Occupy Jerusalem!

(Scriptures:       Isaiah 50:4-9a ,  Zechariah 9:9-17 ,  Psalm 118,  Philippians 2:5-11,   Matthew 21:1-17)

 

 

Journey’s end.  Jesus, in the company of his disciples, had healed and taught, fed and cast out demons, from Jesus’ home area of Galilee, in the Gentile cities of the Decapolis, moving south into Samaria, moving further south still into Judea.  For some time now, Jesus has been warning his disciples that they would be entering Jerusalem, where he would be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, who would condemn him to death and would hand them over to the Romans to be crucified.  He also told the disciples he would be raised on the third day, but they had no idea what Jesus might mean by that, and surely the thought of Jesus going to Jerusalem to be killed must have terrified them.  And yet they followed Jesus into Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, the Jewish festival of commemorating freedom from slavery in Egypt, and into what the disciples had to know would be a dangerous situation.

 

It would appear that Jesus had made advance preparations.  Two disciples are sent into Bethphage, a little village just east of Jerusalem,  to get a donkey and its colt, which Jesus said would be tied up near the village entrance.  Jesus told them that if anyone asks why they’re taking the donkey and colt, they are to say, “The Lord needs them.”  And it all comes to pass as Jesus says.  Jesus has arranged to enact the words of Zechariah which we read earlier today.  (We might wonder if Matthew read Zechariah’s poetic parallelism – “mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey”  a bit too literally, as it would have taken quite a display of acrobatics for Jesus to ride a donkey and its colt at the same time, but whatever.)

 

The crowds accompanying Jesus remembered Zechariah’s words as well – under Roman occupation, Zechariah would have been one of the texts they clung to.  Zechariah’s images of a king who would come in peace – remember that a warrior king would have come on a warhorse, not a donkey - to release the imprisoned and restore the people would have been very attractive to people living under foreign occupation.  And so the crowds shout “Save us!  Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”

 

The residents of Jerusalem were not so thrilled, as they see the shouting crowds and the man on the donkey.  The English translation says “the whole city was in turmoil” – but really, this is too tame a translation.  The Greek word, eseisthe , has the same root as our English word seismic, referring to earthquakes – and so really, Matthew is telling us that Jesus’ donkey ride had Jerusalem in an upheaval, all shook up, shaken to its core.  After all, the Romans understood perfectly well that the Passover festival was a celebration of freedom among their Jewish subjects, and they didn’t want those Jewish subjects to get any crazy ideas in their heads about celebrating their freedom from Pharoah’s oppression by staging a rebellion against Roman oppression.  Indeed, Bible scholars such as Marcus Borg and Jon Dominic Crossan have suggested that likely, at the same time Jesus was riding into Jerusalem on a donkey from the east, bringing a message of God’s peace, Roman leaders would have been riding into Jerusalem from the west on war horses, in a show of force intended to intimidate the populace.  Two parades – the official parade proclaiming that Caesar is Lord, and Jesus’ unofficial counter-parade proclaiming that God is Lord.

 

While the religious and political establishment was quaking in their boots, the crowd was revved up – now, at long last, they thought, Jesus of Nazareth was going to kick some Roman butt and establish the Jews as an independent nation once again.  This would be a Passover to remember.  Only one problem – Jesus didn’t take on the Roman establishment.  Instead, Jesus took on the Temple religious establishment.   Oops!  Matthew’s Gospel paints quite a striking scene – immediately upon having ridden into Jerusalem on a donkey and a colt, Jesus goes to the Temple and starts kicking out the moneychangers.  Jesus knocks over the tables and as the moneychangers are running for cover, Jesus yells at them, “My house should be a house of prayer, but you’ve turned it into a den of robbers.”  The scene becomes more striking still – as the moneychangers are leaving, the blind and lame are entering seeking healing, and Jesus cures them.  Little children have found their way in as well, and they’re singing “Hosanna to the Son of David”.  The religious leaders are sputtering with rage, but Jesus shuts them down.  He then makes his exit and goes to Bethany, the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus.

 

I was thinking about the scene Matthew paints – and really, since the lectionary omits the verses about the moneychangers and the healings and the children singing, as I was preparing this sermon, this is the first time in some time I’ve mentally connected these verses together in this way.  And as I read these verses and made mental connections, my mind wandered to the Occupy gatherings that took place across the country in the fall of 2011, including in Philadelphia.  There were assemblies in public places, including in front of City Hall downtown, as those involved – many of whom were economically distressed and politically on the margins - discussed alternatives to the current political and economic status quo.  Periodically there would be marches and protests in front of banks and other centers of economic and political power.  Frequently during these protests, there would be a sort of call and response:  “Show me what democracy looks like….This is what democracy looks like.”  And I think part of what Jesus was doing at the Temple that Palm Sunday was staging a sort of occupation of his own at the Temple.   He upset the status quo by throwing out the moneychangers and overturning their tables.  And then he demonstrated what the Temple could be like – a place of healing, a place for children to sing and chant.  “Show me what the love of God looks like….This is what the love of God looks like.  Show me what the reign of God looks like….this is what the reign of God looks like” – people being healed, children singing, and the moneychangers kicked to the curb.

 

Occupy’s tactics sometimes involved civil disobedience – blocking entrances of buildings and such, which sometimes resulted in arrests.  The idea was to get in the way of what is seen as injustice, to gum things up so that business as usual got stopped in its tracks.  And Jesus’ actions; indeed, Jesus’ whole life, were like a time bomb to the status quo.  The religious leadership tried to contain the disruption by having Jesus arrested.  The Roman political establishment tried to contain the disruption by having Jesus executed – for them, the crucifixion of Jesus was just the execution of one more troublemaker – many had been crucified before Jesus and many would be crucified after Jesus.  But because Jesus occupied the cross, he took on himself and occupied the sins of all humankind, breaking the power of sin and death.  He occupied the grave, and broke its power, so that Mary on Easter Sunday encountered an empty tomb and an angel proclaiming the risen Christ.

 

“Show me what the love of God looks like…” – Well, show me!  What does the love of God look like here in Bridesburg? What does the love of God look like here at Emanuel?  We probably have as many mental images of the love of God as we have people here in worship.  Healing of bodies, healing of minds, healing of spirits, healing of relationships are a huge part of what the love of God looks like.   So is creating a place where all are welcome.   So is creating a place where we share with one another and with our neighbors who aren’t here.  “Show me what the love of God looks like….This is what the love of God looks like.”  Indeed, you - we, all of us here - are what the love of God looks like.

 

“Show me what the love of God looks like.”  May Jesus Christ, who occupied a donkey on Palm Sunday, who occupied the Temple, who occupied a cross and a tomb, likewise occupy our hearts, our minds, our bodies, our spirits….and this congregation, Emanuel Church, gathered in Christ’s name.  As Jesus transformed the cross and the empty tomb into signs of hope, may Jesus transform us into his messengers of hope and peace.  Amen.