Two Processions: The Day Jesus Threw a Parade to Mock an Empire | In Color | Chad Belew

Hey, we are continuing our series, The Gospel in Color, today's is our second week in this.

And we're going to go through, we're going through the last week of Jesus's life.

And some of the different things that are happening, some of the stories.

And we're gonna look at that today.

So we're gonna, there's some history that I'm gonna try and give, so I got a lot.

So lock in, I know for me, growing up in church.

I didn't always hear the history of the story or the back story to all of it.

And as I've kind of studied and listened, learned throughout,

man, it's almost been 15 years of working in ministry now.

It's like, I've seen a lot more of how it all ties together and

it's taken the idea behind this in colors, it's taken this gospel idea that was kind of black and white.

And gave it more like color, like full color depth, made it 3D.

And there's just so many details that I think we need to look at.

So that's the idea of this in color series is to show us how we kind of shine a light on

everything that is happening that we really, it brings things to life and it animates this story much more.

And it gives us really what's happening because there's so much during this last week of Jesus's life,

there's so much that is happening that is callbacks and that that are protest.

And like Jesus is making points and not just like little point, like these are, these are big.

And they're points that eventually get him killed.

And so we're going to look at all the different aspects of this.

So today we're jumping in a story about Jesus his last week before he was arrested and before he was taken to the cross.

And this is the week where Jesus comes back to Jerusalem and he doesn't do it quietly.

There's two demonstrations that Jesus does that like he leads and he's pushing against the power of empire at the time.

And there's so much, like I said, historical depth and the story is so powerful that we're going to look at how this is working,

where Jesus is speaking truth to power, truth to empire, he's speaking to injustice and his actions and his words are really pushing against what the empire is doing is they're oppressing the Jews.

So like I said, lock in, we're going to jump into some history.

I'm going to try and show you some of the depth to all of this.

I don't have the time to get into all of it, but I'm going to go as much as I can.

So first off this last week, it's called Passover Week and it was Passover Week, it's Passover Week for the Jews.

And it isn't just something that they believe, it is like something they remember, it is their origin story.

This week that Jesus is coming into Jerusalem, this is a big deal.

This is the identity of the Jewish people, their collective memory of what it means to be human under God.

It goes all the way back to Egypt to generations of slavery where their lives were controlled, their bodies were used, their future was dictated by an empire that saw them as less than.

And in that story, God responds, not with some abstract idea, but with action, and most of us know these stories. If you don't know what I'm talking about yet, you're going to see it.

So at this time, the Jews are oppressed, they are under Egyptian rule, and God sends Moses to confront Pharaoh.

You guys know the song, right? Let my people go.

Moses comes to Pharaoh and he says, "Hey, God has told me that it's time for you to let his people go."

And Pharaoh is like, "Yeah, not going to happen. I'm the most powerful man in the world. What's your God going to do?"

And you see through the book of Exodus that God says, "Okay, well, I'm going to start with some plagues and let Pharaoh know that I'm not joking around, but I mean business."

And so Moses goes to Pharaoh and he says, "Here's what's going to happen," and he tells him the plagues.

And these plagues begin, they intensify. There's the plague where the water and all of the land is turned into blood.

And Moses goes and tells Pharaoh this is happening. This is what's going to happen, and it does.

Water turns into blood. Frogs, just a bunch of frogs, just start jumping through the streets and the houses, and that would be weird.

What just happened, frogs? You've seen this part. I think the plague still made its way to San Antonio.

The next one is biting gnats. You get those summer, oh man, I remember in football, they would like, "Oh, anyway."

So he's biting gnats, then there's flies, just like flies everywhere. Death of livestock, all the livestock starts to die.

There's massive hail storms that also kills things and destroys things.

Then locusts, you guys have probably heard about the locusts, like these loud, they're like crunchy, like, you know, and they're like, they shed, anyway.

Locusts, and then there's three days of darkness, and then Moses goes to Pharaoh and says, "This is it. This is the last one.

Here's what's going to happen. There's going to be a plague that's going to hit our land, and the firstborn son of everyone will die from Pharaoh's household."

And Moses goes to the Jewish people, the Israelites, and he says, "Here's what God has told me. Here's what's going to happen.

