Jesus or Rome

Today is an important day in the Christian church, Palm Sunday, the beginning of the week of Easter. Easter is the time to remember the sacrifice and victory of Christ, but today on Palm Sunday we get a view of the catalyst that started the story, really the events that sealed the fate of Jesus. When I read about the moment of the triumphal entry I cant help to continually be impressed by the courage of Jesus.

But I am also drawn to the correlation between spiritual and religious thought and politics and law, which in the gospels are inseparable. Living in the 21st Century in the West we have clear separation between the state and the church. Law and religion are separate. In the worldview of Jesus this wasn’t’ the case – the bible was the law, it was political

Jesus had come to the gates of Jerusalem, with the message that had been the basis of his life’s ministry, that of The Kingdom of God. This was what Jesus had lived for, and ultimately what he came to Jerusalem to die for.

I am going to look at a couple aspects of the triumphal entry which Rachel read earlier. Firstly, what was the significance of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem and what happened after he got off the colt. Next I will look briefly at a prophecy that Jesus speaks that is often overlooked or misunderstood and what this means to us today.
Luke 19:28-44
28After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29As he approached Bethpage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 30"Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it.' "
32Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. 33As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?"
34They replied, "The Lord needs it."

Background: Jesus had not been to Jerusalem for a few years up to this point. He had been forced to leave the city and teach and heal in towns around it. This was because of the controversy his work had caused in the past had meant he had to keep away from the centre of power – which is what Jerusalem was, the political, religious centre of that part of the world.
The act of sending his two disciples was the fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy which pointed to the arrival of the Messiah. All Jewish people would have understood the symbolism of this act.

35They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. 36As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.
37When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
38"Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!"[b]
"Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"
39Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"
40"I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."

This time of year was the Passover, which is the celebration of the time when the Angel of God passed over the Jewish slaves houses in Egypt. It is a special time of celebration for them, and was the time Jesus had deliberately chosen to make his way into Jerusalem. The Roman Empire, which was the occupier of Israel and was aware of the importance of this celebration for the Jewish people and the potential for violent uprising. So at about the same time Jesus entered the city, on the opposite side, a different procession was taking place. The Romans would send Imperial Cavalry and foot soldiers adorned with banners, as a show of force, with the Governor – Pontius Pilate leading the Army.This was a deliberate act by Jesus to once again emphasize that his mission was different. On one side of the city, the world empire, the political power of the time was entering the city prepared for war. Jesus came into the city on a donkey – which was the traditional way a king would arrive in times of peace. Jesus was while signaling to the Jewish people he was the Messiah, also in effect putting on a political demonstration. The message he gave was clear – it was a message that he continuously spoke about in his ministry – that of The Kingdom of God - a choice between the Kingdom of Man, or the Kingdom of God. Understanding that when Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of Heaven, referred to in Matthew, that he was in fact talking about the Kingdom of God on earth.

What is the Kingdom of God: in Luke 17 – it says20Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, 21nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you./among you"

This Kingdom is both the present reality and the future Hope. Jesus brought the message of the Kingdom of God as a way of life in the here and now. Not something that can be attained through religious zeal or practice, but something that starts within us, through application of the message of Jesus. It is this Kingdom that must be begun on earth to be continued into eternity, so that we are recognizing the reign of God on earth. Recognizing that this is His Kingdom and we will act in accordance with the principles of this Kingdom, building through the power of the Spirit until the time when the earth is made new. He offered a choice between two ways of life – two visions of how life could be on earth. The Kingdom of God, the way of peace, love and sacrifice or The Kingdom of Imperial Domination – The Kingdom of Man, a life of death, fear, war and upheaval – The Empire of Rome was included in this, but so too was the Religious system of the time – the Temple, which was the centre of Judaism, was a much a part of the Kingdom of Man as was Rome.

Jesus followed up his assault on these institutions, particularly the Temple, in the next few days by causing more disturbances. We must remember that all these events weren’t random, on the spot type actions. They were very deliberate, thought out actions taken by Jesus. Reading Mark – which has the most accurate chronological order of events of all the gospels – Jesus cleared the Temple of money changers and had tipped over tables. Jesus’ act was an indictment of the Temple and in essence of the entire religion of Judaism. It was at this point that the desire to kill Jesus was at its height – the priests and Pharisees had to address the issue by eliminating Him or by embracing Him. The next day – Jesus has several verbal battles with the authorities. These took place in the Temple courtyard, which at the time of the Passover would have had thousands of people coming in and out. These encounters would have drawn a crowd and as Jesus had the best of these exchanges the animosity would have grown. Jesus knew what would happen to Him, but he had to give the people the opportunity to see what the Kingdom of God was about, and give them another chance. The courage Jesus showed by these acts are incredible. He had preached the Kingdom of God his whole ministry and knew they wouldn’t join Him in building it, which led to the next part of the scripture – and the realization by Jesus of the tremendous suffering Israel had ahead of it.

