John writes in the 12th chapter of his Gospel:
Many Jews learned that he was there. They came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. The chief priests decided that they would kill Lazarus too. It was because of Lazarus that many of the Jews had deserted them and come to believe in Jesus.
The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him. They shouted, 'Hosanna! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessings on the king of Israel!'
Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, 'Don’t be afraid, Daughter Zion. Look! Your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.'
His disciples didn’t understand these things at first. After he was glorified, they remembered that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him. The crowd who had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead were testifying about him. That’s why the crowd came to meet him, because they had heard about this miraculous sign that he had done. Therefore, the Pharisees said to each other, “See! You’ve accomplished nothing! Look! The whole world is following him!” (John 12: 9-19)
We can’t gather on the Mount of Olives. We’re self-isolated. If we could, which crowd would we join?
John (not the other gospels) suggests two crowds merging into one.
There was the crowd which had come to Jerusalem for the Passover festival - the annual celebration of the long-ago liberation of God’s people from Egyptian slavery. Now they were celebrating in defiance of their current overlords, the Romans. For them this Jesus was about to become the saviour king foretold by the prophets. Their expectations of the day, of Jesus, were shaped by their past.
But there was another crowd, probably smaller. They gathered on the Mount because, a few days before, they had seen something new. It shook them. They had seen a young man, Lazarus, dead, brought to life again by Jesus. They had seen a sign: the old people of God, their people, dead; but now revived, the core of a new people of God for a new age.
The disciples didn’t understand what was going on. Presumably no one did, except Jesus; not until after the darkening of the land on Good Friday, not until the women at the cross had shed all their tears, not until Easter changed the world for good.
For us, this will be a strange Palm Sunday and Holy Week. Our former expectations have died, our plans with them. New losses and new sacrifices have replaced them. But new help, and new hope are blossoming. Will things eventually return to the old normal, or is God setting the pattern for a new normal? Who knows?
All our hopes, fears and uncertainties crowd round a lonely figure as He rides down the hill and into the troubled city. We can’t join the crowd. But at least we can stand at our doors and windows and clap as He passes.
Paul Johns: 29.03.20 (Supplied by Keyworth Methodists)