Here's how you will be spared from this. You are to take a lamb, sacrifice that lamb, take the blood of that lamb, and put it on the doorpost of your home.

And then you will sit down with your family and you will eat the meal. This is how angel of death will know to not come to your home.

So the Israelites do this, and when this plague happens, death is rolling through. It comes to a door with the lamb's blood over it, and it passes over that door.

And the firstborn son is spared.

Pharaoh doesn't do the Passover celebration because he doesn't know what's happening. His son dies.

And Pharaoh finally goes, "That's it. Get out of here. I can't deal with your God anymore. You're free to go."

And Moses says, "He let our people go. Let's go."

And they take off, right, and they go out into the desert. We get the Red Sea, all the, you guys know the story, right? Some of us.

So this is all happened. This is where Passover begins. It is the first time that the, it's this big time where the Israelites were set free from the Egyptian oppressors.

They were saved. They were passed over by the, by death.

So when this happens, they are told from that moment on, "Don't forget this. Don't fit the liberation and the freedom that you have experienced through this. Tell this story. Eat the meal. Remember who you are."

So now, fast forward. Imagine being in Jerusalem during the Passover celebration.

Hundreds of years later. This is a story that has been passed down through generation to generation.

Hundreds of years later, the city is filled with people. Jerusalem, the Jews will descend on Jerusalem during this week.

Historians say that the city that normally had about 50,000 people in it would surge to 200,000, 300,000, even a million people.

So there are people everywhere here to celebrate Passover. The Jews have come to celebrate this event.

The city's filled with people who have come to remember this story of liberation.

Families gathering, there are songs that are being sung there. Children are asking questions probably like, "What are we doing, Mom? Why are we going all the way here?"

"I don't want to come here, Mom." If you have kids, why? My legs are tired.

Sorry. Just imagining me having to walk across the country with my kids.

The whole place. Jerusalem is alive with memory and celebration.

But layered into that memory is this tension that's kind of hard to ignore for the Jews at the time.

Because they're celebrating freedom and liberation while living under Roman oppression now.

The Romans have taken over and they are now under their oppression.

So they're celebrating freedom and liberation while having no freedom and not being liberated and being oppressed.

It's a different empire. Same reality. Soldiers in the streets. Power is kind of hovering in the background no matter what they do.

The quiet understanding that they are not fully free is in their minds while celebrating freedom and liberation.

Which means this Passover week isn't just nostalgic. It's kind of charged. There's this feeling that is going through the city.

It's emotional. It stirs something that's kind of deep in the Jewish people.

Because every year they tell this story, there's this unspoken question that kind of lies underneath it.

Like, will God do that again? Will liberation come again? Will we be out from underneath the thumb of the Roman rule?

And this is the moment, the week that Jesus steps into. This tension.

It's not accidental. It's not quietly that He steps into this. He steps into a story about freedom.

Into a city full of people remembering what God wants to do and He begins to reveal something much deeper to them as they are stirring in this tension.

What unfolds in the next few days isn't just about remembering the liberation from Egypt.

It's about reimagining what liberation actually means to them.

What does this mean to the Jewish people? Not just freedom from an empire out there, but freedom from systems, the ways of seeing things and seeing people, the patterns of power that keep recreating empire all around us.

And once you begin to kind of see and feel the tension of everything that Jesus is stepping into and what He does in the next few days,

it starts to land a little differently.

So it's a celebration. Are you guys tracking where we're at in the Passover? Are we good? All right.

Passover week, they're celebrating liberation. There's this tense moment.

It's actually a dangerous time for Jews because the Romans are fully aware of what this week means for the Jews.

They are not naive to what is happening. They know what is being celebrated.

They know the details of how many people are about to descend on the city.

You're like fiesta in San Antonio.

Like think about like really like thousands of people are coming downtown. What happens?

Bigger police presence. Where we plan for this. What do we do to protect things?

The Romans are doing the same thing. They're ready fiesta.

And Rome had a strategy at the time. This is one of the ways that their empire kind of grew and lasted for so long.

They called it Roman peace, the Pax Ramona.

