Promises

Matthew 21:1-11

If there is one thing I learned repeatedly from my parents about politics, it's this: politics are essentially an art form consisting of promises that politicians manage to get away with not keeping. I remember all kinds of promises my parents were told that turned out to be a betrayal. The biggest one was NAFTA, or the North American Free Trade Agreement--a trade agreement between the US, Canada, and Mexico that incentivized manufacturing to be moved elsewhere than in American communities.

Instead of fulfilling a promise to create a booming economy that was supposed to "trickle down" from the top, it devastated and hollowed out working class communities across the US. And one of those communities that was left holding the bag was the one I grew up in. Unemployment skyrocketed, and my hometown has never fully recovered from it.

Since then, I can't count the amount of times politicians have promised to "bring manufacturing jobs back to our communities." Or that THEIR tax policy is going to turn the economy around. The political discourse we participate in at this point seems so completely saturated with repeated and broken promises that you can almost write the scripts for the politicians before they even speak.

The promises we believe in often shape what our expectations of the future will be. And on Palm Sunday, when we tell the familiar story of Jesus' "triumphant" entry into Jerusalem, we also can consider that the people of Jerusalem had their own expectations of fulfilled promises. Jesus was supposed to be the Messiah! And scripture made promises about the Messiah. Isaiah 9:6 says, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders."

And that promise? That sounds like some military action needs to be taken since, at the time of Jesus' ministry, the government was on the shoulders of King Herod. Furthermore, King Herod was proclaimed "king of the Jews" by the Roman Empire and given power over Judea. He ruled oppressively and violently. (Consider John the Baptist's head on the plate and Herod's... incestuous tendencies). How else could you imagine change in this situation without expecting some form of violent military revolution? In fact, the historical backdrop already had a recent attempt at military overthrow!

Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem happened maybe 100-160 years after the Maccabean Revolt (the story that Chanukkah is based on) where Jewish warriors called the Maccabees fought off and gained brief control of Judea (and the Temple) from the Seleucid Empire. Of course, soon after that, the Roman Empire overthrew the Seleucids.

If you think about it, the time difference between the Maccabean Revolt and Jesus' ministry is roughly the same amount of time between present day and the US Civil War! So, it certainly isn't unreasonable to assume that this revolt was in the backdrop of people's minds when residents of Jerusalem began to hear about a Messiah. And here he comes! On a war steed? No! On a donkey. With the stature of a general? No! More like a homeless rabbi.

Jesus defied expectations and challenged the promises people thought scripture had for them concerning the Messiah. When you read the rest of Isaiah 9:6, it says: "And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Sometimes promises come true in ways we don't expect.