Mark 11:9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
“Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in
the highest heaven!”
As Jesus marched onto Jerusalem like a triumphant King entering
the conquered city, the residents shouted "Hosanna", a hebrew term for
"Salvation" declaring blessings for the One from the Lord who came to
save them.
God chose the path of radical love but to generalise it to be only about
love fails to reflect the coming of Jesus into Jerusalem as a Saviour
from God. If it was about love, I rather Jesus had gotton rid of the
oppressive religious leaders and the Roman conquerers. Yet, Jesus knew
His coming into Jerusalem would mean death for salvation comes not
necesarrily in the salvation from injustice and lack per say (although
it is important), it comes from being saved and reconciled to God.
The heart issue here is that Jesus came to save the Jews from
themselves, from their own sins and iniquities. No one can save
Jerusalem except the Messiah, the Holy One from God. None can redeem us
from our sins and separation from God. When Jesus came into Jerusalem
with the praises of the people, it marks the future one day when He will
finally come to be the King of israel.
Only Jesus can save. A prophet or a good man may show radical love, but
Jesus saves us because He is sinless and is God. His death is not the
death of a mere man, but the lamb of God whose sacrifice is more than
sufficient for our sins. Jesus became the path to God and not radical
love per say. We can't be saved from "aligning" with Jesus ie to love as
Jesus did, but instead to accept the love of Jesus by placing our sins
on the Cross of Calvary.
Jesus chose the path of death, because without death there is no life.
Without His death, there can be no salvation. Radical love and action
alone per say was not enough, for it was the message proclaimed. It was
the message that got Jesus killed - because when Jesus came into
Jerusalem, He was worshiped as the one coming from God, ie God Himself.
The religious leaders vary that Jesus would cause a backlash from the
Romans, but also perturbed that Jesus was claiming far beyond just a
message of love but that He was God Himself - which they considered as
blasphemy. When Jesus publicaly challenged them, in their home base at
the temple, it was just too much and they took Jesus to court to condem
Him by the Jewish laws with a death penalty.
The praises to Jesus as the King and the Messiah from God, turned from
adoration to cries of "crucify Him" a few days later as Jesus was
captured and then accused of blasphemy. When it was declared that Jesus
came not only in the name of God but declared Himself to be God, the
crowd turned into their self righteous indignation and rose up to kill
Jesus. They were so self righteous and religious that they threw stones
and curses at their Messiah and watched with glee as He stripped naked
in death. We are reminded of the blood thirsty actions of the people of
faith as they raise their rethoric and condemnation against gays for a
perceived sin.
Jesus had refused to deny the charges that He is of God. If it was just
about love, they would have not killed Jesus. Yet, Jesus stepped over
that boundary that few religious leaders have gone through. He declared
Himself as God! In doing so, when Jesus died and rose again, He
became the way, the truth and the life and not just any path of love and
good works to reach God.
If it was only about radical love, Jesus would not have gone to the
Cross for they would not have crucified Him. Jesus insisted that He is
God, not a prophet as some religions say He was - for in no religion did
God came down not only to be vulnerable but to die for us. The gods and
the angels in the ancient times did come down to show their humanity and
being vulnerable, but none chose the path of suffering and death. It was
not a quick death but a long drawn out suffering and pain.
During this Easter, it is God of heaven who came down. If they had known
that He was God, there would not be any raising of palms, and all the
activity would have stopped in the city and they would have bowed down,
their eyes not daring to look up, for none shall live if they had seen
God.
We have not presented Jesus as the God of radical love to the GLBT
community. We have used the name of Jesus to crucify gays instead. The
church is the main supporter of 377a against gays. We have forgotten why
Jesus came into Jerusalem - it was not as a Messiah seeking death and
desctruction against those that had transgressed the law, or coming in
the behalf of God to defeat the Romans hence restoring justice.
Jesus came that He might take us back to God - He came to set the return
path back to God. There are generations of gay men and women who have
gone astray from God as a result of the persecution and rejection from
the church. They are lost forever.
We go back to the crowds praising Jesus as He came into Jerusalem, and
so would Christians be declaring "Hosanna" during this final week of
lent. But missing from the crowds would be many gay men and women and
God's heart today is for the message of grace, the message of salvation
to go to the back streets of life to those rejected by the hierachal
church.
We can't outreach to the GLBT community for none will believe the
message of radical love because this love has been grossly distorted by
the church to cause incredible harm and deaths. It will fall of deaf
grounds.
Today, we knock at heavens door. We asked for a great revival, we asked
for those who come in the name of God, to bring the message of salvation
of the Good news to the GLBT community - not the legalistic and law
based message that their were sinners because of their innate same sex
orientation, but that Jesus loves them and died for them and their sins
that they may return to God. They have already been accepted for Jesus
loved them and declared that they are clean even though gay.