Bringing Peace

I think we've all seen the images on the news this week, images from Kosovo. The most poignant was one in the Ottawa Citizen on Wednesday, just before the fighting began. Standing on the brink, generals with their fingers on the proverbial trigger.........
and waiting were thousands of innocent people;
little people.

[show picture from Ottawa Citizen, March 24.99 front page]

How many like this little girl are there right now? She's one of a huge stream of refugees desperately seeking shelter. In her case at a Macedonian registration centre.

I don't know about you, but the whole thing tears at my heart. It's not about politicians or armies. There are people involved. Millions of them. People with a history that goes back hundreds and hundreds of years. At some point along the way each side has oppressed and beaten on the other. Thousands and thousands have died.

It's complex. Messy.
Violent and bloody.
Mixed motives all over the place.

We see it. The world sees it. Everyone knows that's what's happening is not right. The only winner is death, right now. Something needs to happen.
But what???????

NATO believes, rightly or wrongly, that they have a solution.
So..... they come.
Bringing peace, they hope.
At least, that's the plan. Results are uncertain, at best.
The little Albanian girl waits and hope. The world waits with her.
Will the B-2, cruise missiles and smart bombs bring peace?
 
 

One week before Easter we see all this, and at the same time join millions of people around the world today who read the same piece from the Bible which John read for us. The story of another one who comes bringing peace.
Jesus enters Jerusalem, the city of peace.

It's a story you can't read without noticing the contrasts to what's happening in the Balkans. Huge. No armies. No high level diplomacy. No economic leverage.
Just a simple man on a simple animal, surrounded by little people - common folk. He's come bringing peace.

It was an intense time in Metropolitan Jerusalem. Passover season. Like Grey Cup fever hitting Calgary, only more so. One historian suggests there may have been almost 3 million tourists in the city at the time. Some of them would have been from the Galilee area and have witnessed some of Jesus' miracles. They'd seen the dead raised, sick healed. They'd heard the wise, compelling words.
They, no doubt, were also aware that till then Jesus had been almost secretive about what he was doing. Never failed that after Jesus would heal people, he'd tell them not to blab it all over the place. Course, they rarely could contain themselves. But - bottom line - he didn't want the publicity.

Till now!

Now, deliberately, he came out in full public.
His closest associates got a donkey, and began to work the crowds.
Pretty soon there's a parade headed to Jerusalem. And you know how parades are. They build their own momentum. People get into them, sometimes without even knowing what it's all about. Bible even says as much - v.10 "who is this guy?" "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee!" "Here, have a branch! Here, wave this to greet him, for it's a wonderful day!"
You need to understand that this wasn't the first time there'd been a parade like this. In 175 BC Judas Maccabees, known as Judas the Hammer, had defeated the hated Syrian king Antiochus. He'd then gone into Jerusalem and cleansed the temple that the king had desecrated with a pig (2 Maccabees l0:7).

Looks like a remake is on the way.
Hey - Jesus even goes into Jerusalem and cleanses the temple after the parade is done!

The people grab branches and begin to wave them. Impromptu banners & flags. They throw down their robes as a red carpet of sorts.
They cheer.
And they sing.
They sing a song that was sung every year at Passover. A song that Judas' followers had sung. A bible song -
We have it today as Psalm 118. It begs God to save the people, and speaks of the coming of Messiah, the servant of God who would set the people free - free from suffering, free from oppression,
the one who would bring...
... peace.

Listen to some of the words:
"This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
O LORD save us.....
(that, by the way, is the meaning of this strange word "Hosanna!")
O LORD, grant us success!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you. The LORD is God, and he has made his light shine upon us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar."

Now the words took on an immediate and intoxicating excitement. They thought they had found the one whom the psalm spoke of - the one who came in the name of the LORD, the one through whom God would answer their cries of "Hosanna! Save us!"

And Jesus goes along with it all.
For He IS coming to bring peace. He, deliberately, is fulfilling what a prophet spoke of him many, many years before:
Zechariah 9:9 "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey."

Ohhhhhh - there's the difference.
Judas the Hammer came with open power, troops beside him.
When the Romans came, bringing their vaunted Pax Romana, they came with shiny standards flashing in the sun, swords bucked at the side, centurions riding huge horses.

Jesus comes......
lowly and riding on a donkey.
 

He's not King David. He's no hammer figure. In fact, that same prophet I just quoted, said in the very next breath:
"The Lord says, I will take AWAY the chariots of [Israel] and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim PEACE to the nations."

