Month: June 2018

Overcoming Death

The religions of the ancient world had one thing in common.  They all developed around an elaborate afterlife theology.  One of the primary religious impulses of the ancient religions is the ideas of some kind of theory about the afterlife.   Greeks, the Babylonians, the Egyptians, native Americans, Hindus, eastern Indians, all have their own elaborate afterlife theologies.  Whether it’s joining the world of the forms, going off to the stars, a happy hunting ground, or reincarnation…

All the religions of the ancient world had developed elaborate afterlife theologies with one notable exception – the religion of the Hebrews.  The worshippers of Yahweh, the God of Israel, not only did they not have an elaborate theology, they barely had any afterlife theology at all.  It’s almost as if God, in leading his people through the Old Testament, did not let them develop a lot of theories about the afterlife.

As we read the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament, we tend to try to read more into the Old Testament than what is actually there.  The fact is, there is very little emphasis on an afterlife in the faith of the ancient Hebrews as they became the worshippers of Yahweh.  The psalmist would say things like “God deliver me, who is going to praise you in sheol (the land of the dead)?   If I die, whose going to praise you when I’m dead?  I can praise you when I’m alive You better save me now before I go down into the pit, into Sheol.    No ones going to praise you in Sheol.”   That kind of language is common among the prophets.

The religion of the Jews of the Old Testament was a religion that was centered on being formed through the Torah into a just and worshipping society here and now.  Unlike the pagan religions, the religions of the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Hebrew religion was not founded or based upon an afterlife expectation.  It was based upon being the people of God formed into people of justice and worship here and now according to the Torah.

But late in Jewish life there began to be a few hints of afterlife theology, notably in the books of Isaiah and Daniel.  “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.””  Isaiah 25:6-9 ESV.  Here’s the image.   God is setting up a banquet table, a sumptuous feast for us to come and enjoy.  But if you’re going to enjoy a sumptuous feast, what good is it if you’re dead?   What good is the finest New York Strip if you don’t have any teeth?   You’ve got to be raised from the dead to enjoy this feast.  If you’re lying in the grave with all your teeth falling out, that steaks not gong to do you any good.  You’re going to have to be resurrected to eat that steak.

The picture the poet gives is this – And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He’s talking about this shroud covering the nations, the veil covering the people.   You know how when someone dies, we will pull a sheet over them to cover their face.  What Isaiah sees is that this shroud of death is being pulled over all humanity, because all humanity is subject to death.   Every human being will have that experience of the veil, the shroud, the burial cloth being pulled over their face.   But Isaiah imagines a day when God takes that burial shroud, that sheet being pulled over the dead, and he takes it off, turns it into a tablecloth and spreads his banquet and calls people out of their graves to a feast, to experience once again the richness of life.

It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.   What is it we need to be saved from?    Death.   This resurrection becomes the hope of the Jewish people.   It happens late in their history.  It’s not during the time of Abraham, not during Moses, not during David, but late, as we get into the prophets, especially after the exile.   Resurrection begins to become the hope, especially when we get to Daniel.  It becomes the hope that what God is going to do is raise the dead.  This is unique, none of the Gentiles think like this.   The Gentiles think “what we’ve got to do is go to a better place.”   You hear that kind of language, “he’s  gone to go to a better place.”   That is the dominant pagan, gentile way of thinking.   This place is subject to death, ultimately it’s no good, what we’ve got to do is go to a better place.

That is not the Jewish hope or the Christian hope.   The Jewish, and Christian, hope is this – this is good.   God’s creation is good.  Yet it’s been defiled by death because of sin.  But God has not given up on it, he’s not kicking it to the garbage can.  God is going to conquer death.  There is going to be a resurrection.  Death will be defeated.  Death will be no more.  We don’t have to go to a better place, this place is just fine if we can overcome death, if we can conquer death, if we can get rid of death.   If we can overcome sickness and disease,  this place is just fine.  That’s the Jewish hope, that’s the Christian hope.

That’s the hope that’s been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, because on the third day he was raised from the dead.  Now we have come to believe in Him.

