Jesus is a Carpenter

Luke 19:28-44

Jesus is a carpenter.

And a very good carpenter at that …although he hasn’t worked with wood for some three years.

It was then that he left his home town to peruse his dream …his mission.

During these three years he has already turned lives upside down. He is about to turn tables upside down too.

During these three years thousands of people had walked to deserted places just to see him …to hear him …to touch him.

But today, he is coming to them. Riding on a donkey, his final journey …still pursuing his dream …about to complete his mission.

The crowds are going wild. Some have laid their coats on the ground to make a kind of red carpet. Others have ripped off branches from palm trees, waving them like banners, and laying them on the ground too.

Many are shouting and singing songs of praise.

But Jesus knows how little they really understand about why he has come.

As he reached the city he stops, and weeps. Not for himself, but for them.

They’re set on a course that leads to destruction. …but they don’t see it.

His mission is to save them …but they don’t want to be saved.

The crowds are cheering …but Jesus is weeping.

Peter is a fisherman.

And a very good fisherman at that …although he hasn’t done any fishing for quite some time.

In fact, it was Jesus who encouraged him to give it all up. And not just him …his brother and his two best friends too.

“Come, follow me”, Jesus had said. And the four fishermen had left their nets …their boats …their families and their friends …and had followed Jesus.

Peter missed his fishing, but if he could live his life again, he would have made the same decision.

Being with Jesus was truly life-enhancing. He’s seen things, heard things, done things he would never had imagined. And being one of Jesus’ closest friends was simply amazing.

But it had also become dangerous.

People were speaking out against Jesus, and opposing what he stood for.

Increasingly, there were rumours of people plotting to kill him.

Peter and his friends had told Jesus that he was mad for coming to Jerusalem. This was the stronghold of his enemies. His life would be in danger. But Jesus had refused to listen. He kept saying that his hour had come.

So Peter has resolved to stick with Jesus. After all, Jesus had given him the nick-name ‘Rocky’. This was his opportunity to live up to his nickname. He’d show people how solid and dependable he really was. He reminded himself that “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”.

Even if everyone else deserts Jesus, Peter will stand by him. He is quite convinced of that.

Judas is another follower of Jesus. Although, recently, he has become more and more disillusioned.

He had hoped that Jesus would be the one who would lead the rebellion against the Romans …that he would drive out the occupying army, and bring freedom to the nation.

It had all started so well, with thousands of people coming to hear him. And there is no doubt that Jesus had a way with words. When he spoke, you could hear a pin drop.

But Judas is convinced that Jesus has lost the plot. Instead of galvanising people to drive out the enemy, he talks about the need for everyone to love their enemies.

“And what on earth is he doing today?” thinks Judas. “He ought to be riding into Jerusalem on a war horse. Does he not realise how ridiculous he looks on a donkey?”

It’s the last straw. Judas needs to do something that will provoke Jesus into action. A last attempt to make him stand and fight. It’s obvious that Jesus has still got the ability to draw a crowd, so perhaps it’s not too late. But what can Judas do?

Benjamin is a shepherd.

He lives six miles away in the smaller town of Bethlehem, but has come to the big city to pick up supplies.

It’s as he’s leaving the Jerusalem, that he hears the shouting and singing of a large crowd coming into the city.

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

Not for the first time, his mind goes back to a strange event that happened thirty years ago. He was only a young boy then.

But on that occasion it wasn’t a crowd that was shouting and singing “glory in the highest”. It was a host of angels.

It was late at night, and he was with his dad in the fields. Suddenly they were bathed in light, and angelic voices cried:

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.”

The angels had told them that the Messiah had been born in their home town of Bethlehem, and after the angels had gone, he and his dad had hurried into the town to find the new-born king.

They found him, just as the angels had said, wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. He remembers looking around the dirty stable and thinking that he didn’t look much like a king!

And now, as the noise gets louder, Benjamin can finally see what everyone is shouting about.

There’s a bloke riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. People are laying coats and palm branches before him.

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Blessed is the king of Israel!”

As their paths cross, Banjamin looks at the bloke in the donkey. He doesn’t look much like a king!

After the crowd passes by, Benjamin’s thoughts return to the stable thirty years ago. “I wonder what happened to that baby”, he ponders.

In the coming years he would often think about that baby …but he never gave another thought to that bloke on the donkey.

Simon is a Pharisee.

And to put it mildly, Simon is not a happy Pharisee. In fact he was with a group of Pharisees who were very angry about what they were witnessing.

Like all true Israelites, Simon was praying that their nation would be saved from the oppression of the Romans. However, he had a pretty good idea why God had not yet answered their prayers.

His nation was being punished by God.

