Thoughts for Palm Sunday

(From Matthew 21:1-17)

I've been thinking a lot about our popular perception of Jesus.

There's an airy and religious sort of "untouchable" Jesus in my kids "Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes" book.

What these old pictures represent seems to inform the oldest films made of Jesus. "The Greatest Story Ever Told" shows a Jesus character that pronounces his lines more than just saying them.

There is a recording of Larry Norman from his album "bootleg" where he makes fun of this portrayal of Jesus. But Larry Norman is a child of the hippy era, and the hippies and boomers suffered just as much in their portrayal of Jesus.

I'm reminded mostly of Godspell first. Truthfully, I love this movie. It's a musical, and Jesus is a clown, along with the rest of his disciples. This product of the hippy era reflects a strong desire to see Jesus become more personal and friendly and real.

Decades later, the hippies grew up and produced a movie called "Matthew - The Visual Bible". Like Godspell and like Larry Norman's complaints in the seventies, this movie once again casts Jesus as the more personal, friendly, and fun Saviour. And like Godspell, I love this movie as well.

But upon reading through Matthew carefully, prayerfully, and honestly, I sense a widening gap between Jesus as I perceive him in scripture, and these Buddy Christ representations that I see coming from the boomers. These differences of perception definitely change my interpretation of the scriptures I'm reading.

If Jesus is the humourless icon of stained glass windows and religious paintings, then his entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey becomes a clinical retelling of a fulfillment of prophesy. I may recognize that the event was first prophesied of the Messiah in the Old Testament. I may ascend to the understanding that the donkey was the royal animal of the line of King David, and therefore probably reminds the people that this King is the Son of David, the promised Messiah.

But I don't feel it. I'm just playing mathematics with scripture.

If Jesus is the funny rascal of the Jesus People, the clown of Godspell, the Buddy Christ of Matthew, then this whole scene of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey strikes me as a colossal practical joke. He's making a display of the people and places of power. He's a hero of the masses. He's a rebel and a punk.

But as much as I like this Jesus, and as much as I want him to be real, I cannot make this Jesus compatible with the dangerous, powerful, mysterious, and beautiful man that I see in the book of Matthew. I like a Jesus that will ruffle the hair of his disciples. I like a Jesus who will tell a joke, or hug a friend.

But he has to be more than this. The book of Matthew doesn't leave him there.Yes, he is personal and gentle, humorous and kind. But the profundity of this is in the recognition that this same man is the one who by his word spoke time and space into existence. When Jesus gently bends down to pick up a child into his arms and speak kindly to him, we are in awe to realize that these same arms will swing sickles of Judgment over the world at the end of time.

This same gentle man will return in fire and blood and power.

Shocking.

I think this is why the boomers had such a hard time portraying Jesus in the temple when he was overturning tables. Jesus Christ Superstar shows Jesus as a whiny little rebel who just loses his temper.

I think we need a new image of Jesus. Our perception and portrayal of our Saviour can be seen in the way we express our faith. It isn't difficult to see how our Buddy Christ misperceptions may be manifest in our big comfortable churches and our sanitized and suburbanized religion. I long to see a faith emerge that flows from a true worship of a true Saviour in all of his fearsome power and gentle beauty. I long to see a church uncomfortable, a church unsatisfied, a church of powerful grace and fearsome beauty.

I want to know Jesus as he is, and never feel like I've gotten there.