Daily Devotions

After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’”

So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They said, “The Lord needs it.” Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it.

As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. 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, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” Luke 19:28-38

Juxtaposition: <noun> the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.

Anyone in Jesus’ day would have realized the revolutionary nature of the shouts of the crowd as Jesus came riding toward Jerusalem on his little steed, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!”

They were not uncommon words. “King” and “Lord” were not uncommon titles. Parades were not uncommon events. What was uncommon was that those words, and that kind of parade, were reserved for the Roman emperor. What was uncommon was their use for someone as common as Jesus.

The triumphant march, mounted on a warhorse, followed by the Roman legion, newly captured slaves, the spoils of war – this was public theater at its finest. Carefully orchestrated. The ultimate display of ostentatious power and glory. And Luke juxtaposes all of this with Jesus riding into town on a colt.

There was an article in the paper the other day about the physical and financial impact of presidential travel. The two numbers that stuck in my mind were $236,000 an hour (the cost of operating Air Force One every time the president uses it to go somewhere) and $100,000 a day (the extra costs borne by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for a single presidential visit.) Jesus borrowed a colt.

Today is the anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It remains a tragic, horrific, memory. The reason there is such intensive and expensive security around our president, and president-elect, is to prevent this from ever happening again. Even with all of that, President Reagan was nearly killed one day, although surrounded by his protective detail. Security is expensive and, too often, illusory.

No one protected Jesus. No one stood up for him. No one testified on his behalf. His own closest friends sold him out and denied even knowing him. It truly was a rigged system.

Every single day people are attacked, even killed, because of their convictions, their faith, their willingness to stand up for those victimized by worldly power grabs. An attack on a president is uncommon; an attack on a protestor hardly makes the news. The juxtaposition says much about us.

Let us pray: Gracious Lord, we close our eyes and we imagine the scene. But in our imagination, we think we would do things differently. We like to believe we would have stood with you, shouting NO amidst the cries for your crucifixion, but in our heart of hearts we realize how easily we continue to be swayed by the illusions of earthly power, wealth, and grandeur. You alone are King, Lord, Savior, and you alone are worthy of our devotion. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

This entry was posted on November 22, 2016 at 4:46 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.