Whenever we have a familiar story from the Bible, it’s a challenge to hear it anew. Today is one of those times; we hear some version of this story every year on Palm Sunday. Earlier we participated in what’s known as the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, where people laid down their leafy branches ahead of Jesus’ arrival, and we think we know what’s coming next. But often, as with the Christmas story, we often conflate or combine elements of the different stories into one.
In Matthew and Luke’s gospel, the entry is even more grand and when Jesus goes to the temple, he immediately he confronts the moneychangers and drives them out. But that isn’t what happens in Mark’s gospel, and that difference makes me curious.
In his gospel, Mark says, “Then [Jesus] entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.” (Mark 11:11)
According to Mark, he does return to the temple the next day, but right now, in this moment, Jesus stops and looks around at everything.
Often, I think we hear “Temple” and think “church”, and we imagine Jesus entering a darkened, peaceful sanctuary, but the Temple grounds were massive, covering acres of land. The Temple was divided into courts, and there were guards. Even if the people who were there to sell animals for sacrifice and change money were gone because of the late hour, there would have been litter or debris from the crowds who had been there earlier in the day and the lingering smell of throngs of people, burnt offerings and animal dung.
It was not a quiet, meditative place.
But Jesus had been there before, as it was Jewish custom to travel to Jerusalem for the Passover. Surely, he would have known what to expect. And yet, this time was different.
And, he stopped and looked around at everything.
Maybe, he was reflecting on the Passover visit to the Temple when he was a boy, when his parents found him, “sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.” (Luke 2:46) Maybe, like any of us who have gone back to a place we knew in childhood, he wondered at how different it was from his memories.
Maybe, he was reflecting on his years of ministry in Galilee, teaching and healing and upending people’s expectations of what, or who, a Messiah is. Jesus must have known that this time, his arrival in the city would provoke its leaders and that as he continued to invite people to be transformed, he would make a lot of people angry.
As one preacher said, Jesus wasn’t crucified because he told people to love one other.
He embodied the unbounded love of God and welcomed all, but he didn’t stop there. He challenged their understanding of authority and salvation, wrenching it from the hands of the emperor and returning it to its rightful place with God. He challenged their institutions and norms, where they found their security and control, and pointed them away from manmade things to God.
Today, as we enter Holy Week, we accompany Jesus first in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem and now to the temple. When we stop and look around at everything, what do we see?
Surely, we see that our congregations look different from the past. While some of that is sentimental longing, some of it is concrete and measurable. Decades ago, in many communities, certainly here in the South, the church was at the center of life, and traditions and friendships and activities were all built around it. There are a lot of reasons that’s no longer true and many are positive, despite the changes they’ve brought, but it is different now.
Surely, we see the divisiveness that seems to run like an
electric current through conversations locally, nationally and in the world.
Divisions have always been there, but they feel more intractable, and the
chasms seem wider, especially in a year with a presidential election, and
especially in times when there is war in Ukraine and the Holy Land.
we do not cling to what was, or despair at the challenges
that are part of our lives,
but we see each other as God’s beloved;
we see the strengths of this community of Jesus-followers;
and,
we see the hope that the Gospel brings,
to anyone who has been pushed aside or been afraid,
to anyone who has been spinning because of the pace of change
around them, or
to anyone who has felt the weight of the world on their shoulders and thought they would falter.
I hope when we stop and look around at everything, we can
take a deep breath, breathing in God’s peace and the assurance of God’s
presence in all that is to come. I wonder if that is what Jesus did,
too.
Throughout this week, we will walk beside Jesus, as the crowds grow smaller and smaller, and the rest of his disciples choose whether to stay or to leave.
This week, and always,
I pray that we will not balk
at the invitation to be transformed by God’s love,
even when it means challenging our expectations,
or changing our understanding of what it means to be
faithful.
I pray we will keep our eyes on God, and not the world, and follow.
Amen.
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