Palms, psalms, and protests - Ron Fountain

READING: MATTHEW 21: 1-17

Sermon by guest preacher Ron Fountain on Palm Sunday 2021

Introduction

Today is Palm Sunday the start of Holy Week, leading to Good Friday, when we remember the crucifixion, death and burial of Jesus our Lord and Saviour; and then Easter Sunday, the day of his resurrection and the most important festival of the Christian church throughout the world.

The journey from Caesarea-Philippi to Jerusalem

In the life of Jesus Palm Sunday was the day he and his disciples finished a very long journey. The journey started in the remote town of Caesarea-Philippi near mount Hermon north of Lake Galilee in the far north of the country. The journey ended in Jerusalem the main city for the Jewish nation. It was a centre seething with religious, commercial, social and political fervour. The whole land was under the oppressive rule of Rome.

In Caesarea-Philippi the disciple Peter had been the first to confess that Jesus was the Messiah the Son of the Living God. Jesus had accepted this as right but he wanted his disciples to keep it a secret. Soon after this he rebuked Peter in front of the other disciples. Jesus had said that he had to go to Jerusalem to suffer and die there. Peter tried to deter Peter from going to Jerusalem saying: “This shall never happen to you.” Jesus said to him “Get behind me Satan” as this was a strong temptation Jesus needed to resist. This was all part of the struggle the disciples had to understand what it meant for Jesus to be the Messiah and also what Jesus was trying to teach them about the Kingdom of God. (This is called the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew’s Gospel.)

It was a very long journey on foot and many things happened along the way. Ten out of 24 chapters in Luke’s Gospel are devoted to this journey. Mark’s Gospel tells us that at times the disciples were full of fear. They followed reluctantly far behind Jesus, who strode ahead of them determined to complete the journey. They refused to listen to Jesus’ warnings about what was going to happen to him in Jerusalem.

At other times they convinced themselves that somehow Jesus would be recognised by all in Jerusalem as the political and military Messiah they were expecting and hoping he would become – a king with power to rule the nation and the world. They quarrelled about which of them would be the greatest in this earthly kingdom.

And it is still a struggle for us to understand and put into action what it means for us to follow Jesus as our Messiah and Lord. It is still hard to work out how we are to live as those who pray and work for his kingdom to come as Jesus taught us. The Kingdom is here now among us and within us and it is still to come in all its fullness. But what does it mean for our lives now?

The scholar Tom Wright has said that it was one thing for Jesus to be affirmed as the Messiah in a remote northern part of Palestine but it was a very different and far more dangerous for this claim to be made in Jerusalem. All the others who made this claim died.

He also says that we need to remember that one-fifth of the space within the city walls of Jerusalem was occupied by the Temple and associated buildings. Jerusalem was not just a city with a Temple in it but a Temple with a city around it. The Temple was the centre for religion, worship, sacrifices, law and government for the Jews who were given quite a lot of scope to live by their laws and customs under the rule of their Roman conquerors.

Entry to Jerusalem

As Jesus enters Jerusalem, he initiates two contrasting and highly symbolic actions. These proclaim that he is God’s Messiah and demonstrate the nature of his Kingship and the Kingdom of God.

In ancient times conquering kings and successful generals loved to enter their city in triumph. They rode horses and chariots to show their power. They were supported by their marching armies with their captives bound and following behind, doomed for execution or slavery. Incense and aromas filled the air and the people were expected to cheer and welcome them, acknowledging their conquering authority and power. Celebrating sporting events like the America’s Cup mat be a modern equivalent.

But Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem in a very different way. He didn’t ride a horse but a donkey! There was no army but only twelve fearful disciples.

The roads were increasingly crowded with pilgrims walking to Jerusalem from towns and villages all over Palestine to celebrate the Passover festival, camping together at nights on the way. Religious and national feelings were roused as they recalled the miraculous events of their nation’s escape from slavery in Egypt under Moses. The Passover was the night when the Angel of Death “passed over” the blood-painted houses of the Israelites and saved their oldest sons from death, when all the first-born sons of the Egyptians died. This final plague led them to being ejected from Egypt – the Exodus. But when the Egyptian army pursued them, God made a miraculous way the Reed Sea. The Egyptian army tried to follow them but was drowned. They celebrated their freedom recognising the sovereign power of God and singing his praise with wild dancing and rejoicing.