The next passage is an unusual and often misunderstood piece of scripture. In each of the gospels, there is a section on what is called variously ‘signs of the end of the age’. In Luke we have the image of Jesus looking over Jerusalem and uttering this prophetic word. It has been often thought of as a prophetic word about the end of the world, but its actually referring to something that happened about 40 years after Jesus had been crucified. Jerusalem revolted against the Roman rulers in about AD 66, and fought a war that lasted about 4 years. This war happened around the time most of the books of the bible were written and heavily impacted the early Christian church. Revelations has its development in this time period and conflict. Jesus elaborated on this in other passages, but for today lets look at what he said:

41As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you."

Josephus Account of sack of Jerusalem AD 70
This was the account recounted by the famous Jewish Historian Josephus.

Most of the slain were peaceful citizens, weak and unarmed, and they were butchered where they were caught. The heap of corpses mounted higher and higher about the altar; a stream of blood flowed down the Temple’s steps, and the bodies of those slain at the top slipped to the bottom.

When Caesar failed to restrain the fury of his frenzied soldiers, and the fire could not be checked, he entered the building with his generals and looked at the holy place of the sanctuary and all its furnishings, which exceeded by far the accounts current in foreign lands and fully justified their splendid repute in our own.

As the flames had not yet penetrated to the inner sanctum, but were consuming the chambers that surrounded the sanctuary, Caesar assumed correctly that there was still time to save the structure.

Then, when the flames suddenly shot up from the interior, Caesar and his generals withdrew, and no one was left to prevent those outside from kindling the blaze. Thus, in defiance of Caesar’s wishes, the Temple was set on fire.

While the Temple was ablaze, the attackers plundered it, and countless people who were caught by them were slaughtered. There was no pity for age and no regard was accorded rank; children and old men, laymen and priests, alike were butchered; every class was pursued and crushed in the grip of war, whether they cried out for mercy or offered resistance.

Through the roar of the flames streaming far and wide, the groans of the falling victims were heard; such was the height of the hill and the magnitude of the blazing pile that the entire city seemed to be ablaze; and the noise – nothing more deafening and frightening could be imagined.

There were the war cries of the Roman legions as they swept onwards en masse, the yells of the rebels encircled by fire and sword, the panic of the people who, cut off above, fled into the arms of the enemy, and their shrieks as they met their fate. The cries on the hill blended with those of the multitudes in the city below; and now many people who were exhausted and tongue-tied as a result of hunger, when they beheld the Temple on fire, found strength once more to lament and wail.

The Temple Mount, everywhere enveloped in flames, seemed to be boiling over from its base; yet the blood seemed more abundant than the flames and the numbers of the slain greater than those of the slayers. The soldiers climbed over heaps of bodies as they chased the fugitives.”

Jesus had seen this future, and knew that although he was bringing a way of avoiding this path, by people embracing the Kingdom of God, the life of peace, love, service and sacrifice – that they would reject his message and embrace a violent path, the Kingdom of Man. They wouldn’t recognize Him as the Messiah and that the outcome would be what it was…And he wept.

The fact that Jesus said they have the chance for peace but they don’t see it indicates that this outcome didn’t have to take place. If they had embraced Jesus’ message and begun to join with Him to build the Kingdom of God, Israel would have been on the path ordained by God once again, and perhaps the world would be a different place. The Kingdom message is the message of loving God with all our hearts, mind and soul and loving others as we love ourselves. Do to others as we want done to us. It is the Kingdom of love, hope and faith. A commitment to peace and justice. A life of service and sacrifice – of taking up our cross and being like Jesus. Taking the life and words of Jesus to heart every day we are alive. This is the Kingdom of God. It is not something that is far away, or distant and airy fairy. But it can be felt today. Jesus was offering it to Israel, as an alternative to the destruction that fell Jerusalem. The Kingdom of God is here , within us, around us and amongst us– if we are committed to living our lives with it as our great aim and purpose. This message today, is quite heavy in a lot of ways and it has many layers. Its an important message though, as it speaks to the beginning of the last days of Christ. Really a last ditch effort by Christ to bring his Kingdom message to fruition and acceptance. It’s a message that’s still valid today, we have the choice between following The Kingdom of God, the way of peace, love and sacrifice or The Kingdom of Man, a life of death, fear, war and upheaval.

As Christians we have to take seriously Christ’s call to be the Kingdom of God, to build the Kingdom of God. Palm Sunday reminds us of the fact that despite the danger that Jesus knew awaited Him, The Kingdom message was too important not to sacrifice himself for. Palm Sunday is a wake up call for us as Christians that have placed anything ahead of being and building the kingdom of God. Our bibles must not sit idle on our bookcases or by our beds. Prayer must not be something that is reserved for special occasions. For it is in these acts that we draw the strength and courage to be the message of Jesus, to start the work of the kingdom in our lives. Easter defines Christianity as a movement of sacrifice, its not easy, but as Jerusalem discovered, the alternatives are far worse. Christianity isn’t a passive movement. It is organic and fluid and alive. The kingdom of God is amongst us, here at Berwick. Lets build and create it further in our lives and the lives of our community. Lets make a commitment to Gods Kingdom.