Reversed Expectations
I began my first Palm Sunday sermon from the back of the church and not, as expected, in the pulpit. That was intended as an illustration of the reality that Jesus, through his life and teaching, turned our understanding of life upside down. He did it when he called on the one without sin to cast the first stone. He did it when he, their Master, served the disciples by washing their feet. And he did it on the occasion of his entry into Jerusalem too.
Some people at the time expected him, if he really was Israel’s Messiah or King, to lead an armed rebellion against their Roman oppressors. As his ministry had gone on, these people had begun pressing him to declare his hand. Jesus chose the moment of his entry into Jerusalem to do so, but not in the way that those people expected. Instead of coming into Jerusalem as a warrior King on a war-horse leading an army, he came unarmed and riding on a donkey.
In doing so, he was pointing to a passage in Zechariah: ‘Look, your king is coming to you! He comes triumphant and victorious, but humble and riding on a donkey – on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ By entering Jerusalem in this way, Jesus made it clear he was the expected Messiah but that he would not be the kind of Messiah that was expected. He did not come to destroy Israel’s enemies but as the Prince of Peace, under whose rule the only things destroyed are weapons themselves.
Jesus came to love his enemies and unite them with his own people, making peace. In a time of national division we, too, can reverse people’s expectations by living and demonstrating Jesus’ embrace of all.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment