Have you ever wanted something so bad it didn’t matter how
much it cost?
In Matthew’s Gospel, ‘the crowd’ is one of the characters in
the story. This character is written
like a child sitting at the feet of an instructor. They listen
to his Sermon on the Mount. They are astounded by his healings. They wonder
about his ‘messiahship’ when he casts out demons. They watch
as he miraculously divides bread and fish.
For the three years of Jesus’ ministry the crowd observes, contemplates,
and talks among themselves.
So it comes as a huge disappointment when we observe the way
they respond to Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.
This is because after all that they saw and heard, they welcomed the
messiah like they weren’t paying attention.
Do you ever wonder why the people put palm fronds down on
the road when Jesus came to Jerusalem?
The irony of the whole situation is that Jesus came in,
rather humbly, on a borrowed donkey to begin the festival of Passover, which is the festival for the
Jews to celebrate their freedom from Egyptian slavery. The palm frond is a symbol for the festival
of Sukkot. Sukkot, or the Feast of
Booths, is a Jewish festival, where the faithful sleep, pray and eat in tents,
(or booths) covered with palm fronds, to remember their days of living in the
wilderness.
Knowing this makes the whole palm frond thing more
confusing. Why would the crowd do Sukkot
things to welcome a messiah during Passover?
The whole thing is actually quite political. You see, centuries before King Solomon, built
the first temple. The temple was a
symbol of great accomplishment and dominance as a Kingdom in the region. King Solomon explained the temple as a symbol
of prosperity and rightness with God. (Despite
what the prophets might have said, were saying, and would continue to say to
the contrary)
It was during Sukkot that Solomon dedicated the first
temple. Therefore, as much as the
festival of Sukkot was about remembering the wandering in the desert thing, it
became celebrated as an incredibly patriotic holiday. It was the first holiday celebrated after
Judas Maccabeus declared war on an earlier group of Romans, recaptured and restored
the defiled temple in the second century BCE.
You see, for the crowd, the temple was a symbol of their
liberation. To have Roman soldiers
occupying it, was an abomination and the festival of sukkot was their visible
display of hope that God would act.
But God didn’t come to earth in the flesh to fulfill the
festival of Sukkot. In John’s Gospel,
Jesus literally sneaks into Jerusalem to attend the festival of Sukkot, saying
‘it’s not my time yet.’ During that same
festival when the high priest pours ‘living water,’ onto the altar asking God
to cast judgment on all the nations, Jesus jumps up and shouts to the crowd, ‘I
am your living water!’ Jesus seemed to
be quite clear that his messiah-ship had nothing to do with Sukkot. In other words God wasn’t very interested in
building temples or empires. Jesus chose
the festival of Passover to make his entrance because Jesus is the Messiah of
Passover, not Sukkot.
Passover, is the festival the Jews grieved. It was the night all first born in Egypt were
struck with a plague, but everyone who painted their door posts red with actual
lamb’s blood was spared. It was God’s
final act of punishment on Pharaoh that immediately led to the release of the
Hebrew people from captivity. It was the
night the people remember the lambs that were slain and the cost of freedom. Out of great suffering came liberation for
the Hebrew people. This is the message
Jesus was trying to convey by making his humble entrance. He did not enter on a warhorse with a
sword. He did not bring an army. He didn’t even have someone announce his
coming. Jesus came in like the lamb
being led to slaughter. It was the crowd
that day, by laying palm fronds on the road, declared war on the Roman
occupiers. And set in motion Jesus’
execution.
A few weeks ago I watched the movie 12 Years a Slave, and I wondered, (like I do with most movies about
white people oppressing people) if I’m being totally honest, which side of
history I would have been on. Most of us
have the privilege of being abolitionists in hindsight. However, in this movie, the villainous slave
master is so violent and so evil, that it was quite easy to distance myself
from his worldview. Matthew’s Gospel
doesn’t let us off the hook so easily.
By making ‘the crowd’ a character in this story, we don’t get an opportunity
to be so privileged.
From Matthew’s perspective, we all would have been the
crowd. And perhaps the challenge and
discipline of Matthew’s is to contemplate and see yourself as a member of the
crowd.
What’s important to remember is that the crowd isn’t
necessarily the bad guy. It might be
easy to jump question, what are we doing to crucify
Jesus? What could possess us to do such an
evil thing? However, I believe it’s much
much more subtle than that.
It seems that people who followed Jesus from place to place
had one thing in common: they didn’t understand how the messiah didn’t come to
declare war. Whether it was Peter trying to protect his leader from death or the crowd wanting to push Jesus off a cliff for saying trouble was coming. I believe it’s because they
held on to tightly to this Sukkot paradigm.
This Palm Sunday, as you focus in on your place in the
crowd, ask yourself: What is the one thing I am holding onto so tightly that
I’m missing God’s movement happening right in front of me. An addiction? Bitterness? Financial ambitions? The need to be in control? Fear?
Anger? Longing? What dream is God asking
you to let go of to receive God's dream with open arms?
The litmus test for this generally involves the choice that
leads to struggle and suffering.
However, as we will find out on Easter Sunday, suffering in the name of God’s
will promises resurrection. Stay tuned.
Let Go and Let God, my friends. And may it bring you peace and oneness with
God’s will.
Shalom.
