{"id":10670,"date":"2025-04-09T05:16:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T12:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=10670"},"modified":"2025-04-09T05:18:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T12:18:05","slug":"the-crown-then-the-cross-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=10670","title":{"rendered":"The crown, then the cross"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Select here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luke 19:28-40; 23:21<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everybody loves a parade and a party. There\u2019s Macy\u2019s parade on Thanksgiving. The Rose Bowl Parade on New Year\u2019s Day, and many other local and national parades throughout the year. It\u2019s festive to see the flowers, bands, and floats, but there is something very different about the parade on Palm Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is said by the experts who know the First Century AD that a six-year-old girl could carry a sack of gold from Athens to Rome and not be robbed or injured in any way. That\u2019s several hundred miles. That\u2019s terrible because it means it was like North Korea is today. A very harsh military situation. The roads that the Romans built were not like the roads we have. They were not roads for trade and commerce. They were roads for moving soldiers around. It was soldiers everywhere. An Occupied Zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you think of these people gathered on that Palm Sunday, think of a soldier every hundred feet. The Centuria in that time were squadrons of eighty soldiers who would be watching. And then in the public square in front of the temple there would be a couple of cohorts of soldiers (530 soldiers in a cohort). It means that there were over 1,000 soldiers posted in Jerusalem all the time watching to see that the people didn\u2019t get out of line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What were they, these crazy Jewish people, doing? Here is somebody riding in ordinary clothes on a donkey. The people were throwing their cloaks on the ground like a red carpet, and they were ripping large palm branches off the trees to provide a pathway for the one who in their understanding was King David come back again. That was reflected by a prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 that David when he came again to restore his empire would be humble and come riding this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was the Occupation like? Not only were the Jewish people without any rights whatsoever, unless they were Roman citizens, but they were taxed. It was not only taxes, but also that those who collected taxes were, without exception, corrupt. The tax collectors had soldiers with them so they could collect the taxes and whatever more they could get for themselves. There was corruption. And the soldiers were non-religious as far as the Jewish religion was concerned. The soldiers polluted the temple, polluted life, because they didn\u2019t live according to God\u2019s commands in the Hebrew religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a very different scene. When the people shouted: \u201cHosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,\u201d they shouted in Hebrew. The Roman soldiers didn\u2019t speak Hebrew. They probably thought: It\u2019s these crazy Hebrew people again. As long as they don\u2019t riot or start to overthrow the authorities, we just have to keep them in line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s important with this whole account is that a few days later, this same crowd who shouted \u201cHosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!,\u201d now shout, as it says in John 19:17: \u201cWe have no king but Caesar.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did that happen? What a contrast. Absolutely the opposite. We can understand that a little bit if we look at the account in the Gospel of John where Jesus comes before Pilate, and Pilate asks him: \u201cAre you the King of the Jews?\u201d And Jesus\u2019 answers: \u201cFor this purpose I have into the world, but my kingdom is not of this world\u201d (John 18:37).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We misunderstand that statement because we use the word \u201cworld\u201d in a different way that the writer of John does. It doesn\u2019t mean \u201dspiritual\u2019 over against \u201cmaterial.\u201d In the Gospel of John the word \u201cworld\u201d means those who are opposed to God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Jesus says: \u201cMy kingdom is not of this world,\u201d he doesn\u2019t mean something spiritual. It\u2019s true he also said that if need be, \u201cmy Father will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels\u201d (Matthew 26:53). That would be over 60,000. We have the idea of some kind of spiritual experience here, but it\u2019s not what\u2019s meant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s meant is \u201cthis is a greater kingdom,\u201d including the kingdom you think about as the kingdom of David. But the kingdom which includes everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s exactly parallel to the account in the sixth chapter of John of the feeding of the 5,000. The people were very happy. That was 5,000 males. With the women and children that would be about 20,000 of them. He was performing miracles, feeding them bread and fish. It was exactly what the Romans called bread and circuses. They were very happy. And then Jesus disappeared and went somewhere else, and when his disciples found him, they  asked: \u201cWhy did you do that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He answered: \u201cYou don\u2019t get it. You don\u2019t get what this this kingdom is about.\u201d He says in John 6:35: \u201cI am the bread of life.\u201d They object. How can that be? It goes on to say: \u201cI am the one who brings life through the Holy Spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Jesus says that in John 6:63, most people left him. All that were left were the twelve. The rest wanted bread and circuses. They wanted their own idea of the kingdom. In John 6:68 Jesus asks the twelve: \u201cAre you going to leave, too? Peter answers, \u201cNo. To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s exactly as we have it in John 8:31: \u201cIf you hear my word . . . , you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free.\u201d It goes on to say: \u201cIf the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed\u201d (8:36).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we begin Holy Week with this celebration of the King who comes, we remember that he comes humbly and riding on a little donkey. Is it a joke? How can he be king?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We remember how fickle were the people, including the disciples. Those who cheered him on early in the week turned on him by Friday. The chants of \u201cHosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord\u201d early in the week turned into chants of \u201cCrucify, crucify him!\u201d (Luke 23:21) on Friday. Even his disciples denied that they knew him; they all deserted him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are like them. We flinch from him. We flee; we deny him. We do it, too. If we cannot say we did it, too, then he did not die for us. As the hymn (\u201cAh, Holy Jesus\u201d) confesses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWho was the guilty?<\/br>\nWho brought this upon thee?<\/br>\nAlas, my treason,<\/br>\nJesus, hath undone thee.<\/br>\n\u2019Twas I, Lord Jesus,<\/br>\nI it was denied thee.<\/br>\nI crucified thee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He knows we betray him, but he takes up the cross anyway. He bears our sins in his body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We look forward to celebrating Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter because there the one who wears the crown of thorns is the one who also brings the crown of life, and we look forward with that hope and that promise. Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luke 19:28-40; 23:21<\/p>\n

Everybody loves a parade and a party. There\u2019s Macy\u2019s parade on Thanksgiving. The Rose Bowl Parade on New Year\u2019s Day, and many other local and national parades throughout the year. It\u2019s festive to see the flowers, bands, and floats, but there is something very different about the parade on Palm Sunday.<\/p>\n

It is said by the experts who know the First Century AD that a six-year-old girl could carry a sack of gold from Athens to Rome and not be robbed or injured in any way. That\u2019s several hundred miles. That\u2019s terrible because it means it was like North Korea is today. A very harsh military situation. The roads that the Romans built were not like the roads we have. They were not roads for trade and commerce. They were roads for moving soldiers around. It was soldiers everywhere. An Occupied Zone. <\/p>\n

Select here<\/a> to read more or here <\/a>for a pdf document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10670"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10678,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10670\/revisions\/10678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}