The Name

Luke 19:28-40; Isaiah 50:4-91; Philippians 2:5-11

We begin this week called “Holy” with the story of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. For three years, our Lord traveled the length and breadth of the country and ventured beyond its ethnic boundaries. He taught about the Kingdom of God and called the people into a relationship with God, whom he boldly called Father. In his ministry he cast out demons, offered forgiveness, healed sickness. He mentored a group of men and women to follow his leadership style and to tell the gospel after he was gone. He even raised people from the dead. 

The crowds thought this was all prologue to what he intended, what they thought he intended. They rejoiced when they saw Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey because they thought he had finally accepted the inevitable: He would be their King.

The tide turned very quickly. He refused to live into the people’s image of the conquering hero. He didn’t call out militiamen as Paul Revere did, nor did he confront the Roman leaders who oppressed the people. Instead Jesus confronted the priests and religious professionals and took umbrage with the day to day attitudes and practices of faith. He attacked the very world the people thought was right. 

Backed into a theological corner not all that different from our political landscape today, many, but not all, of the religious elite willingly supported Barabbas, a Jewish insurrectionist who was in Roman custody. Instead of choosing Jesus as their Messiah, they chose the man they thought would lead them to a victory against their oppressor. They thought he would make Judea great again. The leaders didn’t understand that they were oppressed by something greater.

The folks gathered long the road into Jerusalem didn’t have Luke’s hindsight. As we read Luke’s account, the trip into Jerusalem is preceded by a significant event and a powerful parable-story. 

The event is Jesus spotting Zacchaeus in the crowded streets of Jericho and inviting himself to lunch at the tax collector’s house. Zacchaeus has two strikes against him. He is wealthy and his wealth was the result of his collaboration with Rome. He was the chief tax collector which meant that he not only gouged everyone, he took a cut from the collections of all the subordinate tax collectors. Zacchaeus has a Greek name, so we can’t be sure he wasn’t a mercenary brought in to oversee the collection of taxes or whether he was a local who had seen an opportunity to make money and seized it. The Greek name brands him as an outcast, as someone who identity has been tainted. He has lost his identity as one of God’s people. 

Zacchaeus is one of the oppressors and he needs to be liberated as much as the Jews who were subject to his onerous collection practices and the rest of the Roman occupation enforcement. Zacchaeus is convicted of his sin when Jesus seeks out his presence. In response to his repentance, Jesus declares, “Today salvation has come to his household because he too is a son of Abraham” (Luke 19:9).

Then comes the parable. A man born into royalty has to go away to receive of his kingdom and while he is gone he entrusts portions of his assets to ten servants until his return. When he returned he called for an accounting. Several servants fared well and made the new-crowned king money. But one, knowing the man to be stern and unscrupulous, was afraid to do anything with the money other than keep it safe. The king stripped the man of the money and gave it to the man who had gotten the biggest return.

Because some of the citizens didn’t want the man to become their king, he ordered that his enemies be slaughtered. That would have been a typical response of a king seeking to secure his rule. That was how Rome dealt with people in newly occupied areas. Caesar worked through his local procurators – Pilate – and through puppet kings – Herod Antipas – to rule with impunity. 

Many of the people hoped that Rome would be overthrown and driven out of Jerusalem and Judea. They put their hope in revolutionaries and insurrectionists. The Roman forces quickly quelled any rebellion that came along. The hope kept drifting to a future someday.

Luke seemed to say that God’s kingdom has come with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. The battle is set. Those who don’t want Jesus as king are line up against those who whose trust in God has been realigned through Jesus’ ministry and teaching. “Today salvation has come to this household.” And the household is the nation. Jesus does indeed enter Jerusalem as a king, following the royal protocol established ages before.

When Israel first got a king, Samuel tried to instill in the people the understanding that the king was God’s regent, God’s stand-in, God’s ambassador plenipotentiary. The king represented the people to God and represented God to the people. The liturgy of holy processions had the king processing to the Temple, to the accolades of the people, “Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” Unfortunately Saul didn’t do very well as the first king. David and Solomon did better, but most of the kings who came after them went from bad to worst. Yet "king” was the accepted understanding of rule. Kings led, and for the most part the advantages outweighed the disadvantages.

Luke understood that Jesus went along the palm- and cloak-strewn road as the king who came in the name of the Lord. 

In the name of the Lord. We probably don’t fully appreciate that phrase. We are used to having people act as “powers of attorney” on our behalf when we are not able to act. We are used to having attorneys or agents negotiating contracts for us. They act for us with our permission and authority. Jesus was more than that. He was the Lord. He acted on his own authority.

We also don’t appreciate the value of a name. With Shakespeare we ask, “What’s in a name?” Contrary to the Bard of Avon, the answer is everything. That’s the Semitic understanding. A name made or broke a person’s life. A child could be forever branded good or evil, adept or klutzy, revered or scorned by the name given her or him. 

As powerful as all that was, it all paled in comparison to the name of the Lord. The name of the Lord was so sacred, it wasn’t spoken. Rabbis reading scripture automatically replaced the written name with another word. Just as a person couldn’t see the face of God and live (Moses and Elijah learned that), so the name of God was thought to be so holy that it couldn’t be said aloud. One of the ten commandments was to not take the Lord’s name “as if it were of no significance” (Exodus 20:7). That’s what “in vain” means. The understanding developed that uttering God’s name could violate that commandment. That has nothing to do with cursing and swearing. I wonder how the scribes could even write it. The name was holy because it was thought to represent or contain the very power of God. 

So if Jesus enters Jerusalem “in the name of the Lord,” then the very power and presence of God is riding lowly on that donkey. We can say whatever we want about the fickleness of the crowd whose shouts change from “Hosanna” to “Crucify” by the end of the week. The parade is not about the bystanders. Jesus is in charge. Jesus knows exactly what he is doing. As we will see later in the week, he wishes that there was another way, he wishes that he didn’t have to proceed, yet he knows that this is the only way to accomplish the gift of life which God has determined to grace the world.

The name is everything. Jesus is the all in all. He doesn’t hide behind his divinity, but sets it aside in order to do what needs to be done. In spite of his pending death, Jesus rode in triumph, wearing the muted non-pomp that befits no one other than the Son of God. In that way, after death is conquered and life is affirmed, there will be nothing else believers can do other than bow their knees, their hearts, their spirits at the name of Jesus and confess him Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

As we approach the crucial events of our faith – Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection – what is God’s name for you? Is it just another name or is it the name above all names? Do you accord it the significance that cannot be usurped by any other name? Is it the blessing which goes with you? Is it life itself? The palmed and hosannaed journey down the Mount of Olives can help you decide.

Come, Lord Jesus. Blessed are you who comes in the name of the Lord!

Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com. 
Copyright © 2016 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.