John Lewis

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Practice Resurrection

Why does Jesus do this thing that he does, bringing back the dead??   Why did he go to the house of Jairus and bring his daughter back from the dead?  Because that’s the work of the Father.  What does the Father do?  He gives life to the dead!   Because the great problem facing humanity is death, and the work of the Father is to give life to the dead…

A son, a young man, dead for a whole day, is about to be buried.  He is heading to the cemetery.  Jesus comes across the funeral procession.   He touches the coffin, they stop.  The body, the corpse in the coffin, comes alive, sits up, and begins to speak to them.   “And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.” Luke 7:13-15 ESV.  Jesus gives a widow back her only son.

The greatest, most spectacular  of all Jesus’ miracles is the raising of Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha.  Lazarus is four days dead.  He’s  buried in a tomb.  But if you believe you will see the glory of the father revealed in the son. “Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”” John 11:39-40 ESV.   Roll away the stone.  Lazarus come forth!!   That is the glory of the father revealed in son.  “”Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.”  John 5:25 ESV

To believe in Christ and be baptized in Christ, to be born of spirit and water, is to receive the promise (since we all like promises so much) that as Christ was raised from the dead, so shall we be raised from the dead.

Think about it.  On Good Friday Jesus is nailed to the cross and he dies.  He breathes his last,  he commits his spirit to god.  He’d already told the thief today you’ll be with me in paradise.   So Jesus breathes his last, commends his spirit to the father, and is with the father in paradise.   But he’s also dead.

His body is taken down from the cross, lifeless, and laid away in a tomb.  We do not celebrate Good Friday independent of Easter Sunday.  We commemorate Good Friday and recognize what was done there.  But what we celebrate is the victory of Jesus Christ over the grave when on Sunday morning he was physically raised to life again.  (Amen and amen)

The promise is that the we who have been baptized into Christ and believed  on Christ shall join Christ in a similar resurrection.  So no matter what we experience in the interim state, where we die and are absent from the body and present with the lord, the great promise is the resurrection that Jesus Christ accomplishes when he comes again.    The Bible tells us very little about the interim state, where we die and we are absent from the body and present with the lord.  Paul refers  to those in that state as those who are asleep, but apparently not unconscious.   It’s blissful, it’s peaceful, it’s paradise, it’s with the lord, but it’s not the great promise.  The great promise is the resurrection that Jesus Christ accomplishes when he comes again.

But – we who believe in Christ are to live by faith according to the realities of the age to come.   For when Christ returns and the the dead are raised and Jesus reigns over the nations, things are going to change.  Some things will be abolished and done away with.  Other things will be inaugurated and will continue.  We who live by faith in Christ now are to as much as possible live out those resurrection realities now.

In the words of Eugene Peterson and Wendell Barry, we are to “practice resurrection”.   We are to practice resurrection by trying to imagine and understand, in the age to come, what will be abolished and what will be continued and inaugurated.  If it will be abolished, let’s abolish it now.  If it will continue, let’s continue it now.  If it will be inaugurated, let’s inaugurate it now.

Let’s be a preview of the age to come.  Let’s practice resurrection.

John Lewis

That Death Be Not Final

One of the absolute deepest longings of human beings is that death would not be the end.   That somehow love might overcome death, and loved ones we have lost, or even loved ones we’ve never met, we would somehow be able to meet again.   One of the deepest religious longings that human beings have is that death be not final.  That death can be overcome.

One of the most basic things that Christians believe is that life is good.   We believe that when God created the heavens and the earth and all that fills them, he looked upon it and said it’s good.  He said it’s good, it’s good, it’s good, and finally He said it’s very good.   And we have come to believe that.  We believe that even though life can be hard and difficult and challenging and sometimes filled with pain, nevertheless life is worth living, because in its essence life is good.

