What Happened to Peace?
Fear Not - Part 6
Sunday, March 28, 2021
Matthew 21:1-17; Matthew 10:34-36; Matthew 5:9
When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.
Matthew 21:10-12
Hosanna to the Son of David. Hosanna to the humble king riding on a donkey. Hosanna to the Prince of Peace…
…”Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were…”
Wait! What?
I thought this was a peaceful protest. I thought Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey stood in contrast to the military might of Roman authority. What happened to the peace?
In Matthew 5:9 we read, “Blessed are the peacemakers” and then in Matthew 10:34 Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace…” What’s going on here?
In Jesus we see someone who is willing to lay down his life rather than fight back against the authorities and yet this same person who is led silently like a sheep to the slaughter is no stranger to conflict, even instigating conflict when necessary. We live in a culture that on one hand is fueled by intense conflict on all sides, and yet if we’re honest, we also tend to be conflict averse. We are like the crowds who gather around the fight in the schoolyard to cheer them on and encourage the violence but we don’t want to be in the middle of it. Social media and the physical distance we have experienced as a society has given us a balcony seat from which we can watch the world burn. Even more entertaining it seems is when we see one part of the fire starting to die down and we can throw a lit match over the rail to get it going again (aka… the comments section). We seem to love stirring up conflict. We thrive on being angry and offended. But we’re often either unwilling or unable to deescalate a situation and put out the fire.
Fear of conflict goes both ways.
On one hand, we tend to fear direct conflict. We prefer fighting from a distance. We like smack talk but we don’t want to get hit in the face. We easily overlook the way we hurt others but how dare someone else hurt us.
On the other hand, it seems we fear peace as much if not more than we fear conflict. What if the conflict ends? How do we live at peace with those we have learned to hate? If we don’t stand against some person or group together, what do we have left to unite us?
Jesus isn’t picking a fight in the temple for the sake of stirring up conflict, but he is not afraid of it either. Whenever Jesus engages in conflict, it is never from a safe distance. He always puts himself in the middle of the situation. He is always personally at risk. He always has skin in the game. Why? Because Jesus only stirs conflict on behalf of the marginalized, the weak and the oppressed. In this case, the poor were literally being cheated and taken advantage of while trying to honor their religious duty to offer sacrifices at the temple.
The point here is not to get into all of the nuances of the story, but to recognize the way fear causes us to get things backward. We are all for peace when we are not personally affected. We expect everyone else to get over it and move on. But the minute someone challenges something we hold dear, we cry foul and start flipping tables in the name of Jesus.
Let us have the courage to stand up and engage in the fight on behalf of those whose voices are not heard rather than for our own sake. And let us have the courage to humble ourselves and let go of our self-righteous anger and offense that we might put out a few fires and usher in peace.
Listen to this week’s sermon here:
Video of the complete worship service available at http://asburyumc-huntersville.com/live