The Things That Make for Peace: Luke 19:41-44 - Palm Sunday

I’m not much of a TV watcher, but I noticed, the other night, that the show American Idol is still on.

What amazed me, aside from this series’ baffling longevity, is how much the tone of the show has changed since it first went on the air.

It was my guilty pleasure, and others’ as well, to watch the open auditions. There were always contestants who believed they had what it took to be a pop music sensation. But many had no charisma and no musical talent whatsoever. And the judges, especially the British music executive Simon Cowell, provided blunt and brutal feedback. He was downright mean. And this is what made the show a hit—and spawned numerous other competition-based reality shows where the judges or the hosts degrade and humiliate the contestants.

Strangely, the tone of American Idol has changed, in that there are no more untalented contestants or brutal insults. And that has made the show rather boring.

What does that say about us that we adore people of power who degrade and humiliate “lesser peoples”? What does it say about us that we root for the bullies?

To me, this is one sign of MANY that we, as a society, are not okay. It would not be a stretch to imagine Jesus weeping over our country, just as he wept over Jerusalem in today’s Gospel.

Photo by Jelena Lapina on Unsplash

He was just about to enter the city, having passed through the excited crowds who spread their cloaks on the road and waved their palm branches as he passed by. But Jesus fully knew that he would depart these gates in agony and humiliation.

Still, Jesus was not thinking about himself or what he was about to suffer. He wasn’t weeping for himself. He was weeping for Jerusalem and its people. After all, Jerusalem was God’s hometown. It was an actual city on the hill, founded to be a light to all nations of the world. And yet, this very city had become infested with greed, oppression, and violence. 

Click here to read the Scripture text

Even though Jerusalem was under Roman occupation, Rome could not be blamed for the people’s unrighteousness. They still had the temple. They still had the Law. Most of all, they had the Gospel which Jesus was sent to proclaim: a Gospel of forgiveness and reconciliation to God; a Gospel of justice which lifted up the poor and lowly; a Gospel of peace through love of neighbor; a Gospel of hope, that God’s Kingdom will triumph against all worldly and supernatural powers opposed to God and God’s purposes.

These are the things that make for peace which the people of Jerusalem had rejected.

The people loved Jesus when they believed he was coming as a conquering warrior to drive the Romans out of Jerusalem, reunite the twelve lost tribes, and restore the Kingdom to Israel. But their adoration quickly turned to murderous rage when it became clear that Jesus would be doing none of that. The cross embodies how God’s people really felt about the things that make for peace.

But again, Jesus wasn’t weeping for himself. He was weeping for innocents, who didn’t have wealth and power on their side. He was weeping for the guilty, who would soon suffer the consequences of rejecting God’s ways. A society that worships power and wealth is a society heading for extinction. God’s Holy City, the apple of God’s eye, will be destroyed by the Romans, roughly 40 years after Jesus’s death and resurrection.

Most Christians would agree that Jesus weeps as he looks upon our world and the state that it’s in, but it isn’t our rejection of him, and even our crucifixion of him, which pains him most. What grieves Jesus most is what we do to each other and the consequences we bring upon ourselves by our rejection of Law and Gospel.

Many will claim the United States to be a Christian Nation. But who is the Jesus we worship?

I fear that we have remade Jesus the Messiah to our love of power, prosperity, and dominance. I fear that we of the same mind as the people of Jerusalem worshiping Jesus on Palm Sunday—worshiping a Jesus we believe is coming to reward us with power and prosperity.

But what about the poor and powerless? The despised and outcast? What about those who don’t share our beliefs? Who don’t look like us? There’s little point in people calling saying “Jesus is Lord” if you are not doing as his Lordship demands: loving your enemies, praying for your persecutors, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger. These are the things that make for peace. Without them, there is no peace.

Jesus comes not to gratify the desires of our flesh. He comes not to reward us, fulfill us, or prove us right. He comes to forgive and reconcile. He comes to welcome in the stranger and give the outcast a place at his table. He comes to show us a better life and a better world ruled not by greed and materialism, but by charity and justice. He comes to empty himself out for the sake of the world, and we can only receive him in our own emptiness, helplessness, and need. He comes to work repentance in us. He comes so that you can bear your cross with him and die with him, so that you may rise with him to new life.

As you wave your palm branches today, don’t forget the Jesus you are waving them for: not a conquering warrior or a divine Santa Claus, but a crucified and risen Savior who has shown you the things that make for peace.

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.