Something to Cheer About
(Luke 19: 41-20: 8)
With Jesus timing is everything. Everything he has done during his brief three-year ministry has been for a reason leading to what is about to happen in one short week. Even his entry into Jerusalem had significance. His entry from the Mount of Olives to the west of Jerusalem is staged as a counter display to Herod Antipas’ annual entry in Jerusalem from Caesarea Maratima to the east of Jerusalem. Herod came to Jerusalem every year at Passover time and each time he was riding a mighty warhorse escorted by an entourage of soldiers. His purpose for this annual visit was to demonstrate the emperor’s power over the city and to suppress any challenges to Roman domination. A not-so-subtle show of force just to remind the populace of who was really in charge. And here comes Jesus riding a borrowed donkey escorted by his band of ragtag unarmed disciples. His purpose was to demonstrate the kingship of God and to offer peace.
Even Jesus’ instruction to two of his disciples to go into the village and look for a donkey colt that never had been ridden and bring it to him had a special meaning to anyone who was paying attention and putting the pieces of the puzzle together. This was a reference to Zechariah 9: 9, which states: Look, your king will come to you. He is righteous and victorious. He is humble and riding on an ass, on a colt, the offspring of a donkey. After they returned to Jesus with the colt, he mounted it and they headed towards Jerusalem picking up people along the way with the disciples and others praising God in a loud voice because of all the mighty things they had seen, exclaiming: Blessings on the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens. By this time Jesus was extremely well known as many had heard of his unconventional teachings and the stories of his healing a leper, giving sight to a man born blind, healing a man who was lame, and bringing a man who had been dead for four days back to life. Everyone coming to Jerusalem for the Passover feast had heard of him, and, for a time, the popular mood was favorable toward him. The Pharisees had been monitoring Jesus’ activities for quite some time and those who refused to believe who he was were growing concerned as their status quo was being threatened. People were talking and questioning their authority. So, some of the Pharisees who were in the crowd said to Jesus, Teacher, scold your disciples! Tell them to stop! Jesus answered, I tell you, if they were silent, the stones would shout!
But wait, there’s more. Jesus didn’t just ride into Jerusalem to make an appearance, sign a few copies of the Torah, shake a few hands and kiss some adorable babies. Luke tells us that as Jesus came to the city, he wept over it and said: If only you knew on this of all days the things that lead to peace. But now they are hidden from your eyes. He tells them a time will come when the enemies of Israel will build fortifications around them, encircle them, and attack them from all sides. He says: They will crush you completely, you and the people within you. They won’t leave one stone on top of another within you, because you didn’t recognize the time of your gracious visit from God. This prediction would come true between 66 and 70 A.D. when the Roman army besieged Jerusalem and completely leveled it killing over 600,000 Jews in the campaign. The people were beginning to understand Jesus’ redefinition of power causing fear among the Pharisees over the blatant challenge to Roman domination, calling for a stop to this nonviolent challenge to a violent regime. Jesus was calling for a regime change and those in power and those who had cozied up to power would do whatever they could to maintain their grip on power. That’s what authoritarians do, reward those who keep them in power.
The celebration of Palm Sunday isn’t just about Jesus entering Jerusalem to throngs of admirers waving palm branches and shouting Hosanna. He didn’t just make an appearance and then went back to stay with friends outside Jerusalem at a post-parade party. No, he stayed. He had work to do. He came to fulfill his destiny, and many were wondering how he was going to accomplish this regime change. So, Jesus stayed in Jerusalem spending the week in the temple rather than the synagogues speaking with local rabbis as he had done many times in his travels. In the temple he encountered the chief priests which made it hard for them to ignore. He was in their house, on their turf. As recognized experts they questioned Jesus’ authority because they see him as a challenge to their authority because, after all, that’s what really mattered, maintaining their authority.
The first thing Jesus did which really got their attention was to throw those out who were selling things in the temple court saying to them: It is written; My house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it a hideout for crooks. Jesus’ cleansing of the temple is not a reaction to mere commerce within the temple. Some commerce, particularly the purchasing of sacrificial animals, was essential to the divinely sanctioned system of sacrifices and was initially meant as a matter of convenience for those who didn’t have the means to raise their own animals for sacrifice or bring them with them over great distances. Jesus’ reforms are probably aimed at exploitive monopolies that have taken control of temple markets and that use that competition creating an environment that resulted in worshipers being overcharged. Somebody was lining their pockets, and it offended God.
Jesus was teaching daily in the temple and it was really beginning to get under the skin of the chief priests, the legal experts, and the foremost leaders among the people and they were trying to figure out a way how to kill him, but they realized it would be difficult because all the people who came to hear him speak were enthralled at what they heard. To me, that begs the question as to who “these” people, these foremost leaders among the people, were. This group probably included wealthy leaders in politics, commerce, and the law, you know, the one-percenters, the ones who had the most to lose and had several selfish reasons for wanting to get rid of Jesus. He had already damaged business in the temple by driving the merchants out. In addition, he was preaching against injustice, and his teachings often favored the poor over the rich. Rich people hate that. Additionally, his great popularity was in danger of attracting Roman attention, and the leaders of Isreal wanted as little as possible to do with Rome.
We’re told that on one of those days when Jesus was teaching in the temple and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests, legal experts, and elders approached him saying: Tell us, what kind of authority do you have for doing these things? Who gave you this authority. Recognizing the trap and not wanting to make it easy on them, Jesus replied: I have a question for you. Tell me, was John’s baptism of heavenly or of human origin? They huddled up and discussed it amongst themselves reasoning: If we say, it’s of heavenly origin, he’ll say, Why didn’t you believe him? But if we say, It’s of human origin, all the people will stone us to death because they are convinced that John was a prophet. They answered that they didn’t know where it came from, which had to have been pretty embarrassing getting shut down like that. Then Jesus replied: Neither will I tell you what kind of authority I have to do these things.
The religious leaders misunderstood that real peace does not come from the Roman emperor, but that real peace was standing right in front of them! And that’s the whole point. You can never have peace when you spend every waking moment trying to hang on to what you have and doing things to ensure nobody else ever has a chance to get some of it. Money, power, and status can’t give you the kind of peace and love that endures.
That’s not the good news Jesus was bringing into Jerusalem that day. To achieve that true peace, peace with God, Jesus desires that we love God and neighbor. He wants us to put our faith into action, to bear fruit. Jesus doesn’t want us to feel threatened by a hungry child, by someone who is sick and only wants to feel better, by someone who desperately wants the dignity of a place to live, by someone who wants to make a living to support their loved ones, by someone who doesn’t look like us, pray like us, love like us, or speak like us. Jesus wants us to live in harmony with one another not just here but all around the world and that is truly something to cheer about.
Let us pray.
Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus, to reach out and touch him, and say that we love him. Yes Lord, open our eyes to that which is standing right in front of us, to that which will give us a peace that will last, a peace that cannot be obtained through wealth, power, status, or influence. Give us that peace that lightens our load and the loads of others through what we do in your name. Open our ears, and help us to listen, to listen to your teachings of love and service, to listen to those who are lost and searching. Open our hearts, Lord, and give us something to cheer for. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.
To view service, click link below:
3/29/26
Something to Cheer About
To achieve that true peace, peace with God, Jesus desires that we love God and neighbor. He wants us to put our faith into action, to bear fruit.