We are surrounded by beauty.  But we can become numb to it.  We sometimes need to be reminded to wake up to it and be aware of it.  But just think of waking up in the morning.  You open your eyes, the sun is shining.  That’s good.  You might hear something, the birds are singing.  That’s good too.  Maybe you’re like me and set the timer on the coffee pot, because that smell when I’m waking up in the morning is very good.   Maybe you have have a nice breakfast, and it tastes good.  Maybe you share a touch with your husband or your wife or even a pet.  So you get all the senses involved, and it’s barely daylight outside, and we are reminded once more that life is good.  It’s worth living.  It has capacity for mystery and wonder and exploration and discovery, that leads to more mystery and wonder and exploration, that leads to more discovery, and it really is a beautiful thing, and life is worth living.

But then we run into a problem.  Life is so good that death threatens to make life absurd, and in the end rob it of its inherent meaning.  Life is so good that in one sense we are tasting and seeing that God is good.  We are having some encounter with the divine, and 100 years is not enough.  I would say that if you lived 120 years and then died, you died too young.  Of course, the way it works out is that death begins to draw near, and the body begins to fade away and fall apart, and there is a sense in which, in that case, death can be a kind of a rest, a release, or escape.

But that’s not what was intended.   That’s not what God had in mind.  When God breathed upon man and man had the capacity to be God-aware and self-conscious and be able to contemplate the goodness of life, God did not intend for that to ever be lost.  But the effect of sin has been death…

So we run into the problem of having tasted enough of life to know it’s good, but we want it to go on forever.  We don’t want the ride to be over.  We don’t want it to end.  We don’t want it to stop.  But we know it does…

And thus, the problem.  The problem of mankind being subject to futility and death.   That though we find out that life can be good, and there are moments so precious and so wonderful and so good, yet we know that death constantly stalks us.  So the Gospel of Jesus Christ primarily addresses itself fundamentally to that problem.

The primary problem that the gospel addresses is not the problem of personal sin, though that is included.   But the problem problem the gospel addresses is death.   The wages paid by sin to the human race is death…forgiveness is included, but the primary emphasis of the gospel is that we are saved from the tyranny and dominion of death.

“So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.” John 5:19-21 ESV

Here are two fundamental, most basic truths of Christian theology.   Theology is simply how we think and what we say about God.  Theology is important because how we think and what we say about God matters.  1).  God is immutable.  God does not change, is not subject to change, never will change.  If God himself is subject to change then we’re all in trouble because then we’ve lost our constant, we’ve lost our rock, our foundation.  We’ve lost that which doesn’t change when everything else changes.   This is undeniable,  I haven’t heard of anyone who really disputes it.  One of the bedrock foundations of Christian theology is that God is immutable, He does not change.

2). God is fully and perfectly revealed in Christ.  It is as we look at Jesus Christ that we discover what this unchanging God is like and has always been like.   “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” John 1:18 NRSV. Jesus says in the earlier passage in John 5 that When I’m doing these things that I do, all I’m doing is I am looking at the father, and seeing what the father does, and I am doing them so you can see it, what the works of the Father are.  So if we want to know what God is all about, what God is interested in, what God does, what the work of God is like, we look in Matthew,  Mark, Luke and John, we see what Jesus is doing, because he always does the works of the Father.  He reveals to us the works of the Father.  Then He says “…and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel.” John 5:20 NASB.

Of course, the greatest sign that Jesus gives us in his ministry are the raising of the dead.  When Jesus raised the dead….

In Capernaum, the ruler of the synagogue there is a man named Jairus.  He has a little daughter, she’s been deathly ill, now she’s died.  Jesus comes to the home, the mourners are already there.   She’s died not long ago, but have no doubt, the girl is dead.  Jesus said she is not dead, she is only asleep.  “And all were weeping and mourning for her, but he said, “Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping.”” Luke 8:52 ESV.   The people began to mock him, Jesus put them out.   He took the father and the mother, went into the room, took the child by the hand and said “Child, arise.”  And the girl woke up, and he gave her back to her parents.    “And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But taking her by the hand he called, saying, “Child, arise.” And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat. And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened.”  Luke 8:53-56 ESV

Why did Jesus do this??   Because that’s the work of the Father.  What does the Father do?  He gives life to the dead!   Because the great problem facing humanity is death, and the work of the Father is to give life to the dead…

More to come…

John Lewis

They Wanted a Hero

Five days after the crowds waved their palms and cried their hosannas as he entered Jerusalem, Jesus was on trial.  The Prince of Peace had come, but they didn’t want a prince of peace, they wanted a hero.

