Welcoming the King of Peace

Sunday Scriptures from the Narrative Lectionary

Psalm 118:19-23

Luke 19:29-44

The Christian Year moves us through thirty-three years of Jesus’ life between his birth, marked on Christmas Eve, and his execution, marked by Good Friday.

There is Christmas, then the celebration of the star that marked Jesus’ birth at Epiphany. Soon thereafter we start our Lenten journey – a season of preparation for this week that we are about to enter into. We mark our foreheads with ashes at the start of Lent, reminding ourselves of our own mortality as we began the Lenten journey in preparation for Jesus’ death. And in Luke 9:51 we began a journey with Jesus toward Jerusalem, where he would be crucified and three days later, rise. This Sunday, Palm Sunday, marks Jesus final entry into Jerusalem. On Thursday we will celebrate the Last Supper (Maundy Thursday) and on Friday (Good Friday), Jesus will be crucified. He will die.

It is only by Jesus’ death that we can understand his resurrection that we celebrate on Easter Sunday. And it is only by our death to sin (through baptism, confession and repentance) in Jesus Christ that we can understand what it means to rise in new life through him and in him. Death and life are part of the experience of every living creature; and yet as much as they go together, they are not alike.

Life in Jesus Christ requires us to think deeply about things that we might otherwise move by without significant thought. As Christians we must consider what it means to die in Christ, and what it means to live in Christ and live in a way that reflects that death and life.

As we have journeyed with Jesus, we find that he also requires us to think about our expectations of kings, power, and what it means to be victorious. Leadership may lead to death or to life, depending on the leader. Our images and understandings of authority and positions of power are just as confusing for us today as they were for those in Jesus’ time.

We come directly in contact with these confused understandings in our reading from Luke and Jesus arrival into Jerusalem. Much about Jesus’ arrival into Jerusalem looks like the kind of entry a king or a victorious military ruler would have made in Jesus’ time. It makes us wonder if he is a king of power.

• Kings/military leaders typically would have been escorted into the city by citizens or members of their army. (Jesus was accompanied by many.)
• Kings/military leaders would have been honored in processions with hymns and acclamations. (There are shouts of Psalm 118 from some of those in the crowd as Jesus enters the city.)
• Kings/military leaders would have been honored by elements in the procession. (Jesus was honored by those who put their cloaks down on the ground.)
• Kings/military leaders would have marked their victorious entrance with a sacrifice or other symbolically appropriate event in the Temple upon their arrival. (Jesus weeps. Hmmm. This seems odd compared to other kings. Take note and keep reading and thinking.)

Other elements add to the story, for example, the Christological affirmation of Jesus in his knowing where the disciples would find a donkey and how the owner would respond to the donkey being used for the procession. And Jesus riding a donkey that had not been previously ridden reflects the unused tomb in which Jesus will be placed following his death. The “multitudes” that follow him point us back to the multitudes of heavenly host at Jesus birth (2:13), and the many multitudes of people who have followed him and learned from him during his ministry. (There will be a multitude also who will take him to Pilate, and eventually accompany him to be crucified.)

While the crowds, the acclimations, the honoring Jesus experiences entering into the city reflects a person of position and power in many ways, those who look for Jesus’ arrival are hoping for someone who will be like an earthly king or military leader – who will repel Rome and restore the integrity of the Temple.

But Jesus is not an earthly king. He is the King of Kings and he comes not to battle Rome, but sin and death. He comes to challenge people’s expectations and perceptions of power and what it means to “win.”

Most profound in this passage are Jesus’ tears. They are tears over the people’s desire for violence and battle. They are tears over the city’s refusal to recognize who Jesus is. They are tears over the lack of understanding around who this is who is entering the city, and the energy and enthusiasm of the multitude gathered to welcome him into Jerusalem, longing for a victorious leader.

And Jesus weeps because he knows that the city will be crushed under its misunderstanding.

Indeed, in 70 A.D. the Roman emperor Titus would lead 50,000 troops into the Jerusalem and capture the city. Tens of thousands would be killed or enslaved, and the Temple structure destroyed. It is a historical judgement on the city of the time, but a theological judgement of those of us in modern times. How often we continue to uphold, honor, and seek leaders who are night and day, death and life opposite of Jesus?

Jesus is King of Kings, but not of violence, destruction and death. Jesus is the King of Kings who brings shalom (wellbeing) to all (everyone) and who brings peace. He still seeks us. He still longs for us. He still hopes we will understand.

May our hearts welcome this King - the King of peace who weeps for us - as we wave palm branches and sing hosannas on Palm Sunday.

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