Jesus' Bucket List, March 28, 2010 Palm Sunday

Luke 19:1-27
Luke 19:28-40
A few years ago, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman starred in a film titled THE BUCKET LIST.
The story of two men who meet as patients with Cancer sharing a hospital room. As they come to know each other Nicholson's character sees Morgan Freeman's creating a list, and Freeman describes that different from the HONEY DO List on the Refrigerator, these were all the things he planned to do, that had never been done, before he kicked the Bucket, ie The Bucket List. Parachuting out of an Airplane, Walking the Great Wall of China, climbing Mount Everest, driving a car at the Indianapolis 500 Full Out. But as they work through their lists, harder than climbing the Himalayas, is TELLING YOUR SPOUSE, You Love Them; or in the case of Jack Nicholson's character asking for forgiveness/ reconciling with his daughter and meeting his grandchild. These are the things we want and need to do before we die.

The 19th Chapter of the Gospel of Luke, is JESUS' OWN BUCKET LIST. Not scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef, or betting on a horse named Fu Manchu at the Kentucky Derby, but knowing that the Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, is a Processional to his death on the Cross.
The parable contained here is confusing, because it is as if there were more than one parables told simultaneously, where it is difficult to determine where one leaves off and the other begins. This is a parable about what John Calvin described as DOUBLE PREDESTINATION.

To understand the starting parable one needs to now the Context, that in the 4th Century BC, Herod the Great, the last King of Israel died. It was the beginning of the Roman Empire's domination, and Herod's Son Archaeleus, went to Rome to be recognized as King. Archeleus was so feared and hated, that 50 leaders of Israel went to Rome to protest. Instead of being crowned King of all Israel, Archeleus was made Vassal King of Judea, and upon his return the families of the 50 who had protested were put to death. Throughout the Gospel, Pharisees and Scribes have protested against Jesus' authority, challenged the claims about his being the Messiah. We also need to know that the beginning of the writing down of the Gospels coincides with the year 70 AD, 70 of the Common Era, when the Empire of Rome destroyed Jerusalem, crucifying and persecuting hundreds of thousands, destroying temples and homes until one stone did not rest upon another. The first parable is Luke foreshadowing what is to come. Jesus goes to Jerusalem to be recognized as King, many protested his authority, all died. Are there any here present, who do not believe we will eventually all die?
That is PREDESTINATION: We protest against the way God has planned for the world, we try to control life ourselves, but ultimately, we as Mortals all die.

Yet, the parable does not leave us there, for within that context, before leaving, the Nobleman gives all he has to various specific people, to use, to trade, to share. There is a wordplay here that the word translated in Matthew as TALENTS and in Luke POUNDS representing the measure of a person, their gifts, their abilities, the weight of their authority, ALSO designates a coin equal to 30 days labor, so 10 POUNDS was the equivalent of a Year's Work. One risks everything and for every Pound makes 10 times more, so returns to the King 10 Years' Labors. A second uses their gifts and relationships and knowledge, and trading makes for every pound 5 times more. Each, who has been trusted with gifts, who use them with all their knowledge and skill and who risk for what they believe in, are rewarded. But as the Parable describes, many of us refuse to risk, refuse to try. If anything, I believe this is a parable addressed to Nations, to Churches and Families and Believers, who are worried about their own comforts, who serve themselves and their own needs. We were Baptized so do not need to be concerned with faith in God. We did grand and glorious things in the past, we have this treasure hidden away, we have kept our possession safe and not risked it. BUT we were supposed to risk, supposed to help others with what we were given. I have often wondered, what if there were a fourth, who had been given pounds and talents, who had risked everything, had tried, but had lost everything? What would have been the response of the King when he returned? In Luke's version of Jesus' telling, the one who risked nothing has everything taken away; and those who protested that they did not want him to be King all died. So having risked everything, having tried and lost, there is nothing worse that could happen than that we die, which eventually comes to all. But I believe, having risked everything, even losing it all, still having tried, the LORD would have known the attempt, the desire, and the commitment.