They wanted a hero.  Like Barrabas.  Mel Gibson misrepresented Barrabas.  He got Barrabas all wrong.  Barrabas was not just a bloodthirsty cutthroat criminal.  He was a national hero.  He was a freedom fighter.  He had led an insurrection against the Roman occupation.  Some Roman soldiers had been killed.  He had been arrested.  He was a political prisoner set to be executed.  And he was a hero among the Jews.

He had a first name.  Jesus.  Jesus Bar-Abbas.  Jesus, son of the father.  He was a false messiah.  Jesus Barabbas?   Or Jesus of Nazareth?  Pilate says which one do you want?   Do you want the violent freedom fighter hero??   Or do you want the peaceful, riding on a donkey too small for him messiah from Galilee, Jesus of Nazareth?   Give us Barabbas.  As for Jesus, crucify him.

The Palm Sunday crowd said all the right things, but they said them in the wrong way.  It’s not enough to praise Jesus as king, we have to know what kind of king he is.   If we think that Jesus is a king after the model of the conquering pharaohs and Caesar’s, we actually are rejecting Jesus.   And refusing the Price of Peace always has terrible consequences.  That’s why Jesus says a generation from now Jerusalem will become a fiery Gehenna where the worm  never dies as it eats those corpses, and the fires are never quenched.

That’s what Jerusalem did to itself in rejecting Jesus Christ as the Prince of Peace.  Jerusalem did not want the new Kingdom of God, they just wanted to win at the old game of payback, get even, and vengeance.  The old game is power enforced by violence.  They didn’t want God’s new kingdom, they just wanted God to help them win at the old game.  But God had already said through the prophet Zachariah that he was done playing the old game.  That when the messiah comes, god is done with the old game.   No more old game, behold I do a new thing.  “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19 ESV.   And I send my son, the Prince of Peace to teach peace to the nations.  “I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” Zechariah 9:10 ESV

But Jerusalem did not want the new kingdom, they wanted to win the old game.  Their desire to play the old game led to their destruction.  The Prince of Peace had just ridden into town offering a new way of being Israel and they had missed it.   Their desire to beat their enemies at the old game had blinded them.   They got Jesus wrong, and it set them on a wrong path that ended in their destruction.

If you had asked the chief priests if they believed Zachariah’s prophecy will ever be fulfilled, if they believed that someday the son of David, the true king of Israel, would ever really come humble and lowly, riding on a foal of a donkey, that he will come and teach peace among the nations, do you believe that will ever happen??   They would have said yes, but not now.  Now is not the time for peace.  Now is the time to fight.  Now is the time for war.

This is not a history lesson.  This is a warning for every follower of Jesus.  Do we want Jesus and his new way of peace, or do we want Jesus to help us win the old game?   Are we making the same mistake?  Do we say that someday the prince of peace will come, we believe he will come someday, but not now!!   If we do, we play the same game the chief priests played when they led Jerusalem to hell.

But the Prince of Peace has come!!   The prince of peace HAS COME!   Christmas, Good Friday, Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday HAVE HAPPENED.  The Prince of Peace has come.  But do we want the Prince of Peace?  Or do we want our heroes?    When we play the game of saying we believe the Bible, believing it’s all going to happen, but NOT NOW, that’s how we play the game of rejecting Christ but still believing the Bible…

The chief priests would have told you they believed in Christ.   They would have said they accept Christ, they believed in Messiah, they believed Messiah was coming, but NOT NOW.   NOT NOW.  Yes, we believe the Bible, but it’s not for NOW.  We believe all those verses, but they’re not for now.  Someday, but not now.  Now we fight.

And Jesus said there’ll be hell to pay, and he weeps over Jerusalem.  It’s not enough to praise Jesus.  We can do that and still get Jesus wrong.  We get Jesus right when we confess Jesus as Christ and King.  We get Jesus wrong when we see him as for us and against them.  We get Jesus right when wave the palms as if to welcome the worlds true king.  We get Jesus wrong when we wave the palms as national flags.  We get Jesus right when we acclaim him with the word Hosanna!!   Save now!   We get Jesus wrong when we say it’s hurray for our side…

“As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.””