Simon knew the scriptures. He knew how God had given ‘The Law’ to Moses, and how this God had promised to bless his people if they obeyed the law, and to punish his people if they disobeyed it.

Simon also knew that the scriptures were full of examples of the nation of Israel disobeying the law and being punished by God. And he was convinced that this Roman oppression was just the latest example of God punishing his disobedient people.

It was for this reason that Simon had joined the Pharisees, the political party that campaigned for ‘righteousness’.

The Pharisees believed that, on their own, the Ten Commandments were open to abuse.

“It’s not enough just to say ‘Keep the Sabbath Day holy’”, they argued. “People need to clear guidelines that can be measured. You can walk so far, on the Sabbath, but no further. You can do this, but not that.”

“Only by spelling it out in minute detail, can we be sure that people are keeping the commandments. Only then will God bless us rather than punish us.”

And this is why the Pharisees had fallen out with Jesus.

Jesus taught his disciples that God wasn’t particularly interested with the minute details of the Law. Trivial matters such as whether or not you can pick and eat a handful of wheat on the Sabbath.

Instead, Jesus taught that God was more concerned with our attitudes, and how we loved God and our neighbours.

The Pharisees had been furious. Some people had started to agree with Jesus, and this was undermining a core message of the Pharisee party.

So they had infiltrated his meetings with spies, who had tried to trap Jesus with clever questions. They had hoped this strategy was working, because his popularity had been declining.

But now, it seems like the whole of Jerusalem is turning out to welcome him!

People were shouting:

“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Simon was furious. As Jesus passed by, he shouted out “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”

But Jesus refused.

“I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

Simon turned to his friends. “This is getting out of hand”, he said. “We’ve got to find a way of getting rid of him.”

Marcus is a centurion.

He’s coming towards the end of his posting in Jerusalem, and can’t wait to go home. He often thinks about his family and friends in Italy.

Jerusalem was one of the worst postings he had been given during his long and distinguished career in the Roman Army.

There was no excitement of battle, no thrill of victory, no plundering and looting. There was just the monotony of keeping the peace.

It wasn’t a happy city, and the people despised Marcus and his fellow soldiers. As oppressive empires go, the Romans weren’t too bad. They brought many improvements and innovations to the countries they conquered, and they allowed people to worship whichever gods they wanted.

But the Romans were still hated, and groups of Jewish zealots took every opportunity to cause trouble. Marcus needed to be vigilant.

Today, he and his men were keeping a close eye in the procession that was making its way into the city. At the moment the crowd appeared to be in good spirits: singing, and waving palm branches. But Marcus knew how quickly a good-natured crowd could turn into an angry mob.

He didn’t want another riot in Jerusalem. He didn’t want to give the Governor any reason to extend his posting in this god-forsaken place.

Mary is a loving friend of Jesus

She has loved him from the moment she met him. When he healed her and transformed her life for ever.

There are other women like her too. Joanna, who is married to the manager of Herod’s household. And Susanna.

These women are helping to financially support Jesus out of their own means.

Mary is anxious. She is all too aware that Jesus has enemies and, like Peter, she thinks it’s a mad idea for them to be walking into Jerusalem.

But, ultimately, Mary trusts Jesus, and wherever he goes, she will follow.

Jesus was a carpenter.

And a very good carpenter at that …although he hasn’t worked with wood for some 2000 years.

As he rode into Jerusalem, at the start of the week we now call ‘Holy’, it triggered a chain of events that not only turned lives and tables upside down. It would turn the world upside down.

2000 years later, the story is still told in every corner of the world.

Each of the characters in the story had to decide how they were going to respond to Jesus.

The men didn’t cover themselves in glory. During that first Holy Week:

Judas betrayed Jesus,

Peter denied he ever knew Jesus,

The Pharisees condemned Jesus,

The centurion crucified Jesus,

And many, like my fictional character of Benjamin, chose simply ignore Jesus.

It was the women who were brave enough to remain faithful to Jesus.

It was the women who didn’t run away, but who had the courage to stay with him at the cross.

It was the women who went to the tomb on that first Easter morning.

And it was Mary who was the first to meet and talk with the risen Lord Jesus.

(Pause)

2000 years later, we all have to decide how we are going to respond to Jesus.

Although I have used my imagination in the re-telling of this story, it’s based on the facts that you can read for yourself in the gospels. And my prayer is that you would take time this week to read the authoritative version for yourself.

You could start with the passage we read this morning, Jesus riding into Jerusalem in Luke Chapter 19 …and continue to the end of the book. It doesn’t take long … it’s only a few pages.

But as you read it, think about the characters that you meet. How do they respond to Jesus? …and in what ways are you similar or different to them?

Jesus was a carpenter.

But his is also the risen Lord and King of Kings, whose story continues to this day.

What’s your part in the story?

Text…