Search
April 1, 2023: See and Believe
-
Have you ever entered a place where you felt right at home, in your element, just right for you, and after some time some incident happens that makes us realize we wish we had not traveled to that place? For example, you go to Fenway Park or the Boston Garden, and, while watching the sporting event you so much enjoy in the midst of a large crowd, some knucklehead sitting near you who’s been drinking alcohol throughout the game, and after his team loses the game or a referee/umpire makes a call that goes against his team, the knucklehead decides to throw his remaining beer across the span of the crowd in front of him, and, lo and behold, you happen to be in direct aim of the tossed beer. So much for going out to dinner after the game. It makes you wish you had stayed in Bethany, or Galilee, or some other town where they love you and welcome you, and don’t toss any beers your way.
Jesus loved Jerusalem. He loved going there each year with his parents Mary and Joseph. In fact, one year he loved it so much, he decided to stay after Passover ended, leaving behind his parents as they journeyed back to Nazareth. He preferred, at the ripe old age of 12, to remain behind in his “Father’s house,” debating and discussing the things of God with the older teachers who were amazed at the knowledge of this whiz-kid who seemed to know so much about God and His ways. They likely asked the very same question some of his listeners 20 years later would ask about him, “Where did he get all this knowledge from? And by the way, where are his parents? He’s too young to be here on his own!”
Jesus felt right at home in the Holy City where Solomon built the original Temple to the glory of God. No expenses were spared for this structure. God dwelt there with his people in the ark of the covenant. In the Holy of Holies he was near his people. The presence of Jesus as the Logos, as the Word, before he became flesh to save his people from their sins, was there in the ark, for God is one. Before he debated and discussed with the elders and religious leaders a dozen years after his birth in Bethlehem, he was there within the walls of the Temple centuries before, in the center of the Temple, placed there during the reign of Solomon, King David’s son, dwelling in the closest proximity to the Israelites, God’s chosen people. He loved his people about whom he said to the Syro-Phoenecian woman, “I have come for the house of Israel. We do not throw our food to the dogs.” Before God’s heart was extended to the hearts of every person who ever lived, His heart was centered in the “special possession” he brought out from slavery in Egypt, who would go on to make Jerusalem the City of God.
Even throughout his public ministry that began later on in life, Jesus, in his human nature, was as fascinated as a youngster when he “went up to Jerusalem.” Most of us adults can certainly relate to this reaction of Jesus entering Jerusalem as an adult in some way. We may go to a special place that offers us peace and silence. Being so close to the ocean or mountains does not hurt this prospect. When we first encounter the expanse of the place to which we travel, we’re drawn to the sights and sounds – or non-sounds – to the point of fascination. I remember my first trip to the Holy Land, entering the tomb of Jesus, or the very spot where the Lord was crucified…talk about fascination. Talk about feeling right at home.
It would be safe to say that every time Jesus entered Jerusalem during his human life, he never grew tired of the Holy City. Awe and love were the order of the day when he stepped through any of the gates with his disciples that led to the city. Our Lord never got bored when walking through the same spaces, knowing this was his special place. A place where he had been dwelling for centuries, now in body. What a great meditation this would make for any of us. To walk not only with the Lord into Jerusalem, but to walk as him. To see through his eyes, and think through his brain what his thoughts must have been each time he looked at the Temple, what was left of it after the Babylonians destroyed it centuries before, and after King Herod did some expansive rebuilding a short time before the Lord’s human birth. To see this structure where God intimately dwelt, and see it as God in human form. And how much he loved being near his people until they turned away from him. Very, very personal.
Again, our Lord never grew tired of entering Jerusalem, the city he wept over for not recognizing their visitation by God in Person. Over the years, do you grow tired of witnessing the power and presence of the ocean you love to visit? The town where you go to find some respite? On my end, I never grow tired of visiting a place like Gettysburg and all the history contained therein. Or the incredible beauty of Harper’s Ferry, W.V., once called “a one-horse town” by a Civil War soldier in a letter home to his family. I guess he looked too much at the raggedness of the small town rather than the awesome beauty of where the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers meet as they flow south toward the nation’s Capital. It all depends on the perspective, I guess. But one thing is for sure; Jesus never lost his perspective of fascination when he entered the city of Jerusalem. Be it for teaching and preaching the crowds in the Temple area, or entering the Holy City to celebrate the Passover of his people from slavery to freedom. He loved the City of God.
As we celebrate Palm Sunday, we hear in the Gospel how the fascination of entering Jerusalem is somewhat redirected. Rather than shown to the city itself, the fascination is heaped upon the Lord Jesus. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” they shout. Such words were not spoken about Christ in any other city throughout his public ministry. Some places unexpectedly welcomed him, like the Samaritans, where he spent two days with them. We can only imagine what those conversations were like for two days, since the Gospel record nothing of them. And how the Samaritan Woman from Jacob’s Well must have lovingly pestered Jesus with more questions about his Kingdom and Messiahship. Other places tossed Jesus out, such as his hometown of Nazareth. “That’s what you get Jesus, for performing countless miracles in Capernaum but so few here. You’re only Mary’s son, and that of the carpenter Joseph too. Very ordinary people. Just like us.” They booted him.
But not in Jerusalem, on this day. If anything, they booted Jesus into the city. The city of Jerusalem was no longer the center of attention in and of herself. What raised her to the great city she is, what raised Jerusalem to her greatest moment since the ark of the covenant was softly placed in the Temple, was the entrance of this one God-man from heaven. It almost seems like the Lord Jesus, the Raiser of those in tombs and houses, it seems like he became, on this day, the city of Jerusalem. That Christ Jesus is now the New Jerusalem. The city of angels and saints. The city that exists in unapproachable light. The city of Transfiguration. The redirection that occurs on this day we celebrate in the Church of Jesus Christ is a redirection from the holy city God established through his will and power, through King David and Solomon, through Prophets and Prophetesses, and is now realized in one Person.
It makes sense to me. His body is the new Temple. His blood is the new covenant. His words are the fullness of all teachings from God. His love and mercy take us past this world’s structures and shortcomings, carrying us to the City of the unending Transfiguration. He is the Dwelling Place of God, in Person. When we walk through his gate, through his door, through his opening, we enter what God has prepared for those who love him. And what a place it is! He is the true Ark of the Covenant, where the old ark is no longer necessary, for we have been given an Ark that gathers no rust or dust. No janitor needed to clean off this Jerusalem. Jesus, the person of Christ, replaces an entire city, the Holy City, and draws a new map of it. With a Cross and empty tomb. And he says to all of us, “Come and see where my body was placed. See that I am gone. See and believe.”
The redirection of Jerusalem begins today on Palm Sunday. It’s going to be a beautiful week and a tough week for the Lord, and it’s going to be the saddest and most joyful week in this world’s history for us. Jesus will teach in the Temple area, teachings that come from God in the First Person. The Lord will give to his Church his Body & Blood, feeding us Himself until he returns at the end of time. He will die, not for himself, but for you and me. And, next Sunday…well, you know and believe the greatest story ever told, and the greatest part of it. Something about a tomb with no body, no bones, no dust. This is Him, the New Jerusalem. May we love Him even more than he loved the old Jerusalem.