Luke 19: 28–40 / Isaiah 50: 4–9a / Psalm 31: 9–16 / Philippians 2: 5–11 / Luke 23: 1–49
This
is the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in
McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, April 13, 2025 by Fr. Gene Tucker.
“CHALLENGING THE WAY THINGS WERE AND ARE”
(Homily text: Luke 19:28 – 40)
As we stand at the beginning of this
Holy Week, and as we contemplate the events that unfolded during that week,
perhaps we consider all that happened from the standpoint of challenge.
To be sure, Jesus challenged the way
things were in the time of His earthly ministry. During this week, He will take
on the powers that then existed 2,000 years ago. He challenged the power
structures of the time: The alliance of the chief priests, the Pharisees, the
scribes, the Herodians[1], and the power of the Roman governor,
Pontius Pilate. (We ought to note that these various groups each had their own
sphere of influence and power, and each one guarded their own turf jealously.
But they could manage to work together if the challenge to their collective
positions was threatened. In brief, that’s the story of the events of Good
Friday.)
And so, on the first day of Holy Week (Sunday, which we know as Palm Sunday), Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Luke tells us that the crowds who greeted Him cried out, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord”.[2]
The challenge to the high and the
mighty may have begun with the greeting that Jesus heard as He rode into
Jerusalem. “King” was a word with political implications. It’s interesting to
think about the fact that there were some Pharisees who heard this greeting. Is
it possible that they went to the chief priests and the others, characterizing
Jesus’ entry into the city as a political movement that had come to challenge
the status-quo? We don’t know the answer to that, and Scripture doesn’t tell
us, but we do know that, at His trial, Jesus was asked if He was a king. It was
the charge (made by the chief priests and others) that He was claiming to be a
king that convinced Pontius Pilate to condemn Him to death. (After all, Pilate
wouldn’t have understood the religious controversies involved in Jesus’
challenge to the religious authorities, but he could easily understand challenges
to Roman rule.)
If we turn around and look back at
Jesus’ earthly ministry, we can see that His ministry was one of challenge:
Challenge to what people thought they knew about God; challenge to their
conceptions of who was/was not clean or unclean; challenge to the God’s
requirement for a change to the inner heart and mind; challenge to understand
that God valued amendment of life over sacrifice and adherence to the Law of
Moses; challenge to set aside pride in people’s claims to be children of
Abraham.
Our Lord continues to challenge us
today.
He challenges us to see that God values
repentance and amendment of life over outward religious observance. He
challenges us to see that no one is outside of God’s ability to love and to
redeem. He challenges us to be ambassadors of God’s ability to create and to
re-create. He challenges us to model the righteousness that we see in His
example in our daily lives.
We might ask ourselves, as we enter in
this most holy of weeks, a number of questions: “What kind of challenge does my
life, my values and my conduct pose to those with whom I come in contact, and
to the wider society in which I live?” “Is my life one which says ‘There is a
better way’, a way that Jesus Christ alone can bring about?” “Do I resist the
values of the society in which I find myself, demonstrating in quiet but
consistent ways that God’s love fills my heart, giving meaning to life which
can be found nowhere else, and which compels me to treat everyone with whom I
come into contact with genuine care, concern and love?” And finally, “Do I have
a personal, intense and ongoing relationship to God through Jesus Christ?”
Good questions, each of them, for us to
ponder this week.
AMEN.
[1] The Herodians were a group of supporters of the puppet king, King Herod
the Great and his descendants, who were installed by the Romans.
[2] Luke 19:38
