Allegiance: What I Owe to My King
We live in a society that demands allegiance from us. Allegiance comes in many different forms. In one way or another, we are asked to make commitments to people… to institutions… our country… and even credit cards. Probably the allegiance we are most familiar with is the pledge we had to recite each day in school. Do you remember it? “I pledge allegiance to the flag…” You know, we have rattled off that pledge quite confidently many, many times. But have we stopped to think about what it really means? Think about the words silently for a moment or two. What pictures come to mind for you? What does allegiance look like? What does it feel like? What things do you do differently if you are being loyal to that pledge? I would wager that your answers today are very different from the answers you might have given to that same question five years ago.
Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a colt, the foal of a donkey, one day two thousand years ago. Let’s take a look at that day and, perhaps, correct some misconceptions that we have of it… misconceptions based mostly on wonderful church traditions that have arisen since then…and then let’s talk about what that day means to us today. Most commentators who have written about Jesus’ actions that day agree that his actions were clearly the actions of a king. In ancient times, kings rode upon colts… particularly colts that had never been ridden by anyone else before. This was an honor… an honor reserved for a king. No one was permitted to ride an animal reserved for the king. Even the way in which Jesus got the colt was, in those days, a manner that was reserved for royalty. You see, kings were allowed to commandeer any animal they desired for their own transportation. In fact, a king could take whatever he needed or wanted from his people. So, by acting in this way, Jesus was also declaring his authority over the people… in exactly the same way that Solomon did on the way to his coronation in 1 Kings (1:38-48). He was their king.
In addition, the people spread their clothing on the back of the colt for Jesus to ride… for they had no saddle to offer him… and they put their garments on the road where the colt walked. Again, these were two gestures that were reserved for kings or for conquering heroes … unrealistic, exaggerated acts that demonstrated honor and respect for the person riding by. The “tall grass” or the “branches” placed in the road were also a sign of respect for that person. The grass cushioned the road for the colt and cushioned the ride for the person on the colt’s back. So, in many different ways, the crowds demonstrated respect for Jesus as king that day and Jesus did not protest. He accepted the acclaim that was due to a king and… in this way… proclaimed his kingship.
Now, a couple of notes that may add to our picture of that day… but may also cause you to think. Who were the people in the crowd on the road to Jerusalem that day? They were not ordinary travelers. They were predominantly Jews… not Romans, not Greeks. How do we know that? We know it because it was time for one of the great festivals of the Jewish year… Passover. And, in the Jewish religion, the center of religious life was the temple. In those days, there was only one temple… the Temple in Jerusalem. It was Jewish custom to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem for the festival of Passover. So, the crowds on the road to Jerusalem that day were Jews on their way to Jerusalem to celebrate this high holy festival of their religious year… Jews from the surrounding towns… Jews from far away countries… Jews who had probably heard about Jesus… and some who had not.
One tradition of the pilgrimage was for the pilgrims to walk the last few miles of their journey… as a sign of penance. Only a king could ride. So, the only one riding those last few miles into Jerusalem that day was Jesus. By doing so, he once again, was declaring his kingship. It was also a Jewish tradition, if a king rode by on the road, for the crowds by the side of the road to cry “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”… for the king was always the Lord’s anointed one. Now, this was not a new action, but a tradition that had come down through history from the time that Israelite kings had first been anointed… King Saul, King David, and others. I don’t know about you, but I have always thought that “Hosanna” was a cry of high praise and acclamation for the person riding by. It turns out that that is not quite the case. You see, translated from the Semitic, the word “Hosanna” means “save now!” It was a cry for deliverance… lifted by a people to their king. It was a plea for help. “Save, O King!” was the cry of the woman in 2 Samuel 14:4 and also the cry of the people to God in our Psalm today. In fact, verses 25 and 26 form the cry that the people used for their kings throughout Jewish history. That was the cry of the people on the road to Jerusalem that day… a cry that not only acknowledged Jesus’ kingship, but begged him to save them.
A second thought: When a king of Israel rode into Jerusalem, he always rode to the Temple, as Jesus did that day. The Temple was the final destination of the procession. The difference was that, when the king arrived at the Temple, he would be given a priestly greeting and then a sacrifice would be made at the Temple. As the last verse in our text points out, there was no priestly greeting that day. The priests, in fact, were very disturbed by the actions of Jesus and the crowd. And, no sacrifice was made at the Temple… or was it? Jesus’ actions certainly pointed toward the sacrifice that would be made later that week…the sacrifice of an unblemished Lamb for a people crying for salvation.
So, why did Jesus ride into Jerusalem that day on a colt, accepting the acclamation of the crowd? As many have pointed out, it was in fulfillment of a prophecy made by Zechariah, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! 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” (Zechariah 9:9). What was Zechariah talking about?
Zechariah was a prophet who prophesied after the return of the Jews from their Babylonian captivity. The Jews had returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and the Temple … to restore the kingdom of Israel… the kingdom of the people of God. But, ten or fifteen years after their release from exile, the Israelites had not yet even begun the task. They had been distracted by their enemies. They had gotten pulled into petty disputes and sin. The prophet Zechariah was forced to remind them of their duty… their duty as citizens with an allegiance to God’s holy city. Zechariah preached to them, urging them to stay focused on the task of rebuilding the Temple and re-establishing the kingdom of God in that place… for their king was coming. When Jesus returned to Jerusalem in the same manner that Zechariah had described the coming of the king… even starting his journey into the city at the Mount of Olives as Zachariah had prophesied… it was reminded the Jews that the Messiah was coming… indeed, that their Messiah… the king who would save them from their enemies … was already here! But, it wasn’t enough simply to welcome him to the city. There was work to be done. And their allegiance to their king demanded that they do it. Were they ready for their king to come?
When we gather together on Palm Sunday to welcome the king, our faces are filled with smiles and our hearts are filled with joy! We love to sing triumphant hymns and wave palm branches. It’s a joyous occasion. Our King is coming! But Palm Sunday is more than a simple celebration with a procession. Palm Sunday is also the day that reminds us that we have a king… a king to whom we owe our allegiance. “I will be your God,” God said to Abraham, “And you will be my people.” It was a covenant… a covenant with responsibilities on both sides. You see, our king has given us a task to do… the task of rebuilding his temple in our hearts and restoring his kingdom on earth. It is not enough for us to walk beside him on the road, waving our palm branches and singing “Hosanna.” We are called to work… to work in the vineyard until day is done… to restore God’s kingdom on this earth. And that tremendous task begins with rebuilding God’s temple in our own hearts and working to bring God’s kingdom to our own community.
How do we begin? I want to challenge us today to begin by taking a hard look at our own lives and using… as our guide… the things what Jesus did in the final week of his life… the week in which he ushered in the kingdom of God. We need to ask whether these are things that we need to do in our own lives. That week, Jesus drove the money changers out of the Temple. Do we need to drive “money changers” out of God’s temple in our hearts? What is it that is in the courtyard of the temple in our own hearts that distracts us from the worship of God… from keeping God at the center of our lives?
That week, Jesus spent time with his disciples, teaching them about his Father’s kingdom. Do we need to spend time with people in our lives, teaching them about our Father in heaven and the kingdom that is already… but not yet… here? Are there people in our own lives who do not know the wonder of God’s love or the vastness of God’s grace? What are we waiting for… kingdom come?
That week, Jesus spent time alone in the garden… talking to his Father… listening to his Father… committing himself to do his Father’s will… giving his allegiance to God again… regardless of the cost. Do we need to spend time alone with God this week… talking with God… listening to God… and committing ourselves to do God’s will… giving our allegiance to God… regardless of the cost? Finally, that week, Jesus walked the long, lonely road to the cross… taking the one road that would wipe the slate clean and reconcile the world to God. Is there a road that we need to walk… one that will, perhaps, wipe the slate clean for someone else… or for ourselves… and reconcile them… or us… to God?
I can’t answer those questions for you. I only know that it is not enough to participate in the joyous greeting of our king on Palm Sunday without remembering our commitment to serve that king in our lives… with our lives… every day. We cannot walk the path from the joy of Palm Sunday to the glory of Easter without going down the dark and lonely path in between those two days. We must clear the courtyard of the temple. We must talk about the kingdom with those who need to learn of its majesty… and wonder And we must walk through the Garden of Gethsemane and spend time alone with our God… seeking God’s will for our lives.
So, I urge you to set some time aside this week. For, lo, your king is coming! It is only seven short days until Easter. Spend some time cleaning the courtyard of God’s temple in your heart. Spend some time talking to others of the coming of the kingdom and its glory... bringing that hope to a people crying for salvation. But, most of all, spend some time alone with God yourself… time in meditation and prayer… seeking God’s will for your life. Do that in these days ahead so that, when the sun rises on Easter Sunday morning, and you remember Jesus’ resurrection, you will know that God’s temple has indeed been rebuilt, that God’s kingdom has come, and that there truly is a reason to rejoice in your life! There is much work that needs to be done… and not much time to do it in. But our allegiance to our king demands that we do it. Hosanna!
Mark 11:1-1; Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29