So there was an atmosphere of heightened religious excitement. Everyone in the crowd of pilgrims knew that the prophet Zechariah in the Old Testament had prophesied that Jerusalem would rejoice and sing the praises of the Messiah as he rode into the city on a donkey. Jesus sent two disciples to get a donkey, probably previously arranged. The people responded with great excitement. The disciples put their cloaks on the donkey and Jesus sat on these. The pilgrims laid their cloaks along the dusty road to create a continuous carpet for Jesus to ride over in kingly style. This was just as had been done for King Jehu, a newly-anointed king in the Old Testament book of 2 Kings. Cloaks were valuable and essential garments. A law forbade them being taken as surety for a loan overnight as the poor needed these for comfort and warmth as they slept. But the people willingly spread them on the dusty road to celebrate Jesus as the coming Messiah. Branches were cut from trees and waved in celebration. A Messianic verse from Psalm 118 was sung in praise of Jesus. “Hosannah”, a greeting word meaning “save” was used as they sang: “Hosannah to him who comes in the name of the Lord.” This means “Salvation through the one who comes with the authority and power of God.”

Kingdom Qualities 1

What qualities of Jesus the Messiah are shown by this symbolic action? By riding a donkey rather than a horse, Jesus shows that he is coming peacefully, with humility and gentleness – not inspiring the fear of a military conqueror but with celebration of the values of his upside-down kingdom. Those who make peace are to be blessed and honoured, not the powerful and rich but the poor, the meek those who mourn and the persecuted.

It all fits with what has recently happened on the way since they left Jericho to climb in reverse the route of the Good Samaritan, going up to Jerusalem from Jericho.

As Jesus left Jericho, two blind men called out to him using a Messianic title: “Jesus Son of David take pity on us.” The crowd tried to stifle them: “Keep quiet! Keep Quiet! He’s not interested in you.” But Jesus heard them: “Who’s that calling? Bring them to me. What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked. “Teacher, we want to see again,” they replied. Jesus healed both of them and they followed Jesus on the road rejoicing in their new-found sight. When they called Jesus “Son of David”, they broke the Messianic secret. Jesus accepted this public announcement of who he is. It caught on as the pilgrims climbed up to the city.

It also fits with what Jesus said to his disciples on the way. James and John used their mother to try to get the best places for themselves on the right and left of the Messiah’s throne in their idea of his coming kingdom. “I am not able to grant your request,” Jesus replied. “Only my Father knows that. Are you able to endure what I have to go through in Jerusalem?” Jesus asked. (Those on the right and left of Jesus when he would be enthroned on the cross were two condemned criminals.) This led to a quarrel among the disciples and Jesus told them that the way to be great in the kingdom of God was not to “lord it over each other as the Gentiles do” but to serve each other as he was doing by going to the cross.

Peace, humility, gentleness, meekness, celebration, compassion, healing, service for others – these are the kingdom qualities that we as his followers need to emulate with the help of the Holy Spirit among us and within us as a church here in Wellington city and as individuals in our families, community, nation and a very needy world.

Cleansing the Temple

There is a very marked contrast between all this and what Jesus did next. Jesus went to the Temple and turned over the tables of those who were changing money and selling animals and birds to be sacrificed, scattering the coins on the floor. Jesus quoted two Old Testament texts when he said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.”

The Temple was very hierarchical in its structure. The sale of animals and birds and the money changing were taking place in the Court of the Gentiles, the only place Gentiles were permitted to enter. Notices saying that Gentiles who went further would be killed have survived as museum artefacts. The next part was the Court of Women. They were not allowed to go further than this. Lay men who were not priests were allowed to enter the next court but not into the holy sanctum, which was reserved for priests. The Holy of Holies was only for the High Priest once a year.

