Wadhams United Church of Christ
2569 County Route 10, Wadhams, NY 12993
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Matthew 21:1-11
From its inception in the traumatized aftermath of death camps and a continental policy of genocide for anyone Jewish, the modern nation of Israel has had to face hostility and opposition from a staggering number of enemies intent on its destruction. In its brief history of less than a century, they have been threatened, boycotted, attacked by bordering countries, victimized by terrorists brutalizing their athletes at the Olympics, and routinely criticized or chastised for their response to those assaults. With the United States as one possible exception, they are more roundly hated than perhaps any other nation in the world.
From the Muslims who chafe at the fact that their holy city is in the hands of infidels, to the Palestinians whose parents and grandparents had their homes and land-ownings forcibly taken from them, there are any number of nations, ethnic groups, and religious factions who want to see Israel in ruins. Recently, of course, Israel made the news again when they responded forcefully to the ongoing rocket attacks originating from Hamas factions embedded in Gaza. The media was denied access, but we heard stories of homes, schools, and medical clinics being bombed into oblivion.
The wounded were rushed to hospitals, but military embargoes had shut down the supply lines, leaving the beleaguered doctors and nurses with limited medicine or supplies to treat them. Because our attention span is short, and perhaps because the American media tends to be more sympathetic toward Israel than toward Palestine, we haven’t heard much about Gaza since then. Assuming the supply embargoes are still in place, I can only imagine how difficult it is for those living in Gaza to rebuild their shattered homes and lives.
The precarious politics of the Middle East have been a bloody quagmire almost from the beginning of recorded history, and the issues are so complex and so fraught with murderous tension that I’m not sure anyone has any good solutions. What I find rather ironic is that modern Israel is now in a position that puts them on the opposite side of their history of subjection and degradation. Where their ancestors used to be the ones on the receiving end of this kind of treatment, modern Israel is now dishing it out. The volatile politics of the region existed in biblical times as well, and played an important role in shaping the history and interpretation of history that we find in both Old and New Testaments. Politics were also an enormous factor in how people viewed their God and what they came to expect of God in their daily lives.
For the past few weeks, I have focused on the people closest to Jesus, pondering their struggle to understand what God was up to and how it impacted them on personal and political levels. Today I’m broadening my view to include the populace of the region that Jesus lived in and served in. While the general public never had the same personal and intimate access to Jesus as his disciples, he had come to represent something hopeful in their lives as they struggled to survive in a tenuous existence of subsistence and subterfuge. Not only did he have the rare and remarkable ability to heal people of a wide range of diseases and disabilities, he had shown enough spunk to be able to stand up to the Jewish leaders who had formed an uneasy alliance with the Roman infidels.
So when he came parading into Jerusalem with all the markings of a messianic claim to the throne, it’s no wonder that the majority of the common people who were there for the Passover Pilgrimage were thrilled at his appearing. This is one of my main reasons for talking about Gaza in modern Israel. Imagine if you will, that the people living in that enclave had been led to believe that the day of their salvation was drawing near, and that God was going to send them a liberator. In their minds, what would that salvation look like?
Do you suppose that it would involve a lifting of the embargo and the rigid enforcement of the gates that keep them bound up in desperate need? Would it mean that someone would take notice of their miserable plight and provide them with the food they need in order to survive, the supplies they need to rebuild their meager shelters, and the medicine or treatments they need in order to treat their wounded? Do you think that at some level their understanding of God’s coming into their lives would have some political overtones? There’s not much question in my mind that they would expect their liberator to liberate them from the forcible rule of the Israeli government.
I have no doubt that the Palestinians living within the confines of their enclave in Gaza have come to view the Israelis as an oppressive presence in their lives. Given the Middle Eastern penchant for emotional volatility, it would not surprise me in the least to learn that these folks hate Israel and everything it stands for. Wherever we might stand in regard to the situation in the Middle East, if we can grasp the sense of generational hatred that permeates everything that happens there, then we can begin to understand a little bit more of what happened in Jerusalem the fateful week of Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion.
