Intense Moment Entering Jerusalem

I remember writing a poem once about this passage...

I am from the Daily News
My job is important interviews.
I'm here to see the
King of the Jews.
Who does he think he is?
Riding on a donkey's back,
a king could afford a Cadillac!
If he's a king, then I'm a hack,
Who does he think he is?"

Gire's chapter is timely, given that we are still at war in much of the world, and much of it caused by our own country under the guise of protection for our "way of life". Unfortunately his words would be timely in most generations since Jesus' time on earth. Those of us who call ourselves Christian assure each other that we've learned his lessons. Maybe we delude ourselves, just like the Pharisees.

The irony of our God, our entire creation, is not lost. It certainly permeates my own faith like sachet in an underwear drawer. Jesus, the Son of God, with nowhere to lay his head, everything he had borrowed (as Gire points out.) His ministry was a quiet testimony to the way human life existed thousands of years before agriculture, before warrior gods, before rules and regulations on how to live, what to eat, who to love and hate. His message was pointed and subtle at the same time... too inconceivable to understand. We stubbornly understand power as authority. We still console ourselves with the power story that Jesus will come again... but next time he'll kick ass.

Jesus wept for the world. Jerusalem was just the tip of the iceberg.