The King who brings peace
Readings: Matthew 21. 1-11
You’d have heard them before you saw them. This great crowd pouring into Jerusalem for the festival. It wasn’t unusual to sing the Psalms, particularly those called the Psalms of Ascent, sung by pilgrims as they approached Jerusalem.
But this crowd has taken up a different song, a different shout. “Hosanna to the Son of David!”, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”, “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”. It’s a declaration of praise, of victory, of unbridled joy. The Psalms of Ascent drowned out by the sound of a crowd praising God not for what he has done, but for what he is doing. No wonder the people of Jerusalem are in turmoil.
And we know that previously Jesus has tried to hush the crowds and individuals who hail him as King, or as the Messiah, and yet here he doesn’t, his time has come, he is entering Jerusalem as sacrifice and will not do so quietly. So here he is surrounded by these crowds shouting who he is for all the world to hear. The secret is revealed, it’s out, and it will be very hard to put it away again, no wonder the leading officials are ramping up their plans to be rid of him. The city is in turmoil at his arrival, the religious leaders are frantically plotting, and yet Jesus has come not to bring an insurrection, but peace.
Perhaps you see it in his choice of mount. Not a war horse but a donkey. Not the fast and powerful steed of battle, but a beast of burden. There’s a humility to it, but also a message of who he is. Matthew recognises in this moment the King who brings peace, in fulfilment of the words of the prophet Zechariah, and it’s these words I want to stick with this morning; “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”
We see the fulfilment of these words as clear as day, they map on pretty much precisely to the events unfolding as Jesus rides into the city on the donkey, on the colt. And if we then look back at the context of this prophecy of Zechariah we see further overlap. Because Zechariah starts this prophecy with the instructions to ‘rejoice greatly’ and to ‘shout’. And here we have these crowds caught in in rejoicing and celebration, shouting praise to the Lord.
Jesus is fulfilling this prophecy, it’s unfolding exactly as Zechariah described, so perhaps we should pay attention to what else Zechariah says of this donkey riding king. How does this King bring peace?
Well as Zechariah continues, he writes of God ‘I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He (the King) will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth’. This King is one who brings peace by doing away with the tools of warfare for they will be needed no longer, and this reign of peace will not just be in one corner of the earth, but will stretch the whole world over.
Now there have been many rulers who have sought to rule the world, who have fought to try to extend their dominion from sea to sea. In the ancient world and in more recent history the appeal of ruling the world over has rung in the ears of many a leader. But this has always been at the end of a sword or a gun. Not liberation but subjugation. The way of the world is that of swords and clubs, guns and bombs. It’s not so hard to rule the world when you have the biggest stick. But this is not how Jesus operates.
Moreover there have been many who have fought wars in the name of peace, and yet were more interested in what they would gain. The Roman Emperors sent heralds to conquered lands proclaiming the peace they had brought, but it was a peace brought by destroying those who would oppose them. ‘Look at the peace I have won’ as the bodies of the soldiers of those they had conquered still lay on the battlefield.
Again it’s a familiar story, those who proclaim they work for peace, but using that simply as the pretext to attack and destroy those they deem enemies. In the world of fiction we might look at Anakin Skywalker, now Darth Vader (spoilers) in Star Wars who declares in Episode III that he has brought ‘peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new Empire’. How? By killing everyone who would have stood in his way. The language of Kings and rulers who bring peace is perhaps a little jaded in our ears, for the peace they have brought is often at the end of a sword or gun.
And yet this prophesied King is different, Jesus is different. He is the one who does away with the warhorses and chariots and the bows, this is not a peace built on control and subjugation where those things would be forever needed, this is a peace which lasts, freely given. Whilst the world may aim for peace by keeping dissenters in line, Jesus does the total opposite, doing away with the tools of warfare and control, and instead welcoming people into his kingdom. Winning their love and loyalty not by force, but through service.
Because Jesus has come not as conqueror but as servant. Just as he chooses not the warhorse but the beast of burden for his steed. For as the city throws him back out, as he hangs upon the cross in apparent defeat, he has won that peace. For just as the donkey, that beast of burden, carried him into the city, so he will leave it bearing upon himself all our sin and shame. And as he dies upon the cross he carries it all down into death to leave it there, setting us free from it’s shame and condemnation, winning us forgiveness and life without end. As Zechariah continues ‘As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit’. Through Jesus’ blood shed on the cross we are set free, free from the bondage of sin and death.
The people of his kingdom love and serve him because he has served them out of love. That’s the first way he brings peace, winning us through love and sacrifice rather than force and control.
And the second way is tearing down the walls that divide us. Another way we seek to bring peace in the world is through keeping others out. The different, the ones who don’t fit in, the other. We keep them out, and then peace will remain because no-one will rock the boat.
We see it as he enters Jerusalem. We read in verse ten that ‘the whole city was stirred’ or in the NRSV ‘in turmoil’. As he enters the city, as he threatens the status quo, up go the walls to keep him out, keep him away. People close themselves off to him. And yet that word we translate ‘stirred’ or ‘turmoil’ here is repeated again as he hangs upon the cross. We read in Matthew 27 v51 that ‘At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split.’ That word we translate shook is the same word. As he dies upon the cross once again the city is shaken once more, but now those walls come tumbling down. The walls that divide us from one another, but also crucially the wall, or in this case curtain, that separates us from God’s presence.
Jesus doesn’t bring peace by building walls to keep others out, he brings peace by restoring us to one another, restoring us to God. Recentring us not on what divides us, but on him who unites us. Christ has made peace between us and one another, and peace between us and God, now we can truly work for the good of the other for, united in him, the good of the other is good for us too. Walls torn down, peace won. Again, not through conquest, but through sacrifice. Not through getting rid of the other, but by restoring us to one another. Peace with God, peace with each other.
He has restored us to God, restored us to one another on the cross, this burden carrying, humble King. Coming not to conquer or destroy as he might, and perhaps should, but come to redeem and restore.
My brothers and sisters, as we fix our eyes on Jesus riding into the city, we see clearly who this God is who we worship. We see a different vision of Kingship, of rule and reign. The one who brings peace by serving and loving us, that we might serve and love him. Who tears down the walls that divide us, that we might be one family, restored to relationship with God once more. So will we accept the peace that he brings? Will we welcome him as the crowds that chanted Hosanna did? And in welcoming him welcome that peace with God and with one another? Or will we instead join with the people of Jerusalem, putting up the walls even as he draws near, ready to kick him out for fear of what he might do? As we journey through this Holy Week, may God give us grace to welcome him afresh once more.
Amen.