The
glorious anthem, "The Holy City," sung a moment ago by our beautiful
sanctuary choir, tells us so much about the New Jerusalem — the new
order, the new humanity, the Kingdom of God come to earth, that God wants
to bring to us. Listen to these wonderful words: The
light of God was on its streets, the gates were open wide, and all who
would might enter and no one was denied. No need of moon or stars by night
or sun to shine by day. It was the New Jerusalem that would not pass away.
New York City is known
all over the United States and all over the world for its frequent and
wonderful parades. I know people from all over this country who literally
rearrange their schedules to be here in New York City during one of our
amazing parades. It is interesting to me that people who live in New York
City try to get away during these parades. Many people, on the other hand,
come from outside the city for the St. Patrick's Day Parade, the Thanksgiving
Day Parade, the Veterans' Day Parade, and the Puerto Rican Day Parade.
New York City, though, is especially known for its tickertape parades
— those times when some world issue is so significant that we gather
to celebrate.
In 1927 there
was a tickertape parade the likes of which the world had never seen, reporters
said. Charles Lindbergh had flown from New York to Paris in the Spirit
of St. Louis. When Lindbergh came down the streets of this city, people
hailed him as a conquering hero. And children and men and women stood
on tiptoe and hoped just to catch a glimpse of Charles Lindbergh, the
hero who had done something that no one in the world had ever done before.
It happened again in 1945 right after the end of World War II. General
Douglas MacArthur came down the streets of this city and once again every
eye strained to see the great Douglas MacArthur, the man who literally,
they thought, helped to bring victory to the Allied troops. It happened
again in 1963 — a gala tickertape parade on the streets of this city
— when astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth,
came to New York. He and his wife Annie sat in the back of that motorcade,
which drove right down Broadway, and the crowd strained to see John Glenn,
the great astronaut.
Our society — have you noticed — has an insatiable appetite for heroes. We love a hero. We love someone who brings us military victory and we love to salute someone who achieves something no one has ever done before. We love to give wonderful tickertape parades for them . . . If you understand a little bit of the dynamic of what was going on during the tickertape parades — how we exalt heroes and put them on pedestals, how we have tickertape parades for them and stand on tiptoe trying to see them, just to get a glimpse of them — then you understand well the dynamic that was going on in Jerusalem two thousand years ago during the feast of the Passover.
What
you need to know is that the size of Jerusalem, two thousand years ago,
was two hundred and fifty thousand people. You also need to know, and
maybe some of you do know, that the Passover was one of the three great
feasts in Israel at that time. The others were the Feast of the Tabernacle
and the Feast of the Pentecost; but without question, Passover was the
big feast, the number one feast, the one everybody wanted to attend. And
so the crowd in Jerusalem during Passover two thousand years ago swelled
ten times beyond the population. Thus, there were two and a half million
people in Jerusalem for that Passover.
If you go down 55th Street here to Central Synagogue and talk to my good friend Peter Rubenstein, the Rabbi there, he will tell you, as all faithful Jews will, "Some day it would be my dream of dreams to have Passover in Jerusalem." In fact the Jews say to one another, "Next year we will be celebrating in Jerusalem." It was the dream of every Jew to be there. Every Jew within a twenty-mile radius of Jerusalem was bound by Jewish law to attend. But everyone had the dream. They would come from all over the world to Jerusalem for the Passover.
Picture the scene
with me in your mind's eye. There was already a contagion to be in Jerusalem
for the Passover. But now there was word of a new hero emerging on the
scene — a hero that captured the imagination of the people like a
Lindbergh, or a MacArthur, or a Glenn. Someone, though, who had more than
they had. This person not only had the military potential that they did,
but this person also had a spiritual power the likes of which no one had
ever seen. This man, Jesus of Nazareth, had just raised Lazarus from the
dead, so everyone in Jerusalem wanted to come to get a glimpse of him.
The word was spreading through the streets: "He's coming!" Everyone
thought that he would be coming at any minute on a white horse with a
sword and he would pull out his sword and say to all the people, "Come
and follow me and we will defeat the Roman armies." For that is what
they thought the Messiah would be. Messiah is a Hebrew word literally
meaning "the anointed one of God." The Greek translation of
the Hebrew word Messiah is the Greek word Christos — Christ. So when
you say you believe Jesus is Messiah, the Christ, you are saying, as our
new members said this morning, I believe in the fulfillment of the Jewish
hope. Jesus was and is the Jewish Messiah.
