Mark 11:1-11
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| Entry of Christ into Jerusalem, Jan van Orley 1716-1730 (PD) |
The finest example of how a conquering king would enter into an Ancient Near Eastern city is not found in our Gospel today.
All the accounts of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem are but a shadow of what was experienced throughout the Middle East from 336-323 BCE.
This was the time of Alexander the Great.
A king who changed borders, cultures, war, and pushed the very boundary of what was considered the known world.
Alexander was a brilliant military tactician, but he was also a brilliant conquerer.
He crushed armies but then he took in their nations and people as his own.
Over generations of rising and falling empires, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, and now the Greeks, the people of the known world had realized the benefit of welcoming in the conquering hero.
Bending a knee and welcoming in an invading force was a way to avoid being enslaved, abused, looted, or wiped out completely.
It is hard for us to imagine the notion of welcoming an invading army, but this had become the common practice of building empires.
The intention was to make the people of other nations and cultures the loyal subjects of the invading force.
This assured continued trade and revenue, expanding lands and military outposts, and it discouraged resistance, if the conquering king showed mercy.
In many instances, these conquests even hinted at the hope of peace, an end to all war.
Alexander was a flamboyant and glamorous showman following his victories.
He was well known for riding into capital cities on a large white war horse, with elaborate armor and a helmet with large plumes.
By most accounts, he was a sight to behold.
His entry into Jerusalem was no less of a spectacle than was his entry into Babylon.
It was common to raise palms, waving them in the air, throwing them down upon the ground before the new king and his army.
Laying down palms in the road assured that the feet of these armies didn’t stir up dusty roads choking the crowd or causing discomfort for the invading force or the new king.
Most conquered cities followed suit as Alexander worked his way throughout the known world, offering up a hero’s welcome to invading armies and kings, in submission, in exchange for mercy.
Praising, cheering, and begging the new king to save the people all the way to the city’s center, where the king was to be anointed and announced before the people.
For Alexander, this city center was the temple in Jerusalem.
For Alexander, he probably heard cries as he rode through the street towards the temple.
Cries of Hosanna, a word that is used to cry out for mercy.
A word used to ask a new king to save the people.
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| Entry of Alexander into Babylon, Charles Le Brun 1665 (PD) |
Today is the start of Holy Week, and I’ve been wrestling with the significance of this text.
How we hear this story and how it impacts the rest of this week is significant for us. I would argue that it is no less significant than Maundy Thursday or Good Friday.
The story we have all been told of this joyful parade is almost like a “pre-Easter” celebration.
Jesus’ triumphal entry signifies a new era of peace, the announcement of a new king.
It is easy to see the joy of this day for many of us, but it hints at a problem we’ve addressed for several weeks now.
For the past two weeks, the texts and the sermons influenced by those texts from Pastor Stephen and I, have illustrated how what we see as glory, is not the glory of God revealed in the Christ.
The cross; not glorious.
The seed that is planted in the earth to die; not glorious.
It’s been the typical old fuddy-duddy doom and gloom Lenten sermons.
Maybe that’s why attendance has been down?
We can just blame March Madness.
But today, we get a shot at the GLORY that we all want!
It is the triumphal entry of our Lord, and in he rides on a colt, a direct reference to scripture from Zechariah 9
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Sounds like Jesus, right?
Why don’t we hear a little bit more about this savior of Israel that Zechariah wrote about?
“Then the Lord will appear over them, and his arrow go forth like lightning; the Lord God will sound the trumpet and march forth in the whirlwinds of the south. The Lord of hosts will protect them, and they shall devour and tread down the slingers; they shall drink their blood like wine, and be full like a bowl, drenched in blood like the corners of the altar.”
THAT may not sound like Jesus so much.
At least not to us, but to the crowds who gather, and more importantly the priests who look out from the temple and see this commotion as Jesus rides down the Mount of Olives.
Today, you can still look out on that hillside and see that path that Jesus trod.
When you look out on that path from high up at the Dome of the Rock, a path that is now paved over for tourists traveling from Bethany to the Garden of Gethsemane, you can envision just how much of a spectacle this would have been for the high priests and city officials.
You can imagine how the Roman soldiers envisioned such a sight.
These were the days leading to the Passover, a day that commemorates throwing off the yoke of one’s oppressor, and watching that oppressor’s army destroyed in the Reed Sea.
If we really consider what this means in the eyes of these people, the people watching this triumphal entry from the temple, the Roman posts, and those along the side of this long winding road leading to Jerusalem, waving palm branches and shouting “Hosanna!” “SAVE US!”, this is a story that screams of a new revolution.
A revolution that will be, as Zechariah once claimed; “drenched in blood.”
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| Triumphal Entry of Constantine in Rome, Viviano Codazzi and Domenico Gargiulo 1638 (PD) |
As I was working through the text this week, I came home one evening and flipped on the television.
2013’s Man of Steel was on, a movie I have seen a number of times because it always seems to be on in the evenings I get home late.
I sat down just in time to see the scene leading up to Superman’s surrender to the United States Army.
Prior to his surrender he enters into a church and talks to the pastor there.
In the midst of his visit, he has a flashback to his childhood.
He sees himself being bullied, pushed down into a fence, threatened, and challenged to fight back.
A young Clark Kent just looks away from his attackers in the scene, refusing to take action against the bullies.
After the bullies realize Clark’s dad is watching this whole thing take place, they quickly walk away and Clark’s father asks him if they hurt him.
This scene and the exchange between the two, drew out exactly what the purpose of this event is in Jesus’ ministry, EXACTLY what makes him the Christ.
Clark responds to his father’s question with an obvious answer, “No, they can’t hurt me.”
To which his father responds, “That’s not what I meant. I meant are you alright.”
Clark then confesses how badly he wanted to hit the bully, and his father confesses right back, that there was even part of him that wanted Clark to hit him, but then he explains to Clark why his choice not to fight back was so important.
He says, “You just have to decide what kind of man you want to grow up to be, Clark. Because whatever kind of man that is, good character or bad, he’s gonna change the world.”
In the scene that follows, we see Superman walking down a narrow hall with soldiers on either side of him, wearing -ironically enough- a pair of handcuffs he could effortlessly break out of at any moment.
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| Triumphal entry of Henry IV in Paris, Peter Paul Rubens 1627-1630 (PD) |
Most people don’t understand non-violence versus violence.
Non-violence is only a choice if you first have the capacity or the means to commit violence.
This is what makes the triumphal entry such a powerful scene for us as we head into Holy Week.
Jesus has the choice.
Jesus has gained the power to direct the masses against Rome, against the temple authorities.
He now has his own authority to direct an insurrection, use force, and take a worldly throne for himself.
This is exactly how he has grasped the attention of the powerful, because they realize that his power has grown to such an extent that it can now be inflicted upon them, to remove them from their place over the people.
And the masses who have crowded the streets believe this is exactly the kind of king they have come out to support, a worldly king that follows their own definition, our own definition of GLORY.
Much like Alexander and other conquerers of their day, they believe he will ride right into the temple to be anointed as the king of Israel.
They believe he will walk out of the temple and be announced by heralds as the king of a new Israel, free of the Romans or any other abusive authorities.
But Mark’s Gospel today ends in a far different tone than any of the other gospel accounts.
This is the most powerful piece of Mark’s telling of the triumphal entry.
Jesus walks in to the temple, he looks around, and then he just leaves.
You see?
Jesus presents to us all the greatest virtue the powerful can possess, relinquishing that power for the sake of mercy and justice directed to the poor, the meek, the lowly, the POWERLESS.
Rather than being anointed by the high priests in the holy of holies, he will be anointed by Mary in the presence of the lowly with a jar of nard and her hair.
Rather than being proclaimed king by heralds announcing his reign, he will be announced by a lone centurion who will only murmur in shock, “Truly this was God’s son,” as the Lord breathes his last on the cross in the shadow of that temple.
This is not a triumphal entry for our kind of glory, our kind of power, our kind of king.
But sisters and brothers, it very well could have been.
It was out of love for this world, not out of love for power that this choice was made.
So, it should go without saying that we, the powerful, must ask ourselves honestly, what are we called to do with our power?
Who will that power serve?
And where would that have left us if He had made that same choice?
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord and heard our cries to have mercy, our cries to save us all.
Hosanna!
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| Triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Nikolay Koshelev 1890-1918 (PD) |
Sources
Culpepper, R. Alan. Mark. Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary. Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys Pub, 2007.
Lenski, R. C. H. Interpretation of St. Mark’s Gospel. Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Fortress, 2008.
Snyder, Zack. Man of Steel. Warner Brothers, 2013.
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