Generally the Pharisees who meet Jesus are irritated with him or maybe a little smug about how a Nazareth carpenter doesn't have their extensive education, no matter how many of the rabble show up to hear him teach. But in this passage, they give the impression of being a little scared, don't they?
Well, they probably were scared, but not of Jesus or his followers. They were scared of the Romans, who took a dim view of groups that went around proclaiming this or that random dude was a king. Some local yokel hot-shot in the back end of the Empire thinks he's king instead of Caesar? Eh, Romans don't care. But he might cause unrest, and unrest would disrupt business, and disrupted business stalls tax revenue. And now Romans care. So they tended to stamp those kinds of things out and they weren't careful who else might get stamped while they did so. That concerns the Pharisees, who worry they might get roped into the "who else" group.
Either way, they want Jesus to get his people to pipe down and maybe ix-nay on the ing-kay alk-tay. I can see Jesus laughing at the absurdity of their demands when he tells them, "If I shut these people up the rocks are going to proclaim I'm king!" The people aren't proclaiming what they wish to be true or what they hope to be true. Their words don't outline a reality they intend to bring about. They state a reality that already exists. Their praise just acknowledges an established truth: Jesus is Lord. So if the people quiet down, the rest of creation will pick up the slack, even parts of it not generally known to vocalize -- like rocks.
In a culture where we used to selecting our own leaders, even if the choices are often between Absolutely Awful and Even More Awful, the idea of someone who is Lord just because he shows up strikes us oddly. In fact, we may be working with the idea that Jesus is Lord because the people proclaim him a king, even though the reality is the other way around.
But those who follow him know Jesus is indeed Lord. At some point in our lives, circumstances prompted us to face his question to us: "Am I Lord?" In seminary, I learned this is called an "existential question" because the answer determines how we live our lives and shapes our existence. Unlike most of the lords and kings who ruled during Jesus' time and indeed still today, this Lord will not threaten or demand. He will let us say, "No." To do so is to deny reality just as surely as we would if we denied that gravity worked, but he will let us do it.
Of course, he will be back and ask again. He won't coerce us, but he will persist. And most of us who follow him have realized that leading a life that continues to answer, "No" to his question leaves us wanting something more even if we don't understand what that more might be. So we have answered, "Yes."
And once we've done so, we find we have yet a second chance to turn away from having Jesus as our Lord because he will ask a follow-up question. We answer "Am I Lord?" with "Yes," and now he asks, "Am I your Lord?" See, whether or not he's Lord is not really in question. The only uncertainty is how long we want to live in denial of that fact.
But is he your Lord? Is he my Lord? Those questions are still open. Our Lord knows that a relationship of obedience from fear is completely inferior to one of obedience from love. The Lord of love will not force himself into our lives -- if you remember that famous figure of speech from Revelation, you'll remember that he stands at the door and knocks. He doesn't kick the door down or pick the lock or deceive us that he's a candygram delivery or something. He waits on us to let him in, to acknowledge his rightful place and if we open the door, he will come in.
Joining the crowd on Palm Sunday, waving branches and shouting "Hosanna!" is a great acknowledgment of the lordship of Christ. Following him, though, only starts there and following as a willing disciple is what he truly desires us to do, for our own benefit and flourishing. As he makes clear to the Pharisees, if all he wanted was acknowledgment of his lordship, he could get that from rocks.
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