Our gospel reading is a text we usually think of for Palm Sunday, but I think it is good to see it outside of that context too. When we focus just on Jesus’ humble but triumphal entry into Jerusalem for the Passover holiday that does indeed set us up for Holy Week, but it misses the clouds that John’s gospel puts over the whole thing. Today’s gospel reading shows that Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead is what is going to get him killed. The crowds are going after him. The religious leaders see the world that they have created and worked for crumbling.
It is easy to look at these religious leaders and criticize them for their blindness, for their unwillingness to recognize what God is doing. But before we go after them too harshly, we have to remember what they are facing. And we can see in them some of our own selves.
While we know pretty well who Jesus is, they did not. We do well to remember that from their perspective Jesus had nothing to recommend himself. Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee. Galilee had a reputation for sloppy religious and moral practices. So that’s a strike against him.
Jesus also has no proper pedigree, at least not that the religious leaders knew. In time the biblical authors would create genealogies to show Jesus as a descendent of King David, and remind us that God promised the Davidic monarchy would last forever. But the religious leaders of that time had nothing of that before them. And so, what if Jesus did claim to be a descendent of David? Lots of people probably made that claim!
Add to this the fact that Jesus did not have a formal education, and he did not have any notable contacts, and you have an upstart preacher from an area with a poor reputation for theological quality, and he’s preaching a message that upends the fundamental tenants of a religious system that upends centuries of theological development, and of course they didn’t believe him!
Perhaps think of the movie Leap of Faith where Steve Martin plays an evangelist who has a traveling tent revival operation. One of his busses breaks down in a little town and he decides to set up shop and fleece the locals for what he can get out of him. The town cop is the only one who really sees the whole show is a scam and an act. But the population rejects him for the appeal of Martin’s character. Now as the movie draws to its close Steve Martin’s character experiences a real miracle, and you have to watch the movie to see how it all works out, but I believe the religious leaders saw Jesus as a charismatic fly-by-night operation that at best challenged the carefully created orthodoxy they had scraped together under Roman rule, and at worst could bring down the Romans upon them.
They’re already anxious about the way the crowds are drawn to Jesus for the raising of Lazarus, and then when the crowds welcome Jesus into Jerusalem for the Passover holiday with proclamations of, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord – the King of Israel!” they fear real trouble. What if the Romans get wind of this entrance proclamation by the crowds? What if the Romans crack down?
What appears to be lost to both the crowds and the religious leaders is that Jesus rides in on a donkey. He does not come on some great warhorse and his followers are not showing any sign of military might. Jesus is coming with humility and no desire to threaten anyone. But the flocking crowds misunderstand, and they could be a threat. And, even if they don’t cause problems with the Romans, they are still a threat to the religious leaders.
I said earlier that we can see in the religious leaders some of our own selves. That’s why I’ve chosen to focus on them as we read this text. Their actions towards Jesus raise the question in us of what in our lives have we heavily invested in? And because of that, it could cause us to lose sight of what God is doing?
For example, it has long been said that a person’s biggest lifetime investment is their home. Home ownership is the best way to build and pass on wealth. If you own a home it is likely that you spent a tremendous amount of money for it, even if it is a fairly humble place.
Owning a home also requires a lot of money to maintain. Appliances are always getting older, even as we’re sitting here your washer and dryer, dishwasher and refrigerator, furnace and hot water heater, are all aging and drawing closer to the time when they need to be replaced. All of them are expensive. Plus there’s roofs, siding, lawn care, maybe some structural repairs along the way. There’s also complex electrical and plumbing systems, maybe an air conditioning system too.
Those who own houses have spent a lot to get them, and they spend a lot to maintain them. And then add insult to injury, you have to pay a lot in taxes and insurances too!
Houses cost a lot, and we invest a lot in them!
The one thing a home owner absolutely positively does not want to happen is to have their home’s value drop. If you own it outright that’s a loss of your hard-earned money. If you’re paying a mortgage, the bank or credit union is not going to reduce the amount you have to pay just because your house’s value tanks.
You know the acronym NIMBY – not in my backyard. Sure, heavy industry or a landfill or a wastewater treatment plant has to exist somewhere, but not in my backyard. Don’t build an airport or super-highway or shopping center right next to my house!
You don’t want the demographics of your neighborhood or community to change all that much either. What if people moving into your neighborhood somehow cause home values to fall instead of rise? What if you live in Victor, and a great deal of the value of your home rests on the quality of the school, and the school’s performance starts to fail? What if you own lakefront property in Canandaigua and the lake somehow becomes toxic? Lots and lots of your hopes, dreams, and hard earned money can go down the drain fast.
The religious leaders in Jesus’ day had worked hard to create and maintain the religious systems, buildings, and bureaucracy that they had. And Jesus could very well be a threat to all of it. He was popular with the crowds and not at all under their control. They couldn’t see beyond what they had poured their lives into. They had inadvertently become blind to the fact that God could do new things; and that God was doing a totally new thing yet still within the framework of the old.
And so we ask ourselves, what are those things in our lives that we have poured a lot of time, money, and hard work into? What do we work hard to protect? What do we fear because if something fails our way of life would be at risk?
I just used the example of home ownership. But I used it just because it was an easy example. Many of us don’t own homes, but I believe that we all have things where we’ve invested a lot in the status quo. Any change could be a threat to it. Those things could be: our jobs, or retirement accounts, or our educational accomplishments, or our network of friends, our physical beauty, or any number of things. In Matthew’s gospel Jesus said that where your treasure is there your heart will be as well. (Matthew 6:21) Where is the treasure in your life?
Those are the places where we can most easily become blind to God’s actions. If God comes in, even in a humble way riding on a donkey, will we recognize it? Or will the threat be too great for us?
The idea of judgment in John’s gospel doesn’t really have an idea of hell or damnation for those who fail. But it does teach that to miss Jesus’ presence is to miss out on fullness of life. It is to continue to live in darkness. God’s coming to you is a coming that will bring your life meaning, purpose, and contentment. In John’s gospel we see the failing of the religious leaders. They continue to live in darkness and miss fullness of life. But we learn from them and keep our eyes open to the new things God is always doing, even when those things challenge what we have worked long and hard for in our lives.
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