But the people thought the Messiah would be something different. They
thought of the Messiah as the political, military ruler — the one
that would ride the white horse and pull out the sword, defeat all of
Israel's enemies and restore Israel to the glory she knew under David
and Solomon. So they couldn't wait.
Even as word was
spreading that Jesus was coming, they cut down palm branches from the
trees, as they did when Judas Macabeus had cleansed the temple. They were
ready. They took off their cloaks and their robes and their garments and
put them on the ground. When he emerged, Matthew 21 says, the crowd was
stirred. And why shouldn't they have been?
You know how we act when a hero comes into New York City — a tickertape
parade down Broadway, every eye straining to see the person, standing
on tiptoe just to catch a glimpse of them. "What's that he¹s
riding? A stallion? Has he pulled out the sword yet?" And then in
that moment, instead of riding on a white stallion and pulling out a sword,
Jesus rode a donkey. Not the stallion, the symbol of war, but the donkey,
the symbol of peace. There was no sword, for he came in peace, he came
not in war.
In that dramatic moment as Jesus rode into Jerusalem he was modeling a new reality. He was modeling that the Christ, the Messiah, would not be the exhaulted hero who would defeat all the enemies and establish victory for Israel, but rather he would go to a cross. The victory he would bring would not be over Israel¹s enemies but over sin and death — for he was bringing a spiritual victory. And Jesus called all those who would follow — all those who would follow — not to a life of victory, not following a tickertape gospel where we get everything we want when we want it — but rather a gospel of a suffering, servant Messiah.
Recently our President
went on a trip to Africa. There was an advance team that went ahead of
him to prepare the way in Africa for his arrival. Do you know that you
and I are called by God to be the advance team of the Messiah before he
comes back to earth? And our job is to bring to earth this reality of
the New Jerusalem. Not an exhaulted tickertape kind of gospel of a God
who always gives us want we want. Our job is to be sacrificial servants,
to reach out even to the least of these in the name of Jesus Christ. Listen
again to those magnificent words from "The Holy City:"
The light of God was on its streets, the gates were open wide, and all
who would might enter, and no one was denied. No need of moon or stars
by night or sun to shine by day, it was the New Jerusalem that would not
pass away.
Do you know that I love New York City? I love this city, but one of the things that disturbs me about New York are the faces of the people. I see them, you see them. Do you know what I think? I think that many people in New York City have jobs too small for their spirits. They have jobs that do not challenge them, whatever the job may be. In fact, I believe that everyone, if you think about it — listen carefully — has a job too small for their spirit unless we tap into our vocation (from the Latin word vocare, meaning voice, our calling as John Calvin said) to be instruments of the Christ in the world. We are the advance team of God's new order on the face of the earth. And I am so proud of the Fifth Avenue Church because, as you reach out in the name of Christ to this city, you are bringing about the New Jerusalem. Do you know one of the reasons that people keep joining our church? They see in you the New Jerusalem. They see you are the advance team. They see that you are going out and making a difference in this city.
I tell you, some day there is going to be a new parade. And you are I are going to be invited to be part of that new parade. And that new parade is not going to march into New York City. That new parade is not going to march into the Old Jerusalem. That new parade is going to march into the New Jerusalem. And you know who is going to be in that new parade? Abraham, and Sarah, and Mary Magdalene, and the Apostle Paul, and Priscilla, and Aquila, and Stephen, and Peter, and Kenneth O. Jones, and Bernice Kirkland, and all the great saints of heaven. And we are going to be marching in a parade, not a tickertape parade, but a parade of sacrificial, humble servants into the New Jerusalem. And you know how we will know we are in the New Jerusalem? The light of God will be on the streets, the gates will be open wide, that all who want may enter, that all may come inside. There will be no need of moon or stars by night or sun to shine by day, it will be the New Jerusalem, and it will not pass away.
Today, Palm Sunday, God is calling us to not just go out of here as we have come. God needs to enlist men and women who will follow Jesus Christ, who will take discipleship seriously, who will take prayer seriously, who will take Bible study seriously, who will take commitment to justice seriously, take commitment to the poor seriously, take commitment to reconciliation seriously, take commitment to love seriously. Are you willing to be part of the new humanity, the New Jerusalem, to help the kingdom of this world become the Kingdom of our Christ so that one day we may sing with the heavenly choir, and all the saints of heaven:
Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
sing for the night is o'er, Hosanna in the Highest, Hosanna for evermore.
Amen!
