And many spread their garments in the way: and others cut down branches off the trees, and strawed them in the way. And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest. (Mark 11:8-10)
Sunday. The Middle Eastern sun is high and hot as an enthusiastic crowd starts to line the main streets of Jerusalem, cheering, celebrating, giving each other “high fives” as the young rabbi rides into the city on a donkey. Their people had suffered under oppressive regimes for centuries—the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Medes and the Persians, the Greeks, and now the Romans—and their frustration had reached the boiling point; there was no turning back. An oppressed people can be kicked around for only so long before they start to fight back. At some point someone has to draw a line in the sand—and this young rabbi could be just the man for the job. The people are looking for a champion —someone who would fight for them; some rugged son of David who would stand and turn and face the Goliath of Rome and raise his clenched fist and shout the challenge to the arrogant enemies of God and of His people: “Who are you to defy the Living God?” And so they follow him, cheering as they go. “Hosanna!” “Save now!” “Deliver us from Roman oppression!” “Give us back our kingdom!” “Make Israel great again!” These are the cries that come from their mouths that echo the hopes that they treasure in their hearts as they follow this strong but gentle rabbi who claims that he has come from God and is returning to God. Goliath is about to fall. God and His people are about to be vindicated. The enemies of God and the enemies of God’s people are about to be defeated. No one defies Almighty God and gets away with it—at least not for long—and now the day of reckoning has come. Even as they cheer, what are the questions that they may be asking within themselves that they dare not verbalize? Why the donkey? Shouldn’t a warrior-king be charging into the city on a white horse? Where are the armies? That embarrassingly ordinary-looking bunch of unarmed “disciples” who insist on followed him everywhere he goes doesn’t exactly look like the kind of people who could march in and take over a city, let alone push back an empire. Something is not quite right about this turn of events. Something is not going as planned. This young rabbi seems to be departing from the conventional script. Why this talk about “love your enemies”? What kind of king is this? What kind of man is this? He talks of God as though he really knows Him. Could anyone know God that intimately? He speaks of God as being his Father in a way that seems almost scandalous. His way of dealing with people is not that of a warrior-king. He relates to people as though he really loves them. Can a warrior-king love his people? How can a conqueror allow his heart be touched by the needs and cares of his people and treat them as his friends? He seems too gentle to be a warrior and too loving to be a king. His authority is won not by his harshness, but it’s somehow tied to his gentleness. He acts more like a servant than a king. He gathers his followers neither by threat nor by coercion but simply by being who he is. His people are his willing followers because at a place deep within themselves they know that there is something about him that’s worth following—or so they say. He teaches, but not as the other rabbis. He’s different. He’s a son of David, perhaps, but a different kind of son. The people are perplexed but they dare not give up their hope, so they continue to follow and they continue to cheer, waving their palm branches as the entourage enters the city. Perhaps something good will come of this; perhaps not. If he is the long-awaited Deliverer, the strong man who will set right all in the world that is wrong, then they are in the right place at the right time, following the right man. Rome is about to fall, and they are getting a front-row seat. Some day they will tell their children and their grandchildren that they were there on that historic day when the king came into Jerusalem, turned the tables on Rome and restored the Kingdom of David. If he is not the Deliverer then they have nothing left to lose, and so they continue to follow, and so they continue to cheer.
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