Holy Week Perspective: He Went Too Far

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He Went Too Far

Jesus took the Twelve aside and said, "Look, we're going up to Jerusalem, and everything written about the Human One by the prophets will be accomplished.  He will be handed over to the Gentiles.  He will be ridiculed, mistreated, and spit on.  After torturing him, they will kill him.  On the third day, he will rise up."  But the Twelve understood none of these words.  The meaning of this message was hidden from them and they didn't grasp what he was saying.

Luke 18:31-34 (CEB)

"Are ye able," said the Master

"To be crucified with Me?"

From "Are Ye Able" by Earl Marlatt

Approaching Jerusalem, Jesus ordered the Disciples to retrieve a young donkey for Him.  He told them that, if anyone objected to their taking the donkey, they should simply say that He needed it.  Once the Disciples brought the colt back to Jesus, He rode into Jerusalem like a king, and He was greeted by the accolades of His many followers.  People spread their cloaks in front of Him and shouted, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!  Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!"¹

Some Pharisees who were present begged Jesus to make His followers stop, afraid of what might happen if they continued making such a ruckus.  Jesus was seemingly more concerned about what might happen if they didn't make a ruckus.²  Apparently, the statement Jesus made that day was a statement that needed to be made.

What we don't read in the Bible is that, at the same time Jesus was riding into Jerusalem from the east, the Roman governor Pontius Pilate would be riding into town with a large number of soldiers from the west.  The Jewish holy day of Passover, which would take place later that same week, had the potential to become politically charged, as it commemorates the ancient Israelites' liberation from another evil empire, namely Egypt.  The Roman military needed to be present in Jerusalem in force to keep order, just in case some patriot was inspired to attempt to become another Moses.³

According to Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, "What we often call Jesus's triumphal entry was actually an anti-imperial, anti-triumphal one, a deliberate lampoon of the conquering emperor entering a city on horseback through gates opened in abject submission."⁴  From one direction, Jesus rode into town on a donkey, in a display of peace and humility.  From the opposite direction, Pilate rode into town on a war horse, in a display of Roman military power.  Jesus' procession represents the peace of God, a true peace that transcends all understanding.  Pilate's procession represents the Pax Romana, a false kind of peace that is maintained through violence and oppression.

Is there any wonder why the Pharisees were nervous?

Soon after Jesus rode into town, He barged into the Temple of the Lord and made a scene.  He drove out the merchants and the money changers and proclaimed, "It is written, 'My house shall be a house of prayer'; but you have made it a den of robbers," echoing the prophets who came before Him.⁵

This second act of protest was not necessarily against the commercialism in the Temple.  The merchants and the money changers had a legitimate function in the Temple, for they allowed people to travel long distances and still make an acceptable offering.  A "den of robbers" is not the place where robbery happens, but rather the place to which robbers flee after committing their crimes.  By comparing the Temple to a "den of robbers," Jesus was protesting the corruption of the religious institution.⁶

Jesus' actions struck a chord with the people.⁷  Apparently they were frustrated with both the Roman occupation and the religious establishment.  Nowadays, people debate about the proper relationship between "church and state."  In Jesus' day, the religious institution, which was meant to help people experience God, had become one more means by which the Roman Empire maintained control of the Jewish people.⁸  Jesus took a stand against both entities, and He would soon pay dearly for it.

Jesus had gone too far.  Not long after the scene at the Temple, the religious leaders met and conspired to have Jesus killed.  They were afraid not of what Jesus might do next, but rather what the people who believed in Jesus might do in response.⁹  According to one account of such a meeting, one person remarked, "If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation."  The high priest then said, "You know nothing at all!  You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed."¹⁰

Whether the religious leaders agreed or disagreed with what Jesus taught was irrelevant: they did what they did to keep order.  They knew what a volatile situation they had on their hands.¹¹  Eventually they found a co-conspirator among Jesus' closest followers, who, for a bribe, agreed to help them capture Jesus.¹²

More than once, Jesus warned the Disciples that, once they reached Jerusalem, He would be captured, beaten, and killed and that He would be raised from the dead soon afterward.¹³  We tend to think that Jesus made these statements because, as the Son of God, He had foreknowledge of future events.  I think that maybe Jesus said what He did because He was already planning to take a radical stand against both the cruel Roman Empire and the corrupt religious establishment.  I think He knew that the actions He planned to take would stir up the crowd, thereby provoking the religious leaders to take action.  He knew that the stand He needed to take would cost Him His life, but He also knew that God would vindicate Him.

Jesus' actions in Jerusalem and the consequences He was willing to face for them leave us with two questions.  First, if Jesus were to return to cry out against the injustices of our time, might we also think that He went "too far"?  Would we cheer Him on, or would we want Him silenced?  Second, are we willing to go "too far" in the same way that Jesus did?  Jesus said, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me."¹⁴  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, another person who paid dearly for taking a stand, wrote, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."¹⁵  Nobody takes up a cross if he or she has no intention of dying on it, literally or figuratively.

Many of us call ourselves Christians, but are we truly willing, like the One whose name we have taken, to do what is right, no matter how much it costs us?  If you are struggling to answer that question, believe me when I say that you are not alone.


Notes:

1. Luke 19:28-38 (NRSV)
2. Luke 19:39-40
3. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan.  The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Final Days in Jerusalem.  2006, HarperOne.  pp. 2-3
4. Borg and Crossan, p. 32
5. Luke 19:45-46 (NRSV)
6. Borg and Crossan, p. 49
7. Luke 19:47-48
8. Borg and Crossan, p. 15
9. Luke 22:2
10. John 11:45-53 (NRSV)
11. Brian Zahnd.  A Farewell to Mars: An Evangelical Pastor's Journey Toward the Biblical Gospel of Peace.  2014, David C. Cook.  p. 82
12. Luke 22:3-6
13. Luke 9:21-22, Luke 18:31-34
14. Luke 9:23 (NRSV)
15. Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  The Cost of Discipleship.  ch. 4

Christ's Entry into Jerusalem was painted by Benjamin Haydon in the nineteenth century.