And it was this idea that there would be peace, but not peace like the way that we think about peace.

It wasn't harmony and mutual flourishing for the people that were under their rule.

It was control, order, stability. It was enforced by power.

Like Rome didn't need everyone to agree with them. They just wanted to make sure that everyone did not resist them.

So their approach was kind of simple. They would allow people, so like the Jews, who they were over.

They would allow them to keep their culture. They would allow them to keep their religion.

You can keep your traditions as long as you don't disrupt our system.

So they allowed this to happen while also still controlling things.

Thank you.

I didn't know if I was going to make it. So the Jews were allowed to celebrate Passover, and Rome doesn't shut it down.

But they don't outlaw this celebration, but they know what's going to happen. They want to protect it.

Rome's perspective is religion can actually be useful for the people that we are oppressive because it keeps them occupied.

And it keeps people structured. It keeps people manageable.

But the tension that happens is Passover isn't just a religious holiday.

It's a story about God overthrowing empire.

It's a story about liberation. It's a story about a ruler being humbled and slaves walking free.

This is the moment that they're in. So Rome allows it, but they don't trust it.

They're always a little worried that something's about to happen.

Because a story like that can wake people up.

Rome in that time, if you look historically, they'd seen it before.

The movements can start small, a little spark, a little encouragement.

And all it took was a crowd and a voice. And suddenly what looked like tradition turned into resistance.

And they were trying to make sure that didn't happen.

So they managed it. Passover could happen. Hundreds of thousands of Jews are going to come into the city.

We will allow this, but we're going to monitor it. We're going to control it.

We're going to control the environment around it.

They're going to allow the celebration, but they surround it with power.

Which brings us to the first demonstration of this week of Passover.

And the first demonstration isn't a demonstration by Jesus.

It's actually a demonstration by Pontius Pilate.

Pontius Pilate, he's the Roman governor of Judea.

He governs the area that Jerusalem is in. On a local leader, not one of the people.

He represents Rome. He is there under the power and authority of Caesar.

So he comes in, he would have lived on the coast line.

He comes in with his procession into Jerusalem.

Carrying the authority of Caesar himself, the ruler of the empire.

His job is simple, it's to keep order, to collect taxes, and to crush anything that looks like resistance.

And if you read the historical accounts, Pilate isn't known for being a gentle leader.

A gentle ruler. He is known for being decisive, forceful, willing to use violence to maintain control.

Because violence is how Rome keeps peace.

There's a historical thing if you look at it. Anybody seen 300?

Very historical.

It is a historical moment where actually when that happened, when Rome kind of crushed that rebellion,

they actually crucified 6,000 men and they lined them up on crosses.

And that's how they said, try it again.

Like this was after Jesus. But this is Rome. Rome did not play.

You come against us, we have more power than you.

So during Passover, Pilate doesn't stay away from Jerusalem. He comes to Jerusalem.

And he doesn't slip into the city quietly. He enters from the west side of the city.

So he's coming in from the coastline, he comes into the city. He's on horseback and he is surrounded by soldiers.

There's armor, weapons that are visible. It is a big display of power to show that we are here.

It's a procession. It's a display. It's a message from Rome.

I think, does that picture show up on here? There he is. There's Pontius Pilate.

Found this fancy picture. Can you guys see it?

I'm not going to move the table this week. It's always a process.

So you can imagine like, show of force, show of power.

They're coming into the city to make sure that you know that we are here.

You're allowed to have your parties but don't get too carried away.

So we see this. Rome is here. Rome is watching. Don't get any ideas. We will crush you.

Because when a city is filled with people remembering liberation, the oppressor

wants to make sure that they also remember who's in charge.

And right as that demonstration of power is entering from the West.

Now, this happened every year at Passover. Historically, we know this.

You can look it up. It's in like Josephus talks about it, a first century Jewish historian.

This part of the story isn't as depicted in scripture.

But if you look back historically through historical writings of the Jewish people,

we know this happened every year. We don't know that there are some historians,

some Jesus historians and some Jewish historians that believe that there's a good chance that while

this was happening is when Jesus did his triumphal entry is what we call it.

It's kind of a not a really good name. But Jesus is actually entering the city from the West.

