Recognizing God's Coming

Readings: Zechariah 9:9-12, Luke 19:28-44, Heaven & Hell 290 (see below)
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I’m going to start us off this morning with a question. What are we proclaiming today, on this Palm Sunday? Jesus is about to enter into Jerusalem for the last time. Soon he will sweep the temple clear of merchants, give many important teachings, sit down to the Last Supper with the disciples. He will be arrested and killed. For this moment though, there is celebration, joy and praise. There is hope.

In our text today, Jesus rode down from the Mount of Olives towards Jerusalem, amidst a throng of chanting, adoring followers. This was a performative and prophetic act. They all knew exactly what he was doing. We read in our responsive reading for today, Psalm 118: “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” The crowd changes this to “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.” Clearly, this journey that Jesus was making was to be interpreted as a royal entry. To these people, Jesus was the one they had been hoping for, he was their Messiah.

Of course, this was immediately provocative to the powers-that-be. There was already a king of Jerusalem, there was already an emperor in Rome. Some of the pharisees sense the danger and tell Jesus to rein his followers in. Jesus answers: “I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” Here, he is likely referring the prophet Habakkuk:

9 “Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain,.. 10 You have plotted the ruin of many peoples, shaming your own house and forfeiting your life. 11 The stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it. 12 “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by injustice! (2:9-12)

In that one reference, Jesus both captures the yearning of the people to be free, and the cruelty of those in power. We all yearn for a savior, someone who will make everything better. Someone who will be in our corner, who will look out for our interests, especially if those interests have been overlooked. And so we cry out! We cry out with the truth of our experience and our yearning and our disappointment and our hope. But we must understand, as much as God loves each of us, God also loves all people. Our advantage will never be achieved on the back on another, not in God’s kingdom.

Therefore, as much as Jesus was stepping into the archetype of king, Jesus was not arriving as a conquerer of any kind. At first it might look like that. This kind of procession or parade was a common occurrence in the ancient world. They occurred when a person of importance was entering the city, like a king, or an important dignitary, or a conquering general. In that culture at that time, honor was the most important element of social currency. And the very best thing that that culture could do to honor someone was to throw them a triumphant procession, have them ride into the city on a magnificent war horse, surrounded by attendants(1). A multitude honoring someone, giving voice to their adoration, making evident their power and their prowess.

While Jesus enacted this kind of procession outwardly, he at the same time subverted the underlying assumptions of the event in an act of prophetic irony. Instead of a war horse, he rode in on a donkey, a humble, lowly donkey. Luke does not quote Zechariah as two of the other gospels do but Luke’s version is undeniably influenced by this prophet, which we heard in our reading for today. “See your king comes to you,” says Zechariah, yes, righteous and victorious, but also lowly, humble. This section in the prophet has the Lord speaking to Israel about saving them from their surrounding enemies, about helping them succeed in battle. But while the Lord would work to help them be victorious, the point was not to perpetuate but remove violence. The one who redeems and saves Israel will also proclaim peace to the nations, not lord their victory over them. Israel’s God was not interested in power for power’s sake, nor honor for honor’s sake, but in thriving healthy relationships between people and nations.

So, Jesus was to be a very different kind of king than humanity had ever known. Jesus would speak for the oppressed and the suffering, would champion the thriving of all people, not just the rich and powerful. Jesus would repudiate all the lessons that kings and power-brokers had heretofore taught….He would, as Zechariah says, proclaim peace to the nations.

Now, as wonderful a vision as this might be, as confident as Jesus appears when he makes that retort about the stones to the pharisees, what does he do next? He weeps over the city of Jerusalem. “If you, even you, had only known of this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.” The one who would proclaim peace to the nations, the one who would submit to arrest, this was not the Messiah the people were expecting. By Friday, many who followed Jesus down from the Mount would be calling for his execution. Jesus wept, because often times we do resist that which will bring us peace. I think this is because we mistake what peace really is.

