A story from an eyewitness... (An imagined eyewitness, based on Luke 8:3, 24:10, Mark 14:3-9.)
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Brea Congregational United Church of Christ
April 14, 2019
Cultivating Courage
Luke 19:36-48As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, 38 saying,
“Blessed is the king
who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven,
and glory in the highest heaven!”
39Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” 40He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”
41 As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. 44They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”
45 Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; 46and he said, “It is written,
‘My house shall be a house of prayer’;
but you have made it a den of robbers.”
47 Every day he was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; 48but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.
I am Joanna. My claim to fame is that I was the wife of Chuza, high official in court of Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee under Rome. What matters more to me is that I am a follower of Jesus, the anointed one of God. Jesus healed me. That peasant from Nazareth gave my life a purpose. He also turned my life upside down. Everything I had valued before: my place in society, wealth, approval, no longer mattered. After I met Jesus, I began to lead a double life. I moved in the halls of power when I had to. Power over: a legal system that put people into debt then took their homes from them and made them slaves. But when I could, I escaped Herod’s palace, supposedly to mind my family’s plantation. Actually I traveled around Galilee with Jesus and his friends. I also helped pay the bills for Jesus and his friends.
I was there, that last week of Jesus’ life. “The triumphal entry into Jerusalem,” you call it now. It really wasn’t much of an event at the start. The Jerusalem road wascrowded, because it was a few days before Passover. Everybody who’s anybody goes to Jerusalem for Passover. It’s a religious command, but in the circles I traveled in, it was all about seeing and being seen. Herod’s whole court had paraded through the gates that morning, and I went with them. Later, I snuck back out to join the other disciples, waiting for Jesus to arrive. We wantedit to be impressive, but there were only a couple dozen of us. And then he came, riding on a donkey. Matthew started quoting Zechariah (9:9).
Daughter of Zion, rejoice with all your heart;
shout in triumph, daughter of Jerusalem!
shout in triumph, daughter of Jerusalem!
See, your king is coming to you, his cause won, his victory gained,
humble and mounted on a donkey.
By riding that donkey Jesus was announcing his claim to be the King, without saying a word. He couldn’t say a word! Jerusalem was already occupied by the Romans; if he’d claimed to be King out loud, he would have been arrested on the spot. But we knew. So of course we cheered, and we threw down our cloaks for him to walk on, and my cloak was pretty fancy too, and we started singing Psalm 118. Everybody who bothers to come to Jerusalem knows Psalm 118, it’s the “best of” for psalms:
This is the gate of the LORD;
the righteous shall enter through it.
I thank you that you have answered me
and have become my salvation.
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone.
This is the LORD’S doing;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day that the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Hoshana! Save us, we beseech you, O LORD!
O LORD, we beseech you, give us success!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD.
We bless you from the house of the LORD.
The LORD is God,
and God has given us light.
Join the festal procession with branches,
up to the holy altar.
You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
O give thanks to the LORD, for God is good,
God’s steadfast love endures forever.
And what do you know, everyone around us started singing too. Then people started noticing Jesus. And then it became a real parade!
So when Jesus sat down on steps below the temple and started teaching, it wasn’t just his regular disciples he was talking to. Random people walking by sat down to listen, until there was a huge crowd. There was something different about his teaching that day. He was talking about repentance with an urgency I’d never heard before. Then as the sun was setting, he stood up and marched into the temple courtyard. We all stood up and followed. Then Jesus proceeded to pronounce that all the merchants there were robbers! Well they were robbers, but we thought they were, you know, holy or something so it was OK that they overcharged so badly. With that crowd behind him cheering him on, those ripoff artists wisely decided to close up shop for the day. In fact, they got a little help shutting down from the crowd. Closed on Passover. Really cut into their profits, I’m sure. More than that, it cut into their legitimacy.
At that point some man I’d never met pulled me aside. “You’re with Herod, aren’t you?” he said. “And you associate with this rabble-rouser? Well you’d better tell him he is making some powerful enemies. The temple officials will never let this kind of stunt pass. They’ll make an example of him.” My gut twisted. Make an example. I knew what that meant. Romans made an example of rebels and bandits by hanging them naked on crosses. I wanted to warn Jesus. But by that time he had left for the night; he was staying with friends in Bethany a few miles out of town. And I had to return to the palace and entertain the rich and famous, with my heart full of fear.
The next day the crowd gathered again to hear Jesus. I asked James and John what he was up to. They were no use, they just grinned and teased each other about who was going to be Prime Minister when Jesus was King of Israel. Judas was talking about who to assassinate first: scary man!
It wasn’t till the next day that I got Jesus alone for a minute. “This claim to be King,” I whispered to him, “it’ll never work.”
“I know,” he said.
“They’ll hang you,” I said.
“I know,” he said.
My jaw dropped. “Why are you doing this, ten?”
“To give people a choice,” he answered calmly. “They already know the kind of power that takes, and controls, and dictates, and conquers. They think God is like that! I’m showing them a different kind of power, power that gives, and invites, and transforms, and heals. My Abba’s true power.”
“OK but… you have to die to do that?”
He smiled at me. “It’s possible the people will demand that I be freed. But not likely. Trust me: my death will not be the end. My death will unmask the Powers that deal death instead of life. People will be free to know God in a new way, free of empire’s control in their souls if not their bodies, free to make a new community of love, a Kingdom where the last are first.”
“But what about you?” I protested. “We need you here. We need you teaching and healing.”
He smiled again. “Joanna, you’ve been my student for over a year. You can be the teacher now. And you are already building the Kingdom of God by freeing your family’s slaves.”
I shook my head. “How will I have the courage to do those things if you’re not around?”
He touched my cheek, and said, “I will be with you always. You’ll see.” And then he turned back to the crowd.
I ran all the way back to my room in the palace and I hid and I wept. I wept for the rest of the afternoon. Then I got an idea. I put on my best clothes and made a purchase, from that same overpriced temple courtyard. One jar of nard oil please, the very best (it cost a bundle), suitable for the anointing of priests and prophets… and kings. I would be missed from the nightly court festivities, people would talk, but I didn’t care. I was a woman on a mission.
I dashed out the city gates, down the road to Bethany. It was colder than it should have been. By the time I arrived it was full dark. It took a few tries before I knocked on the right door. Why was Jesus even visiting Simon the leper anyway? He never could turn down a dinner invitation. The twelve were all there, and my friends Mary and Susanna too. Dinner was in full swing, but I stopped it dead in its tracks. Wordlessly I approached him. He stood to greet me, and I raised my last-minute purchase. “Oil of anointing” I said quietly to him, “For the King who gives us the true power of God. For the coming of the Kingdom of God where the last shall be first, and none shall be afraid.” and then I poured the whole jar over his head. Finally I fell to his feet, and I couldn’t help crying again.
And that’s how I made a spectacle of myself, in front of all my friends, who still didn’t understand what was going to happen. On the lonely road back to Jerusalem, I made a promise to myself and to God. If Jesus could do what he was doing, I could do what he asked of me, whether I was afraid or not. And I did it. I freed every slave my family owned, and I caught hell for it. It was worth it. And I have been teaching the sayings that he taught to us, in a little community of his followers that lifts up the last and the lost. And his Spirit is with us.
This is the day that the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
The LORD is God,
and God has given us light.
You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
O give thanks to the LORD, for God is good,
God’s steadfast love endures forever.
Take courage, my friends. God is with us, always, inviting us into love and life and hope.
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