March 28, 2010
Jesus Rode Into Jerusalem - Luke 19:28-40
Pastor: Luke Maybry
DownloadIt seems like only yesterday that I was in this very same boat. Leah and I are expecting our third baby in about four weeks, tops. Our first two came early, so we’re probably looking at more like two weeks. Leah is here today, so if she starts going into labor, I’ll just have to leave and Tom Schmutzler, our heralded organist, will preach. I remember vividly last time having a cell phone with me the Sunday before Caroline was born. I never take my cell phone to worship with me and I certainly never leave it on, but I did that Sunday. In fact, I even put it on the pulpit in case Leah went into labor. I even remember the worship assistant that day, Chelsea Hunter, praying before I preached that my cell phone would not go off. It didn’t, but it might well go off next week, or the next. It’s that time. It’s a big time. It’s the biggest time in my family’s life since July 23, 2008 (Caroline’s birth), which was the biggest time since October 31, 2006 (Julia’s birth), which was the biggest time since March 6, 1976 (my birth), which was the biggest time since Leah’s birth, which was sometime, July 20th I think, long before mine.
Leah is a CPA, so this has been a perfect storm for us, with her being in busy season, and me being in Lent, and her being eight months pregnant. I have been living with the illusion that once the baby gets here, that life will get back to normal. What a ridiculous idea. Leah may not have to work long hours anymore and I might not have five services in one week, but that baby is going to change a few things for us. None of this is bad, mind you, but it will be different. It has to be different. It all sort of goes down like this. At some point, probably in the middle of the night (it’s always in the middle of the night, unless it’s Sunday morning), Leah will decide that it’s time, that the bell has tolled and the alarm has gone off. We will rush to the hospital. She will have an epidural. She will give birth. We will hang out at the hospital for a day or two. Then we’ll go home. We will go to the hospital with four members in our family, and come home with five. It’s as big as any big-time moment can ever get.
This is very much a big-time, life changing, history altering moment in Luke’s Gospel. Luke’s version of Jesus’ procession into Jerusalem is more mellow than the other Gospels. Matthew and Mark have the whole city in an uproar when Jesus entered Jerusalem. Luke only has the disciples. There are no large multitudes. Nobody shouts, “Hosanna!” Luke doesn’t even have any palm branches. Only Jesus’ poor disciples show up and lay down their old, worn-out cloaks on the road. And yet, in some respects, Luke’s version is the biggest. Luke has either direct quotes or references to no less than eight other biblical passages from Genesis, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, Psalm 118, Habakkuk, two from Zechariah, and two from Luke. The whole Bible and the entirety of world history, Luke practically says, point to this one event, when the King, the Anointed One, the Messiah…, when God rode triumphantly into Jerusalem. It was such an incredible moment, Jesus says, that if the Disciples did not sing God’s praises, then the stones would.
Now that is big time. So what do we do, I ask you, when we come home from that? Coming home is the hardest part about having a baby, at least in my experience. The hard part about having a baby is all that we don’t know. What’s the baby going to be like? Will he be a good sleeper like his sisters? Will she be cool and laid-back? (I use “he” and “she” interchangeably because we don’t even know that.) How will the two older sisters take to having a new baby? In a way, it’s a time of loss. I can’t get over the fact that little bitty, 20-month-old Caroline is going to be a big sister. She’s not the baby anymore. That’s going to be a major adjustment for her, and for all of us. How are we going fit another baby in the car? Where are we all going to sleep? We have no way of to know all of that.
That’s the way that all these big moments are. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem that day, do you think his disciples had any idea that Jesus would be dead within five days? And not just that, but the disciples used almost verbatim the same words here that the angels used at Jesus’ birth. And yet five measely days later they were running like cowards. Do you think they even knew that they were capable of being such cowards? Do you think that Peter knew that he would deny that he even knew Jesus, three times? Did Judas know that he would betray him, and then go out and hang himself? Do you think they had any foggy clue about a resurrection? What about the Book of Acts? We think that by chapter 19 we’re almost finished with Luke’s story, but we’re not. We’re not even half way there. Luke has a two volume work: The Gospel According to Luke, and the Acts of the Disciples. Do you think the disciples then had any clue about Acts? What did the disciples do after this big, triumphant entry of God into Jerusalem? The answer, of course, is a mixed bag. They denied and betrayed and ran like cowards, but they finally followed, many of them to their own deaths.
What else would they have done? They had just witnessed God coming into their city. At least that’s what they thought. What do you think? Is Jesus really who we say that he is? And did he really ride into Jerusalem that day? And what about all the events that followed Jesus’ going into Jerusalem? I do urge you all to come to Church this week as much as possible. You can’t skip from Palm Sunday to Easter. That’s cheating. We’ve got the Last Supper, the crucifixion, the burial, and the resurrection. We’re going to talk about all that this week, so I hope you come, and I hope you consider all there is to consider. If you really think about all of that, about the implausibility of all of it, about the awe of it, about the sheer enormity of it and yet also the simplicity in a way of it… If you think about all of that and aren’t just a little dumbstruck, then I don’t know what to tell you.
We believe that Jesus rode into Jerusalem one day. And, we believe that Jesus is God. That’s a big deal. I haven’t even scratched the Resurrection yet. That’s the biggest deal in history. So, surely that has an effect on everything that we do. So what is that effect? How does it affect our relationships? How we raise our children? How we relate to our employer and employee? How we relate to our country that passes these sweeping changes like health care reform that it cannot afford, and goes to war, and puts people in jail, and so on and so on? If you don’t know the answer to all that, then I would at least say that you’re in good company. I have a lot of books in my office that I haven’t read yet. One of them is the “History of the Christian Church.” It has 1100 pages. Every page in it has some story about a person in the past who wrestled with that very question: Jesus is God, so what does that mean here and now?
When I first got to Central two years ago, I had a great idea as to how to be a pastor. I had had all this experience, you see, from working a couple of years at Matthews and then before that in Texas. Even though I had not been ordained, I was hot stuff and I knew it, and I had all these tremendous ideas in mind as to what I would do here. I still have a few ideas, and I certainly think that we have had a good couple of years together, but I will say that it’s a little harder than I thought it would be, especially, I think, when you constantly remember why you’re doing it in the first place. I’m here not to serve you, or to entertain you, or to make you feel good about yourself, but to help all of us serve God. In a way, it would just be so much easier if we just forgot about God.
But we can’t forget about God, because Jesus rode in the Jerusalem one day. God rode into Jerusalem. Now I know that I’m skipping to next week, but we also believe in this thing called the Resurrection, which necessarily means that God has also come into Charlotte, and into 4901 South Tryon Street, and into 556 Medearis Drive, and into your house, and into your heart. We’re having a baby in a couple of weeks. That’s a big deal. It’s really going to change some things for us, forever. And, Jesus rode into Jerusalem one day. And, Jesus is God. That little tid-bit might change a few things, too. So pull out the palm branches, and lay down your cloaks, shout “Hosanna” and worship your God. If you’re going to that, you also need to wrestle what all that means for how you live your life, and we live our lives together. Don’t be surprised if you don’t answer it, and take some solace in the fact that your salvation does not rest on that answer. But you had better start asking it. Because Jesus rode into Jerusalem, where he was killed five days later, and rose again three days after that, and now, to make a long story short, he’s here.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