The peace Jesus brings will come another way than by stallions, chariots, smart bombs or cruise missiles. Because Jesus isn't out to simply impose an external quiet on the world -

• the way NATO is trying to impose quiet on the Balkans
• the way the Romans tried to impose quiet on Palestine

There's something deeper.
Something no sword or smart bomb could get to.
It's something deep - something spiritual.
It's the lack of peace that comes from a curse - the curse of sin on all creation;
on Palestine and Kosovo;
on you and me.

And to break through the defensive lines of sin; to destroy it at its core, Jesus needed to go down -
- all the way down.

That's why the parade was humble.
King of the Cosmos on a donkey..... bringing peace.
Simple people gathered at the parade - no dignitaries.
Children cheering him in the temple area.
No big banners & army standards - just free palm leaves.
Remember what we talked about a few weeks ago - the stuff about Jesus and the children??

Another prophet, Isaiah, talks of him like this (Isaiah 53)
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him.
Nothing big, bold and beautify.
Nothing flashy and fantastic.

Isaiah continues -
He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed... The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

The New Testament picks that same theme up - the theme of Jesus carving a place of peace in this broken up and hate-filled world:
Being found in appearance as a man He humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross.

From a glory throne in heaven..... to a donkey's back in some enthusiastic but humble parade..... through one more week with a cross waiting at the end.
Suffering and death in order to wipe out the curse that was holding back peace from ever possibly resting on earth.
A suffering and death we'll remember next Friday when we parade back to this place and gather in a solemn service at the foot of the cross; when we take part in Holy Communion.
Bringing peace.

This parade is the last big, bold statement Jesus will make about His intentions before heading into the greatest battle with the commando forces of sin - Satan's shock troops; the battle He waged while hanging on the cross.

It's the beginning of the week.
And what a week for those disciples of Jesus, the ones that rustled up the parade. They excitedly told people about Jesus that Sunday as he rode into Jerusalem! And on Monday they were excited about Jesus, and on Tuesday, and on Wednesday … and on Thursday … and on Friday -
--No!
-- No, wait a minute. By Thursday the disciples weren't excited at all about being with Jesus.
· By Thursday they weren't bragging to anyone about getting to walk into town with the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee!
· By Thursday they weren't handing out palm branches but were hiding behind trees and beneath bushes.
· By Thursday they weren't stripping off their shirts to make a royal road, they were wiggling out of them. When someone grabbed them by the sleeve, they were wriggling out of them and running away naked, because they were so afraid!

For we who know the whole story; we know what these happy disciples do next.
· Judas danced with joy that day. Judas who later sold Jesus out.
· Peter danced in his joy that day. Peter who later denied even knowing who Jesus was.
· Matthew and Mark and Andrew and James and John and Thomas and Bartholomew and Thaddeus and the other James and the second Simon all danced for joy that day and then they ran off into the shadows, abandoning Jesus and leaving him to face his captors alone.

Oh, these disciples - running in terror in that coming week, unable to see what was needed to bring them peace.
Oh, these disciples........
so much like us!

If we'd been alive that day, we'd have been in our undershirts, laying out our robes under the bright sunshine that Sunday morning. We'd have been dancing for joy, waving and handing out palm branches. We would have been blissfully unaware that in only four days we'd do our best to disappear, to lay low 'til the trouble blew over.'

And the others in the crowd - "Hosanna" today. "Crucify him" on Friday.
What makes them so fickle? We don't know.

But what will this week bring for us? Will we duck in shame when someone challenges or misuses Jesus' name? Will we forget all about Him in the flurry of day to day activities?
Where will next Friday find you?

Thank God that Jesus didn't quit, or change His direction.

• He kept standing up to the authorities and confounding the leaders.
• He kept on loving His followers.
• He kept wrestling His fears into submission through disciplined prayer to His Father.
• He kept His cool under Pilate's interrogation.
• He kept struggling on to Calvary beneath the weight of that cross.
• He kept the faith, He won salvation - Hosanna, He comes to SAVE!

And we will.
All who believe and remain faithful will take part in that kind of a parade.
The second parade.
 

The last book of the Bible describes it - believers from all nations gathered in the place of eternal peace:
"...before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice saying, 'Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'" (Revelation 7:9).

A place where no little children will need to peer through bars, hoping desperately for something to eat and a safe, warm place to sleep and freedom from bombs, bullets and bullies.
A place where death won't terrorize; temptation won't haunt; and sickness won't cripple.
A place in the presence of God.
A forever place.
Safe place.
A Hosanna! place.