Historical events are most real to me when I can achieve a sense of what it was like...really like...to be there, at the event.
Tomorrow is Palm Sunday. What was that like? What was that really like, standing there on the third, or maybe the fourth or fifth row back from the street when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt.
Was it hot? Noisy? Scary, like a mob or celebratory like after winning a national championship? I guess word had gotten out about some of the stuff Jesus was doing. People knew about him and wanted to see him I guess. Would the media have characterized him as a rock star? Oh, wait...Jesus Christ Superstar...Superstar..he’s there already.
Wonder how people found out? Word of mouth? Word traveling fast through the shops and homes of Jerusalem on the eve of Passover?
I was sitting with friends in front of a tent at the Union Grove Fiddler’s Convention when hundreds of people came running past, between the other tents. “Hey, what’s gong on,?” I shouted at a guy who had stopped to tie his shoe. “Outlaws are riding in,” and he ran off.
I put the Rebel Yell in the tent and joined thousands of others as we lined the dirt farm road that wound through the gate, into the pasture, past all the other tents, and into a dense stand of elm and walnut on the banks of one of only two creeks on the whole farm. The area had been roped off for two days. On the rope were two signs, bad handwriting in dark pencil on notebook paper: “Outlaws.”
Maybe Jerusalem was something like that. All those people, running for a glimps, straining for a look.
And I wonder about the secondary plot lines, the minor characters. For instance, the guy who owned the colt that Jesus rode on? He's like all those housekeepers and doormen and students and joggers and cooks and tailors and bankers in Law and Order, people who just happened to be where something happened. It's a small part, but important.
On Sunday morning, before entering Jerusalem, Jesus told two disciples to go into the village where they would find an ass and its colt which had never been ridden. Take them both, he said, and bring them to me, adding that if anyone asked what they’re doing, just say "the Lord hath need of them.” That’s it; all will be cool.
The disciples found the animals, took them, and when confronted told the owner the Lord hath need of them, and sure enough, he lets the animals go.
Who was that guy and what’s his story? Why would he let that happen? What if he had not? What if he had said “Hell no, get your hands off my stuff,” would Jesus have walked? But there was a prophecy that had to be fulfilled, and was fulfilled when he performed the ride-in.
But that guy. What did he tell his wife? He probably walked home.
Thinking about that...the guy having to walk home ...that makes it all seem real to me.