Today at Parkrose Community United Church of Christ our Scripture readings included Isaiah 50:4-9a and Luke 19:28-40. There is no podcast of the sermon this morning but my sermon notes are below.
There were two processions into Jerusalem on the day that Jesus arrived.
From one side of the city came Jesus, the Son of Man, and his followers.
From the other side of the city came Pilate, the Roman governor.
“Jesus’ procession proclaimed the kingdom of God; Pilates proclaimed the power of empire,” write Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan in their book The Last Week.
Their entrances could not have been more different.
Jesus, riding on a donkey, openly mocked the power of the Roman Empire. He was greeted by other Jews with open affection and support. The Gospel of Mark recounts that his fellow Jews shouted with abandon:
Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven! (Mark 11:9-10 NRSV)
The Gospel of Luke tells us that the people spread their cloaks on the road (a great sign of respect). Clearly, the people of Jerusalem were excited that their champion had arrived.
Pilate’s arrival must have elicited a different reaction. Borg and Crossan write:
Imagine the imperial procession’s arrival in the city. A visual panoply of imperial power: cavalry on horses, foot soldiers, leather armor, helmets, weapons, banners, golden eagles mounted on poles, sun glinting on mental and gold. Sounds: the marching of feet, the creaking of leather, the clinking of bridles, the beating of drums. The swirling of dust. The silent eyes of onlookers, some curious, some awed, some resentful.
It was inevitable that a clash between Jesus and the Romans would occur. Rome occupied Jerusalem and ruled with an iron fist. Dissent was not tolerated. The Roman Empire was not evil in the same way that say the Germany Third Reich was. But it was evil in the way that all civilizations that rule with military power to benefit the wealthy at the expense of the “least of these” are. And that, brothers and sisters, would include every great empire to have ever ruled the world – even our own in this moment of history.
Jesus stood in opposition to everything Roman: their economic system, their military dominance, their violent oppression of the people. And while Jesus had the support of the Jewish people (remember how they welcomed him) he also challenged the authority of those minority of Jewish leaders who openly collaborated with the Romans. After entering Jerusalem he visited the Temple where he protested the worship practices, echoing the words of God (spoken to temple worshippers in the Book of Jeremiah):
If you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly with one another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever…Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight? (Jeremiah 7:5-7II)
On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus had told his followers:
See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; 34they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him… (Mark 10:33-34 NRSV)
He knew the risks of entering Jerusalem but still he went. He knew that his message was a threat both to Rome and to the collaborators running the Temple. But Jesus knew that God had called him to be a teacher and a prophet and from that challenge he could not simply walk away. So with full knowledge of the risk he was taking Jesus organized a procession into Jerusalem that was contemptible of the Romans, a powerful symbol of hope to the Jewish masses living under occupation, and a danger to those religious authorities who had abandoned their loyalty to God in favor of Rome.
And as the knives came out and the Disciples began to fracture and (eventually) flee, Jesus continued to teach.
The “scribes and the chief priests” (the collaborators) wanted to help Rome immediately to dispose of Jesus but because of his popularity with the Jewish people they were initially unable to arrest him. So they tried to trick Jesus into giving them enough evidence to support their belief that Jesus was a dangerous revolutionary. Consider the story in Luke 20:21-26 (NRSV):
21So they asked him, ‘Teacher, we know that you are right in what you say and teach, and you show deference to no one, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth. 22Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?’ 23But he perceived their craftiness and said to them, 24‘Show me a denarius. Whose head and whose title does it bear?’ They said, ‘The emperor’s.’ 25He said to them, ‘Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ 26And they were not able in the presence of the people to trap him by what he said; and being amazed by his answer, they became silent.
If you’ve ever wanted to know the reason the people were so amazed by this answer (or needed evidence of how smart Jesus was) it helps to know a little of the background of this story. As we read in The Last Week:
The spokesmen of the authorities set the trip skillfully. Either answer would get Jesus in trouble. If Jesus were to answer no, he could be charged with sedition. If he were to answer yes, he risked discrediting himself with the crowd, who for both economic and religious reasons resented Roman rule and taxation. Most likely, this was the primary purpose of the question: to separate Jesus from the crowd by leading him into an unpopular response.
Jesus’ response is masterful. As he did in the question about authority, he turns the situation back on his opponents. He sets a counter trap when he asks to see a denarius. A denarius was a silver coin equal to approximately a day’s wage. His interrogators produce one. Jesus looks at it then asks,” Whose head is this, and whose title?”…We all know their answer: “The emperor’s.”
Jesus’ strategy has led his questioners to disclose to the crowd that they have a coin with Caesar’s image on it. In this moment, they are discredited. Why? In the Jewish homeland in the first century, there were two types of coins. One type, because of the Jewish prohibition of graven images, had no human or animal images. The second type (including Roman coinage) had images.
The interrogators are exposed as being collaborators carrying Rome’s money.
And what does Jesus mean when he says: “Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s”? Borg and Crossan write further that:
For Jesus and many of his Jewish contemporaries, everything belongs to God….What belongs to Caesar? The implication is nothing.
A great empire is bearing down on Jesus, the collaborators are at his feet trying to get Jesus to make just one mistake that will provide Rome with the excuse it needs to pounce and how does Jesus respond? Non-violently. With wit and compassion. He does not raise an army. Jesus changes the rules of the debate and further discredits Rome while at the same time further illuminating the will of God.
Jesus is asked: What is the Greatest Commandment?
29Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” 31The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’
Pilate would have answered that obedience to Creaser was the greatest commandment and those who heard Jesus say that love of God and love of neighbor were the greatest commandments surely would have heard these statements as challenges to the Roman understanding of how the world worked – and as a direct challenge to imperial authority.
We know how this story ends. In the dark of night the Romans come for Jesus. They cannot take him during day light because they fear the Jewish people will revolt. Jesus is put on trial and convicted, crucified, and when all hope seems lost the Risen Jesus returns to tell his followers that the story is not yet over. In the end, even the powerful Roman Empire must bow down before the power and glory of God.
Don’t we face a similar choice today? A choice between the Kingdom of God and the empire of man?
If today here in Portland we had a choice of two parades, one touting the Empires of today and the other proclaiming God’s Kingdom, which would we attend? Let us pray for one another that we become what it is we hope deep in our hearts to be: a people of God who follow the Greatest Commandment and who yell out even today to Jesus:
Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
