RIDE ON, KING JESUS
This traditional
spiritual was my favorite one that the Sanctuary Mass Choir sang while I was
pastor at Oakhurst. It resonates deeply
as we begin this Holy Week. All four
gospels have an account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem at the time of
Passover. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, it
is Jesus’ first trip to Jerusalem. He
seems to have deliberately chosen to enter the Holy City at this festival, with
its emphasis on God’s freeing the Hebrew slaves from captivity in Egypt. His followers catch the hint – it is
time! The Roman oppressors will be
overthrown, the corrupt religious leaders will be thrown out of the Temple, and
Temple worship will be restored to its rightful place as a sanctuary for
encountering the presence of God. His
followers shout and celebrate as they enter the Holy City – “blessed is the One
who comes in the name of the Lord!” It
is time! Ride On, King Jesus!
The parade
for Jesus enters Jerusalem from the east side of the city from the Mount of
Olives, a traditional place from which the Messiah is supposed to be coming. On the west side of the city, there is
another parade, perhaps on the same day.
It is the Roman governor of Palestine, Pontus Pilate, and his Roman
soldiers entering Jerusalem during the Passover festival. Pilate lives in Caesarea near the Mediterranean
coast, the capital of the province. Yet,
at Passover, he and the Romans come into to Jerusalem to warn the Jewish
residents there: “Celebrate your
Passover, but be careful – don’t get carried away with the idea of freedom and
liberation from captivity. Stay within
the bounds of making Passover an event of the past, and things will go
fine. Be careful – if you go outside the
bounds, we will crush you.”
So, these
two parades enter Jerusalem about the same time. Jesus, riding on a jackass, no weapons, no
army, no money, just a ragtag band of followers fired up about the reign of God
coming. Pilate and his army, trumpets
blaring, drums beating, calvary armed for battle, infantry ready to fight – the
reps of Rome are here!
This drama
of Holy Week will have these two systems wrestle in the hearts of the people of
Jerusalem and in our own hearts too.
This drama is always contemporary because these two systems are in a
mighty struggle in our individual and collective hearts. One system tells us that the center of life
is love and justice and compassion and mercy.
The other system tells us that the center of life is domination and
money and redemptive violence and death.
Most of us find ourselves in the middle of this struggle all of our
lives, and Holy Week reminds us that we almost always bend towards the system
of domination in our hearts and in our actions.
Like those first followers of Jesus, we just can’t stay with him, when
the system of domination roars at us, or whispers in the night to us. Some of us are like Judas, so disappointed in
Jesus that we betray him. Some of us are
like the male disciples who promise to follow Jesus all the way but then flee
in terror when he is arrested. Some of us
are like the women disciples who watch at a distance when Jesus is lynched by
Rome. No one stays with him.
That’s the
difficult truth of this Holy Week – it is why it is always a contemporary
story. We believe in the Tomahawk
missiles. We believe in the power of
money. We believe in redemptive
violence. And, the difficult truth is
exposed to us this week – we would rather kill Jesus than be transformed by his
love. This Holy Week reminds us of our
captivity and the deals that we make to rationalize that captivity. Whatever our particular rationalization –
racism, sexism, nationalism, homophobia, materialism, militarism (the list
seems endless) – it all leads to the Cross.
Ride On,
King Jesus! We have such high hopes for
Jesus and God – and then the world intercedes:
violence, Donald Trump, rollback of the EPA guidelines, denial of
climate change, the reinforcement of private prisons, and so much more. We tend to shrink back, lower our gaze, tamp
down our hopes, lose the vision. Ride
On, King Jesus?
Holy Week
does not permit hopes to rise – we must allow ourselves as individuals and
communities to be exposed, so that we will understand the depth of our
captivity to the powers. Yet, Jesus does
ride on, and we can give thanks for that.
He does ride on, not to the throne of Rome but rather to the Cross of
Rome. We must sit with that truth this
week. We know that’s not the end of the
story, but we must linger here for awhile, in our own Gethsemane.
Ho comprato un orologio in questo negozio online e l'ho dato al mio ragazzo. repliche orologi Questo orologio è di pregevole fattura e la qualità è molto buona. Lo stile dell'orologio è molto buono, il prezzo è basso, ne vale la pena, vale la pena acquistarlo. repliche rolex orologi Sto presentando questo sito ai miei amici. Gli amici intorno a me si vantano che questo sito è fantastico.
ReplyDelete