A LONG TIME AGO IN A JERUSALEM FAR AWAY
Matthew 21:1-11
Sunday of the Passion, Year A
Analysis by Matt Metevelis
1When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” 4This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet:
5“Tell the daughter of Zion,
Look, your king is coming to you,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
6The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7they brought the donkey and the colt and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
10When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” 11The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”
From Wikimedia Commons
DIAGNOSIS: The Dark Side
Step 1: Initial Diagnosis (External Problem) – That’s No Moon
Jerusalem hovers over the story of Jesus in the synoptic gospels like the Death Star. Within it are the very embodiments of evil. Herod lives there. Teachers from there come to interrogate Jesus. It kills the prophets. The Roman army patrols there. The religious leaders collaborate with the evil empire. The city which was once the great capital of David now bows to a foreign power. Some Israelites retreated from it to pursue ritual purity untouched by its stain. But Jesus must turn his face to it. Many times Jesus tells his terrified disciples that he must go there and suffer at the hands of its leaders.
Like Jesus we are all forced to confront fallen places like this in the world. Systems that oppress people in ways both seen and unseen proliferate around us. Places that invoke God’s name and God’s word act in ways contrary to God’s command. Oppression takes many forms in our lives and in the lives of our neighbors. The crowds around Jesus cry out for someone to come and liberate them. So do we.
Step 2: Advanced Diagnosis (Internal Problem) – Scum and Villainy
It’s easy to think that only external villains cause the Jerusalems in our midst to fall. The crowds certainly did. Jerusalem had been liberated before. Judah Maccabeus led a revolt against the Seleucid Empire which recaptured the temple in 164 BCE. On the same day of the same month that the Temple had been “profaned by foreigners”, Judah’s rebel alliance rededicated it. The ensuing revelry imitated the Levitical Festival of Booths. People waived “ivy-wreathed wands and beautiful branches and also palm fronds.” Prostrate on the ground they prayed that God would not hand them over to “blasphemous and barbaric nations” (2 Maccabees 10:4-10, NRSV).
Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem served as a demonstration as much as a welcome. The crowds hoped that another evil empire would be removed from the holy city. Like so many of us, they located the source of evil completely in their enemies. Marching legions, collaborating chief-priests, corrupt tax collectors, and foreigners represented the problem that Jesus was arriving to sort out. We suffer from this compulsion too. Problems in the world seem to require us to find someone to blame. People we disagree with, who live differently, who value different things than us become convenient targets. We greet Jesus too often like the people of Jerusalem, drowning him in palm branches of our own – the symbols of tribal and nationalistic pride.
Such claims of righteousness in our associations hide our secret fear. Maybe evil isn’t completely “out there.” Much evil in the world is lodged in our own hearts. The world persists in evil because we contribute to it either willingly in the hate and distrusts we nurture or unwillingly in systems beyond our control. It’s so easy for us to be like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable and say, “I’m glad I’m not like that tax collector over there” (Luke 18:9-14). It removes the judgment and responsibility from our shoulders and puts the onus of sin on others. But it cannot dislodge the guilt and fear in our own hearts that maybe the evil we want destroyed in the world is a part of us too. Luke Skywalker discovers this in Empire Strikes Back as he must face his greatest fear as part of his Jedi training. At the end of his trial, he sees on his own body Darth Vader’s face. The evil empire isn’t out there. It’s a part of us.
Step 3: Final Diagnosis (Ultimate Problem) – Only a Master of Evil
We are like drunks in a bar fight with bloody knuckles begging the police to arrest the other guy. But God is a God of justice who takes no prisoners. We seek out evil in our neighbors to condemn and denounce because it might take the target off our backs. For the crowds who gathered around Jesus to claim victory they shared in this hope. Liberation would come for them in the form of Jesus dealing with their enemies. The wrath of God is a terrible weapon. We try to cope with it by pointing it in other directions. But we can’t escape its final critique.
PROGNOSIS: My Ally is the Force
Step 4: Initial Prognosis (Ultimate Solution) – There’s Some Good in Him
Jesus does not go to Jerusalem to channel the wrath of God. He comes on a donkey and not in an X-Wing. His goal is not to conquer, but to be conquered by the evil that we and the crowds hoped he would chase away. Jesus enters Jerusalem to be betrayed and abandoned by his friends. Corrupt and incompetent officials parade him through a trial which is a travesty of justice. He is nailed to a tree and nailed to a curse – our curse. Jesus in Jerusalem exposes himself to do what we would never do in a million years. He hangs on a hill not as God’s avenger but as God’s enemy. All the sin in the world is clinging to him and the wrath of God is chasing it, tearing the flesh from his body and choking the air out of his lungs.
Luke Skywalker is similarly assaulted by the forces of evil at the end of Return of the Jedi. For his refusal to join the dark side he his blasted with force lightning by Emperor Palpatine. But in the midst of his pain he cries out to his father. As Darth Vader (spoiler) looks on, Luke cries out “Father … please.” Moved by the cries of his son Darth Vader picks up the distracted Emperor and throws him off a ledge.
Jesus does the same thing on the cross. He cries out to God, his father. He begs God to act. He knows that no matter what a wrathful God does to him that there is some good in him. Jesus appeals to God and is saved as all the forces of sin and death are not thrown off a ledge but ground under a stone that rolls away. All this happens because Jesus has chosen not to go blasting some particular evil over there, but to bear all evil in his body. In so doing he incurs God’s wrath but stands with us to appeal to, receive, and bestow God’s mercy on us.
Step 5: Advanced Prognosis (Internal Solution) – If You Strike Me Down
Jesus through his cross has become more powerful than we can imagine. But not as some force ghost armed only with inspiring lines. Jesus is real in our lives when every enemy we see becomes empty of their own power and becomes sinners in need of redemption just like we are. Every enemy we have has our crucified savior nailed to them. And for that reason, they have something else nailed upon them – a promise of forgiveness and life. It’s the same promise given to us, fellow enemies of God that we were. Faith trusts in this promise and leads us away from all the personal, tribal, political, and even religious righteousness that we try to construct on our own terms. It erases the false lines of the “light side” and “dark side” we try to draw in the world. The sins we so readily denounce in others fester on the same trash heap where our own sins are rotting – all forgiven and soon forgotten. Through such trust Christ does not defeat our enemies; he frees us from the fear that made them enemies in the first place.
Step 6: Final Prognosis (External Solution) – Luminous Beings Are We
Through the cross not only is God emptied of his wrath but our neighbors are emptied of the threats that cause us fear and harm. Every enemy becomes someone to love and serve as much as possible. When we are able to live this way, we find ourselves in a truly holy city. A commonwealth of peace where divisions are overcome, faith is shared with God and our neighbors, and where God is pleased to dwell.
Christ came to Jerusalem humbly, seeking to cover it not by conquest but by patient and suffering sacrifice. Empowered by the promise of what he accomplished on the cross we are empowered to meet our neighbors in the same way. Darth Vader as he lay dying asked Luke to take off his mask so that he could see him with “my own eyes.” With our own masks taken off we are finally able to see our enemies through the cross-shaped eyes of Christ who died for us and for them.