For centuries, the Jews had lived under foreign rule, and no matter how benevolent a picture their captors painted of the way they treated vanquished people, we know better. We know better because we know how we treated the vanquished indigent and native people of North America when we slaughtered them wholesale and herded the unfortunate survivors into the death camps that we referred to as “reservations.” For centuries, the Jews had been herded this way and that depending on the ruling power of the day. For centuries, the Jews had been the recipients of cruel abuse and arbitrary genocide.
So when the prophets spoke of a Redeemer who would come some day to right the wrongs she had known, people expected the kind of retaliatory strike that we have come to expect of modern Israel when someone provokes her. When the prophets led her to believe that her salvation was coming soon, they dreamed of a day when the embargoes would fall, the walls and gates that hemmed them in would be knocked over, and that they would finally be free to live as they chose, not as their ruling leaders forced them to live. A few of them longed for the time when there would be some recourse for the crippled, the lame, and the beggars, and God’s compassion would rule the world.
And here’s the point I want to make: the politics that controlled their day to day existence helped to shape their clear expectation that God’s Messiah would come as a warrior. How else can someone envision dealing with a bully except to imagine that someone will finally come along who is bigger and stronger than the bully? How can people think about a redeemer without picturing a ruling power that can physically dominate the existing power structure in order to turn things around?
Did the people in the city of Jerusalem believe that Jesus had come as their Messiah, their Redeemer, their Liberator? Yes, they believed it, because they were as desperate as the Palestinians to find some reason for hope. They were far beyond the point of readiness and well into the groaning of their corporate soul for some relief from the constant stream of heartaches that overshadowed their days. When word filtered through the city, then, that Jesus had arrived, and that he was getting a royal welcome, people were prompted to ask: “Who is this Jesus?”
As soon as the whispers filtered through the crowded markets and jostling streets that he might be the Messiah, the promised one, they were more than ready to join the throngs singing his praises and urging him on. They were more than ready to dump the daily grind filled will subsistence living and political subterfuge, and trade it in for the glorious reign of God’s kingdom here on earth. They were more than happy to raise hands and voices in praise of God’s promised one, come to Jerusalem to claim the crown, right the wrongs, subdue the bullies, and metaphysically dominate the existing power structure in order to take Jerusalem and turn it into the seat of God’s sacred rule.
From this vantage point, we can understand the popularity that Jesus enjoyed on his way into town. And from here, we can make some sense out of the complete reversal he had experienced by the end of the week. The same people who were standing by the side of the road proclaiming his praise and his everlasting reign on this day would be the same people lustily howling for his death a few short days later. Clearly, something had happened to change their perspective. Or in this case, it was something that didn’t happen that turned them into deadly critics.
Jesus had disappointed them profoundly. He had failed to live up to their expectations. Disappointment is a bitter pill to swallow, and it’s even more bitter when it’s God who disappoints us. While he had healed their sick and exorcized their demons, he had failed to bully the bullies. Instead, the very people they loathed had tormented Jesus and publicly humiliated him. Instead of the retaliatory strike they had expected and longed for, he turned the other cheek and refused to resist them. Instead of the call to arms they had expected, he had instead called upon them to take up their crosses and follow him into more shameful abuse and humiliation.
Instead of breaking down the gates and tearing down the walls, he himself had been broken and his flesh torn in cruel torture. The man who had come to town to capture their minds and souls with his vision for a brighter future had failed them, so when Pilate offered to set a prisoner free, whose release did they seek? Not Jesus, not this bruised and battered effigy of a Messiah, but someone who had already proved his mettle by engaging the enemy. They didn’t want a suffering Messiah, because they had already known enough of suffering and pain. They wanted a triumphant warrior Messiah, because they wanted a change, and they wanted it now.
