WHAT WOULD I HAVE DONE
Exodus 14: 21-28; Luke 19: 28-44
The miracle of the Red Sea, the rabbis taught, was not in the parting of the waters, but in that with a wall of water around them, the people of Israel had enough faith to walk through and cross to the other side. The implication is clear; God’s fidelity to us is not what matters -- it is our fidelity to God that counts. The real determinant of what ought to be and what will be in this world is the mettle, the strength of our own faith that God, having brought us to a stage of holy wakefulness, will be with us to and through the end. All God can do is part the waters; what happens afterwards is up to us.
The road to Jerusalem was clear for Jesus. Just as surely as God made little green apples, as the saying goes, Jesus knew what awaited him. He knew that the religious establishment of the day was out to get him; they were corrupt, and, for the most part, collaborators with Rome, the hated occupier and oppressor of the people. Rome held power not just through brute armed force throughout its many colonies but through a network of collaborators and spies, people who would point out the opposition and the revolutionaries.
The same is true of any power that seeks to maintain its situation. Look at Russia: police breaking up protests against Putin’s war in Ukraine. And they’re not just beating you, they are taking you into custody, into a dank and dark Russian cell. But we’re not, we say, thank God, and settle down with our morning coffee, shaking our heads at human rights abuses in Russia.
A while ago I saw an old movie -- “Judgment at Nuremberg.” Some of you will remember this movie -- Spencer Tracy as Judge Dan Haywood, Burt Lancaster as the German judge Ernst Janning, Marlene Dietrich as the widow of a German general hanged for his part in war crimes. I had never seen the film before; it raised many questions for me as a lawyer, as a human being.
Based on the 1947 trial of sixteen German judges and lawyers, the film raises disturbing questions for how we behave in a society that has created special courts to try a special group of people for certain special crimes that had never been labeled as crimes before. Prosecutors and judges were in a special position; they brought the charges and determined guilt and passed out sentences. But Germany was a special case, we say, thank God, we were not there. It was a society gone mad; ordinary people had no power, we say. What could you or I have done if we had lived in that Germany.
It was probably a bright and sunny morning that day Jesus entered Jerusalem. The winter rains had ended; farmers were already sowing their crops and the smells of spring were all around. People were coming to Jerusalem for Passover, always a difficult time for the Roman occupiers. There was always trouble at Passover. Soldiers were on high alert, watching for the Zealots, known as sicari because they carried a short dagger, or sica, used to kill Roman soldiers and collaborators. Jesus actually had two of these people among his twelve; Simon identified as the Zealot in Luke 6, and the more familiar Judas Iscariot, without whose actions the events of Good Friday would not have occurred -- at least not in the manner that they did occur.
I have to ask myself the question: Where would I have been that morning? Would I have stood out front under the ever-watchful eyes of occupiers or would I have stood in the background, tacitly agreeing with what appeared to be a political demonstration but afraid to step forward?
It is certain that Jesus entered Jerusalem in a manner that was an affront to Rome and its power and continued throughout the coming week to act in a manner that also challenged the temple establishment. All four Gospels attest to the event we call Palm Sunday; and, although there are some minor differences of timing and order, all four Gospels attest to a series of events that set the Passion into motion. We also know that though the event we know as the Jewish revolt did not break out until thirty-six years later, during this time there was a constant stream of anti-Roman activity, organized lawlessness, subversion, murders of collaborators and occupiers, and other kinds of violent resistance by insurgent groups. Where would I have been? Not a fair question, we say, for the times were so different.
But are they? Where are we now as Jesus enters Jerusalem? The waters part around us now. The road to Jerusalem is clear. We are surrounded by situations that have solutions without solvers who have the political will to resolve them. There are still gaps in the costs people need to pay for their prescriptions. Insurance companies have figured out a way to not pay for what they should. Proposals to cap the costs of insulin still languish in Congress.
Even as the economy is recovering, the middle aged work two jobs while the income gap between rich and poor still increases at an alarming rate. Mother Earth is being destroyed by our demand for more and more stuff while Congressional decision makers read newspapers during testimony. Our communities are polarized by fear and suspicion of people who don’t look like “us,” whoever us is. What can we do?
God has parted the waters. The question that faces us all is whether we will enter into the promise given us by the One we say we follow. The question is whether we will take on the powers and principalities of this world and participate with God in building the realm of peace and justice, the realm that Jesus announced to us in the very beginning of his public ministry when he read from the prophet Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because I have been anointed to bring good news to the poor; God has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
The word “Hosanna” means “Save now, Lord.” God offers us salvation through participating in the road to Jerusalem and building the kingdom that Jesus gave us a glimpse of through his life and ministry, his death and resurrection.
Walking with Jesus to Jerusalem means making hard choices, even taking risks. None of us knows what we would have done that Palm Sunday morning so long ago, but each of us can commit ourselves to walking to Jerusalem today and participate with God in building the kingdom that Jesus was sent to announce.
Let us pray: Gracious and merciful God, may we have the wisdom that comes from your Spirit, the strength that comes from your presence, and the love that comes through our Lord. Help us to use that wisdom, that strength, and, most of all, that love, to be witnesses to your extravagant grace as we walk to Jerusalem. In the name of him who beckons us to join him, even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.