Salvation Through Peace

Salvation Through Peace

The day after Mary annointed Jesus, great crowds gathered at the festival in Jerusalem. This is referring to the great Feast of Passover. You can read about it in John 12:12-16.

So large was this feast that it was estimated that on a yearly basis some 250,000 animals were slaughtered in sacrifice. It is estimated that this was 1 lamb for every 10 people. That would put the total at 2.5 million.

Many pilgrims would save for an entire lifetime just to make this trip once before their death. It is during this great occasion that Jesus enters the city of Jerusalem. The crowds that awaited his arrival were no doubt stirred by those who had just witnessed the raising of Lazarus and would have been comprised of Passover pilgrims and religious believers from Judea and the surrounding area.

When looking at other gospel accounts it is mentioned that there were actually two multitudes—one came “with” Jesus and the other came “to meet” Jesus as he entered the city.

As Jesus draws near, the multitudes take palm branches and line the street in honor of his arrival. In oriental thought, such branches carry great meaning and significance. While we might see them as symbols of victory and triumph, the oriental perspective is one of life and salvation. The concept of life is associated with the palm branch because these trees have a lifespan of some 200 years.

Quoting from Psalm 118, the multitudes begin to cry out, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” Psalms 113-118 are termed the “Hallel” and these were sung at the Passover when the festival procession was received by the priests.

While the crying out of Hosanna was a call for deliverance and salvation, the words “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” constitute a welcome.

In essence, the crowds acknowledged that there was something special about Jesus and their hopes are high that he might be the one to usher “in” the kingdom of God and usher “out” all Roman rule and oppression.

At this point in the account, it is important to see that Jesus chooses to sit upon the colt of a donkey as he makes his way toward the temple.

The significance of this cannot be overlooked. Had Jesus entered the city on a horse, it would have, symbolically, affirmed him as one advocating war.

On this day, however, he takes up the symbol of the only hope that Israel had—the donkey, the symbol of peace. Jesus did this because this was a day of grace and pointed even more to another day of grace that was drawing near.

So if Jesus were to be some sort of king, he would be the sort that knew of grace and salvation, rather than the well-known rulers of the day that were more about fear, dread and oppression. Furthermore, this account cannot be read without hearing the echo of the prophet Zechariah some 500 years earlier as he wrote: “Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zech 9:9ff).

In that setting was a promise that the chariot would be “cut off” along with the “war horse” from Jerusalem and the “battle bow”—in its place Zechariah says, “he shall command peace to the nations.”

The cross was soon at hand. As the lambs would be sacrificed at this feast, so the lamb of God would soon be slain.

But through it all, from the mind of Jesus there was always one non-negotiable: The way forward was about peace and not war. As he rides into the city on a symbol of peace, the passion of his heart pours out in his tears as he realizes that these same people calling out blessings and hosanna’s and speaking of a coming king would, nonetheless, just one week later, be proclaiming “crucify him, crucify him, we have no king but Caesar.”

Rather than hearing the message of the prophet, or the message of Jesus, these people would be bent on war and violence and initially, would entirely misunderstand the way forward and as a result experience certain defeat at the hands of the Romans.

When we listen to the prophet, and we listen to Jesus, what does our future hold? What is the way forward for us? Is it a way of victory through peace, or social breakdown through war?

I pray that we will see what the audience of Jesus failed to see. I pray that we will be a people of peace, a people of hope, a people of love.

This webcast is the seventeenth program in a series on "The Gospel of John." Listeners are encourage to read along in the Gospel as a way to delve deeper into this study.

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The Gospel of John, Pt 17, May 19, 2004