An Ironic Messiah

 Monday of Holy Week

Color: Red or Purple

Lectionary Texts:

OT: Isaiah 42:1-9

Psalm 36:5-11 (UMH 771)

Epistle: Hebrews 9:11-15

Gospel: John 12:1-11

Two things to say about the Jewish concept of the messiah. First, there is no one single messianic concept. Second, the concept of the messiah was not nearly at important to Jews as it would become for Christians. The predominant concept was that the messiah would be a military leader like David, his ancestor, who would lead a violent overthrow of the Romans or whoever was oppressing the Jews at the time of the messiah's coming. This concept is most prominent in the book Psalms of Solomon (not in the Bible but written during the Roman period). The writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls anticipated two messiahs, one royal and militant from the line of David, one priestly and also militant from the line of Aaron. Jesus would not fulfill either role.

A minority concept was the suffering servant messiah evidenced in our OT lection for today. This concept is most clear in Zechariah 9:9-11, "Behold you king is coming to you, triumphant and glorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey." Yes, on a donkey, not on a warhorse. 

Jesus rode the donkey down from the Mount of Olives through the Kidron Valley and up into Jerusalem on the east side through the Golden Gate (which no longer stands). If it were a clear morning, the morning sun would have been shining behind him. None of the gospels tell us the weather. There was a large crowd in Jerusalem, because it was Passover week, the most important of the Jewish festivals. With his disciples spreading out cloaks before him and waving leafy branches (palm leaves in John), Jesus caught the crowd's attention. The crowd was in a festive mood and happily cheered on the stranger and his small entourage, even though most of them had no idea who he was. 

Marianne and I were once at a nice restaurant in New Orleans. A party of about 12 came in. At the end of the group was an incredibly handsome man. We did not recognize him, but it appeared that the rest of the restaurant did. Everything stopped There was initially a hushed silence, then a low buzz of people talking  about this apparently famous person. We asked our server. She told us his name and that he was a soap opera star Although we did not know of him, we had participated in the crowd reaction of all eyes on him when he came in, total silence as he and his group sat down, and then the low buzz of talking about him. I wonder if Palm Sunday were something like that.

Jesus was quite intentional in his Palm Sunday entrance. He was intentionally fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah. He was not proclaiming his messiahship but acting it out, acting it out in the humble messiah way of Isaiah's and Zechariah's prophecies. The irony in his action is that it is saying, "Yes, I am the messiah, but not the kind of Messiah you were expecting." Many in the crowd caught on, Too many did not. 

Jesus dismounted, went into the Temple and looked around (perhaps I should say in film noir langugage, "cased the joint"). He was planning his actions for the next day. Then he went back to Bethany with the twelve, just on the other side of the Mount of Olives to spend the night. It was Sunday--Day 1.

King Jesus,

Even though we do not know you as fully as we want, we know that you are our humble King. We revere you as our King and worship you as our God. May this Holy week lead us to know you better. Amen.

Faithfully,

Christian