"Jesus Canceled His People’s Vision”

Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – March 29, 2015

Centenary United Methodist Church

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Mark 11:1-11

 

PALM SUNDAY

    Palm Sunday is very symbolic for most Christians because of the numerous themes that have outcropped during Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem.  However, Jesus was a Jew who was not thinking about the conclusion others might develop hundreds or even thousands of years in the future.  Jesus was communicating to his own people who had gathered for another Passover celebration.

    Let us review the context of Jesus coming into Jerusalem the way he did.  He was attempting to communicate a message that the Jews were unable to understand.  Their hopes and vision of the future were based in nationalism, a preoccupation that did not diminish through the years particularly around their annual Passover celebration.

    If we turn back the pages of history to 167 BC, Antiocheius, a powerful Syrian king came to power.  He became a missionary for the Greek religion known as Hellenism.  He intended to convert everyone living in Palestine to the Greek ways of living including their religion.  He intended to do this the way ISIL is forcing their religious ideas on all other ethnic groups.

    Anyone caught possessing a copy of the Torah or caught having a child circumcised was instantly put to death.  He instituted the worship of Zeus replacing Yahweh.  He publicly sacrificed a large hog on the great altar of the Temple.  This represented a catastrophic insult to the Jews. He converted the chambers that surrounded the Temple's Courtyard into brothels.  His goal was to wipe out all vestiges of the Jewish faith.   

    In 163 BC, Judas Maccabaeus, with his band of Jewish zealots rose up and drove Antiocheius and his occupying troops out of Jerusalem and the surrounding area.  He re-purified and re-consecrated the Temple, an event that Jews celebrate today as Hanukkah.  In all probability, Psalm 118, was written to celebrate this day of purification and the battle that Judas Maccabaeus won.  The Jews wanted such an Independence Day to come again and soon.

    This was the hope and vision that Jesus was attempting to cancel with his entrance into Jerusalem.  The Jews wanted to re-establish their sovereignty as a nation and some people believed that Jesus was the liberator that God had chosen to accomplish this.  They even greeted him in the same manner as the Jews greeted Judas Maccabaeus over a century earlier. 

    Jesus did nothing to reinforce this hope as he entered Jerusalem.  The gathered throng concluded that Jesus was all smoke and mirrors in spite of the rumors and stories that were circulating about his power.  The cheering crowd quickly grew silent as it slowly dissolved, each returning to his or her family and friends.

    The Jews fell into the same trap that the rest of us do all the time.  When we have our hopes and dreams set on what we want, a lot of important things in our surroundings can easily go unnoticed.  We see this in politics when we want our party to govern.  We see this in the economic sector when we worry if our pension is going be there for the rest of our lives. The Jews wanted their freedom from Roman occupation. They had gathered to celebrate how this hope was realized when they withdrew from Egypt centuries ago.

    It is only with our hearts that we become motivated to act on what our eyes see.  When we hear these words, we may think that we are being given a form of poetry that is pleasant to hear but means absolutely nothing. After all, the heart pumps our blood through our bodies.  However, the heart is an ancient symbol that describes the spirit by which we live.

    We all know the traffic problem on Sunday mornings that takes place directly in front of the entrance to Centenary's driveway.  The only exit from the A-1 parking lot is in front of our entrance.  People leaving A-1's lower lot are turning right or left.  Drivers are also using this exit to enter the small parking area in front of the grocery store.  This condition becomes our immediate concern right after our service.

    One Sunday, Lois and I were in a position to allow a driver to enter the flow of traffic from A-1's lower lot.  So many cars hugged the bumpers of the cars in front of them, that five or six cars entered South road as soon as the light turned green.  We were unable to move.  Finally, the light turned red and several unhappy drivers behind us went around our car and drove through the intersection anyway.   

