When they came to the Mount of
Olives near Jerusalem, he sent two of his disciples, and said to them, “Go into
the village that is opposite you. As you enter, you will find a young donkey who
no one has ridden. Untie him, and bring him. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you
doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs him;’ and he will send him back here.”
They went away, and found a
young donkey in the street, and they untied him. Some of those who stood there
asked, “What are you doing, untying the donkey?” They said to them what Jesus
had said, and they let them go.
They brought the young donkey to
Jesus, and threw their garments on it, and Jesus sat on it. Many spread their
garments on the way, and others were cutting down branches from the trees, and
spreading them on the road. Those who went in front, and those who followed,
cried out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed
is the kingdom of our father David that is coming in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!”
This was to fulfill what was written,
“Don’t be afraid, daughter of Zion. Your King comes, sitting on a donkey’s colt.”
His disciples didn’t understand these things at first, but when Jesus was raised
from the dead, they remembered what had been written about him.
The crowd that
was with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb was talking about it. Others
went and met him, because they heard that he had done this sign. The Pharisees
said among themselves, “We’ve accomplished nothing; the whole world has gone
after him.”
Reflection
Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem
symbolized peaceful revolution: ‘peaceful’ because he entered on a humble
donkey rather than a powerful warhorse; ‘revolution’ because he allowed himself
to be hailed as a Messiah who would save his people and inaugurate a kingdom.
Do you see following Jesus to be a revolutionary act? In what ways are you a
peaceful revolutionary?
Prayer: Continue to challenge
me, Lord, that I not take you for granted and miss out on your revolution.
Awhile back I began following a practice of what I think of as big picture scripture reading. Instead of reading in small chunks, I began reading whole books at a sitting. Instead of focusing on the details all the time, I began looking for larger patterns.
ReplyDeleteOne of the larger patterns that I noticed is the NT focus upon Lev 19:18 (loving neighbor as self). It is everywhere. In James it is called the Law of Liberty. Paul calls it the Law of Christ. In the Gospel of John it is the New Commandment. In I John it is the commandment which you have heard from the beginning. In James, Romans, Galatians, I John, and arguably the Gospel of John it is said that to fulfill this one law is to fulfill the whole Law of Moses.
It is impossible to overstate what a revolutionary statement this was. One rule/law/commandment/norm - love neighbor as self. Taken seriously, this shattered the foundations of Jewish culture (and of all cultures). Torah and Temple were rendered irrelevant. This was dangerous stuff.
It is not an accident, I would suggest, that Jesus, Stephen, and Paul were all charged with attacking the Temple and the Law. Jesus may not have said that he would destroy the Temple, but he might as well have. The implications of reducing the Torah to a single law was not lost on the Jerusalem leadership.
The message of Jesus is inherently transcultural and fundamentally anti-nationalistic. It calls us to embrace an ethic guided at every turn by the question, "Is this how I would want to be treated." You can't get more radically revolutionary than this.
The message of Jesus was definitely counter-cultural. I have to ask myself how willing I am to live counter-culturally. Am I willing to sacrifice my time, my energy and my financial resources, to be certain someone else can have the basic needs of life? More and more, that is what I am trying to practice. It is amazing how much fulfillment we can experience, when we give rather than get.
ReplyDeleteGood for you roaringlamb. I am reminded at Lent of how little I actually sacrifice my time, energy, and resources for others. In truth, I struggle even to treat the people within my normal sphere of interactions in the way that I would want to be treated. But, like you, I am trying to live the Law of Christ.
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