Do not be afraid.

Scripture: John 12:12-16 NRSV

12 The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting,

“Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord—
    the King of Israel!”

14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written:

15  “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion.
Look, your king is coming,
    sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

16 His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.

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Do not be afraid . . .  

The crowd is gathered, shouting Hosannahs and covering the street in front of Jesus with their cloaks and palm branches, so the feet of the young donkey he rides on don’t have to touch the ground.  They are celebrating the entry of their king!  Why then, is John ’s telling of this celebratory event interrupted with the words, “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion.”?  You know, I’m not entirely sure.  Because when I looked up this prophecy, which comes from the 9th chapter of Zechariah, none of the translations I could find said, “Do not be afraid.”  Almost every one began with “Rejoice greatly!”   When John wrote his gospel, some 60 or more years after the  events took place, he knew what was coming, of course.  But he also knew the Scriptures, and the words of the prophets, so it’s hard to say why he chose to report Zechariah’s words just this way.

Zechariah was a prophet living after the fall of Jerusalem, after the exile.  The people were despondent, living far from their homes, enslaved and in despair over whether they would ever see Jerusalem again.   Zechariah knew that they would soon be reunited with their homeland - for God had told him so, and he reported God’s words to the exiles, saying, 

Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!

    Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!

Lo, your king comes to you;

    triumphant and victorious is he,

humble and riding on a donkey,

    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim

    and the warhorse from Jerusalem;

and the battle-bow shall be cut off,

    and he shall command peace to the nations;

his dominion shall be from sea to sea,

    and from the River to the ends of the earth.

Stop worrying and celebrate, people of Jerusalem!  For your savior is coming, and you will see an end to war and to your suffering under his rule.  And indeed, they would be liberated when Babylon suffered defeat at the hands of Cyrus the Great, who would return them to their homes and even help them rebuild their temple.   The region would know relative peace for close to 200 years, when Alexander the Great conquered Cyrus’ great empire.  

And in Jesus’ time, Jerusalem, indeed all of Judea, was occupied by the Romans.  The people were oppressed, enslaved, and wondering why they had been abandoned.  They were worried and fearful, waiting for their savior to come, and they couldn’t understand what was taking so long.  They were expecting  someone like David, who had united the tribes and kept them all safe from outside threats, or Elijah who defeated the priests of Baal, or one of the judges who defeated their enemies and kept things going for 40 years or so before the next invasion, or even maybe someone like Cyrus.  They would have been telling each other the prophecies.  They would have been reminding each other that God always always sent someone to save them from their oppressors . . . so when Jesus appeared at the gates of Jerusalem, riding a young donkey . . . here, at last, is the fulfillment of prophecy!  Here is the one who is coming to rescue them - like the judges of old, like David, like Cyrus.  Here is someone who will toss out the Romans and return them to the way things were!  Yay!  We don’t have to worry any more.  Hosannah!   

When John wrote his gospel, he needed to remind the people listening just what a difficult situation Jesus was riding in to, because by the time this gospel was written Rome had destroyed the Temple and much of the city.  In Jesus’ time, the people of Jerusalem had a lot to worry about.  They didn’t know, whenever they left the house, if they would come home safely again, or if the Roman soldiers would decide to rape them, or take them into slavery, or punish, even kill them for some imagined crime, or a crime someone else did.  “A Jew did this thing.  You are a Jew, therefore you are guilty, and it doesn’t really matter at all whether or not you are the actual criminal.”  Jewish lives simply didn’t matter to the Romans.  Even the nobility and the Temple leaders were fearful and could not allow anyone to call their authority into question - for their authority, even their lives, rested in the hands of the Romans, and in their own ability to keep the people pacified.  The people of Jerusalem had a lot to be fearful of - a lot to worry about.  And by the time John wrote his gospel, Roman persecution of Jesus followers had begun.   So, it does make sense that John would replace, “Rejoice!” with “Do not be afraid” in speaking to the people of his time, a time of trouble and great fear. They were worried.

I was kind of amazed to discover that the Wikipedia entry for Alfred E Newman is quite lengthy.  Since he made his first appearance on the cover in 1954, he has appeared on all but two issues of Mad Magazine, a humor magazine which makes fun of pretty much everything and everybody - and which was totally banned in my house!   (Needless to say, I grew up on Mad Magazine.  Because my brother hid it under his bed along with the Playboys he “borrowed" from my father, and was happy to share his contraband with his little sisters.)   But even before that, since the first recorded appearance of this iconic face in an advertisement for mince meat in 1895, he has been symbolic of a person who has not a care in the world.  His tag line,  “What? Me Worry?” is almost as famous as his face is.  He has sailed serenely through a bunch of wars, the Cuban missile crisis, riots, 9/11, lots of elections . . . even 1967’s Summer of Love couldn’t faze this guy.  Given all of that, I can’t imagine any situation in which this face might become worried or fearful or even a bit nervous.   

Alfred E Newman doesn’t worry about anything because he really doesn’t care about anything.  He is, after all, not an actual human.  We, on the other hand, care - about a lot of things.  And we worry - about a lot of things.  We worry about our health, our financial situation, the state of our city, our children, the future of our church - this particular church or the Church as a whole.  We might worry about our relationships, about whether we are ever going to find “the one.”  We might worry about spending our golden years alone or whether we’ll make it through the rest of the semester - or Holy Week.  We all have a lot of things to worry about.  And while there are those who would say that worrying is a sign that you have no faith, that’s not exactly the case.  Worry and fear are feelings. They are physical responses to actual situations, and there is nothing wrong with having those responses.   Faith, however, is seated in our hearts and is that which helps us get through those feelings and emotions.  Even Jesus was fearful and worried about what was to come - we know this from these words in Luke 22:42-44:  42 “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.” 43 Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. 44 In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.”  Yes, Jesus worried, but at the same time, he had faith that no matter what, God would bring him through to the other side.  He had faith that, no matter what, God would be with him.  His faith enabled him to walk through his worry and fear, and continue on the path that he was about to travel, the path that he knew was ahead of him.  His faith kept him from being paralyzed by his fear and worry.   Just as the angel from heaven strengthened Jesus, our faith can do the same for us.

It would not be good to be like Alfred E. Newman, never knowing fear or worry.  They are things that help us know we are human.  Nor is it good to allow our perfectly legitimate fears and worries to paralyze us.  Again, we look to Jesus for answers and for our example, whose humanity is made so very clear in the events of  this coming week.  The week to come is without doubt the most powerful of the Church year - filled with experiences of joy and celebration and love and fear and worry and great pain and suffering and grief - it is filled with every emotion known to humanity - even jealousy, because surely that is what impelled Judas to betray his Lord.  My sisters and brothers, I invite you to live this week in all of those feelings.  Walk with Jesus from today’s triumphal entry to Friday’s death and entombment.  Allow yourselves to feel those feelings - and know in your heart, in that place where your faith lives - that God will bring us through to the end.  

Let us stand and sing together, the story of the week that is to come.