The POWER of Jesus
REFLECTION
This is not a passage we typically think much about outside of Palm Sunday, leading up to the Easter event. However, it is worth examining again as it speaks powerfully about a concept that is very important and relevant to our everyday lives: POWER. In the images of this passage, we see the crowds with their palm branches, which is particular to John's account of the event. These branches were symbolic and had come to be associated with triumphant political power. In their commentary on John, Holmes and Lyons state, "(The palms) indicate that the crowd was hailing Jesus as a national hero, like Judas Maccabeus. Since the time of the Maccabees, palm branches had been associated with national liberation. The political, military, royal, and messianic connotations would have been unmistakable to those familiar with their Maccabean associations."
In other words, the use of the palm branches and the blessing of Jesus as King of Israel came with a whole set of embedded ideologies and paradigms that ultimately displayed a particular understanding of the idea of POWER, and it was deeply connected to political power over others.
The irony is, Jesus has none of it. In response to their actions and their lack of understanding, he grabs a donkey and overthrows all their aspirations of political power. The donkey is not a warhorse. The donkey is a picture of a peaceful and merciful shepherd-king. Jesus certainly is the King! But not the king they want, nor is he only the King of Israel. He is King of ALL! "He is a king who is victorious not by might or by the crowd's force, but by the power of God! A nationalist vision of kingship is not just too small but also misdirected." (Holmes and Lyons: John Commentary)
In chapter six of John, prior to this scene, we see a very similar event. Jesus does a miracle by feeding the 5,000, and the crowd immediately responds with affirmations of Jesus as the one for whom they had been waiting. In verse 15, it says, "Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself."
In both scenes, when the crowds bring their hopes and desires for a nationalistic political POWER, Jesus takes prophetic action: He withdraws, and he grabs a donkey. In both ways, he is intentionally reinterpreting what POWER actually looks like, and from where it actually comes.
ACTION
POWER is a difficult subject. An honest reflection on it should naturally expose our malformed and fleshly desires for control and dominance that are rooted in fear. But Jesus shows us a different way: LOVE.
1 John 4:18 says, There is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
When we seek and thrive on power that is rooted in fear, we miss the kind of POWER that Jesus demonstrated. His POWER was one of love, sacrifice, justice, and humility, and his POWER was utilized for the Father's purposes in this world: preaching good news to the poor, proclaiming freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, and releasing the oppressed. In other words, Jesus' POWER was rooted in LOVE. It was not for his own gain, but for the sake of the world, so that his Father's will would be accomplished: On earth as it is in heaven.
I wonder where we seek POWER out of fear? I wonder where our use of POWER works against Jesus' work of POWER in the world to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, and to release the oppressed? Is there a place in life where fear may be driving you to want to dominate and control others and the world around you? Take an honest assessment.
Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and to reveal how LOVE changes the power dynamics that you live out in the world around you.
PRAYER
Jesus, would you show us your way. We repent of the ways we have desired POWER over others that ultimately leads to a false sense of control, dominance, pride, and security, and works against your purposes in the world. Lead us in your way. Lead us to LOVE. Help us to utilize whatever POWER we have for the sake of others, that we might see your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Much love,
Pastors Jaime and Jad Levi