Dr. William A. Ritter
First United Methodist Church, Birmingham, Michigan
Scriptures: Luke 19:28-42 and John 1:45-51
If you would believe it, it was a mere 1973 years ago that Jesus woke from sleep, greeted the dawn, attended to the necessities of the morning, and then said (to everyone within earshot): “Friends, let’s go to town.”
Nobody talks about “going to town” anymore. The image has the words “country bumpkin” written all over it. All week long in the boonies….the outposts….the villages….the farms…. herding cattle and mending fences….until, late of a Saturday afternoon, it becomes time to bathe the body, stuff the wallet, saddle the horse, crank the Chevy, and head for someplace with a few more lights and a lot more action.
Today, there is hardly any place where “town” isn’t….and hardly any time when “town” isn’t. I seldom hear anybody talk of “going to town” anymore. Even those who talk about “nights on the town” could just as well be talking about Tuesdays as Saturdays. And to whatever degree “town” be equated with the nearest and biggest city, I am preaching to many this morning who haven’t “been to town” in years.
Not that Jerusalem was as foreign to Jesus as Detroit is to many of us. Depending upon which chronology of his ministry you extrapolate from which gospel, Jesus had been there a few times. Certainly more than two. Probably less than ten. I think it’s fair to say he didn’t go often, and didn’t stay long. Jesus was a northern boy….village boy….“field and stream” boy….in short, a country boy.
Over the past several weeks, I have been working my way through Martin Marty’s A Short History of Christianity, wherein can be found these words:
In the early years of the Roman Empire, the years when Caesar Octavianus (later named Augustus) was emperor, when Herod the Great was ending his reign in Judea, when Roman procurators ruled the Jews, and when writers of the Augustun Age (like Ovid, Horace and Livi) were flourishing, there was born in Palestine, to a girl in Nazareth, a child who seemed destined to obscurity in the carpenter shop of her husband. He was given a name common in the period, Jesus. Little is known of his early years. When, at about age 30, he began preaching, he was rejected by his own townspeople as a carpenter’s son, and by the urbanites to the south as an upstart from Nazareth.
Those words are both stinging and true. He was “an upstart from Nazareth,” a place from which almost anybody was “destined for obscurity.” Even one of his own disciples reflected Nazareth’s low status by wondering, out loud, how anything good could come from a place like that. And, in all likelihood, nothing much would have happened to Jesus….positively or negatively….had he stayed there.
Come late May, when this year’s clergy retirees assemble on the stage of the Annual Conference at Adrian College, we will be introduced to a man who has served the last 36 years in one church. I am sure he has done good work there. I am equally sure they value him highly there. But there aren’t five of you here this morning who could name his name….or his church’s name. In part, because he prefers it that way. But, also in part, because he never went to town. Truth be told, he pastored longer than Jesus lived. Not that Jesus couldn’t have pastored till retirement, had he but listened to those who said: “Don’t go to town.”
But there were voices….of history, destiny and deity….that counseled otherwise. So Jesus went to Jerusalem….the biggest possible place (we’re talking “population”)….at the busiest possible time (we’re talking “Passover”). And he did not last the week. No, he did not last the week.
But that was not perfectly clear on Palm Sunday. Maybe to him it was. But I am not certain, even of that. For, given my belief that, in the enactment of God’s plan, a measure of flexibility must be granted to history in its unfolding, I have to allow for the possibility that it could (conceivably) have turned out differently.
Certainly, Jesus had an agenda. But he was far from alone. Others had agendas, too. Among his own people….the Jews….one counts at least four groups with four agendas. And as he rode into Jerusalem, each of those groups might have written his script differently, depending upon their ideology.
Some Jews were Zealots….meaning militants….meaning people energized around physical confrontation with Roman authority. Many Zealots were Galileans (meaning northerners). But Jesus, himself, was a Galilean from the north. And there were camps in Galilee where would-be guerrilla fighters were trained and semi-sophisticated weapons were fashioned. One of Jesus’ disciples is never referred to by his birth name without also adding, “the Zealot.” Two other disciples are called “Sons of Thunder” and may well have had leanings toward this group. And the word “Iscariot” (as in Judas Iscariot) is not Judas’ last name. Rather, it is likely a title, identifying him with a society of dagger men or brigands (the “sicarii” meaning a crudely fashioned blade of dagger-like dimensions). What did the Zealots hope that Jesus would do inJerusalem? Polarize and provoke, that’s what the Zealots hoped Jesus would do in Jerusalem.