I mean from the East. So, Pilate's coming in from the West on his horseback.

And even if they didn't come at the same time, the people of that time would have known what

is happening when Jesus comes in. So, Jesus

does the second demonstration of this week.

Right as this demonstration of power is entering from the West. Something else is beginning to happen,

the east side of the city. One that looks very different, but it says just as much as what Pilate

is trying to say to the Jews. He's coming from the East and not the West. He's coming from the

Mount of Olives where he's been praying and he comes down. And Jesus tells his disciples to go ahead

and bring him a donkey. Not a war horse, not a symbol of conquest, a donkey.

Luke 19 says, "As he approached Bethpage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives,

he sent two of his disciples saying to them, 'Go to the village ahead of you,

and as you enter it, you will find a cult tied there which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and

bring it here. If anyone asks you, why are you untying it? Say the Lord needs it. Those who were

sent ahead went and found it just as they told them. And as they were untying the cult, the owners

asked them, why are you untying the cult? They replied, the Lord needs it. They bought it or they

brought it to Jesus through their cloaks on the cult and put Jesus on it." Now Luke says cult

in this translation. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the synoptic gospels, they all cover this moment.

I think it's Mark that actually says donkey and a cult. And the idea is when you look at Mark's

translation of this or Mark's depiction of this story, historians believe that they probably grabbed

a female donkey, brought it to Jesus, and there's a cult walking with the donkey

to show like this is the mother, the cult follows the mother. And so Jesus came in on the lowest

ranking member of the horse slash donkey family, right?

They bring this to him and for us, this might feel just like humble, like Jesus is being humble.

He's just riding a donkey in. But for the Jews at the time, this is loaded with meaning.

Jesus is not just riding a donkey into town. Jesus is making a point.

Because kings rode horses when they went to war.

But they would ride donkeys when they were coming in peace.

Jesus, he's not just choosing transportation here. He's making a statement.

He gets on the donkey and he begins to move towards the city. And people start gathering,

not soldiers, but just people begin to gather around him on the donkey. They begin laying down

their cloaks in front of the donkey. They're cutting branches. They're shouting, "Hosanna,

blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord." Luke 19 continues, says, "As he went along,

people spread their cloaks on the road when he came near the place where the road goes down

the Mount of Olives. The whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God and loud voices

for all the miracles they had seen. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord,

peace in heaven and glory in the highest." Now, you step back and you look at both scenes side by side.

You've got one demonstration on Pilate side where you have seen Roman soldiers, military leaders,

the political leaders and the temple elites of the time would have gone to the gate to meet

Pilate because they knew he was coming. These are religious leaders trying to maintain their

favor with Rome. Those that are invested in keeping the system intact because they profit

and they benefit from it. They would go to meet Pilate at the gate of the city on the west side.

This is people with status, people with power, people with something to protect.

But on Jesus' side, there's a very different crowd. You've got fishermen, farmers, day laborers,

women who have been pushed to the margins, the poor, the sick, the ones who have been

healed, the ones who are still hoping to be healed, tact collectors who had left their old life

behind, people who didn't quite fit anywhere else, probably even some children. Because you don't

take your children to a war demonstration. Well, maybe some people do. You should not.

But this one seems more peaceful, engaging, family-oriented, right?

You've got people who felt unseen that are now showing up.

People who had been told they didn't belong are now stepping into something they felt like they

did belong. And when you see it that way, the contrast becomes almost impossible to ignore.

One procession is filled with people protecting power. The other is filled with people who had

been crushed by it. One is upheld by control. The other is held together by hope.

And maybe this is the part that makes this moment kind of, if you look at it from a historical,

contextual lens. It's so compelling because it's not just two leaders entering a city.

It's two entirely different visions of humanity walking side by side.

Pilot enters with power, force, fear, and Jesus enters with humility, presence, peace.

Pilots' procession says this is how the world works. And Jesus' perception is you have a doesn't

have to. It's not random. Jesus is literally parading, doing a parody of Pilate. This is a protest.

It's a resistance, not through violence, but through contrast. Jesus is exposing something.

Not by attacking her own directly, but by showing a completely different way of being human.

