Where do we go from here?

Three years ago this past week (at least I think that is about the time it was) I found myself full of hope. Hope emerging from the pictures that looped through CNN, MSNBC, and all of the other news channels. They were pictures of cheering crowds pouring into the streets, statues being pulled over, palm branches waving in the air to welcome the marines and soldiers driving into Basra and Baghdad. The story they seemed to tell was one of joy, longed for liberation, of great hopefulness that things were on the brink of changing. Whether or not this is the way that such change should occur, regardless of your position on the war, I suspect that three years ago we all passionately hoped that the hopes of the Iraqi people would not be disappointed. Even with all of the uncertainty and the ongoing turmoil there today, we still desire that the hopes of the Iraqi people will not be disappointed.

I know I didn’t want my hopes to be disappointed either. As I saw those pictures three years ago, I was filled with hope that Neil, my brother-in-law, would not have to leave Nashville; that my cousin Alex would stay in Kentucky. Maybe it was the kind of hope of which the prophet Zechariah sings, “[the Messiah] will command peace to the nations” (9:10d).

These pictures that the news channels showed without ceasing must have been similar to the scene in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. Many folks, Mark’s crowd doesn’t sound quite as large as the crowds in the other gospels, …many folks out along the road running up to Jerusalem from Bethphage and Bethany throwing their clothing as a carpet on the road before Jesus. Those there filled with hope of liberation from the Romans, and end to the occupation that had begun with the Greeks over 300 years before, with the exception of the brief period around the Maccabean revolt.

Just as soon as it had begun, though, it all ended. According to Mark, Jesus enters Jerusalem, goes to the temple, finds no one there, and then goes back out to Bethany for the night. The cheering, chanting, dizzy crowd goes home.

This whole scene is a bit puzzling. The crowd is there singing of Jesus’ enthronement as king. Yet nothing happens. Other than his instructions to the disciples to go and get the colt, Jesus remains silent through out this scene. He is really low-key about the whole thing. He doesn’t disagree with the chants of the crowd but then when he gets to the temple nothing happens. He and the disciples head back out to Bethany. The crowd in their excitement must have been somewhat disappointed. They are ready for the oppression at the hands of the Romans to end, ready to live in freedom after centuries of invasion and occupation, and ready to be led by the descendent of David, their king.

Jesus appears to take all of this in stride, handling it all very nonchalantly. He apparently doesn’t speak or even do anything other than ride in on this donkey. The expectations hang all around him lifting the hopes of the people to new heights. Yet he does nothing.

Well what in the world are we to do with that?