Living Stones

I have been pondering Jesus’ early years.  Entering Jerusalem, the disciples joyfully shouted, “Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!” It took them a while to know that. I wonder how Jesus’ own awareness of his identity grew? Did his astonishing love for all, his vision for justice, his capacity for healing, his oneness with creation gradually increase over time? How soon did he realize he was the incarnate one, chosen for a unique mission?

Perhaps what I most wonder, now in Lent, how was Jesus able to face Calvary?  Jesus was human.  His mission was just unfolding.  He wept over Jerusalem because so little had been accomplished on his mission of peace. In Gethsemane he struggled with his impending death.  Yet, he moved toward it with apparent trust and equanimity.

A Buddhist nun, Pema Chodron, said that nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.  I imagine that Jesus was transformed by embracing suffering, right up to his last breath.  In his way, he befriended suffering and put it under the blessing of his oneness with the beloved Author of all that is and can be.  Apparently, this was a pattern of his being. An important model for me and all his followers.

Today’s Gospel is a story of jubilation.*  I have never fully grasped the spirit of Palm Sunday jubilation, the enthusiastic hosannas and joyful waving of palms.  Jesus and his disciples know he is heading to an untimely death.  What is joyful about that?  Yet as I ponder the big picture, something Jesus always did, his startling remark about the stones teaches me.  Going down the road from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem, the loud praises of his disciples irritate the Pharisees who tell Jesus to rebuke them.  Jesus replies, “If they were quiet, the stones would cry out.”

What a thing to say.  What a thing to know!  Jerusalem was made of massive strong stones.  They lined the roads and formed the buildings.  I remember visiting there and feeling the solid, hard, white weight of them as far as the eye could see. I had no sense of them being with me, or for me. The photo above shows that entry road.  For Jesus, the surrounding stones were part of him, living stones that were all for him.  They had voices that would cry out for him.  Matthew tells us that happened when Jesus breathed his last. Earth shook, and the stones split apart.

Oneness with creation is a gift we are made for, too.  Stones, trees, all living beings collaborate with and radiate divine energy.  I now think Jesus drew immense strength and comfort from those many massive living stones as he entered Jerusalem. I want to grow into the truth of his relationship with living stones.  Jesus reveals so much about the oneness of all — oneness with the Creator and with all creation.  I continue to learn what I need to know.  Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord.