READING Luke 19:28-44

This passage from the Gospel of Luke tells the story of Jesus' passage into Jerusalem. It is a traditional reading for Palm Sunday. This passage, Charles Miller argues, suggests that Jesus is a horse thief. You can judge for yourself:

…[Jesus] went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 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 opposite, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat; untie it and bring it here. If any one asks you, `Why are you untying it?' you shall say this, `The Prophetic Rabbi Jesus has need of it.'"

So those who were sent, went away and found the colt as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, "Why are you untying the colt?" And they said, "The Prophetic Rabbi Jesus has need of it."

And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their garments on the colt they set Jesus upon it. And as he rode along, they spread their garments on the road.

As he was now drawing near, at the decent of the Mount of Olivet, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works 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 multitude said to him, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples." He answered, "I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out."

And when he drew near and saw the city--he wept over it, saying, "Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes."

SERMON

The Journey into Jerusalem sets in motion the events which will eventually lead to the death of Jesus. He taught in the outer courts of the sacred temple proclaiming a prophetic message at odds with orthodox practices exemplified by the money-changers in the Temple. The money-changers were needed as part of the infrastructure of the Temple because the Roman currency was considered unclean and unfit for use to purchase the sacrificial offerings required by the temple code to remain in God's good graces. Overturning the tables of the money-changers soon after his entrance placed Jesus at odds with the temple status quo and started the priests plotting his destruction. In other words, he was asking for trouble and got it.

We don't know that this is exactly what happened. Each Gospel tells the story a little differently. To those of you who may be concerned with the historical accuracy of the Bible before opening yourself to its many messages, let me respond that I don't think it matters if it ever happened. What matters is the writer of this text had an inspirational message to convey and used these words to do it. The writer of Luke (who happened to be the best writer of the three synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke) assembled this story of Jesus' life and teachings very, very carefully. The text is full of meaning when we are willing to go beyond its use as a proof text for fundamentalism or anti-Christian purpose.

If we treat the text, as many scholars advocate today, as inspirational story, we will find great value for ourselves irrespective of whether we embrace Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ or not. Not only is there meaning, but the story calls forth a response. In our response to the story, we can open, grow and become engaged in the process of transformation which is fundamental to our spiritual well-being.

One response to this story is to condemn the stupidity of Jesus' journey into Jerusalem and his disturbance in the temple. If he wanted to effect positive social and religious change, he should have worked within the system. In fact that is one of the interesting dimensions of Jesus' ministry. The Pharisees were also critical of the religious practices of temple religion centered in Jerusalem and had begun the practice of gathering in people's homes for worship just as early Christians did. The Pharisees are the lineage of modern day Judaism, which coalesced after the destruction of the temple by the Romans around the year 70 of the common era. There was overlap in their ideas, as this was also a formative time for the Christian communities. But the Pharisees were working at this transformation, as it were, from the inside. Jesus confronted the system from the outside like a rebellious teenager.

Another response to this story might be to criticize the impudence of Jesus as do the Pharisees watching the parade decending Mount Olivet who say, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples." One can look at the entrance into the holy city as an act of arrogance. Instead of riding into town as a general or dignitary or king would, riding in on a fine strong stallion, the image of strength and power, Jesus rode in on a young small colt he borrowed (or stole) for the purpose. He mocked the ritual as he proclaimed himself a king--a king with a twist.

Of the many possible responses to the text, I wish to explore today a response which sees Jesus creating a new world by his ride into Jerusalem. In traditional Christian understanding, the death and resurrection of Jesus changes the world because it creates a path to redemption that did not exist until Jesus gave his life that we might live atoning for the sin of Adam and Eve. This is, of course, why our calendar starts with his birth (more or less accurately dated). While most Unitarian Universalists do not believe that the birth and death of this inspired Prophet changed the workings of the Universe or tinkered with the laws of physics, it did begin a chain of events which definitely, for good or ill, gave rise to Christendom which has left an indelible mark on this world.

Jesus participated in creating a new world because be brought his prophetic message of reform to the seat of religious power. He didn't come with an army of followers to break down the walls of the city and take over as a political revolutionary. Jesus was not a Zealot. Instead he brought a condemnation of the current practice of Judaism and a call for the return to the roots of Jewish religious tradition. In the temple courtyard, where many different rabbis would gather their disciples around them to teach, it is said he proclaimed:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in… Woe to you, blind guides, who say, "If any one swears by the temple, it is nothing; but if any one swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath." You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?… Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others… Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hyopcrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity. You blind Pharisee! First cleanse the inside of the cup and of the plate, that the outside also may be clean (Matthew 23).

The ritual purity laws were symbolic of the deviation in which Jews were caught up at the time. One could not go into the temple if one was impure. Impurity was judged by outward appearance. If one's skin was without blemish, one was pure enough to come into the sight of God. The belief of the time was that inward impurity manifested as some sort of outward impurity, not an illogical deduction to make as sick people aren't usually in the greatest of spirits. It also makes rudimentary public health sense.