The animal sales and money changing were monopolising the only space for Gentiles who wanted to come and pray. Jesus was defending the right of Gentiles to pray to God in the only place they were permitted to do this. It was a stand for justice and equity. It showed righteous anger and indignation against injustice and inequity. The animals and particularly the doves were being sold at inflated prices to create an unfair profit at the expense of the poor.

The Jews did not want coins with Caesar’s image on them to be used to purchase animals for sacrifice, as this would pollute the offering. They therefore changed these coins to another currency without Caesar’s image, but also for an unfair profit.

Furthermore, the author of John’s Gospel, who fronts this action of Jesus to chapter 2 of this Gospel, tells us that Jesus released the animals and birds destined for sacrifice. This showed that the whole sacrificial system was coming to an end. Jesus himself would be both a priest and a sacrifice, offering his own body for our sins on the cross to end all other sacrifices once and for all.

But there is more to this as Tom Wright has shown. Popular expectations were that the messiah would rule the world in peace from the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus was making a very strong claim to be the Messiah with the authority of someone anointed by God to act judgmentally for justice and equity. This action of Jesus so upset the religious leaders, who were fearful of the crowds, that they met secretly to plot his arrest and execution by crucifixion. It led directly to his death on the cross.

Forty years later in 70AD the city of Jerusalem and the Temple would be attacked and destroyed by the Romans after a terrible war. Like the Old Testament prophets Jesus’ action here was prophetic of what was to come. Later in the week Jesus prophesied the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem.

Immediately the cleansed space in the Temple was used for its God-given purpose. The lame and the blind came to Jesus in the Temple and he healed them all. Children noisily continued the songs of the pilgrims on the road singing and shouting: “Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest heaven.”

The religious rulers could not stand the noise of the spontaneous praise of children and protested to Jesus about this. But Jesus defends them quoting from Psalm 8 that the cries of infants and nursing babies are acceptable praise to God.

I once heard of a church in the noisy path of aircraft landing and taking off from an airport nearby. The noise was so great that during the services everything had to stop until it died down. The congregation tolerated and accepted these noisy interruptions as necessary without complaint. But when the children created noise by crying, noisy activity or inter-generational worship, they complained bitterly.

Kingdom Qualities 2

The actions of Jesus in the Temple contrast markedly with his actions on entering the city. It is important to note that they are actions not just words. They show Jesus with righteous and indignant anger against injustice and inequity. They are prophetic, abolishing animal sacrifices, and judgmental, looking ahead with warnings to the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple.

Contrary, perhaps, to popular belief, Jesus did become angry, never on his own behalf, always for others. He was indignant at the way people with leprosy and other skin diseases were treated. He was angry when the disciples turned away children and their mothers as not being important. He was angry again when a disabled man was used by the religious leaders to test his Sabbath observance. Anger can be good but it is also dangerous. Ephesians 4:26 tells us wisely, “Be angry but do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger.”

All this seems very different from the humility, gentleness and meekness of Jesus’ peaceful, celebratory approach to Jerusalem, having healed people with compassion and taught his disciples not to “lord it over” each other but to serve one another to become great in the Kingdom of God.

A few Sundays ago, bookmarks were distributed during the service here that listed the many ways in which we at St John’s in the City are involved with ministries here. I was impressed by all we are seeking to do.

As those who belong to the Kingdom of God and pray and work for God’s Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven, the example of Jesus shown by these two contrasting kinds of actions cannot be either/or but must be both/and. There are many issues such as poverty, the housing shortage, racism, bullying and inequity that we need to take action to try to rectify.

And always there is the disturbing question of what Jesus would say and do if he came to our church now that we are part of the religious establishment. Let’s continue to struggle to understand and put into action the values of the Kingdom of God Jesus taught us about with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Holy Week

And this is the start of Holy Week. Let us each and together follow Jesus our Lord and Master through his passion and to his cross, where he died to forgive our sins. Let’s remember what he said to his disciples:

“See we are going up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man will be handed over to the priests and scribes and they will condemn him to death. Then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked, flogged and crucified and on the third day he will be raised…. The Son of man came not to be served but to serve and give his life a ransom for many.”