Setting the World on its Ear

How do you set the world on its ear? What will turn it upside down, inside out and make it never the same?

In my lifetime there have been a few events that seemed to do that. The day that President Kennedy was killed in Dallas was such an event. When Neil Armstrong took his first step on the moon, all the world stopped to look. The day the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center fell in New York was a day like that. We might argue the explosion of the Challenger and the disintegration of Columbia caused us all to stop and think as well.

One day in the city of Jerusalem Jesus came to town. The entire community had been abuzz as people talked about who he was and what they had heard. Matthew says, “When Jesus entered Jerusalem, all the city was filled with excitement. The people asked, “Who is this man?”

Different factions had different answers and you would have heard them all that day, had you been there. The Pharisees and Sadducees would have used words like “Imposter” or “Blasphemer” to describe him. They were jealous of his popularity and threatened that he did not defer to them.

You might also have heard others saying, “Teacher”, “Healer”, “Prophet” or “King”. The stories were racing throughout the community of healings, feasts, parties, and teachings. Everyone would have known someone who had been touched by him. Perhaps a friend’s daughter, or a neighbor’s mother or even the old blind beggar who once squatted just outside of the gates of the city. Phenomenal stories of lepers being restored to health, demons being cast off the cliff in a herd of pigs and deformed limbs being straightened and strengthened.

There would have been quiet stories as well. “I ate with him once, no really. Even me with a bunch of other outcasts.” Jesus didn’t seek out the parties of the nobles and the elite where the food would be plentiful and the wine flowing unendingly. He freely ate with the people on the edge of society. A prostitute was more likely to have shared a meal with Jesus than any nobleman of Jerusalem.

Yes, the city was on its ear that day as Jesus rode into town. No, not in a splendid carriage or waving from the back of a racing chariot, but on the back of a donkey’s colt. And as he came through the streets the roads were carpeted with palm branches.

It was quite a day, that day when Jesus came into Jerusalem. Of course, the rest of the world was turned on its ear a week later when confused Romans stood outside an empty tomb muttering, “What happened?” A world that has never been the same.