A smaller number of Jews were Essenes. For all intents and purposes, they were a group of celibate Jewish monks. And provocation was what they feared most and desired least. So fearful were they of confrontation that, by the time Jesus rode into the city, most of them had left the city. Where had they gone? To create a small, monastic-like community by the Dead Sea….a community today remembered only by the name Qumran….but popularized by the relatively recent discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls. Jesus may have been linked to the Essenes through baptism, given that John the Baptist, prior to his beheading, may have lived among them. Had Jesus encountered any Essenes in Jerusalem, they would have counseled not provocation, but prayer.
The largest group of Jews, of course, were Pharisees. And for as many harsh things as Jesus sometimes said about them, it is a pretty good bet that he numbered himself among them. Coming, as he said, not to overthrow the law but fulfill the law, he shared the Pharisees’ delight in the law, regretting departures from it almost as much as they did. And since it is commonly known that the more cosmopolitan the city, the more sloppy people get with the law, the Pharisees….upon seeingJesus ride into Jerusalem….would have counseled neither provocation nor prayer, but purification (as in “tidy things up and straighten people out”). I suppose one could argue that Jesus’ act of driving the money changers from the Temple, while surprising in its aggressiveness, was a very Pharisee-like thing to do.
And then, of course, there were the Saducees. Jerusalem was full of them. Who, while they were Jews, had learned how to get along with Romans…..gained the trust of Romans….to the point of prospering in spite of Romans. Everybody knows that in hard times, there are people who “get along by going along.” It wasn’t quite to the point of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” But, concerning the Romans, the Saducees had learned that you could do quite nicely (economically, politically, even religiously) if you didn’t go out of your way to antagonize them. Consider the fact that the Sanhedrin….the Jewish supreme court (which pronounced the initial death sentence on Jesus)….did not lack for Saducees. So any Saducean sympathizers Jesus may have had in Jerusalem would have counseled him not to provoke, not to pray, not even to purify, so much as to placate (“We’ve heard about you, Jesus. In time, we might even rally around you. But for now, don’t make waves.”).
Don’t you see that everybody had expectations of him that morning? But not the same expectations. Preachers understand this. We ride into a new church….meet the committee….read the job description….preach the first sermon….attend the first reception….eat the first cookie…. and then smile inwardly, saying to ourselves: “What a good feeling. From first appearances, it would seem that we are all on the same page.”
Then, one by one, they start to come….into the office….closing the door….introducing themselves (“I just thought you’d like to know a little bit more about me, Reverend”). Which is always followed by the introduction of an agenda: “Well, Reverend, not to take up too much of your precious time….but one of my reasons for coming today is to give you my take on a little situation in our church that probably hasn’t been made clear to you yet. But, given your great beginning and your obvious skills, I just know you’ll want to do something about it, once I give you my reading of it.”
So, who do you listen to? And how much weight do you give to what you hear? Those are the questions that make ministry difficult (even more than “What did I do to deserve this?….Why don’t I feel anything when I pray?….(and) Do you really think I will see my loved one in eternity?”). I think it is fairly common knowledge that my beleaguered and beloved colleague (a mile and a half to the north) is suspended from his pulpit this morning, not because of words (as a writer) he failed to footnote, but because of expectations (as a leader) he failed to meet.
Mike Davis knows the problem. Who is Mike Davis? Mike Davis is the coach of the Indiana Hoosier basketball team (which, on Thursday night, broke a small chip off of my heart, by beating the Dukies….and which, given yesterday’s victory in Lexington, now moves on to the Final Four).
But Mike Davis is the “Rodney Dangerfield” of college coaching, quoted as saying the other day: “I win 20 games two years running and they don’t like me. I win the Big Ten title and they don’t like me. I qualify for the Big Dance my first two years on the job, and they still don’t like me.” Why is that? Because he doesn’t wear a red sweater, throw occasional chairs, and answer to the name of “Bobby.” That’s why. And if those are the primary criteria, he never will meet expectations.
