Friday, February 22, 2008
Psalm 142; Matthew 21:12-17"Hosanna to the Son of David!"
(Matthew 21:15)
In our passage today we have at least two groups of people with whom Jesus interacts in the temple. There are "all who sold and bought in the temple," the "money-changers," "those who sold pigeons," and "the chief priests and scribes." Then there are "the blind and the lame," and "the children crying out in the temple."
This is the third time in three passages where Jesus is addressed "the Son of David" and the second time in a row praised "Hosanna to the Son of David!" If we continue to look back at perhaps a trend or movement in the gospel, we had the interaction with James and John and their mother about places in the kingdom, and just before that Jesus' third prediction of his being delivered over to the chief priests and scribes to be condemned, crucified, and raised on the third day.
This shift in Jerusalem to a clash with the chief priests and scribes (from the resistance and plotting of the Pharisees) is significant. The chief priests were pretty much in league with the Romans in seeking to keep Jerusalem away from the empire's wrath. Without going much further into this right now, my point is to say that Jesus' doom was more than a religious conflict. It was a spiritual conflict, in the big, cosmic sense that everything is spiritual or theological from a certain perspective. But from a horizontal, historical, or earthly perspective, Jesus' descent to the lifting up on a cross was religious and political - national, economic, and social. In other words, it was a clash of kingdoms. (Tuck this away for some meditation and prayer, we'll be coming back to it in the weeks to come.)
The first clash in the temple we hear today closes with a quote from Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11. These are significant for a big picture of what seems to be going on here. Isaiah is prophesying that foreigners and eunuchs will come and be welcome in the temple. The buying and selling that Jesus was condemning was happening in the court of the Gentiles, where a sign had been put up saying something like "no Gentiles past this point on pain of death." And Jeremiah is prophesying that though the people were trusting in the Temple of the Lord, because of their sin and unfaithfulness, it would not (magically) protect them, it/they had just become like the dead, barren wilderness - a haven for robbers and thieves and murderers. (Jesus doesn't seem to be condemning the actual practice of money changing or the selling of appropriate sacrificial animals for financial gain or exploitation. Both sellers and buyers are cast out. And especially with Jeremiah's context in mind, it seems to be a symbolic act pointing to something much, much bigger than Jesus' sensibilities being offended at people making a business out of religion - though that is to be condemned too!)
Jesus comes to open up God's house for all people, Gentiles and eunuchs, the blind and the lame, and the poor and the prisoners, and the children - all who welcome him, his kingdom, his salvation and lordship, his gospel. This was God's will from the beginning. Once again we see that this thing Jesus has come for is HUGE. It is so much bigger than my little problems, than my private, personal salvation -
though this humble king, this gentle Jesus, this meek master of heaven and earth condescends to make a way for me, to invite and welcome me, to heal and restore me, to lift me up out of the ashes. Then to participate with him in this cosmic clash of kingdoms, this restoration of the world, this making all things right.
Hosanna to the Son of David!
thy kingdom come, thy will be done
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