King of Hearts

Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem as Messiah, King, and Lord. Many in the crowds who greeted him were looking for a Messiah in their own image, rather than the one the Scriptures prophesied.

Mark 11:1-10

Isaiah 50:4-7

Philippians 2:6-11

Mark 14:1-15:47

“Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a Cross.” This important passage from St Paul's epistle to the Philippians is our New Testament reading for Palm Sunday. Interestingly, the Greek word used in the original biblical text for “servant” or “slave” when Paul reminds us that Christ emptied himself and took the form of a servant is the word diakonia, from which we derive the word deacon. The Church considers this particular passage of Scripture so important that every Saturday evening when the world's clergy and religious (as well as all people who pray the Liturgy of the Hours) celebrate the First Vespers of Sunday, the Scripture canticle is always that passage from Philippians. This is so that the Church can be regularly reminded of what it is that Christ did for us.

What did Christ do for us? What began on that first Palm Sunday? When Jesus entered into Jerusalem, many of the crowd that were welcoming Jesus expected a great political and military leader, as well as a religious one. They wanted someone who would deliver them from the Roman occupation, from what they considered to be hated pagan rule. Some of that crowd included people who were already dedicated followers of Jesus, but many of the people standing along the way watching Jesus enter Jerusalem had heard all about Jesus's miracles. Many of them had heard that he'd healed a blind man, a paralytic, that he cast demons out of many people, turned water into wine, and raised people from the dead. Many of them understood that he called religious leaders, many of whom were colluding with the Roman occupiers, to account for their hypocrisy. As a result, many of them had come to believe that Jesus had truly come from God and was the long awaited Messiah, but they also believed that this meant he was going to save them from their political captivity.

The Gospels record the story of Jesus overturning the tables of the money changers of the Temple in such a way that tradition has always held that this took place during Holy Week, even though John doesn't necessarily give that account on a similar timetable (John was more concerned about doctrine than order). When Jesus did this, this was the first of several incidents that made clear not only to the religious leaders of the day who were already out to try and capture Jesus, but to many people who believed that Jesus was going to be a political savior, that the Messianic Kingdom he was speaking of was one that was coming to save the souls of men and women, not necessarily to fulfill their political or even cultural desires.

That wasn't a message that a lot of people in Jerusalem at that time were particularly interested in hearing. They wanted a King who would come and supplant the Roman occupying authority, drive the pagans and their Roman and Hellenistic influence out, and physically rule in Jerusalem over a restored and permanent Kingdom of Israel. To be certain, Jesus not only had the legitimate prophetic claim to being the Messiah, he also had the physical lineage to claim the throne of Israel, he was descended directly from King David, something that Scripture records that a great many people understood about him. This is why Pilate called him the King of the Jews, and why the religious leaders did not like the fact that when Jesus was crucified his royal title hung over his head.

However, Jesus made clear that his Kingdom wasn't going to be one that was interested in driving the Romans out. It wasn't that Christ was a friend of Roman rule, his very behavior indicated that he was not, but he was claiming kingship over the whole Universe, as leader of a Kingdom not of this world. Jesus didn't come to solve the world's problems. He came to redeem the world and save souls. So many of the leaders (including many of the religious leaders) the Bible tells us about in Jesus’ time were not interested in the salvation of souls, they were interested only in saving their own positions.

The Jewish people of Jesus' day looked forward to an end to their suffering, something they believed that the Messiah would bring about. Yet the Messiah was saying to his followers that anyone who would follow him must deny themselves and take up their cross daily. Suffering was something redemptive and a part of life. Jesus came to give us answers for our suffering, but he didn't promise to end it until the Kingdom of God is fully realized at the end of the Age.

Instead of bringing about the political downfall of Roman rule, Jesus instead warned his disciples that the failure of the people to follow the Lord and to heed the truth that Jesus was trying to bring them was going to lead not to the political salvation of Israel, but to the very destruction of the Temple. The kind of Kingdom Jesus was preaching simply wasn't what people in Jerusalem were looking for when he entered the city at the beginning of Holy Week. Rather than accept the message of salvation Jesus was bringing not only for the Jewish people but for all people, the attitudes of the welcoming crowds quickly turned when they realized that their Messiah was far more interested in healing wounded people and saving their wounded souls.

People wanted a Messiah, a Christ, of their own making and in many ways they had an image of the Messiah that was one of their own creation, it wasn't the Messiah prophesied in Scripture. We ourselves also tend to do the same thing. We often like to paint Christ in an image that we have patterned for him, an image of Christ which conforms to our ideas and our thinking, rather than the Christ of Scripture, the Christ of the Gospels, and the Christ of the Apostles. Too many people today want a Jesus who conforms to their personal idea of who Jesus ought to be. Just like many of the people who were awaiting Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, people cherry pick the parts of God's word that conform to the Messiah of their own making rather than to the one who fully shows himself in God's Word. The Word made flesh, who dwelt among us.

The crowd expected one Messiah, but the one they got didn't meet their expectations. Let us pray that we do not concern ourselves with Jesus meeting our expectations, but rather that we should meet his expectations.