Hello Broadway!
So. This week is Palm Sunday. Jesus enters Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, that most ubiquitous of Biblical locations. That most holy of cities. Location of bloodshed and of worship, land of hope and promise...and land which has been fought over continually for thousands of years like a giant bloody game of tug-of-war.
But what does Jerusalem mean?
It comes from the Hebrew Yerushalayim, meaning 'foundation of peace'. The roots used are yarah: 'he threw, cast', and shalom: 'peace'.
He casts peace. He casts the foundation of peace.
That's... a powerful sentiment. A powerful name, full of meaning, full of promise.
It's not one that we, humanity, have really lived up to, regarding Jerusalem the physical location. But how important is that physical location, really? I'm not trying to discount the value of knowing our history, of preserving our past, but God is not confined to one location. The Holy Land, Jerusalem...there is power in those places on this planet, but also?
We can carry them with us.
He casts the foundation of peace....wherever we go. They cast the foundation of love, wherever we go. She casts the foundation of mercy, wherever we go.
Jerusalem. The foundation. Jesus entered that city, that foundation, knowing that it was not peace that awaited him, in the immediate sense, but knowing also that he would bring the gift of peace to all humanity by giving up his temporarily.
He cast the foundation for our salvation, for our peace, for all eternity.
Jerusalem is ours. Not in an appropriative sense; it belongs to the Jewish faith, also. It belongs to any who find meaning and holiness in it, be it the physical location or the spiritual one, not just us, not just Christians. And yet. Jesus gave it to us, even if it is not only ours, and it is not bound to the city that we can point at on a map. It is not bound to a building, or a geographical location. Jerusalem is wherever we bring it, wherever we carry it in our hearts. Yerushalayim, forever.