Luke 19:37-40 ESV

http://bible.com/59/luk.19.37-40.esv

John Lewis

Getting Jesus Wrong

In celebrating Jesus as a warrior king who would lead Israel into battle against their enemies, the Palm Sunday crowd got Jesus wrong.   That’s why he’s riding the foal of a donkey.   It’s a triumphal entry, he’s supposed to be riding a war horse, but he won’t do it.  Here’s the ancient prophecy – “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” Zechariah 9:9-10 ESV.   He’s a good king who makes all things right, a humble king riding a donkey, a ‘72 Pinto.   Because God says I’ve had it with war, no more chariots, no more tanks, in Ephraim, no more war horses in Jerusalem, no more swords and spears and bows and arrows.  He, this king, this messiah, this prince of peace, will offer peace to the nations, but will the nations accept it?   A peaceful rule worldwide, from the four winds to the seven seas.

The prince of peace has come.  But, does Jerusalem want a prince of peace?  They do not.  They want a warrior king.  Jerusalem turned the triumphal entry into triumphalism, that arrogant, boastful, attitude that says we’re number one!!   Triumphalism is a boastful arrogance, a crystallization of us vs them.  When you receive Jesus not simply saying He is Lord, but he is Lord for US and against them, that’s triumphalism.  When the triumphal entry turned into triumphalism, Jesus wept over Jerusalem.

In the triumphalism of Palm Sunday, Jesus knew Jerusalem had rejected peace, and rejected the Prince of Peace.   Jerusalem didn’t want Zachariah’s peaceful king, they wanted a Jewish warlord.  40 years later they got what they wanted, and there was hell to pay.  Beginning in the year 66, a generation after the crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, false messiahs came, just as Jesus had predicted.  He said within a generation this will happen, there will be signs, one of the signs will be that there will be many false messiahs.    “And he said, “See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them.” Luke 21:8 ESV.  Many rose up and said We are the true king, true anointed one, we’re the true messiah, we will deliver israel from their Roman oppressors.

The revolution really began.  Their bunker Hill was Caesarea in AD 66.  And the Romans had had it.  They sent the 10th Roman legion and marched on Jerusalem in AD 70.   Their standards were held high, their banners flying in the wind, their eagles perched atop their standards.   Jesus had prophecied Where the carcass is, there the eagles will gather…Jerusalem had become a bloated carcass of arrogance, pride, and triumphalism, and they had rejected Messiah.   And the Roman 10th legion came marching, Jesus had predicted these evens, all in Luke 21.  “”But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” Luke 21:20-24 ESV.

Jesus warned them to flee, to get out of the city.   But they didn’t listen.  Instead, just the opposite happened.  People rushed into the city.  They thought we are the people of God, we will go to the holy city, God will fight for us!!   But God had already said in the ancient prophecy I’m done with war.   More than a million people packed into the city.  The Romans set siege and for seven months they waited them out.  Starvation broke out, disease, fighting among the Jews within the city.  Cannibalization, plague, disease came.   People began to try to escape, but the Romans said Too late!  Everyone that tried to escape was crucified until the city was encircled by thousands of rotting corpses upon crosses.  In August, the offensive came.  They broke down the city walls, some say 600,000, Josephus says over a million Jews were killed.   The rest, 100,000 or so, the survivors, were carried off as slaves to Rome to build the coliseum.

Jesus foresaw it all.  Still on Palm Sunday he wept over Jerusalem.  “And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.””   Luke 19:41-44 ESV.  And Jesus wept.  It’s the climax of the covenant.   It’s the fulfillment of all the Hebrew prophecies.  Everything is reaching the pinnacle and now God has acted.  The true king that will preach  peace and bring the government and the reign and rule of God has arrived in Jerusalem.

But Jerusalem is rejecting him.  Yes they are confessing that he is the king, but they have it in their mind that he will be a violent war waging king.  He’s not the kind of Jesus they want.  Five days later, Jesus will be on trial.   The prince of peace has come, but they don’t want a prince of peace, they want a hero.