Yet, the parable does not leave us there, because like ripples in a pool emanating from a spot, there is a story before and one after, these parables.
Zaccheus was a rich and powerful man, The Chief Tax Collector. This was a man who operated on the basis of fear and intimidation. All the power of the Roman Empire to collect Taxes, to collect from an subjugated people to pay for the Military Legion who oppressed them, was concentrated in this solitary man. Zacceus liked to go about in long robes and to have people bow down to him, everything about this man spoke of his power. Yet, as powerful and intimidating as was Zaccheus, he was a man, a man who knew he had stolen, knew he had been rewarded for keeping others in poverty. Zaccheus had heard about this Jesus of Nazareth, had wanted to see him and hear him, no matter what the cost. SO hearing that Jesus was coming, Zaccheus left his shop to see him. But there was a crowd, and being small, Zaccheus could not see. Imagine this man whose life is consumed by his reputation of power, scurrying about with his robes flapping, as he shinnied up a Sycamore tree, scraping and bloodying his knuckles, catching and tearing his robes, he got to a place where he would be hidden by the branches while he could see Jesus coming, yet Jesus stopped at the foot of the tree and invited Zaccheus to come down and let us share a meal together. This man of Power and Intimidation, had humbled himself to catch a glimpse of Jesus. We know, that before the week is out, Jesus would be stripped of robes, and nailed to a tree lifted up. Zaccheus came down and brought Jesus into his own home, where he gave half of all he had to the poor, and pledged to return to any who had had stolen from them 4 times as much. Suggesting that the return of the Pounds does not have to be paid to the King, but could be given to those in need.

On the opposite side of the Parable, Jesus rides into the Royal City of King David, comes to the Temple of Solomon, and there weeps over the ways they have made faith in God into a commodity to be bought and sold.

Prior to Zaccheus, there was a blind beggar at Jericho, who cried out “Have Mercy on Me Son of David” known better by the phrase “Hosanna, Son of David, Hosanna!” It is an obscure little story. I believe the remnant of a piece before. Recall that there was a Rich Young Ruler, who came to Jesus asking about Eternal Life. When he said he had loved the Lord with all his heart and soul and mind and strength, Jesus had told him he must do one thing more: “Go sell all you have, give to the poor, and come follow me.” And the Rich Young Ruler went away sorrowful. While it is not recorded here, I believe, that rich young ruler came to himself, and did as he was commanded, he sold all he had and gave to those in need, but still he knew, he was blind to the truth. So he sat on the curb as one who was blind. When Jesus passed he cried out, “HOSANNA, Have Mercy Upon Me, Son of David!” And Jesus healed him.

This is not simply a complex parable in Luke, not simply a parable within a parable, but a parable within a parable, within a parable, within a parable. This is JESUS' BUCKET LIST, as he attempts to do all the things on his list before he dies. There was healing the blindness of a Rich Young Ruler, Having The Chief Tax Collector of the Capital City of Jerusalem restored as a child of Israel, finding the Lost Sheep and redeeming those in need. Are these parables of great Risk, ABSOLUTELY, risking everything, knowing that the worst that is going to happen is that we will die, so regardless of how silly we may appear, how great the cost, we must try.

In the film, The Bucket List, Morgan Freeman's Character describes to Jack Nicholson's that all of life comes down to the answer to TWO QUESTIONS:
1. HAVE YOU FOUND JOY IN YOUR LIFE? and
2. HAS YOUR LIFE BROUGHT JOY TO OTHERS?
Jack Nicholson responds to the first absolutely, and to the second “You'll have to ask them” and the voice says, “But I am asking you, What have you done that has brought Joy to the lives of others?”

In 1977, the leader of the Central African Republic declared himself Emperor and held his own Processional. He rode in a carriage encrusted in gold, led by ten pure-bred stallions. The First of his ten wives entered before him, adorned in jewels, as orchestras played selections commissioned just for the coronation, she sat on a golden footstool. Each of his children were carried in on palettes carried by soldiers. He entered the palace and sat on a solid gold throne. His coronation of himself as Emperor nearly bankrupted the Nation. How different, Jesus who rode upon a borrowed donkey, as those who had been deaf and blind beggars, fishermen and prostitutes, took off their their cloaks to make a carpet for him.