As Jesus approached the walls of Jerusalem through the Kidron valley which runs along the eastern side of the city, cloaks were thrown in his path and the people cried: “Hosanna!” (“Save us!”) to the man whom they believed to be the Messiah, the Anointed One, the one who was to ”restore the kingdom to Israel.” Scarcely five days later those same lips were shouting “Crucify him!” – one of the greatest ironies in all history. What had happened?
For over 900 years Israel had been, first a divided country, then a country slowly dominated by foreigners, then broken up and finally destroyed. Eventually, by the grace of the Persian conqueror Cyrus, they were allowed to return to their wrecked country, to rebuild it as best they could, still dominated, first by the Persians, then the Greeks under Alexander the Great. They had had a brief period of independence under the Maccabees. Then, about sixty years before Christ, the Romans had marched in, and Israel was again a dominated nation. They believed by this time that only a direct intervention by God could save them, and they awaited the Messiah whom God would anoint to carry out this task. They thought that Jesus was this Man. They had seen his miracles, heard how he “spoke with authority” and they really thought that he had come to Jerusalem to lead a revolt against the Romans, to be like one of the great figures of old who had “judged”, then saved, Israel.
It was not to be. He rode a donkey into Jerusalem, not a war-horse; a sign of peace. He attacked not the Romans, but the Jewish traders in the Temple, thus angering the priests. He argued strongly against the “traditions of men” of the Scribes and Pharisees, setting them against him. They, fearing that he was to begin an uprising that would drive the Romans into removing what little power they still held, and carrying out mass reprisals pour encourager les autres, trumped up a case of sedition against him and managed to convince Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, into crucifying him. Part of this consisted of convincing the people, who had been frankly disappointed in the actions of their Messiah, to support them in this, thus threatening the very uprising of which they were afraid!
But the irony of God is far greater than the irony of man. When the High Priest said “It is better that one man should die for the people” he meant, “Let’s kill Jesus before he starts an uprising and we all suffer.” But in saying this, he could not possibly know that the actual meaning of his words would be what God intended: “If this man dies, he will take away the sins of everyone.” None of his countrymen wanted what Jesus offered, yet his death “restored the kingdom” not only to little Israel, but, to quote John again, he became “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
There are many lessons for us in this, but one in particular is worth singling out as we begin the Holy Week of the Lord’s Passion, Death and Resurrection. It is this; that whatever we do, we cannot avoid carrying out God’s Will. Whether we love and obey him, or oppose him and reject him, his Will really is Sovereign. The High Priest, Caiaphas, wanted to get rid of Jesus by having the Romans execute him as a criminal. What he actually did was to ensure that God’s will, the saving death of the Messiah, was carried out. In his opposing of God’s will, he executed God’s will perfectly. The choice is ours, too. We will, by hook or by crook, carry out God’s will, whether we like it or not. Do we wish to do so as his friend or as his enemy?
Fr. Phillip