How many marriages regularly bite the dust….not because of anything either partner does, or because of anyone either partner sees….but because there were expectations regarding the marriage that weren’t realized. How easy it is to move from “this hasn’t turned out like I expected” to “you must (therefore) not be the one I needed.” But if you wait until all the expectations are both understandable and acceptable, you will never marry….you will never coach….you will never preach….and you will never go to town.
Into the city Jesus came….as if to confirm, once again, Bill Coffin’s wonderful axiom that “you can’t save the world from a safe address.” And his entrance excited enough people so as to bring their song-singing, coat-throwing, palm-waving, hosanna-chanting behavior to the attention of the fearful, who said: “Teacher, stifle this disturbance….or (in short) shut these people up.” To which he replied: “I suppose I could do that. But if I did, the very stones over which we are strolling will scream. So I won’t….shut anybody up, I mean.”
There are those who say we shouldn’t make a big deal out of Palm Sunday, given how things turned out. They are joined by those who say we shouldn’t make a big deal out of Palm Sunday, given those who turned back. But I would point out two things.
1. Jesus gave those revelers permission and encouragement to do exactly what they did, and say exactly what they said.
2. In spite of the fact that they may have misunderstood the eventual nature of his kingdom, they were cheering the right king. We haven’t always, you know.
* * * * *
For years, I was a night person. Read at night. Wrote at night. Did my most creative thinking at night. Sometimes stared at the television, late into the night. Those days are done. I am no longer comfortably nocturnal. Which is why I couldn’t care less if Letterman moves one way and Koppel, another (even though I am “into” Koppel more than I am “into” Letterman). There was a day when I was a Tonight Show junkie. Currently, that means Jay Leno. Before him, that meant (help me here)….that’s right, Johnny Carson. And before him (to whatever degree life existed before Johnny Carson), there was (more help please)….you’ve got it, Jack Paar.
But I doubt that any of you remember the night Jack Paar said to his New York studio audience: “I want to introduce you to a man who has been in all the news as well as on the cover of all the major magazines, because he has liberated his people from a tyrant and a dictator.” And upon seeing him, the audience rose as one….clapping….cheering….standing on the seats…. dancing in the aisles….raising a din that seemed as if it would never die. And who was it all for? Fidel Castro, that’s who it was for.
We don’t always get it right, do we?
But they did….lo those 1973 years ago. To be sure, they may not have known everything he would do….everything he would be….everything he would offer….and certainly not everything he would ask. They may not have had the most scholastic or panoramic view of his kingdom. And they probably didn’t know even a fraction of “the things that would make for peace,” let alone see “heaven opened and angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
But, praise God Almighty, they had the right guy. Oh yes, my friends, they had the right guy.
Note: My calculation that Palm Sunday took place 1973 years ago is based on the assumption that Jesus was born in 4 BC and died in 29 AD. My description of Zealots, Essenes, Pharisees and Saducees is taken from a number of sources, most specifically Jim Fleming of the Jerusalem Center for Biblical Studies and Thomas Cahill in his relatively-recent book entitled Desire of the Everlasting Hills. There is some question about the equation of “brigands” in 29 AD with Zealots who were historically referenced in 66 AD, but there is little doubt that Jesus was aware of informal revolutionaries who resisted the dominant oppression. Meanwhile, Martin Marty’s status as a historian is all but unassailable and his A Short History of Christianity is a good refresher course for any preacher who hasn’t plowed through the material since seminary.
The reference to my colleague “a mile and a half to the north” relates to a clerical suspension based on charges of plagiarism (a story that has made its way all the way to the venerable pages of the New York Times). A Fred Craddock audiotape recalled the Jack Paar/Fidel Castro story. And Peter Gomes (Memorial Church, Harvard) gave me additional justification (as if I need any) for making a “really big deal” out of Palm Sunday when he wrote:
When we have our own palm procession here, the Memorial Church is transformed from its usual frosty decorum into a splendid chaos, where there is movement, noise, a little confusion and a lot of action. And it is wonderful when intelligent people don’t quite know what to do. When there is a spectacle and you do not participate in the spectacle, even then you are a part of the spectacle. A church school pupil once told me that he liked this service better than any other because there was a lot going on. He didn’t exactly know what was going on, but there was lots of it and he liked it.
