God’s Triumphal March of Justice

March 26, 2010

Today is the Sabbath each year when we remember Christ’s fateful journey into Jerusalem for the final time before his death. The traditional name for this journey into the city is the “Triumphal Entry.” It was triumphant in the sense that Jesus was rightly hailed as King by his followers—what we might call today his “entourage.” And what an entourage it was! People waved palm branches, laid their cloaks, or outer garments, in the road, and sang praises to Jesus!

On the other hand, there is a dark irony about calling it a “triumphal” entry. Jesus’ triumph lasted but a moment. According to Luke’s narrative, Jesus wasn’t even in the city yet before he began to weep over the city and pronounce judgments on it. Then he enters the temple and drives out those who had turned that “house of prayer” into a “den of robbers.”

Jesus’ “triumphal entry” is something like a staged protest—like a march! He marches into the city with his followers, speaks truth to power and executes justice on behalf of the people who are with him; those that had been excluded from access to this sacred “house of prayer” by the unjust actions of the wealthy and powerful. Up to the last, Jesus was weeping over the city he loved and the people in it while working to right the wrongs that were destroying people’s lives and raising unnecessary obstacles in the path to God.

Our God is a God of justice and mercy. Jesus, as we see from this story, was an activist, who paid for his convictions with his life. This begins our remembrance of the final week of Jesus life. Today we are faced with the question: Will we follow Jesus into the city as these disciples of old did? Will we declare with our voices that Jesus is truly King over all the world while at the same time following him with our feet—our actions? This is the call of the gospel this Holy Week.

Come! Let us follow our Lord to Jerusalem—to the cross!

Grace and peace,

Ryan