Jesus turns this thinking on its head by arguing that outward impurity is distinct from inward purity and those who should be the most pure, the priests and scribes in the temples, are the most impure in their thoughts and actions. Instead of being shunned, the unclean should be healed and purified. The low should be raised up. God isn't as much interested in ritual purity as matters of the law, justice, mercy and faith.

Jesus laments that the effect of this degraded version of Judaism is to bar both the priest and the people from the kingdom of heaven. Yet he does not deviate from the core of the Jewish faith as is heard in this passage from Mark, one of my favorites (slightly adapted):

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that Jesus answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all? Jesus answered, "The first is, `Hear, O Israel: The master our God, the master is one; and you shall love the master your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." And the scribe said to him, "You are right, Rabbi; you have truly said that God is one, and there is no other but God; and to love God with all your heart and with all your understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God."

To me, this has the ring of interfaith dialogue as the two sides find they have common ground. Jesus comes not to destroy or replace Judaism, but to renew it and return it to its roots. Those roots reach into the same truth which gives life to all the world's religions. Love cannot be limited to that which arises and passes away, but must be focused on that which transcends the workings of time and the limitations of space. We are called to give our energies, harness our hearts and direct our minds in the service of that which is greater than us, which also includes us. If we have any confusion as to what this means, we find it reflected and illuminated by devotion to loving our neighbors.

In a sense, there is nothing new in what Jesus was saying, probably even in what John the Baptist said or other prophets before him who called Israel back to the heart of its religious tradition and teachings. One of the sad truths about any institutionalization of a religious tradition is the dilution and diminishment of the original inspiration which gave life to the teaching.

What is always new and world-changing is Jesus' commitment to speak truth to power. I'm using power here to mean the institution, backed by cultural tradition, wealth, or belief, which unifies the many as a whole. Speaking truth to power is world-transforming because institutions always operate to perpetuate their own survival. Institutions are rarely good at changing themselves from the inside because they are the solidification of the human dislike of change and uncertainty which is magnified by the social whole. The solidification that happens in institutions does not allow the institution to easily respond to the call for change. The bigger the institution, the slower the change.

But change they must or they will be destroyed as the temple was destroyed by Roman soldiers as Jesus predicted. What initiates this process of change are individuals who can no longer remain quiet about the injustice they witness, the lack of compassion for widows and orphans, the cynicism of the hypocrites. Something is wrong, they say, and it needs to be fixed.

Jesus isn't the only one creating a new world, it is the ongoing process of new creation. Rosa Parks, sitting down in the front of a bus in the white only section rides the donkey into Jerusalem with Jesus.

Martin Luther King proclaiming his dream from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial rides the donkey into Jerusalem with Jesus.

The gay man or lesbian woman who stops pretending to be heterosexual and hiding in the closet their unchosen and often undesired sexual orientation and begins to live authentically from their love rather than from their fear rides the donkey into Jerusalem with Jesus.

The environmentalist so passionate about protecting old growth redwood trees that she straps herself to the tree willing to give her life in its protection rides the donkey into Jerusalem with Jesus.

The workers who band together for safe working conditions, reasonable hours and wages for their work ride the donkey into Jerusalem with Jesus.

All these people speak from their soul a truth that bubbles up from within. They speak with the voice of justice, the voice of compassion, the voice of honesty, inspired by the drive toward the good of all, even those whom they may oppose or wish to harm them. The racist, the wood cutter, and the factory owner are not evil by any means but are likely absorbed by the institutions and belief systems they represent and disconnected from the depth of their common humanity. When confronted with truth--with real people with real concerns, needs and desires with whom they share a common humanity which calls for unification rather than separation--they must examine the depths of their being. The confrontation of power with truth calls for a truth response from the powerful which opens the door for public discourse and dialogue, for connection, for a call to reconciliation. In the conversation, the human can become manifest in and as love.

Wherever love enters the room like a smile lighting up a face, the opening for a new world is created. The force of love embodied as the witness to truth may be thwarted but cannot be stopped because it is not the possession of any individual rather an awareness which has its own existence. The force of love has its own power, its own spirit which seeks us out and calls us home in the quiet of our innermost thoughts and feelings. As Jesus, the symbolic incarnation of love, puts it, "I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out."

With each truth spoken from the heart the world is changed - but perhaps not in the direction we expect. Jesus' prediction that the kingdom of heaven would be coming within the lifetime of his disciples was incorrect. But his revelation that the kingdom is at hand is as true as it has ever been. It is when we are willing to speak our truth out of our depths that we open the door to that kingdom.

Like Jesus journeying into Jerusalem, each time we speak truth from the heart we saddle up the colt for another journey of transformation, for a new world must be renewed again and again with each generation. The work of the world continues. Jerusalem is still in trouble. We can still look out over Jerusalem and our world and still say, "Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes."

Let us open our eyes, speak truth in love and journey into a new world together. SO BE IT.

CLOSING WORDS

The peace we seek will not be found in this world. Again and again we must journey into a new world guided by a truth leading us from within, if our inner Jerusalem will find the resolution which already exists but remains hidden from our eyes. If we be open to it, Love will guide us all the way home.

Go in peace, make peace, be at peace.

Copyright (c) 1996 by Rev. Samuel A. Trumbore. All rights reserved.