    All participates in this ­mini-drama were seeing the same thing.  However, not everyone  understood this experience the same way. We were trying to be courteous.  The drivers behind the car I let in took advantage of the situation when the light turned green. Those behind us had grown so impatient when they missed an entire change-sequence of the traffic light that they became aggressive.   The spirit inside of us always responds when we no longer have control over what is happening to us.

    Jesus was communicating to his people that God's Kingdom is not made of bricks and mortar, massive real estate, kings and a military.  Such powerful kingdoms are unsustainable and many have come and gone just as they always will in the future.  The Kingdom of God, that people can live in any time they choose, is not like any that has ever existed in the world. (John 18:36) 

     God's Kingdom governs the quality of our attitudes when we no longer have control over our lives.  We enter this Kingdom when we surrender our self-oriented thoughts and feelings and become committed to join Jesus who taught, "I have come among you as one who serves." (Luke 22:27c)  This choice allows people to live in the Kingdom of God in thousands of different forms.  The key is serving others.  People may be serving others without realizing why this attitude consistently works to improve their quality of life.  

    Jesus was canceling his people's vision and image of the coming Kingdom of God by replacing it with a new idea that had never been put into practice historically by a group of people. As we further explore this understanding, think about a major shift in the world's culture that has been taking place during our lifetime.

    Jesus taught his listeners to become the leaven for the loaf.  (Matthew 13:33).  Suppose that has already happened and we are now the other ingredients that make up the loaf.   Jesus and his disciples became the initial bubbling spring that became a stream and that stream became a river. 

    Millions of people are serving one another in ways that have little to do with one's religion, beliefs, rituals or their being cloistered behind the walls of a worship center.  Our journey is one of service to other people because we want to.  The desire has to be there. 

    What we are seeing today is generation after generation of individuals that have looked within themselves and have found ideas and innovations that have never before existed.  A new world is dawning.  Everyone has a choice to resist the changes taking place or to join the flow of where this human-divine union is taking us.   

    People from all over the world are the loaf. They are serving the world's people in hundreds of different capacities. They are responding to a mission, the origin of which will remain a mystery for most of them.  They may not connect what they are doing for others as coming from a teaching of Jesus.  

    What is interesting is that there is enormous pressure today on employees in every sector of the business world to put their customers first. This message is not coming from the Church. It is coming from industry that often has no mercy.  Skilled scientists can lose their jobs because they never learned how to listen to their colleagues or to work in a team environment.  Employees that violate their customer-care training are the easiest to terminate.  Companies have zero tolerance for those who do not comply to the rules included in their training.

    Even Bill Gates, the wealthiest man in the world, needed to be taught how to control his demons of arrogance and aggressive behavior.  The light came on and he, Warren Buffet and numerous other billionaires have established The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that is funding the implementation of great ideas on how to save our planet and its people.  This was Jesus' message!

    In so many people, however, the form of Jesus' message is there but not the spirit.  Serving others can easily be motivated by economics and not their desire.  Their paychecks depend on their complying with customer-care requirements.  Those who freely extend themselves toward others are the ones that have found the treasure of entering God's Kingdom.  Their mindset, attitudes and desires are focused on others.  Their energy is flowing away from them in the same manner as God's creative energy.

    We must guard against the distractions that siphon our energies into matters over which we have no control.  We focus on a co-pilot that committed suicide by violating the trust of his 150 passengers.  Remember, every day 8 million people fly safely in aircraft all over the world. We focus on the atrocities of terrorists and yet, they are a handful of people compared to the seven billion people that inhabit the world.  We worry about people that live lives of crime in Bermuda.  Five or six cases of crimes are discussed every week in The Royal Gazette, but our island has 65,000 people. When we understand how our perceptions often hold us captive, this truth will set us free.

    Jesus rode into Jerusalem to teach his people that no empire of this world will ever exist until loving and serving others has become the core of the human spirit.  When that happens, our human experiences will drastically change.  Only then, will we be capable of taking our discovery and message to the stars.