king. I knew that I would follow Him to the end of my days. Surely, He would be the One to bring peace. His authority was evident to all who saw Him. But the scribes, the Pharisees and the Sadducees didn’t see it the same way.
Later, I was in the court of the Temple changing my Roman coins for Temple coins (at quite a mark-up) for my offering on the Passover. Yeshua made quite a disturbance. He was violently upset that the grounds of the Temple were used to cheat the people and He turned their tables over. You should have seen those coins flying! This didn’t endear Him to the Jewish rulers, and any kind of disturbance would get the attention of the Roman soldiers. But I never thought that they would have Yeshua arrested. I heard about it that Friday morning when Benyamin came in to my shop. He told me that Yeshua had been turned over to the Romans for treason. I immediately closed the shop and ran with Benyamin to Herod’s palace, where the Romans held court. We arrived just as the beaten and bloody Yeshua was carrying the beam of the cross on which He would be hung to Golgotha where the Romans carried out their executions by crucifixion. It broke my heart to see Him. Was He not after all the King of the Jews, the promised Messiah? Benyamin and I followed and watched from a distance as they nailed Him to the cursed cross.
Around noon, the sun went dark. After a time, we heard Yeshua cry out and the ground shook. All of creation shuddered at the injustice that was done on that day. I went with Benyamin to his home. In shock, we spoke for hours about this man Yeshua. Benyamin said he had been told by some of Yeshua’s closest friends that Yeshua had claimed that He must die and then rise again on the third day. It was only by dying that He could bring all those who would believe in His name into His kingdom. His kingdom is the kingdom of God and the sacrifice of His life was necessary to bring about the forgiveness of sins to make us righteous in the sight of God.
We prayed together throughout the night and long into the Sabbath, praying that God would raise this man, praying that He would bring us into His kingdom. We waited with our hopes high and yet wondering if this was possible. On that Sunday, all of Jerusalem was again buzzing with whispers that indeed Yeshua had been seen by His disciples. It was true! He had risen! And with Him, all who believe and trust in Him shall also see their own resurrection! Glory in the highest!
May the peace of God, the love of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen.