“As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.””

Luke 19:37-40 ESV

http://bible.com/59/luk.19.37-40.esv

John Lewis

The King is Coming

The King is Coming

Coming back to the triumphal entry I started on last week.  The true King of Kings, the true Prince of Peace has arrived in Jerusalem.  He has arrived not like a war waging conqueror like Pharaoh or Caesar, he has arrived in the way of God.   He has come humble and lowly, his feet dragging the ground on a colt of a donkey, too small for him.  He’s arrived driving a ‘72 Pinto…

He’s humble and lowly. He’s a good king, he’s come to set the world right.  The whole caravan comes to the top of the Mount of Olives, and some begin to pull down branches, some take off their coats and throw them on the ground before this parody of a triumphal entry.  They make way for this king, a different kind of king, a humble and lowly king, a peaceful king riding on the foal of a donkey too small for him.  They are shouting Hosanna, save now, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the true king of Israel, the messiah, the king is coming!  All hail the king!!

But there were protesters.  The Pharisees.  They’ve been resisting Jesus almost from the beginning.  This religious, political conservative party that wants to take back Israel for God, but they want to do it their way.   They’re resisting Jesus, and this is now the final mention of the Pharisees.  From this point on the antagonism and conspiracy against Jesus  will be taken over by the chief priests, who are not Pharisees but mainly Sadduccees.

The final mention of the Pharisees – And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”  Hey Rabbi, you better tell your disciples to stop it!  You hear what they’re saying?  They’re calling you the Messiah, they’re calling you the king of Israel.  If Pilate hears about this, if the governor hears about this, if Rome hears about this, there’s going to be trouble.  You better tell them to be quiet!!

To which Jesus says Not today!  He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.””   Not this time.  He’s told them to be quiet.  He’s told them to be quiet all through his ministry.   When Peter confessed him as messiah he told them to keep quiet.   “Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.” Matthew 16:20 ESV.  But not today.  It’s all coming to pass now!  Today is the day the lord has made!!   Today is the day for the king to come into his kingdom!! I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.   Because it must be proclaimed today that Israel’s true king has come to the capital in Jerusalem.

So Jesus arrives in Jerusalem.  They are saying Hosanna, save now!   They are saying “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”, from Psalm 118.   They are saying Blessed is the son of David, meaning the true king.  They are saying Blessed is the king of Israel, not Herod, he’s not the true king!   It’s this one, this prophet from Galilee, he’s the real king!

They are saying things like “…Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!””  Luke 19:38 ESV.   This is an echo of the Christmas song the angels sang.  At his birth the angels sang “”Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”” Luke 2:14 ESV. Now, 33 years later as Jesus makes his triumphal entry they are saying peace in heaven and glory in the highest.  In other words, Jesus is completing his mission.  His mission has always been to announce, enact, and bring the kingdom of God.  Now here comes the king to the capital, bringing the reign and rule and government of God.

In celebrating Jesus as the coming king, the son of David, the long awaited messiah, the Palm Sunday crowd got Jesus right.  He’s all of those things, the son Of David, the king of Israel, he’s the long awaited messiah, he’s the one come to redeem israel, and they must hail him as king.  They must shout.  Jesus says if they don’t shout, the very stones would cry out.   It must be proclaimed on this day.   In this way, the Palm Sunday crowd Jesus right.  Tomorrow, we will look at how this same crowd had Jesus wrong….

“As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.””

Luke 19:37-40 ESV

http://bible.com/59/luk.19.37-40.esv

John Lewis

Kingdom Come

Kingdom Come

Going back to the Gospel of Luke one more time.  Looking at the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday.   It’s a day full of contradictions.  It’s confusing.  It’s hard for us to fully understand.  It’s rejoicing that leads the rejection.   It’s joy that turns into sorrow.  Celebration that turns to suffering.   It’s a triumphal entry that turns into carrying the cross to Calvary.   Palm Sunday is full of contradictions.

