Beast of Burden

Where were You?

November 22, 1963.

For those of you old enough to remember, your mind is probably already taken you back to Dealey Plaza. You can see in your mind’s eye the presidential motorcade turn from Houston on to Elm St. You can see the bright blue sky. The green leaves still on the trees. Then the 5.6 seconds that changed America forever. The scene has changed terribly. People are running all over. You can see the secret service agent jumping on the back of the president’s limo as it races to Parklin hospital. The images of that day are burned into your mind.

January 28, 1986.

Or maybe you’re like me too young to remember that event but not January 28, 1986. You can see the space shuttle going up into the sky. You can hear the voice of NASA saying “Roll program confirmed. Challenger now heading down range, and then less than one minute later, the unthinkable happens. You can still see the solid rocket boosters breaking apart and the smoke making a “Y” in the sky. Then those words, “Obviously, we have a major malfunction”

September 11, 2001

And of course, we all remember September 11, 2001. You can see the smoke pouring out of the North tower. As you are watching the live news coverage, a second plane suddenly comes onto the screen and you watch as the plane slams into the south tower. A hour later still glued to the TV, you watch the south tower implode but the terror is not over. 25 minutes later the same thing happens to the north tower.

All these events have left images in our minds that will never go away. We will all remember where we where and what we were doing. I think the same is true for the people that watched Jesus come into Jerusalem that day. They had an image of what the messiah was going to be like and what he would do. Messiah would conquer the Romans. He would get them out from under the bondage of Roman rule. He would be like Moses ready to lead them to the promise land. Or maybe like young David, who came not with a sword and shield but in the name of the Lord of Host and then slew the giant. You can see and hear their hope in the chat as Jesus rode into Jerusalem, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord—the King of Israel.”

Hosanna. That does not do much for us 21st century Americans. It doesn’t portray much meaning to us but to the people of Jesus’ time it had some meaning. Some believe the term is a Hebrew phrase that means “Save Now.” Maybe the people heard it something like this, “Save Now. For blessed in the one comes in the name of Lord to conquer and fight our fights like David did. For, He is the king of Israel.” Yes these people had an image of what messiah was going to do and how messiah was going to act and it was a strong image.

Today, you too have an image of God. Maybe your image is God as father or maybe for image is Jesus as the great shepherd. Sometimes those images are good. They help you figure out what God is like and how he should act but sometimes those images are not so good for you. God as father might be a bad image for you because you see not God but your earthly father. He is waiting for you to get home so he can beat you. Maybe your image of God is that of a dictator. Someone who is ready to knock you over the head the next time you do something wrong. He loves to wait for you to do something wrong. He gives you no freedom. He tells you everything you must do and when you must do it. No love just pain and heartache. Sometimes overcoming those images seems impossible.

He gets on a donkey.

But notice what Jesus does. He gets on a donkey. That’s not really that big deal. He needs a way to ride into Jerusalem. Maybe he is finally getting tired of walking? I mean he has been walking for the last three years? No. What I believe Jesus is going to trying to place an image into the hearts and minds of the people that would fit the concept of what messiah was suppose to be like. In the Scripture the concept or idea of messiah is one of a servant. A man what would suffer for the good of all Israel. One, who would be beaten so we could be healed. How is getting onto a donkey away of changing the image of messiah to match the concept of messiah? Because a conquering king comes in on the best horse he can find with an army big enough to defeat his enemies. He does not come in on a donkey. A donkey is a beast of burden not a symbol of triumph over an enemy. In a symbolic way, Jesus was tell the crowd, I am the king of Israel but I come not as a conquering king but as king about to bear the your burdens, the burden of sin, just like this beast is bearing me.

We too have concept of what God is like. We say that God is love. That God is truth. That God is forgiving. But what happens when your image of who God is differs with the actual actions of God.

Give me your idea of what God is like?

As I have told you before and will probably tell you again, What you believe or don’t believe about God is the most important thing about you.

That’s what happened to the crowd. They had a belief about what Messiah was going to be like when he came into the world. That’s the reason on Sunday they are treating him like a king and on Friday they are screaming for his blood. Somewhere in the middle of the week they realized that Jesus was not living up to their idea of Messiah. With this problem comes two options. You can keep your image of who God is and reject Jesus Christ as Messiah.

The other option is to bring your beliefs into alinement with the Bible teaches about who God is . So when your beliefs God as a loving Father changes to match your reality of God as love, it will become easier to accept his love as your heavenly Father. When your beliefs about who God is begin to mature, being to reflect what the Scripture says, are on your way to becoming a new creation. You are on your way to having the mind of Christ in you. This process is not easy and in fact can only be done by Christ himself but it must be done. Because your belief in who God is will always win in fight

Now, did the crowd get this subtle message from Jesus? No. Not even the disciple understood at the moment what was really going on. For verse 16 says, His disciples did not understand these things at first.”Have you every misunderstood Jesus?

Sure you have!!

Because I would bet that right now that Jesus is asking you to do something that you just don’t understand. It’s nothing new thought. I mean a long time ago you didn’t understand how God could love you but now you do. What changed that? Why do you now understand? Because you have seen Jesus on the cross! Jesus is now being glorified by the life that you now live.