I spent a good deal of my adult life firmly convinced that if I had lived during that time period, I would have been one of the faithful followers standing by Jesus, no matter how bad things got. After several rounds of bitter disappointment, though, I’ve had to admit to myself that I sounded more like the chagrined citizens of Jerusalem and its surrounding villages than the heroic figure I imagined myself to be. While it’s easy to offer praises to God when things are going well, it’s even easier to shake my fist toward the bruised and battered effigy of God’s Messiah when life disappoints me.
Whether Jesus is triumphantly riding into town on a donkey or staggering out of town in humiliation under the weight of a cross, I have to ask myself: Who is this Jesus? Am I willing to take him on his terms, and not on mine? Am I willing to embrace a God who comes not in retaliatory rage, but in consuming compassion? Do I want a God who spoils me by making everything go my way, or a God whose very presence challenges me by walking with me into everything that happens, whether it’s going my way or not?
Do I want a God who weeps over the tragedies of human life, or a God whose eyes blaze in gory glory at the mere thought of being able to annihilate God’s every detractor? Do I want a God who looks at the worst that life can offer, and then tries to find a scapegoat to make someone pay for it, or do I want a God who embraces the darkest episodes of life and searches high and wide for some way to bring something good out of it? Because there have been times when life has crippled me or someone I love; because I have seen the devastating effects of lameness; because I have been a beggar seeking shelter with relatives: give me the Jesus whose heart bleeds for the glorious day when the deaf shall hear, the mute will sing, and the lame will leap for joy. Give me the Jesus who embraces the scorn and shame of this world so he can lead me all the way to redemption and liberation.
Order of Service
April 19, 2009
Welcome, Announcements, Joys & Concerns
A Prayer for Peace NC #591
Opening Prayer (Based on Psalm 86) Leader: Blessed are you, Lord God, creator of heaven and earth.
People: You are our God and we put our trust in you.
Leader: Bring joy to your servants, O Lord, as we lift up our hearts to you.
People: Hear our prayers, O Lord; listen to our cries for mercy.
Leader: Teach us your ways, O Lord, that we may walk in your truth.
People: Give us undivided hearts, that we may praise your holy name.
Leader: Help us to worship you this morning with united hearts. Help us to love one another, so that we may be known as your disciples.
Hymn NC #223 Wondrous Love
Responsive Prayer
Leader: Loving God, all of us are imperfect and crippled by our self-seeking thoughts and attitudes.
People: We fail to live in ways that would bring honor to your name. We fail to trust you with the troubles of our days. (Silence)
Leader: But through your love for us, you sent Jesus, to forgive our sins, to heal our ills, and to bring us to new life in you.
People: Have mercy upon us and forgive us. We pray that your presence with us today will open our hearts to receive the blessings you desire for us.
Leader; May we be constantly searching for the ways in which you are present, and for ways in which we can bring your love to a hurting world.
People: Lord God, we pray for our nation and for our leaders. We ask you to bless them and give them wisdom especially in this time of economic crisis and global unrest.
Leader: We pray for our families and friends. We pray for those who depend on us and on whom we depend.
People: We pray for those struggling because they have lost their jobs or because their retirement funds have suffered great losses. Help them find strength in you and support in their communities.
Leader: We pray for the sick, the lonely, and the grieving. May those who are hurting know the grace of your healing love, in those particular ways that give them strength to meet their needs.
Pastoral Prayer, Lord’s Prayer
Hymn NC #195 The Old Rugged Cross
Psalm 107:10-16, Jeremiah 31:31-37, Matt. 21:1-11
Sermon A City Chagrined
Offering, Doxology, Dedication
Hymn NC #190 Beneath the Cross of Jesus
Benediction
Leader: God’s great love and rich mercy have made us alive in Christ.
People: Having been created in Christ Jesus for good works, let us depart to live lives of grace, and to do good works.
Leader: May the Holy Spirit open our innermost beings to what God wants most: to give love to us and to receive love from us. Go with the blessing of Almighty God
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