PALM SUNDAY: Lenten reflections from Mark’s Gospel (34)
“Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the coming kingdom
of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Then [Jesus] entered Jerusalem and went into the temple…” (Mark 11.7-11)
Within the logic of Mark’s Gospel, it is
fitting that the last person Jesus sees before his arrival in Jerusalem is both
blind and – though blind – recognizes that he is the Messiah, the king of Israel
(10.47-48). Granted, James and John – who
had approached Jesus right before the account of the healing of Bar-Timaeus with
their request for seats of “glory” either side of Jesus (10.35-40) – also
believe that Jesus is a king, but they remain “blind” to what Jesus means by “glory”,
as well as to the “throne” that Jesus will occupy at the moment when he is
flanked by men “on his right and on his left” (cf. 15.27).
As Jesus crests the Mount of Olives (11.1),
overlooking the Kidron Valley with a clear line of sight to the walls of
Jerusalem crowning Mount Zion, he sends two of his disciples into the village
of Bethany with orders to commandeer a young donkey for him. In his Gospel, Matthew links this gesture of
Jesus to a prophecy from Zechariah:
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding…on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war-horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall command peace to the nations;
his dominion shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.” (Zech.
9.9-10; cf. Mt. 21.4-5).
This is a dream of a king who would arrive,
not on a war-horse, but on a barnyard beast of burden. Zechariah had envisioned a king victorious,
but humble, an irenic warrior – who would establish a kingdom of peace “to the
ends of the earth”. It is hard to think
of a more fitting image for the type of Messiah that Jesus has been trying to
teach his apostles he is. As Jesus leads
his triumphal procession through the gates of Zion, the crowds of pilgrims hail
the “coming kingdom of our father David” (11.10). David, of course, had been the greatest king
in Israel’s history, a true war hero, to whom God had promised an eternal “house”,
i.e. dynasty. Yahweh had promised David
that there would always be one of his descendants (“sons”) on the throne of
Jerusalem. Hence, when Bar-Timaeus had called
Jesus the Son of David, this is precisely what he meant (cf. 10.47-48). It is finally time for the kingdom that Jesus
had proclaimed since day one (cf. 1.15) to be established.
The king of Israel had always had
authority over the Temple. David had
prepared for the first Temple’s construction, and Solomon, the original “son of
David” (cf. 2 Sam. 7.12-17) had built the “house” of Yahweh right beside his
palace. Herod the Great, who had styled
himself the “King of the Jews”, had undertaken an enormous project of enlarging
the (second) Temple and thus transforming it into a memorial to his claim to
the throne of David, foreigner though he was (cf. Mt. 2.1-8). For his part, Jesus was endowed with no less
of a sense of “authority” over the temple.
Jesus considered the Temple to be occupied territory (and he was not thinking
of the Roman citadel of Antonia built onto one corner of the Temple complex) – and
upon arrival, he deliberately signals that he has come to take his rightful
place. The day after his triumphal
entry, Jesus goes into the Temple and – king of peace though he was – overturns
the tables and the chairs of those selling and buying sacrificial animals
(11.15-16). The implicit claim to
authority contained in this gesture is not lost on those who had assumed the
role of guardians of the Temple (thanks to Roman support) – the chief priests
and the scribes (cf. 11.18). Indeed, the
following day, they confront Jesus, demanding to know: “By what power (authority)
do you do these things?” (11.28). Jesus
avoids showing his hand by asking them a question which they dare not
answer. “John’s baptism, was it from
heaven or from men?” (Did John baptize with God’s authority, or on his own initiative?) Since the crowd believed that John had been a
true prophet, they dared not answer honestly.
And if they replied disingenuously, they would expose themselves to the accusation
of having rejected a messenger of Yahweh.
They refuse to answer, and Jesus, in turn, refuses to provide them with
a direct reply (though his question to them was answer enough; they had shown
their proclivity to reject the word of God proclaimed by God’s messengers).
The king has arrived in his capital. The Messiah has come to Zion. The Son of David spends his days in the “house”
that David had desired to build for Yahweh (cf. 2 Sam. 7.1-11). The kingdom of God has come, and the battle
lines have been drawn.
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