Let me get you in the mood. Everyone loves a parade! Since I can't show you the 4th of July parades from my youth (as far as I know, they exist only in memory), let me share with you two of my favorite parades from the movies.
The first is the finale to The Music Man. Earlier in the story, Prof. Harold Hill had put the vision of a majestic marching band arising from the midst of small town (and small-minded) River City, Iowa: “Seventy-six trombones led the big parade, With a hundred and ten cornets close at hand. They were followed by rows and rows of the finest virtuo-Sos, the cream of ev'ry famous band.” Now, at the very end of the story, that dream--that vision--comes true.
In the mood, yet? In case you’re not, here’s one more. When I think of the sheer joy, exuberance, and oneness that a parade can bring, I think of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
You probably don’t need to know much more about it than this. Ferris Bueller is so full of life that, when he jumps on a float in the middle of a Chicago parade and starts lip-synching The Beatles’ song, Twist and Shout, the whole parade--and the whole city--is transformed.
While I can’t promise that any of our parades this 4th of July will match the exuberance and magic of these two, that’s always the hope, isn’t it? That our parades will not only celebrate, they will actually transform us, bringing people of all ages, backgrounds, and beliefs into one, united family.
That, at least, is the dream that describes today’s first reading. When Messiah comes, Zechariah says, he will come as the Divine Warrior who, after triumphing over Israel’s enemies, will enter the holy city of Jerusalem in a parade of peace.
Since you’re already heard it in one translation today, let me share it with you in another. As I read it, picture the parades you just saw.
“Shout and cheer, Daughter Zion! Raise the roof, Daughter Jerusalem! Your king is coming! a good king who makes all things right, a humble king riding a donkey, a mere colt of a donkey. ...
Messiah, Israel’s anointed King, has come! “No more war horses in Jerusalem,” the psalm says, “no more swords and spears, bows and arrows. He will offer peace to the nations, a peaceful rule worldwide, ....”
Messiah then speaks directly to the people: “because of my ... covenant with you, I’ll release your prisoners from their hopeless cells (probably meaning death!). ... This very day,” Messiah says, “I’m declaring a double bonus—everything you lost returned twice-over!”
To hear that reading rightly--to understand it properly--you need to get in the mood. Picture the majesty of 76 Trombones or the exuberance of Ferris Bueller.
Messiah has come! God’s divine warrior has brought peace to Israel. And everything and everyone that had been lost, has come again. Let’s have a parade! ...
I read an interesting article this week. Zev Garber, professor of Jewish Studies in Los Angeles, writes, “My Jewish reading of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels puts him in history and not in divinity. …”
He explains. “As the promised Messiah, [Jesus] did not meet the conditions which the prophetic-rabbinic tradition associated with the coming of the Messiah.” In other words, Jesus showed none of the qualifications of the expected Messiah.
Remember the parade described by Zechariah? This writer is saying that, according to the traditions associated with the coming of the Messiah in Judaism, Jesus didn’t qualify. He wouldn’t, in other words, be or belong in that parade!
Zev Garber explains. With Jesus, “there was no harmony, freedom, peace and unity in the land of Israel—signs of the messianic age—and enmity and strife abounded everywhere.” Therefore, he concludes, Jesus was, “Not a false but failed Redeemer of the Jews, as witnessed by the words of the ‘King of the Jews’ at the cross: Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani (‘My God, my God, why have You forsaken me’)?”
And, do you know what? He’s right! By the measure of today’s first reading, Jesus does not qualify as the Messiah that people were expecting! As Zev Garber says, “Not a false but failed Redeemer of the Jews, as witnessed by the words of the ‘King of the Jews’ at the cross: ... ‘My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?’”
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus points out that people were dissatisfied with him. But not only with him! They were equally dissatisfied with John the Baptist!
“John came neither eating nor drinking,” Jesus says, “and they say, ‘He has a demon’; the Son of Man [meaning, himself] came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’”
Stating the obvious, Jesus admits that not everybody gets him. Speaking to God about it, Jesus says, “you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.”
As someone else has translated that passage, “You’ve concealed your ways from sophisticates and know-it-alls, but spelled them out clearly to ordinary people.”
So. What do infants and ordinary people get about Jesus that the wise and intelligent miss?
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens,” Jesus says, “and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Just as Jesus trusted God--even or especially when things didn’t make sense (such as on the cross)--so we trust Jesus. Or, better yet: we entrust ourselves to Jesus!
Sometimes I think that the mistake the wise and intelligent make is in thinking that everything can or will make sense! That everything and everyone can be figured out.
I don’t think that’s true! I think that trusting someone--entrusting yourself to someone--is its own kind of wisdom. And that’s what Jesus invites us to find in him!
I began this message with the majestic finale, 76 Trombones, of the musical, The Music Man. The finale may have been majestic but the scene immediately before that was anything but!
People had begun to doubt Prof. Harold Hill. The wise and intelligent had begun to despise him. If truth be told, we, the audience, had also begun to doubt and even despise him.
But not everyone doubted! One, ordinary person believed in Harold Hill and believed in his dream. And it was that simple, ordinary faith and trust that led to that majestic finale.
Watch! (And notice--and delight--in the foolishness of the wise and the wisdom of the simple!)
(Interesting that the same actor who played Ferris Bueller later played Harold Hill!)
Trusting someone--entrusting yourself to someone--is its own kind of wisdom. And that’s what Jesus invites us to find in him!
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens,” Jesus says, “and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
