Looking for Peace
By Rev Steven R
Mitchell
Mountain View
United, Aurora, CO 3/29/2015
Based on Mark
11:1-11
Just
in case you haven’t quite figured it out, today is Palm Sunday! The day that we celebrate what some call the
“triumphal entry” into Jerusalem by Jesus.
I’m not sure that I would call it “triumphal” as this marks the
beginning of the end of Jesus’ earthly life.
For in just four days Jesus will be betrayed by one of his own
disciples, put on trial for heresy of the Jewish religion and treason toward
the Roman Empire. This is the one day
where we, who are often referred to by some, as the frozen chosen, allow
ourselves to become physically active in worship; waving our palms high,
marching around the sanctuary, and shouting “Hosanna!”
For
those of you who know your scripture fairly well, you will have recognized that
this morning’s scripture is a loosely translated version of Mark’s account of
Jesus’ entry. I wanted to use this
particular reading because it introduces a clearer picture about the political
conflict between Jesus and Rome. Nowhere
in any of the New Testament accounts, will you find any account of a procession
of Pontius Pilate. This is conjecture on
the part of some theologians. A
conjecture that is very reasonable. It
is reasonable because, in general, the governor of Judea did not reside in
Jerusalem on a permanent basis, but rather came to town for various occasions,
such as the festival of Passover.
Pilate’s job was to keep order and peace in the region of Judea. Order and peace as viewed in the eyes of Rome
that is. Jerusalem is not only the
capitol of Judea but was also the center of temple worship. It was the place that you came to in order to
experience redemption before God.
Over
the past nine weeks, there has been a small group who has gathered to review
the book, The First Christmas,
authored by Marcus Borg and John Crossan.
One of the important themes of this book was helping to understand how
Rome saw its Emperor, Caesar Augustus, as being the son of god, the prince of
peace for the world. Caesar was viewed
by the Roman Empire in exactly the same role that we as Christians understand
the role of Jesus Christ. This book
pointed out that both Caesar and Jesus spoke of bringing peace to the
world. The difference is in the way that
they worked toward bringing peace.
In
this morning’s account of Jesus entry into Jerusalem against the back drop of
Pilates entry that same day, contrasts the two diverse ways in which peace was
being sought. Pilate enters into the
city with pomp and circumstance, upon a horse, as a military conquer, bringing
order and peace through physical might.
He would have had a show of soldiers marching at his side as a way of
displaying the physical power that he has at his disposal in order to keep
peace. This type of entry reminds me of
old film footage of when the Germans marched into Paris, with rows and rows of
soldiers, tanks, and canons, to show the citizens of Paris who had control and
by who’s rules they were going to have to live by. Those film footages provided an appearance of
peace, but was there really peace? Order,
possibly, but peace, hardly.
By contrast Jesus is entering through
another part of the city on a donkey, not a majestic horse. He is accompanied by his army as well, his
disciples and greeted by a crowd who is singing “Hosanna” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our
father David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” The crowd sees Jesus as the new king David,
the warrior that will deliver back to them their freedom. “Hosanna” means: save, rescue, and help. “Hosanna – save us, we pray” Blessed
is the one comes in the name of God, who will save us, and bring peace.” This is where the stark reality becomes so
apparent to those who are putting their trust in Jesus as the Messiah. They were looking for a King David, the one
who was known as the warrior king, who brought peace and unity to the tribes of
Israel and Judea. David, who like Rome,
brought peace through military might and kept order through that military
might.
Yet
this was not the way that Jesus spoke as a way of bringing peace. Jesus taught that lasting peace never comes through
bullying, or through killing, or through the devaluation of another person, but
rather, true peace only comes through the willingness to respect the other
person; to see that every person has enough in which to live on; by providing
space for each person’s dignity. True
peace comes only through non-violent change.
Not
much has changed since Jesus walked this earth.
We still have conflict; we still use violence as a way of trying to
bring about peace. Nations still rise
against nation, neighbor against neighbor, but most sadly, many of us still
rise up against ourselves. As much as we
as a nation long for peace within the world, the truth is, many of us are still
searching for a peace within our own lives.
Many of us secretly wave a palm deep inside, screaming “Hosanna! Save me, I pray, Oh God!”
The
search for peace comes on many levels.
For some, it is a peace that is found in having enough to live day by
day and not living in fear of being homeless or going hungry. For others, peace comes in having
relationships within the home that are respectful. Still others, peace comes with the sense of
dignity and respect for their color, race, sexual orientation, or physical, or
emotional abilities. For some peace is
found in self acceptance and/or of self-forgiveness of past life
experiences. Some people feel so conflicted
that they cannot believe that God has forgiven them and more importantly that
they are worthy to be loved by God.
How
do we find this peace? We say, “Just
believe that God loves you and you will find that peace.” But that is too flipped an answer. It is an answer that for some is not
attainable through just believing; it is not enough to have that sense of peace
take root deep within their heart. When
you are homeless, starving, beaten down verbally, ostracized by the majority on
a daily basis, there are no words that will bring a sense of “peace”, of “hosanna”. Jesus knew this. Jesus was so aware of the brokenness of
people’s lives, of how life itself works at breaking us down, that he
physically toiled to show a lifestyle that could bring about peace, not just at
a social level, but at a personal level as well. He said to those who are the peace makers,”When I was hungry, you gave me food; when I
was naked, you clothed me; when I was in prison, you came to see me. When you
do this to the least of my brothers and sisters you have done this to me.”
I
believe all of us are looking for peace in one fashion or another. I also think that Jesus showed how we can
find peace. We start to find peace, we
start to find God’s shalom, in how we treat one another and how we treat
ourselves. Peace can be found when as
the song says, “When we work with each
other side by side, and when we guard each one’s dignity and save each one’s
pride.” Like Jesus, we find peace
through our relationship with God and like Jesus a major part of that
relationship is developed in how we relate and work with our brothers and
sisters.
There
is no peace found when we force ourselves onto others. There is no peace found when we allow others
to force themselves on us. There is no
peace found until we learn how to love one another in the way that God
loves. Peace does not come through the
force of might, but rather through the humility of the heart. This coming week, we shall once again
experience the humility of God’s heart through the crucifixion and resurrection
of Jesus; the one who says “Let not your
heart be troubled.” As we walk this
week with Jesus, let us too find the peace that lasts by allow what holds us
from finding our peace, to be crucified on the cross. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment