Intersecting with Divinity

Luke describes Jesus’ triumphal entry like this: “As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they have seen, saying “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.”

Interestingly, there’s no parade from the people of Jerusalem. It’s the disciples screaming in the streets about the divinity of the donkey riding king.

It doesn’t appear anyone in Jerusalem cares about Jesus. They don’t shout, wave palms, or lay down cloaks. Not in Luke. Jerusalem doesn’t burst with excitement or with anger. They just move on as if nothing happened. Divinity is right in their midst, and they do nothing.

If we’re honest with ourselves we’d admit divinity meets us every morning for coffee and we fail to realize its significance. Jesus intersects in our lives but we move on as if nothing happened.

My senior year of college I volunteered to be a Spiritual Life Assistant for freshmen. The semester started off good with Bible Study and prayer group meetings, but as the semester continued my presence and availability for these students waned. By the end of the semester I found myself sending emails and canceling lunch plans with people I was supposed to be ministering to. I got busy. I didn’t have time. I quit looking. I stared divinity in the face and did nothing.

We are just like the people of Jerusalem. We say we are looking for a king, but when our faith demands our lives to change – we resist, we ignore, we build reasonable excuses to just continue practicing our ‘conveyor belt’ faith. We don’t celebrate. We aren’t joyful or nostalgic. We just ignore it.

It’s a shame Jerusalem misses the majesty of Palm Sunday. Jesus could have helped change their lives, teach them about the coming kingdom, and showcase a better way to live. He may not have even had to die. Instead they (Jerusalem extremists) turned against, arrested, and eventually killed him for no better reason than he disturbed their ‘conveyor belt’ faith.

It’s equally shameful that (even though we know better) we continually ignore divinity moving and being in our midst. We ignore our needed participation in the kingdom as well as nurturing our relationship with Christ.

I wonder how differently our lives would look if we actually noticed that divinity does intersect with our humanity? My guess is we’d be better Christians. My guess is we’d be a better Church.

But I wouldn’t know because I keep choosing to stay the same.

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