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It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Mark 11:1-11)
This portion of Scripture is called "The Triumphal
Entry" because it recounts the story of Jesus' very public, very provocative
entry into Jerusalem just days before he was to be crucified. It begins:
"As they approached Jerusalem and came to
Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives…"
This brought them in from the East near to the high point of the Mount
of Olives, giving them a commanding view over Jerusalem and its magnificent
temple. How normal everything must have looked. There was the great capital
of their world and the sacred temple all looking so permanent, reliable.
As they approached their destination:
Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying
to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you
will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and
bring it here. If anyone asks you, 'why are you doing this?' tell them,
'The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.'"
And that is exactly what they did and precisely what happened. I imagine
that if you had been around Jesus for long enough this too must have seemed,
if not normal, at least not unexpected. These kinds of thing were becoming
daily fare for the disciples.
When they brought the colt to Jesus and
threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks
on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields.
Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
"Hosanna!"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!"
"Hosanna in the highest!"
There is a lot going on here. Up until now Jesus had kept away from Jerusalem;
up until now he had told those he healed not to broadcast what had happened;
up until now Jesus had avoided publicity. Now he rode into the city on
a donkey, a symbol of peace, humility and kingship, and a colt at that,
an unused animal considered especially suitable for religious purposes.
Israel's priest and king had come!
Furthermore, the crowds seemed to anticipate him and celebrated his arrival
with shouts of "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
This is taken from Psalm 118: 25-26, a praise psalm that anticipates and
prays for the salvation of God's people. We are told in John's gospel,
and only here, that, They took palm branches
and went out to meet him… Palm branches
apparently came from Jericho and were not native to Jerusalem. This was
not, perhaps, as spontaneous as we might at first think. Some people may
have anticipated this event and the sense of expectation is very strong.
The king is coming to claim his own and God will again visit his temple
and dwell among his people.
We can be like that when it comes to the things of God. We want God to
come in power and perhaps for the best of motives, to vindicate his name
and save his people. We cry for "Revival" (not wrong in itself) and regard
the slightest promise of it with almost frenzied anticipation. There is
this misguided notion that God's presence will be evident in the way he
acts according to our own anticipations and agenda. Wrongs will be righted,
the righteous vindicated, the unrighteous punished. That is how these
people viewed Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem. Five days later they were crying
out, "Crucify!" Why is that?
People often ask, "If God is God then why doesn't he…?" The God such people
anticipate or imagine is not the God of the Bible, or at least not a complete
picture of him. We can often imagine God as being very distant, issuing
edicts and judgements, and we had better do as we are told or else. When
we are wronged, or see those we love hurt, we cry out for justice. The
good news is that there is a judgement to come and all will stand before
God and give an account. No one will get away with anything and accounts
will be perfectly balanced according to the economy of heaven. "Now that's
some sort of a god!" you can almost hear people say. The trouble is that
"no one" will get away with "anything" and that means you and me. I think
of those terrible words from the song, "Ashamed,
I hear my mocking voice cry out among the scoffers."
My sin put him on the cross and my voice, therefore, cried out for his
blood with the rest. "Crucify!" they cried, because of sin.
The problem of sin is much greater than we could ever think or imagine.
There is a price to be paid for our sin before we can stand accepted before
the throne of God and you can't pay it and I can't pay it, and a man sitting
on a throne is not going to get the job done. God the Son coming down
from his throne to pay the price will do the job and that is what he came
to do. Jesus descending from his heavenly throne is a good picture of
how God engages with sinful people like us.
The God of the Bible engages with people and is not distant. I don't know
if anyone remembers but there was a film back in the sixties called "It's
a Mad, Mad…", well you get the picture. This is the world with which God
engages. It s a mad place where we see,
…the prosperity of the wicked. They have
no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from
the burdens of the common man; they are not plagued by human ills. (Psalm
73)
God did not make it this way, we did, and this is the world into which
God comes. This is the world with which he engages and the world Jesus
came to save. We can easily speak of the wicked as "they", forgetting
that we are counted among them. It is as well, then, that God does not
simply issue judgements and edicts because we would all be in trouble
in that case. As well that he doesn't simply cure the problem in one terrible
stroke of justice's pen but graciously moves amongst us with the offer
of healing through faith in Jesus. As well that he answered the cry for
justice long before it rose from our lips and agreed "from eternity" to
pay the price in our place and "while we were still sinners", with our
voice calling out among the scoffers, to die for the ungodly. As we anticipate
and cry out for God to move it is right also that we should pray, "Lord,
in your anger remember mercy!" We all stand in need of mercy and of a
God who engages with the world graciously before he judges the world justly.
May we reflect this in our own lives as we engage with our world this
week.