Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!” – John 12:17-19

I remember when my friend, Jacob Grosz, got a Nintendo Entertainment System. He was the first of all us. Everyone had an Atari 2600. But, everyone wanted a Nintendo. Nintendo broke the mold. There were new sounds. The colors were more vibrant. The controller had two buttons — not a paltry single button like the fake-wood-paneled-Atari. There were video games that could be paused (Of course, games couldn’t be saved, however. It was all to common to hear of some kid, moments before rescuing a princess, or slaying a dragon, or destroying the enemy base whose mom would inadvertently shut off a paused video game during some kind of clean up, resetting it to the beginning… level 1. Untold hours of meticulously advancing the game pausing only to visit the bathroom and perhaps, eat…  lost in a single moment…  a solitary depression of the power button). To have a Nintendo was to rewrite a childhood. Jake had a Nintendo. Everyone knew it. It was too big a secret to be kept hidden.

There was something… bigger than a secret… news…  that traveled with some of the faithful Jewish pilgrims who had made their way to Jerusalem during the Passover festival. It was a story, an unbelievable one. Apparently, a teacher who came from the first century equivalent of a trailer park, had managed to raise someone from the dead. This was news that couldn’t be hidden. Jesus, the one who had brought his own friend back to life, was the one whom they were certain would make all their political and social dreams come to fruition. They tossed palm branches under his feet. They shouted praises of acclamation. They called him king. They shouted “hosanna” (rescue). The Pharisees observed the phenomenon of his following. They said something, then that they can’t possibly have fathomed: “…the whole world has gone after him.” These religious elites proclaim a truth out of desperation that they wish weren’t true. The man, heralded as king, didn’t act like their version, their impression of a coming king. He associated with the common people. He included people who were shunned elsewhere. He violated all the holiness and purity codes that kept people from each other. He taught with uncommon authority. He challenged the power brokers and proclaimed an inverted kingdom of power.

In truth, neither the crowds, energized by the news of his miraculous power nor, the Pharisees, enraged by the size of his following, got what they were looking for. For the crowds, he didn’t give them a military conquest of Rome. For the Pharisees, by their own admission, Jesus was the much anticipated king over Israel and the whole world. And yet, beneath all of their own agendas and intentions, there lingered a story about the man who could give life to those who were dead. That is a triumph of epic proportions. This weekend, Doug Fields will take us into the heart of Palm Sunday — the day of Jesus’ triumphal entry.

See you Sunday,
Jeff