Jesus in Jerusalem
Stephen Terry
Commentary for the June 20, 2015
Sabbath School Lesson
“Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and
victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Zechariah 9:9, NIV
To use a
Western metaphor, after over three years of ministry since His baptism, Jesus
rode into town for His final showdown with the High Priest. This showdown involved
a “Fistful of Dollars” for one of His disciples, but Jesus was in it for something
worth far more than that. The destiny of the entire human race was at stake.
Before it was done, He would meet “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” Perhaps because
of Judges 5:10 and its association of wealth and nobility with white donkeys,
much medieval art shows Jesus riding on a white animal for His entry into
Jerusalem. Perhaps this is where we get the image of the hero riding in on a
white horse to save the day. However, unlike Clint Eastwood, the star of so
many “spaghetti” Westerns, Jesus would not walk away without tasting the
bitterness of death.
Seeming to
no longer be avoiding confrontation, when He was told to quiet His followers by
the authorities, He refused. While this represented a passive resistance of the
type Gandhi would later emulate, He soon went beyond any idea of passivity when
He entered the temple and overturned the money changer’s tables and drove out
the merchants. Claiming it to be His Father’s house, He stood in direct
opposition to the High Priest’s authority over the temple. This forced the
issue between the two of them.
The Jewish authorities
tried to limit Jesus’ influence through a trap, demanding that he choose
between endorsing paying taxes to Rome or not.[i]
They saw this as a simple yes-or-no question. Too many of us, today, are
tempted to think of the world, in spite of its complexity, as being pretty much
black and white. Perhaps this is due to the limitations of a perspective based
on a limited number of dimensions. However, for a Being
who may have experienced an infinite number of dimensions, penetrating the
illusions of limited choice might be child’s play. Jesus answered them with
such astounding understanding that His detractors were dissuaded from any
further attempts at constructing their rudimentary traps. We might do well to
remember this when we are confronted by seemingly intractable problems. Rather
than despairing, we could turn the problem over to One who can view it from
perspectives we could never have. Maybe this is a key element of faith,
recognizing the transcendence of God’s experience compared to ours.
This may be why the High Priest and the Counsel failed to find an “everyone-gets-out-alive”
solution when Jesus confronted them. The same thinking that caused them to
produce what they thought was a foolproof trap for Jesus trapped them instead.
They appear to have only seen one of two options. Either they could accept
Jesus as the Messiah, or they could refuse to do so and put Him to death for
blasphemy.
The first approach
has several problems. Accepting Jesus as Messiah would make the High Priest
answerable to Jesus’ authority, but since the High Priest was no longer
hereditary but instead appointed by the ruling authorities, this would be
tantamount to rebellion against Rome and anyone who ruled in her name. This
might mean death for treason. Faced with such a stark choice and unable to see
alternatives, the High Priest chose the death of Jesus, rather than his own.
That second option preserved his life, but it meant the death of an innocent.
This is not a very different struggle from what many face today. How many
innocents have been martyred in order that someone else might preserve personal
or political power?
The High
Priest wanted to continue to reign over the temple and the wealthy lifestyle it
could provide. Every Jew in world was a potential revenue stream into the
temple treasury. Even Gentiles were known to make contributions.[ii]
Perhaps this is why he felt threatened with Jesus’ statements about the temple
being destroyed.[iii] It
was not just the authority of the High Priest being challenged, it was his
livelihood. Being a wealthy leader of the nation made him susceptible to all
the temptations that such wealth provides. Even if he had been willing to make
such a sacrifice, his wife and family would certainly be tempted to dissuade
him. In any event, when faced with the choice, he chose the lifestyle and the
people he knew over the strange teacher from Galilee. Even if Jesus was legitimately
a Rabbi, what was a Rabbi to the High Priest of the temple with the full
authority of Rome and King Herod behind him? The death of Jesus seemed a
reasonable option.[iv]
Interestingly
we see where the ultimate authority both secular and spiritual resides when
Jesus is arrested. Jesus was the Sacrificial Lamb for the sin offering. That
offering was to be without defect,[v]
a determination normally made by a priest. But the priest deferred to make this
judgment. King Herod deferred judgment well, referring Him back to Rome. Ultimately,
it was Pontius Pilate who determined that the offering was without defect.[vi]
With the authority of Rome, the determination was made, and Jesus was led away
to be suspended on a Roman cross. Out of the mouth of a Roman came the only “official”
declaration of who He really was.[vii]
Perhaps there is a reason that the temple, the priesthood and even Jerusalem
would soon be swept away, but the authority of Rome continued. Paradoxically,
the hated Romans were apparently more open to Jesus than the Jews were, both
then and now. Certainly the Gospel was to spread through the empire like wild
fire.
When Jesus
entered Jerusalem that final time, He was not only confronting the High Priest
and any other powers that claimed to be in authority. He was offering a choice
that has echoed down through time even to us today. There is little denying
that Jesus was a historical figure. According to many sources, He made the
astonishing claim that He was the Son of God, the Messiah. Others have also
made that claim about Him based on His life and works.[viii]
Just like the High Priest, that presents us with a choice. We can, like the
High Priest, choose to reject that claim. Our reasons may even be very similar
to his. We may deem it too much of a sacrifice, a threat to our lifestyle.
Change can be hard. How much more so when it is such an important one?
Our families
and friends may seek to dissuade us from such a choice. Jesus said we might
need to choose between Him and those closest to us.[ix]
We might even feel we are choosing between life and death in some situations.
Perhaps this is why the story of Peter’s denial has come down to us through the
centuries.[x]
How many of us have read that story and asked ourselves if we would have done
any better under similar circumstances? Yet, as Peter discovered, we must. He
recommitted himself to Jesus and eventually gave his life for Him. Per several Ante-Nicene
sources, Peter was martyred in Rome and according to the apocryphal “Acts of
Peter,” he requested to be crucified upside down as not feeling worthy to die
in a similar manner to Jesus. Since this was written much later, it is hard to
know if this reflects an accurate tradition transmitted verbally prior to being
written down or a later attempt to purge Peter of any blame for his earlier
denial of Jesus. In any event, the whole tradition reflects the importance of
making the right choice concerning Jesus.
Even in the
Western myth, when the cowboy rides into town to heroically save the day, those
to be saved need to recognize him as their savior, or he can accomplish little.
We can choose to believe that Jesus was just an ordinary man, or even that he
never existed, in spite of the historical record, but if we do so, it means we
are left to our own devices, working out our own salvation, without God’s involvement.
Paul gives us different counsel that seems to indicate that working it out only
works when doing so with God.[xi]
Having personally been at peril of my life before, with no apparent way out, I
would think it might be very scary indeed without recourse to something beyond
oneself to call upon. I am willing to reach out to that Hero on the white colt.
He has saved me not only spiritually but physically as well. I would encourage
you, dear reader, to consider the possibility of doing the same. There is still
room for heroes even in our purportedly more enlightened age. As children know,
parents don’t go away simply because we stop believing in them. They will still
come in answer to that frightened cry in the dark. God will, too.