First, sometimes we equate peace with the relief that comes with getting what we want, or when things turn out well for us. This kind of peace masquerades being about justice but ultimately it turns on power, because it depends on specific outcomes. This is the kind of peace that wanted Jesus to be the one to overthrow the Roman empire. The one that wanted Jesus to reign. We naturally equate our own desires with that which is right, and so when we get what we want, we feel peaceful and free of anxiety. But this is a superficial kind of peace, dependent on things going our way. In the common practice of parades for kings or generals, they would typically enact a ritual sacrifice in the temple at the end of the procession. But what will Jesus do as he arrives at the temple?  He will clear it out. He will zero in on the self-serving ways in which we each wish to take advantage of power structures and he will sweep it all away. Most of the time, we really don’t want him to do this.
Second, there is the misunderstanding that equates peace with rest. Peace is the not the same thing as Sabbath. Peace requires work, while Sabbath is the necessary relinquishment of work. True peace, rather than just a momentary absence of conflict, requires understanding, empathy, engagement and resilience. It requires surrender. It requires forgiveness. And as we heard from our Swedenborg reading, it requires an openness to God, because peace resides in God’s goodness. Later in the gospel, hanging on the cross, Jesus will say, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Peace will require us to relinquish ego, to relinquish advantage. When we realize what true kingdom peace will require of us, many of us will say: no thank you, that seems too hard. We don’t want that either. 

Philadelphia Christian activist, Shane Claiborne, puts it this way:

“Peacemaking doesn’t mean passivity. It is the act of interrupting injustice without mirroring injustice, the act of disarming evil without destroying the evildoer, the act of finding a third way that is neither fight nor flight but the careful, arduous pursuit of reconciliation and justice. It is about a revolution of love that is big enough to set both the oppressed and the oppressors free.”

The peace of God, the peace of the kingdom, is something much larger, much more transformative than the concept of satisfaction or restfulness. As Jesus shows us, peace will require lament, peace will require courage, peace will require sacrifice. Swedenborg writes:

No one can be granted this peace unless they are led by the Lord and abide in the Lord, that is, unless they are in heaven where the Lord is the All in all. For heavenly peace enters in when the desires that spring from self-love and love of the world are removed; for those desires take peace away…(2)

Palm Sunday, while triumphant and hopeful, is also very poignant, because of the ways that Jesus sees that we are still not getting it. Sometimes, we and God are like ships passing in the night. We have such hopes, such enthusiasm. Later on in the gospel, on the road to Emmaus, one follower describes his feelings to a person that he does not yet know is the risen Jesus:

20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. (Luke 24:20-21)

We had hoped. We had hoped for redemption that looked like power, we had hoped for redemption that looked like rest. But now Jesus is dead. Jesus did not accomplish for us what we hoped that he would. Jesus didn’t give us what we wanted. 

Jesus knows this lament is coming, in each of our hearts. And he has already wept for it saying: “…you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” God’s coming doesn’t always look like we want it to. Instead of a war horse, it may arrive on an awkward, lumpy donkey. Instead of a triumphant savior, it may arrive in what looks like a crucifixion, in what looks like death. As we enter into Holy Week, let us relinquish our expectation of God’s coming, so that we might be able to actually see the resurrection.

Amen.

1. https://www.workingpreacher.org/brainwave.aspx?podcast_id=1122
2. Secrets of Heaven 5662
   
   
   

Readings:

Zechariah 9:9-12

9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. 11 As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit. 12 Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you. 

Luke 19:28-44

28 After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 30 “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’ ” 32 Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 They replied, “The Lord needs it.” 35 They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. 36 As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. 37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: 38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” 40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” 41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

Heaven and Hell #290

I have talked with angels about peace as well, and have told them that on earth they call it peace when wars and conflicts between nations are over, or enmities and disagreements between individuals, and that they think inner peace is simply the peace of mind we have when anxieties are banished, or especially the relief and delight when things turn out well for us. The angels have responded, though, that this peace of mind, this relief and delight when anxieties are banished and things turn out well for us, may look like effects of peace; but they do not come from real peace except in people who are focused on heavenly good. This is because peace occurs only in that good. Peace actually flows in from the Lord into the very core of such individuals, and from that core comes down and spreads into their lower natures, causing peace of mind, relief of the spirit, and a consequent joy. 

For people engrossed in evil, though, there is no peace. There is an apparent calm, tranquillity, and pleasure when they get their way, but this is outward only, with no inward substance. Inside there is raging hostility, hatred, vengefulness, cruelty, and all kinds of evil cravings. Their spirits rush into these feelings the moment they see anyone who is not on their side, and it bursts forth whenever there is no fear [to restrain it]. This is why their delight is at home in insanity, while the delight of people involved in good is at home in wisdom. It is like the difference between hell and heaven.