Psalm 118 : 1,2, Luke 19 : Sermon

Transcription

1 Psalm 118 : 1,2, Luke 19 : Sermon The story of Jesus arriving in Jerusalem is one those passages which gets bible scholars really excited. Now it is fair to say that even a really excited bible scholar is not very excited, but this is about as good as it gets. It s exciting because there are so many things going on here, so many little details to fascinate and intrigue us, so many hints and references to investigate and study and try to make sense of. There is all the political intrigue around what it meant for Jesus and his followers to go up to Jerusalem, up to the big city where the old religious elite remained in power with a tense but mutually beneficial relationship with the forces of the Roman arm. Why did they feel so threatened by him and was he really intending to threaten their hold on power? There is the strange but very deliberate symbolism of Jesus wanting to arrive in the city on a specific animal, and the mysterious plans which are described for him to get one. There are questions about who exactly were the people who welcomed him with the palm branches and the songs, and to what extent they were the same people who, a few days later, would shout for him to be crucified. And throughout the passage the text contains references to other passages in the bible. We made one such connection ourselves this morning by reading from Psalm 118 words which are quoted again here, Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! but there are loads of others. Why are these particular words chosen? Why is the story told in the precise way that it is, and what is the writer trying to tell us, and how should we understand it. I can feel a shiver of excitement even as I speak! We could have a great time over the next few hours beginning to unpack all of that. However, fortunately, during my preparations for this morning I remembered that my job is to preach a sermon rather than to try to infect you with my enthusiasm for uncovering the layers of wonder which the bible has to offer. Don t get me wrong, I would be delighted to do that,

2 but it is not really my purpose this morning. So let s leave aside the details of the text, and just look at what is happening here. Because in fact, what is most important for us, is not understanding the details of the text, nor even understanding the precise order of this particular historic event. What is most important for us is the picture which we see here of how God comes to his people, riding boldly but humbly into the heart of our troubles in the face of many dangers. And the picture of how people respond to his coming, some with welcome, some with a vaguely understood hope, and some with open resistance. For that picture of God and that picture of humanity are neither trapped in a text nor in a particular moment in history. They are universal and they are timeless and they are as true for us as ever they might have been for anyone else. So what do we see here? We see people who are desperate for a saviour. They are very aware of the need to change, but equally aware of their inability to change things for themselves, that they are ready to welcome one who appears to have the answers. This is the one they will trust. This is the one they will put their faith in. This is the one they want to lead them. So they sing to him as they would sing to a king returning home to bring stability and peace: Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! In our time, we may not talk about being desperate for a saviour. We do however, hear plenty of talk about being desperate. Despite all our material success and security, we know that all is not right in the world, and we know that there is plenty in our own lives which is not right, and we know that we don t seem to have the ability to change things. We long for more justice in the world, so that children will no longer be born into desperate poverty, so that women will no longer live in fear. We long for more compassion in the world, so that skin colour and caste will no longer condemn some to a life of discrimination. We long for more peace in the world, so that our brightest people and our best resources can be put into healing rather than mutual destruction. We may not always look in the right places for our salvation, and we may not look to the right people to provide it, but there are plenty who know that we need it. In all of that,

3 in all of our sense of need and our searching for answers we have plenty in common with the residents of Jerusalem on that day when Jesus arrived. What else do we see here? We see people who are afraid of change, people who have a vested interest in keeping things the way they are. Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, Teacher, order your disciples to stop. Pharisees were not the bad guys. No doubt they wanted change too. No one could have been happy to see their country impoverished by sending taxes to Rome and their people oppressed by Roman soldiers. But they wanted change that they could control and direct and remain in charge of. Jesus, it was already clear enough, was never going to be under their control, and the songs of the crowd sounded like blasphemy. So we know that there were some who just didn t get it, who didn t understand what Jesus was about, who didn t see what Jesus was doing, who didn t want anything to do with it. In our time, such people are hardly in short supply, and such opinions are not hard to find. Even those whose hopes and aspirations appear to be remarkably well aligned to what Jesus was saying and doing cannot see past the impression which his followers create, and just don t want anything to do with him. They don't want to hear about him and they don't want to think about him. So it is very hard for them to see that he is offering what we all need. There can never really be peace, not as long as we feel the need to have power over one another, not as long as our instinct for revenge goes unhealed, not as long as injustice and ignorance go unchecked. These things will always breed discontent and bitterness and frustration and violence, they are all part of the destructive cycle of human behaviour. To imagine that we can make those problems go away without the sort of forgiveness and deep humility which Christ offers and invites us to share, is not going to get us anywhere. And to that we can make the deep longing for for these things to disappear, just by stopping one group of people from making a noise about it, is very far from the truth. What else do we see here? We see Jesus unimpressed by all the adulation and praise, remaining focused on the mission which his father has called

4 him to and sent him on. Popularity is not going change him, any more than the rejection and suffering which will come his way all too soon are going to change him. He knows that this is about much more than that. So her responds to the request of the Pharisees to get his people to be quiet, by saying I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out. He is saying, look - this is not about me, this is not about that fact that I happen to arriving in Jerusalem today. And it is not about them, this is not happening just because these individuals happen to be feeling moved to sing. For the hopes and the longings and the aspirations which these people are expressing is so fundamental, so universal, that it is going to keep on bursting out from somewhere. Even if the authorities were somehow able to silence that crowd on that day, they could never silence the hope which made them sing. And that in itself is only a small picture of the bigger truth which is about to be unfolded in this story. Even if the authorities were somehow able to silence Jesus, they could never silence the gospel which he proclaimed, and which he embodied. So you see, the details of the text, and the details of the historical context, are fascinating in themselves. But the message for us here is much more than that. That is why we can truly say that the events of Easter are timeless, and timelessly important for us. The fact that certain things happened over a few days a long time ago in Jerusalem is one thing. The fact that it happens anew in every generation is something else. And it does. Still we instinctively know that there is something wrong in our world, that there is something lacking in living. We know that we need an answer we know that we need a saviour, and we are still on the look out for one. And still when we discover that the way of salvation which we are offered is a costly one, we are inclined to reject it and look for something else. And still the same gospel of hope which was presented to us in Jesus, and the way of living which was offered to us in Jesus, offer us the way that leads to life if only we are ready to recognise it and trust it, and live it.

5 If we are looking for salvation, if we are looking for a saviour, this is where to begin.