“Jesus’ Joyous Entry: Premature or Prophetic?” by the Rev. Don Wahlig, March 24, 2024 Palm/Passion Sunday Year B – Palm: Jeremiah 31:31-34 • Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 • Mark 11:1-11; Passion: Isaiah 50:4-9a • Psalm 31:9-16 • Philippians 2:5-11 • Mark 14:1-15:47 or Mark 15:1-39, (40-47)

THEME:  Live prophetically as Jesus did, trusting that God’s love wins in the end.

There is a wise old saying that says what you see depends on where you stand.  In other words, perception depends on perspective.  And the same thing is true of those who see Jesus entering Jerusalem at the beginning of what you and I know as Holy Week. It has all the hallmarks of a coronation procession. The entry of the new king of the Jews into God’s holy city. To the religious authorities, the celebration is wildly inappropriate. The reason is simple. To them, Jesus is no king at all. But that is because their lens is not the lens of scripture. Theirs is the lens of sheer pragmatism, and secular power. Which is ironic, isn’t it? Aren’t they the scriptural experts? The ones who supposedly know the scriptures better than anyone? Yet they do not see that, in Jesus, God is fulfilling the ancient prophecy of the Messiah.  That Jesus is God’s King sent to redeem God’s people and usher in God’s Kingdom. That is because the image of the Messiah they have in mind is someone like King David. 

To all appearances, Jesus is the furthest thing from David. He is not strong and mighty. He is no military hero.  He has no army.  He has no power. At least not the kind of power the religious authorities respect. But many others in the crowd see Jesus differently. That is because their lens is prophetic, not just pragmatic. In Jesus, they see the fulfillment of Zechariah's ancient prophecy. "Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!  Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!  See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey."  The timing is perfect. It is Passover, the celebration of God’s liberation of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt.  The crowd think that, if God crushed Pharaoh’s army to free their Hebrew ancestors, then God can certainly crush the Roman army to free them. In their eyes, Jesus is the new Moses who has the ultimate power: God’s power.

To them, Jesus is God’s Messiah. That’s why they’re waving those palm branches and shouting "Hosanna!" – “save us!"  But, in the short-term, they are in for a great disappointment. Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem is actually the prelude to his death.  The coronation foreshadows crucifixion. That will seem like a crushing defeat for those who see Jesus through the prophetic lens of faith. But that sense of crushed hope is premature. The battle that Jesus will win is the long-term victory over death itself. That is God’s purpose. And his resurrection is the guarantee. When Jesus returns, seated on the throne of God’s Kingdom, the power of sin and death will finally be no more.

But here is the problem for you and me.  Just like the people in the crowd, you and I want that conquest now, don’t we? We want the Kingdom and we want it today.  But God’s timing is not necessarily our timing.  Don’t you just hate that?  You and I see the world around us through the prophetic lens of faith.  And what we see looks like Rome is winning more often than Jesus. Then we look inward at ourselves and we see aspects of our own lives that suggest the crucifixion was the last word, not the resurrection. The world is a mess, and too often, so are we.

But the only way forward is to continue trusting that God is working through us and the world around us, even if we cannot see it, to turn what looks like crushing defeat into the conquest of love.  Over these past 4 weeks, we have seen the evidence of that.  You and I have seen God’s relentless, irresistible love for his people. We have seen it in the Covenant, in the law, and in the ten commandments at the heart of the law. Most clearly, we have seen his love in the New Covenant of Jesus Christ. The challenge for us is to trust God’s relentless love and to live prophetically. To proclaim, through what we say and what we do, that God’s love always wins in the end. The apostle Paul said it best.  Living prophetically means living with faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.

But that is hard. It takes a lot of courage and a strong faith to live like that in the midst of a world like this.  But, God knows that. And every now and then, he gives us inspiration through Christians who show us what prophetic loving and living can look like.

One of the best examples I know is the story of Corrie ten Boom.  If you have read the book The Hiding Place then you are familiar with her story. It goes like this: Corrie ten Boom and her family were devout Reformed Christians – just like you and me. She, her sister Betsy and their father, a widower, ran a watchmaking business from their home in the Dutch city of Haarlem during World War II.  In 1940, Germany invaded Holland. The Nazis began systematically persecuting Jews and arresting anyone who stood in their way. Many were sent to concentration camps.  One day in 1942, a young Jewish woman knocked on the ten Boom’s door. She said her father had been taken to a concentration camp.  Her brother had run away to avoid imminent arrest. She herself was afraid to go home because the Nazis were searching for her, too.

Most people would have said ‘no.’ That would have been the pragmatic response. But the ten Booms’ deep faith compelled them to say ‘yes.’ That was the prophetic response. With a police station just half a block away, they knew they were risking their lives.  They also knew it was what their faith required.  They built a secret hiding place behind a false wall in Corrie's bedroom. For the next two years, over 800 Jewish refugees and Dutch resistance fighters passed through the house, all hiding from the Gestapo. But then, one cold February day in 1944, an informant led the Gestapo to raid the ten Booms’ home. Corrie, her father, and her sister Betsy, were all arrested.  Her father died in prison ten days later.  Corrie and Betsy were sent to the concentration camp at Ravensbruck.     

From the perspective of pragmatism, the ten Booms’ capture looked like just another triumph of evil over good, of hatred and fear over love and compassion. But that was not the end of Corrie ten Boom’s story. Despite the unimaginable horrors they endured, their faith in the power of God’s love remained intact.  Corrie got hold of a smuggled Bible.  She and Betsy led the other inmates in worship and Bible study. Together they found the strength and hope to trust that God was still with them, even in the darkest of times. Tragically, Betsy died just days before the camp was liberated. But Corrie survived – and so did her faith.  After the war, despite all that she had suffered and all that she had lost, she found the courage to share her story with the world.

Her story is a testament to the power of living prophetically. Her book, The Hiding Place, has sold over 3 million copies. Just last year it was made into a movie for the second time.  Now, her story is influencing a whole new generation. It’s helping them appreciate the sheer power of prophetic Christian living, rooted in faith, hope, and love.

Friends, you and I have that same power.   We, too, can live prophetically by sharing God’s love with those in our lives who need our help. Now, I am not suggesting that you will be required to put your life in jeopardy or face violent persecution, but you will certainly have to step out of your comfort zone.  We all will. That is the nature of love. Love is our superpower, but there is a cost to use it. As the best-selling author Scott Peck wrote in his famous book, The Road Less Traveled, “Love always requires courage and always involves risk.”

We will have to say ‘yes,’ when pragmatic instinct inclines us to say ‘no.’  Who in your life needs your help? Is a loved one grieving? Is someone you know in financial trouble? Are you in a position to help someone find a job who has a record or just needs a break?  If so, then God is asking you to live prophetically.  He is asking you to make this world more like his Kingdom.  Pragmatism preserves the status quo. Prophetic living changes the world. 

If Jesus had been a pragmatist, he never would have shown his face in Jerusalem. He never would have come to town riding a donkey and looking like a king. He never would have stood up to the religious authorities. He never would have gone to the cross. And there would have been no Easter.

But he did. And so should you and I, living with prophetic love. Let’s take the risk. 

May it be so.