WITH 5,000 AND ONE

 

In Graduate School I had the rare privilege of attending meetings of the Jesus Seminar. During one meeting in New Orleans, I asked the group, "Why did Jesus need to go to Jerusalem?" His Galilee-based, grassroots movement was doing great. Going to Jerusalem was suicide. Even his disciples knew this; they did not want to him to go to Jerusalem, especially Peter. It did not make sense. But Jesus went anyway.

John Dominic Crossan volunteered John 7, where Jesus' brothers tell him, "No one who wants to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world!" NT Wright told me, "You should write a paper on it."

We all know how Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem ends. But I don't think for a moment that Jesus went because of what his brothers said.

Gabriela Silang did not need to take over leadership after Diego was assassinated in 1763. Jose Rizal did not need to come back to the Philippines in 1892. Andres Bonifacio did not need to go to the Magdalo camp in Cavite in 1896. Ernesto Che Guevara did not need to go to Bolivia in 1967. The scores of medical professionals, journalists, UN workers, and volunteers who went to Gaza to help the Palestinian People did not need to go there. We also know how these stories ended.

Historians tell us that when Jesus entered Jerusalem he did so with over 5000, made up of mostly farmers and fisherfolk...and a donkey's colt. Most of us forget the colt Jesus rode on as he entered the city. (We are so used to people-centric, actually male-centric, readings of the Bible.)**

Pontius Pilate also entered the city from the opposite direction with a Roman Legion. (That is 6,000 armed soldiers, including 300 cavalry!).

Jesus did not need to go to Jerusalem. Jesus did not need to cleanse the Temple with a whip. But he did anyway. Mark reports that every single day the authorities tried to arrest him, but they were afraid of the masses who protected him. So, they arrested him at night, with a Roman Cohort. (That is one battalion!)

Jesus did not need to go to Jerusalem. But he did so anyway. He had a mission from God. Jesus knew exactly what he was doing!

How about us? Do we have the faith and the heart to accomplish the mission God is calling us to do?


*Art, "Entry into the City" by John August Swanson (available from the vanderbilt divinity library digital art collection).
**We also forget the Good Samaritan's donkey.