(Luke 19:28-42)

 28After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 30"Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it.' "32Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. 33As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" 34They replied, "The Lord needs it." 35They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. 36As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. 37When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:38"Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" 39Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!" 40"I tell you," he replied, "If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." 41As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.

The story of how Jesus finally arrives at Jerusalem contains within it an illustration of how we might deal with conflict. Fifteen out of twenty three chapters in Luke deal with Jesus’ journey towards Jerusalem and now he finally arrives. Jerusalem is the heart of the religious and political establishment – the locus of all Jewish hope and aspiration; the temple is the physical reminder of God’s presence and promise. However, Jerusalem is also the seat of government for the occupying Roman power.

A question in people’s minds as they cheer Jesus into Jerusalem is whether now is the moment at which the Romans will be taken on and defeated. Will it be in Jerusalem that Jesus, the messiah will lead God’s people to victory over the Roman oppressor and lead the Jews to the ultimate vindication of their history? Some people want Jesus to be a religious leader; others wanted him a political leader. These two aspirations run together as he enters into Jerusalem. There is the excitement of the Passover allied to the possibility that Jesus is the true King of the Jews

Opinion is been divided as to what he should be doing. There are two Jewish groupings that want different things from him. The Zealots (one who is jealous on behalf of God) are a Jewish political movement who want the people of Judea to rebel against the Roman Empire and to expel it from the country by force of arms. The Essenes, by contrast (of which John the Baptist is one) are a pietistic religious order living together in a community. It would be logical for Jesus to take one approach or the other. The Romans are a problem; problems are things that you either deal with or else leave alone – you are either ‘zealot’ and you want to attack the Romans or you are an ‘Essene’ and you want to live alongside them.

Jesus does neither. He is neither overtly confrontational nor is completely accommodating. He makes a beautifully choreographed entry, selecting a colt, upon whose back no man had ever sat (Mk. 11:2; Lk. 19:30). What he does is perfectly stylised fulfilling the words of the prophet Zechariah

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your king coming unto you; he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon a donkey, even upon a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zech 9:9)

Would that we could absorb some of this behaviour into our lives – to know how and when to defer graciously and work elegantly. Without the Holy Spirit we are caught in this polarity of being a Zealot or an Essene. If we are confronted by a difficult situation we assume that there are only two choices; fight or flight(1). English people can often get it doubly wrong. They start off saying nothing but then get angry and end up saying too much(2). What Jesus does is to give people the opportunity to engage with who he is and what he is about. People have the freedom to respond to him in whatever way they wish. The crowds are ecstatic; the Pharisees are hostile. Having the grace to know when to defer and when to stay firm is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise it will remain aspirational rather than actual.

Jesus gives people the opportunity to engage with who he is and what he is about. It takes a lot out of him. At the end of the day he withdraws from the city looks across the Kedron valley and “weeps over” the city (Lk. 19:41). It is one of only two instances in the Gospels where Jesus is seen in tears. (The other is the death of Lazerus Jn. 11:35). Enough of that – tears are for later on in the week. For today we rejoice at him entering the city in triumph.