What's New is Old

On Palm Sunday, as Lent is nearing its conclusion, I'm beginning to think about what the last several weeks have meant to me. I've spent time reading and reflecting on scripture in a way I haven't done in years, and it's been a worthwhile endeavor. It's amazing how stories and passages I've heard many times throughout my life continue to offer new perspectives and lessons.

Reading each day's readings closely—and trying to find something meaningful to say about them—helped me to have a fuller understanding of the connections between the depiction of Jesus' life in the New Testament and the Old Testament scriptures that would have informed everything he did. Intellectually I've always known that Jesus was a religious Jew who was a student (and teacher) of scripture. But I now have a renewed awareness of just how much Jesus' own faith practice and knowledge of scripture guided his life and work and, I have to believe, must have sustained him during the amazing events of his ministry.

Jesus preached peace, mercy, forgiveness, humility; he said that the first would be last and the last would be first; he said that we were all sinners but that redemption was ours for the asking. This Lent I've been reminded that he wasn't really saying anything new! He actually calls back to the prophets, using their own words to encourage his fellow Jews to do their part to renew God's covenant with them. The Old Testament can get a bad rap in some circles, for being all about God's judgment and wrath, but the peace-loving Jesus that many Christians identify with was very much preaching messages that originated with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and their ilk.

The Palm Sunday readings highlight this connection. Before entering Jerusalem, Jesus directs two disciples to find an ass for him to ride, so that he might fulfill the scripture's depiction of the Messiah:

Say to daughter Zion,
“Behold, your king comes to you,
meek and riding on an ass,
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”

In the past my reading of this passage tended toward the cynical; I could see someone making the argument that Jesus was manipulating circumstances so that he might be seen as the Messiah. But especially today, as we read about the charges of blasphemy being leveled at him, I see it differently, recognizing how intentionally faithful he was to the words of the prophets. It was this fidelity to scripture that gave his accusers the cause they needed to condemn him to death. On a human level, it's ironic and tragic and heartbreaking to think about. In the grand scheme, it allowed Jesus to fulfill God's plan for our redemption.