The crowd was right to celebrate the coming of Jesus because this was the true coming of the true King.   The crowd was right to celebrate the coming of Jesus, but they celebrated the coming of Jesus in a wrong way.  They misunderstood its meaning, and that’s how they got it wrong.  Sometimes we can get Jesus right, sometimes we can get Jesus wrong.

We’ve been allowing Luke, the physician, who addresses us as “Dear Theophilus”, dear lover of God, to reintroduce us to Jesus.  We’ve been allowing Luke to show us Jesus, and hopefully we are seeing Jesus in new ways.

Ever since Luke chapter 9, we’ve been following Jesus on his final journey to Jerusalem.  We now are in chapter 19, last time I was in Luke we were in Jericho, where Jesus healed Blind Bartimaeus and saved Zacchaeus.   There is only one more leg on the journey, and today we arrive in Jerusalem.

So Jesus leaves Jericho, and it’s up, up up to Jerusalem.  Jericho is the lowest city of the world, right on the shores of the Dead Sea, 1200 feet below sea level.  It’s only 15 miles from Jericho to Jerusalem, but it’s uphill all the way.   From Jericho to Jerusalem, it’s 15 miles, but 3800 feet of an uphill climb.  When you arrive at Jerusalem from Jericho, coming from the east, you crest the Mount of Olives, today just as then, and it is quite the view with the whole city of Jerusalem stretched out before you.  So Jesus crests the Mount of Olives, and there is special excitement with his followers from Galilee this trip to Jerusalem.  They are there for the Passover, but they all believe something momentous is going to occur this year, that finally Israel’s true King is coming.  The excitement at this point is palpable.

They are reaching their destination, and finally the city is before them.  Jesus is on top of the Mount of Olives, but then he pauses.  He’s going to stage a prophetic enactment.  He must fulfill the prophecy.  Jesus knows the scriptures.  He has something very specific in mind, he must enter the city a certain way.   Because what Jesus is doing all through his ministry is announcing and enacting the kingdom of God.   In his preaching, in his parables, in healing the sick, in casting out demons, in raising the dead, in who he receives at his table, Jesus is announcing and enacting the kingdom of God.   So now, one more time, he wants to announce and enact the kingdom of God in a very powerful, prophetic way.  So he pauses at the top of the Mount of Olives.   “When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.'”” Luke 19:29-31 ESV.

They bring this foal of a donkey to Jesus.   Jesus sits on it.  It’s too small for him, it looks funny.  His feet are dragging on the ground.   And yet, this is how Jesus is going to enter Jerusalem.

Why??   Because it’s a parody of the military triumphs of Babylon, Rome, and Egypt.  Instead of riding a war horse (because that’s how the King enters the city, on a war house), here’s a man being hailed as king riding not only a donkey, but the colt of a donkey.  It would be like reducing the presidential motorcade to a 1972 Pinto.   It’s a parody, but it’s also a prophecy.  Jesus is deliberately and intentionally fulfilling a prophecy he knows shows what the true king will look like when he comes into his kingdom.  The prophecy is this – ““Shout and cheer, Daughter Zion! Raise the roof, Daughter Jerusalem! Your king is coming! a good king who makes all things right, a humble king riding a donkey, a mere colt of a donkey. I’ve had it with war—no more chariots in Ephraim, no more war horses in Jerusalem, no more swords and spears, bows and arrows. He will offer peace to the nations, a peaceful rule worldwide, from the four winds to the seven seas.”  Zechariah 9:9-10 MSG.   In other words, everything that the prophets have foretold about God establishing his kingdom through his own Son, the seed of Abraham, The son of David, it’s all coming to pass right now.

The true King of Kings, the true Prince of Peace, the true seed of Abraham, the true son of David, the true Messiah, the true Christ has come!   He doesn’t come as a war waging conqueror like Caesar or Pharaoh, he comes in the way of God.  Because God says I’m done with war.   I’m going to, through my Son, preach peace to the nations….

So he comes humble and lowly, his feet dragging the ground on a colt too small for him.  He’s driving a ‘72 Pinto…

“As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.””

Luke 19:37-40 ESV

http://bible.com/59/luk.19.37-40.esv

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