All Jerusalem was chaotic. Everyone was on edge and there was high anxiety. The Romans were lurking constantly, nobody knew who they would harass next. Into this maelstrom comes a man on a donkey. People are really frightened and in fear of their lives. Suddenly they see Jesus riding into town on a Donkey.

When the crowd saw Jesus they though this guy might be the messiah. They thought he might be the descendant of King David who would lead them back into their glorious past.

It is perfectly normal to feel anxious and afraid. That is exactly how I am feeling right now and it is not a good way to feel. When I am anxious and afraid I hunker down and I retreat, maybe even go into hiding. Which is exactly what all of us are doing!

For today and tomorrow we should all do as we are asked which is to hunker down and retreat. But we each need to plan a way forward. Forward means new, not a restoration. On Palm Sunday the people of Jerusalem didn’t want Jesus to lead them forward but to take them back to where they were.

The people of Israel didn’t want the new thing that Jesus was offering. Instead they wanted the old kingdom of their ancestor David. The whole focus of the old testament was a going back to something that was so much better. The people were clearly living in the past.

The early church had most of its energy in the Greek cities where St. Paul founded the first gentile churches. Ephesus was a city where Paul planted one of these churches. Long ago in that place lived Heraclitus whose way of looking at the world was forward looking rather than backward looking.

Heraclitus taught that you can’t step into the same river twice. His point was that change was inevitable because water flows down the river and every time you encounter the river it is different. Heraclitus taught that human beings were all about becoming.

I think that Jesus was all about becoming too. Nobody that met Jesus was ever the same again. I think that the biggest change that he worked in people was getting them to abandon their belief in a false past. His rejection of past traditions was why he was so widely despised. The crowd wanted to look backward because they were afraid of becoming.

The people of Jerusalem could only see Jesus on the un-ridden colt as the expected messiah come to take them backward.

The crowd also connected Jesus entry on the donkey with Psalm 118:25 “Save us, we beseech you, O Lord! O Lord, we beseech you, give us success!” Hosanna means God save us. This made me remember what Jesus said in the aftermath of the raising of Lazarus. “And what should I say, Father save me from this hour?” Isn’t it strange that the one thing Jesus said he wouldn’t ask of his father was to “Save me from this hour”, this is the very thing that the crowd requires of Jesus in their Hosanna or save us now?

In our communities and our church and in our families it might be tempting to try to go back to the way things were at the end of February. But as followers of Jesus way there is never a going back only a moving forward. As we meet Jesus in our lives he helps us to become more like him. He set the mark for a relentless movement forward even when forward for him meant a cross.

So what does Jesus do next? He proceeds to trash the Jew’s most sacred symbol. The symbol of God’s presence with his people the temple. No Jesus was never about going backward but instead he was always about finding new ways forward.

Our encounter with corona virus is going to compel us to become something different than we are today. Our congregation has already become something different because this crisis has changed the world as we know it. When things change it is always a mistake to try to recreate the past because the past is gone and what lies ahead is a future where we must continue to become.

I know that I have to come to terms with my anxiety. The antidote to this anxiety is to authentically live out the faith of Jesus in my life.

We have each been blessed by the gifts that we bear in our bodies and our lives. Each of us can become part of the new thing that Jesus is trying to begin. I have great confidence in each one of you because when I look into your eyes I can see that they shine with the faith of Christ.

We have this opportunity laid at our feet. The faith of Jesus will help us come face to face with our human nature that wants to cling to the past and not face the future with the same courage with which he faced his cross.

Let us resolve to not cling to the past but rather face the future of our becoming with courage and integrity. In this way the Corona Virus can be seen as an opportunity in the same way that Jesus trashing of the temple was an opportunity to the people of Jerusalem to become instead of remaining captive to their past.

My faith tells me that our experience of the corona virus will become for us the deconstruction of our past loving selves and the enabling of a new and more faithful way of modeling Christ’s faith in our lives.