“A Lot Can Happen in a Week”
Matthew 21:1-11
What does it feel like to have less than a week to live?
That’s what Jesus is facing when he makes his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
The crowds don’t know what’s coming.
The disciples have been given hints and even outright warnings from Jesus that the Son of Man will be betrayed and killed, but perhaps one of the reasons they are so filled with joy on the first Palm Sunday is that they have convinced themselves that, at least on this one detail—Jesus is wrong.
After-all, how can the Lord Who opened the eyes of a blind man be arrested by mere mortals?
How can the One Who walks on water be stopped by an oppressive regime?
How can the One Who can calm a storm, heal the demon possessed and bring dead people back to life be crucified by mere people?
And look what’s going on.
This is a moment of incredible potential and excitement.
They know Jesus is powerful, and just think what that power will do if they can convince Jesus to use it against Rome?
And His making such a bold entry into the heart of the Jew’s stolen Capital City surely bodes well for that project.
But, what a lonely moment this must be for Jesus.
To be so misunderstood, even by His closest disciples!
To be surrounded by screaming fans but burdened by the knowledge of how this will end.
This is the point of no return for Jesus.
By entering Jerusalem on a colt with the crowds laying down their cloaks before him and shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David!” he has triggered one prophetic tripwire too many.
The Roman rulers and the Jewish religious authorities can no longer pretend that he is insignificant, that he is a fad, that he is not dangerous.
Jesus is deliberately provoking the crisis that will end with him nailed to a Cross.
A lot is going to happen this week.
It starts with a parade.
It ends in a tomb.
In between, there is abandonment, denial, an arrest, a horrible crucifixion and death.
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning we are told that there are two different groups of people responding to Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.
We’ve got “crowds” and “the city.”
First the “crowds.”
Who makes up the “large crowd” of people who “spread their cloaks on the road” and “cut branches from the trees”?
Who are these folks who went ahead and behind Jesus shouting: “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest!”?
These are Jesus’ fans.
This is the motley crew that’s been following him and growing bigger every time He enters another town, another village.
These are the former beggars, the prostitutes, those “who were blind but now can see,” the sinners that Jesus ate with, healed, loved on, included and treated with dignity.
There were also a lot of women in this crowd.
And this is because Jesus was, perhaps, the first One Who had ever treated them as equals.
Remember, to just about everyone else in that time and place—women were nothing but property—hardly even human.
But to Jesus, they were just as important as anyone else.
And children, there must have been many children in the crowd.
Jesus treated children with dignity as well, unlike so many people of His time.
There would also have been former lepers, cripples, and folks who had spent their entire lives living on the margins.
And just think how happy they would have been!!!
Jesus was finally getting the respect He deserved.
The Only One Who had ever REALLY loved them was coming into the city as the Messiah of God.
This was the moment.
This was payback time for anyone and everyone who had ever been made to feel small and less than.
Finally the “powers that be”—the “bullies” would be put in their place.
So we’ve got one group of people.
They aren’t from Jerusalem.
They are from all over the place…
…all the way back to Galilee.
Jesus isn’t being hailed as the Messiah by the “city folk” who have heard of His revolutionary reputation.
No, this is the “country come to the city.”
And the “city” doesn’t know what to make of Jesus and His group of ragamuffin followers.
Their response isn’t to join in the parade and follow Jesus.
Instead, they just stare and wonder: “What the heck is going on?”
“Who is this?” they ask the nutty looking crowd.
And the crowd answers with glee: “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee,” as if this is going to cause the people of the city to immediately convert and start following Jesus as well.
By calling Jesus “the prophet” and shouting that He is “the Son of David,” they are proclaiming that He is, indeed, the long-awaited Messiah.
And this alone is enough for the “powers that be” to become concerned.
It helps set the stage for what is to come.
“These nut cases think they’ve found the Messiah?”
“What’s more, He’s from Nazareth in Galilee?”
“Nothing good comes out of Nazareth.”
“Nazareth is a small, filthy, poor, back-water town.”
“It’s a place with racially and culturally mixed people who look a lot like this crazy group of whack-jobs who have just entered our city!!!”
No, the “city folk,” and the religious and political leaders are not at all impressed by this “Jesus guy,” nor are they impressed by this huge crowd of “riff-raff,” who have come to ruin their Passover Party.
It isn’t going to be a good week.
The crowd doesn’t know it yet, but things are about to go downhill fast.
Bewildered citizens and worried political and religious leaders are a deadly combination when strangers invade their space—especially strangers who look like they are aiming to take over.
I wonder if that is how people interpret the Christian Church in this day and age.
I wonder, if sometimes, in our zeal we can come off as “know-it-alls” or people who think we are “better than everyone else”?
I wonder if folks on the “outside” have a hard time understanding us, and stand befuddled as they look at our big buildings with the “strange sayings” on our signs.
They might hear terms on the news such as “The Christian Right” and think we are just some kind of voting block like the Tea Party or Bernie supporters.
Perhaps they hear so much about the things we are “against” that they don’t want to have anything to do with us.
What do you think?
Would Jesus “recognize” much of what passes for Christianity in 21st Century America?
Would He like what He sees?
Jesus is God-Made-Flesh.
And God-Made-Flesh humbled Himself to the dust, becoming a homeless nomad wandering the countryside, healing the sick and loving the unloved.
He stayed in the homes of the worst kind of “sinners.”
He ate and drank with prostitutes.
He hung out with lepers and weirdos.
And although, He was Messiah and King—Jesus’ understanding of kingship is radically different from anyone else—ever!!!
At the beginning of His ministry Jesus rejected the kind of Kingship that seeks power, riches, and rules over people.
And when some of His disciples started vying for power in the Kingdom of God—just one chapter before our passage for this morning—Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.
Not so with you.
Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
God’s ways are not our ways, and that is GOOD NEWS!!!
Where do you suppose Jesus would decide to live if He were to come to Chattanooga?
Who would He hang around?
What would Jesus ride as He entered our town?
Would it be some sort of open-roofed limousine flanked by armed security guards or would He come in a beat up 1973 Chevy Vega, or on a bicycle, or maybe even another donkey?
And where would Jesus sleep?
Would it be in a mansion on the ridge or would we find Him under a bridge, in a tent in Camp Jordan, or in a run-down extended stay hotel filled with drug addicts, folks who are down on their luck and prostitutes?
Would we recognize Him as the Messiah or would we think He was some kind of self-deluded lunatic?
And if He had tons and tons of other “crazy looking” “raggedy” people following Him into our town would we welcome Him with open arms or try and figure out a way to get rid of Him?
And when Jesus taught us to love our neighbors, our enemies, turn the other cheek, give to the poor, take up our cross and follow Him—would we do it?
Are we doing it?
Let’s face it.
We are all mixed up.
Our priorities are upside down.
The love of money truly is the root of all kinds of evil and we are loving it like never before!!!
In so many ways, in so many aspects of our lives we are living the exact opposite of Jesus.
And how’s that working out for us?
Are we happy this way?
We are dying.
But Jesus came so that we can live.
On the first Palm Sunday Jesus’ fans were yelling “Hosanna”!!!
By Friday the residents of the city were screaming “Crucify Him!!!”
Jesus’ followers fled.
The “city” had Jesus nailed to a Cross.
But that is not how it ends.
The REAL GOOD NEWS is that humility truly does win in the end.
Love is the Only Way.
Evil will be defeated.
And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!!!
Praise God.
Amen.
