The V.B.S. held on 21st, 22nd and 23rd May 2009 at Christ Church, Kanpur, started with a word of prayer by the Revd. S.P.Lal. 60 children participated;30 children from CNI Gwaltoli Chruch and 30 children from Christ Church, Kanpur. The teachers of Sunday School who gave Bible teaching were Mrs. S.Abraham and Mrs. V.Lal. Mr. Sony Abraham taught songs and also played music. A film show based on “JESUS” was shown. All the three days refreshments, sponsored by the members of the three Churches, were served.
-The Revd. S.P.Lal
Presbyter-In-Charge & Dean of Kanpur
Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem
When we read the first three Gospels we get the idea that this was actually Jesus’ first visit to Jerusalem. They are concerned to tell the story of Jesus’ work in Galilee. We must remember that the Gospels are very short into their short compass is crammed the work of three years, and the writers were bound to select the things in which they were interested and of which they had special knowledge. And when we read the fourth Gospel we find Jesus frequently in Jerusalem (John 2:12, 5:1, 7:10). We find in fact that he regularly went up to Jerusalem for the great feasts.
There is no real contradiction here. The first three gospels are specially interested in the Galilaean ministry, and the fourth in the Judaean. In fact, moreover, even the first three have indications that Jesus was not infrequently in Jerusalem. There is his close friendship with Martha and Mary and Lazarus at Bethany, a friendship, which speaks of many visit. There is the fact that Joseph of Arimathaea was his secret friend. And above all there is Jesus’ saying in Matthew 23:37 that often he would gathered together the people of Jerusalem as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings but they were unwilling.
Observance of Feasts:
Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles were the three compulsory festivals of the Jews. To the Passover in Jerusalem Jews came from the ends of the earth. Wherever a Jew might live it was his ambition to observe one such Passover, they say: “This year here; next year in Jerusalem.”
At such a time Jerusalem and the villages round about were crowded. It was the Passover time, and Jerusalem and the whole surrounding neighbourhood was crowded with pilgrims. It was the Passover regulation that there must be a party of a minimum of ten for each lamb. The law was that every adult male Jew who lived within twenty miles of Jerusalem must come to the Passover; but not only the Jews of Palestine, Jews from every corner of the world made their way to the greatest of their national festivals. Jesus could not have chosen a more dramatic moment; it was into a city surging with people keyed up with religious expectations that he came. On one such a occasion census was taken of the lambs slain at the Passover feast. The number was given as 2,56,000. There had to be a minimum of ten people per lamb; and if that estimate is correct it means that there must have been as many as 25,60,000 people at that Passover Feast.
Enactment of Dramatic Act:
From Jerusalem to Jericho was only seventeen miles, and now Jesus had almost reached his goal. The prophets had a regular custom of which they made use again and again. When words were of no effect, when people refused to take in and understand the spoken message, they resorted to some dramatic action which put their message into a picture which none fail to see. It was just such a dramatic action, which Jesus planned now. He proposed to ride into Jerusalem in a way that would be an unmistakable claim to be the Messiah, God’s Anointed King.
Tumultuous Welcome of Messiah:
News and rumour had gone out that Jesus the man who had raised Lazarus from the dead was on his way to Jerusalem. There were two crowds, the crowd, which was accompanying Jesus from Bethany, and the crowd, which surged out from Jerusalem to see him; and they must have flowed together in a surging mass.
This was not a sudden decision of Jesus. It was something, which he had prepared in advance. He sent his disciples into “the village” to collect the ass and her foal: Jesus had already arranged that the ass and her foal should be waiting for him, for he must have had many friends in Bethany; and the phrase, “The master needs tem”, was a password by which their owner would know that the hour which Jesus had arranged had come.
As the crowds met him they received him like a conqueror. And the sight of this tumultuous welcome sent the Jewish authorities into the depths of despair, for it seemed that nothing they could do could to stop the tide of the people who had gone after Jesus.
The whole tone of the story shows that he carrying out plans, which he had made ahead. So Jesus rode into Jerusalem. The fact that the ass had never been ridden before made it specially suitable for sacred purposes. The special sacredness of the occasion was underlined by the fact that the ass had never been ridden by any man before.
Jesus proposed to ride into Jerusalem in a way that would be an unmistakable claim to be the Messiah, God’s Anointed King. It was an act of glorious defiance and of superlative courage. He entered in such a way to focus the whole lime-light upon himself and to occupy the center of the stage. It was a deliberate claim to be king, a deliberate fulfilling of the picture in Zechariah 9:9.
The crowd received Jesus like a king they spread their cloaks in front of him. They greeted him as they would greet a pilgrim, for the greeting “Blessed be he who enters in the name of the Lord”(ps.118:26) was the greeting which was addressed to pilgrims as they came to the Feast.
They greeted him with the words: “Hosanna Blessed is he who is coming in the name of Lord!” the word Hosanna is the Hebrew for “Save now!” And the shout of the people was almost precisely: “God save the King !”
The words with which the people greeted Jesus are illuminating and are a quotation from Ps.118:25, 26. It was the last-psalm of the group (113-118) known as the Hallel. The word Hallel means Praise God! And these were all praising psalms. They were part of the first memory work every Jewish boy had to do; they were sung often at great acts of praise and thanksgiving in the temple; they were an itegral part of the Passover ritual.
Further, this was characteristically the conqueror’s psalm. When the people were signing this psalm they were looking on Jesus as God’s anointed one, the Messiah, the Deliverer, the one who was to come. And there is no doubt that they were looking on him as the conqueror.
In such situation he came riding upon an ass’s colt. This act gives two things. First, it was a deliberate claim to be Messiah. It was a dramatic enactment of the words of Zechariah the prophet (Zechariah 9:9). Zechariah had said: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of zion; shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass”. The claim of Jesus was a messianic claim.
But, second, it was a claim to be a particular kind of Messiah. The ass was a noble animal in the East for Israelites i.e., Jewish people. A king came riding upon an horse when he was bent on war; he came riding upon an ass when he was coming in peace. This action of Jesus is a sign that he was not the warrior figure men dreamed of, but the figure of prince of peace.
Claim of the King:
Jesus knew full well that he was entering a hostile city. However enthusiastic the crowd might be, the authorities hated him and had sworn to eliminate him. All through his last days there is in every action a kind of magnificent and sublime defiance, and here he begins the last act with a deliberate challenge to the authorities to do their worst. Certainly it shows us his claim to be God’s Messiah, God’s anointed one and cleanser of the temple. It was not the Kingship of the throne, which he claimed; his kingship was of peace of which prince he was.
-The Revd. Prem Prakash Habil)
Diocesan Secretary
Diocese of Agra |