Different kind of power, a different kind of kingdom.

And we see in this scripture is that the people feel it.

Because something in them recognizes the difference. They've seen power before,

they've lived under it, they know what it feels like, but this feels different. It feels like

there's some hope here. But you can also see the tension and the struggle in the Jews that thought

that their king was going to come and liberate them from the oppressor Rome. And they see this

that like this is not what we thought was going to happen. In fact, probably people that had

attached themselves to Jesus with the expectation that, hey, when we overthrow Rome or we get out

of here, maybe I'll get some power in this system, our little upset.

For this moment, the city is holding both these visions of humanity at the same time. Two

percessions, two kingdoms, two ways forward. And this question probably hangs in the air for

everyone there. Like, which one do we follow? And the story from here gets even sharper and there's

more tension that happens. We showed Jesus reacting. We see him reacting. We see him revealing

what is happening in Rome or what is happening in Jerusalem and what Rome has done and why

he is there to overthrow the power that is oppressing his people.

I'm going to read this last verse. I'm going to save the rest of this for next week because

there's a whole other demonstration that has too much depth to it for us to get into.

But here's what happens. Jesus enters the city. He comes in on the donkey. He comes in with this

procession where they're talking about peace and Hosanna and a complete protest and an idea

that is completely different than what Pilate is doing. And this is where he comes in the city

and the next thing we see Jesus do is he goes to the temple. And this is the moment we'll talk

about this next week where Jesus goes to the temple and he starts flipping tables. Right?

You guys, for this story, he walks in the temple and he starts flipping the tables. And for a lot

of people, it's like, oh man, Jesus finally snapped. Like he lost it. I get it. You know, like,

yeah, never mind. Yeah, that part gets crazy. Not even the part that Jesus does this. It's the

interpretation of what some people think is happening. He comes into the temple and he's going

to flip over the tables. But this isn't Jesus just losing his mind or just being righteously angry.

Jesus is calculated. This is another protest. This is another demonstration. This is another

moment of Jesus says, I know what's happening here and I'm going to uncover it for you.

Here's how we know that this was not just Jesus walking into something and getting mad.

Because at the end of the procession, he's come into the city. He goes straight to the temple

and Mark in his gospel says this. Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts.

He looked around at everything. But since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the 12.

He left the temple and out to Bethany's little town outside Jerusalem. He went to the temple

Sunday night. We call this Palm Sunday, right? We'll just use our language here. Sunday night,

he goes to the temple, gets into Jerusalem, goes to the temple. It's late. He looks around.

And he tells his disciples, we'll come back later. And they leave.

Why does he do this? Well, because he already missed the nightly news cycle, right? Like,

this isn't going to make the news. Literally, like, it's a demonstration. Jesus is calculated

and he is making a point. He's not there to just disrupt the tables. He's there to make a point.

And to do that, he knows that the next day, this temple and the courts around the temple will be

packed with thousands of people, which doesn't just mean there's a lot of people to see him.

It means that thousands of people are at the temple to pay the temple tax and to pay

the additional temple tax that the priest are requiring them to pay and are going to have to be

there to buy animals to sacrifice. There is money that is going to be coming to the temple the next

day. And Jesus says, we're going to make a point that this isn't what my father's house is supposed

to be about. And it's not about just selling things. It is about the corruption and the oppression

that the power structure is holding over the people that follow Jesus and to the city behind

the donkey. Because Jesus was always fighting against power that oppressed, power that harmed

hierarchy that separated us from as us and them. His demonstration coming in was to show there's a

different way to be human. We aren't here for power and hierarchy. We're here for humility

and peace and love. And he goes into the temple to make his next point, which is ultimately

the point that the Jews, the Jewish religious elite and the Roman leadership takes as the last straw.

That's what takes him to the cross, the attack on their money and their power.

We'll talk about that next week. Sorry, this was so much just history lesson.

I love you guys. Go read on this if you want to. Some of you are like, I'm not going to read about

it. Like literally do some research, read about it. There's so much behind it that we just don't

learn about that gives depth to what Jesus is doing and why he's doing it. So do that. Go love

people well and we'll see you next week. Thanks.