Written by professors, graduates, and others in
the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary community, these reflections, prayers, and spiritual practices will take you along the journey with Jesus through the cross toward resurrection.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
• Psalm 125
• Luke 19:28–40
Let the record show that on the day of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, the suspect proceeded to ride a colt down the center of the street at a slow pace and stirred up the people. When the suspect was confronted by authorities for disturbing the peace, the people became aggressive and Jesus himself became defiant, saying “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
“Stirring up the people.” This, according to Luke 23:5, is the official reason Jesus was taken into custody. They tried time and time again to make trumped-up criminal charges stick, but even after they brought Jesus into custody, Pilate “examined him … “and found no basis for your charges against him” (23:14). Jesus never committed a crime, but was still cast as criminal par excellence when the empire’s leading lawyers, preachers, and politicians surrounded him with a spectacle of mockery and accusation. Why? They said it was because he was caught disturbing the peace, stirring up the people just outside of Jerusalem. This can only mean, of course, that the people were asleep. To stir them is to wake them, to stir them might create a movement.
The truth of the gospel was doing the unthinkable in one of the tiny outskirts of the Roman Empire. It was bringing to life an entity not known in Rome for some 270 years, during the days of the Roman Republic: the people. The Roman concept was a flawed idea, to be sure, excluding women and slaves, but was nonetheless an antique symbol of freedom. With the decline of Roman democracy and the rise of the rule of Augustus, ordinary Roman citizens had long forgotten themselves and now wore the masks of slaves. However, Jesus’ gospel had begun to challenge all this. Perhaps due to his experiences as a darker skinned brother, Jesus’ gospel had a vision that included women, slaves, and all sorts of other curious characters. His ministry emphasized justice and generosity toward the poor and neighborly love. And such a gospel disturbed the imperial peace.
Today, as we remember Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem so long ago, and prepare for his coming yet again, we also remember that one sign of Jesus’ presence was a stirred-up people and a disturbed imperial peace. This season, let the good news of Jesus stir us toward justice and generosity toward the poor and toward neighborly love.
There is in every person an inward sea, and in that sea there is an island and on that Island there is an altar … Nothing [is] placed upon your altar unless it be a part of ‘the fluid area of your consent.’ This is your crucial link with the Eternal.
– Mr. Asante Todd (MDiv’06)
Instructor, Christian Ethics
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For the glory of God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a seminary in the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition whose mission is to educate and equip individuals for the ordained Christian ministry and other forms of Christian service and leadership; to employ its resources in the service of the church; to promote and engage in critical theological thought and research; and to be a winsome and exemplary community of God's people.
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