Bible Text: Mark 11: 1-11: Matthew 21: 1-11: Luke 19: 28-40 | Preacher: Rev. Berlin Guerrero | Series: 2020 |

Bible translators and bible scholars agrees that this peace of scriptures taken from Matthew, which is also found in Mark and Luke, is described as Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. If you have the NRSV, all three have this title.

Yet according to Matthew the whole city was in turmoil, asking “Who is this?”

Mark 11:1-11
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!

Matthew 21:1-11
Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

Luke 19:28-40
Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!

Who is this?

The people believe that a long-awaited Messiah has come, no other than one who comes the ancestry of David their king. The Son of David, the prophet who comes after the many Jewish prophets of old.

The one prophet Zechariah spoke about saying, 5“Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

So the people believe their long-awaited king has arrived, the king who would liberate them from Roman oppression, and the oppression of their own government.

But wait! Why is this king riding on a donkey? why not in a horse drawn chariot in front of a huge mighty army capable of defeating any armed or military opposition that comes in its path.

But on a donkey! The Son of David has opted to ride on a donkey, a borrowed donkey at that!
It does not look mighty or military at all.
Riding a donkey perhaps is the most non-militaristic manifestation that militarism is not the way to peace.

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So much has been spent by government for military build-up. Science and technology research and development is devoted to inventing more sophisticated weapons and armaments.

The most powerful countries allocate a large part of their annual budget for defence spending – to build armies, manufacture armaments, and procure military hardware available in the arms market.

The US has the biggest military-industrial complex from which private corporations amass huge profits.

There is so much armaments in the world that it amplifies today the lack of masks/respirators, and ventilators which are of life-saving importance in a time of a pandemic.

According to The Economist, “there is a dire shortage of these machines in hospitals… intensive-care units will be overwhelmed.”1

What does the world need today? PPEs, respirators, ventilators, and a cure…a vaccine

In the fight against the coronavirus, those who are in the frontline – doctors, nurses, hospital staff are also vulnerable to infection. in fact, many of them have been infected and a number of them succumbed to COVID-19.

On Thursday, National Nurses United (NNU), the nation’s largest RN union, addressed Trump by letter, saying the following:

“Across the nation, our health care workforce does not have the personal protective equipment it needs to safely care for patients without risking exposure to the virus,” adding:

“As a result, health care workers are at risk of illness and death, which puts our entire health care system at risk of collapse.”

“Further, when health care workers are exposed to the virus, they risk transmitting the virus to their families, patients, and communities.”

“If our country fails to immediately protect our health care workers, we will fail to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.”2

1 Scientists and industry are dashing to make more ventilators, The Economist; 26 March 2020,

https://www.economist.com/international/2020/03/26/scientists-and-industry-are-dashing-to-make- more-ventilators
(accessed 4, 2020)
2 Critical Shortage of Ventilators and Protective Gear Persists, Stephen Lendman; Global Research, 3

April 2020 https://www.globalresearch.ca/critical-shortage-ventilators-protective-gear- persists/5708600 (accessed 4 April 2020)

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President Trump is now invoking the Defence Production Act. Trump orders companies to produce ventilators, personal protective gears, and whatever else is needed for medical staff to treat COVID-19 patients.

Last Friday for the first time, he called on General Motors to produce ventilators.

During WW I and II, US auto makers shifted from passenger cars to aircraft, tanks and guns to support the war effort.3

These corporations continue to build war-related materials after the war, now they are being told to wage war on and defeat COVID-19.

Urged on by worried governments, ventilator manufacturers are working flat out and forming partnerships with carmakers, aerospace firms and others to boost output as fast as possible.

Perhaps this is going to be big lesson for government to nationalise and not privatize economies and put more money in products that sustain and save lives rather than those which brings death and destruction.

Today, people are also wary of the lack of necessary supplies such as toilet paper, hand sanitisers, and face masks. But not only that,
people are also wary that there are companies who will make a profit out of the pandemic.

Another article I read says:

Natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, typhoons, and hurricanes inflict serious damage and so seem to be bad for the economy. For firms, natural disasters destroy tangible assets such as buildings and equipment – as well as human capital – and thereby deteriorate their production capacity. These adverse impacts may sometimes be fatal to the firms and result in them being forced to close down.

But the academic evidence on the economic impact of natural disasters is mixed. As reviewed in surveys such as Noy and Vu (2010) and Loayza et al. (2012), the existing studies report that natural disasters may even promote growth. One possible mechanism behind this positive impact is the enhancement of the productivity of the economy’s corporate sector – as reported in Skidmore and Toya (2002) and Crespo- Cuaresma et al (2008).4

3 Critical Shortage of Ventilators and Protective Gear Persists, Stephen Lendman; Global Research, 3 April 2020 https://www.globalresearch.ca/critical-shortage-ventilators-protective-gear- persists/5708600 (Accessed 4 April 2020)
4 How do natural disasters affect the economy?, Arito Ono; World Economic Forum, 11 Feb 2015,https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/02/how-do-natural-disasters-affect-the-economy/ (Accessed 4 April 2020).

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The corporate sector – this means the private sector of the economy – the big private corporations owned by individuals and families are bound to make a killing out of natural and human-made disasters whilst the primary victims of disasters remain poor and oppressed.

(How much? Cheapest price is approximately $2,000, the AgVa ventilator, Indian made, is a fraction of the price of conventional ventilators, which go for more than $10,000.)

It is very interesting to note that this section in Matthew readings is followed by an account of Jesus entering the temple and cleanses it of the corrupt and profiteering economy happening inside for it has become a “den of robbers” (v.13)

For Jesus, this type of economy is oppressive and corrupt and does not bring the kind of peace that God desires for God’s people.

The crowd who welcomed Jesus believed that peace and justice can be had with unnecessary use of arms and so…what was in their hands? palm leaves and branches – not swords and spears.

A final note:

There is something happening in the world today. Somehow guns are silent, no wars are raging…, there are ceasefires between warring parties and groups (NDPF)

But another war is going on. It is happening
not in geographical battlegrounds or battlefields, there are no guns firing.

What I am referring to is the war that is happening in keyboards and keypads, in PCs and in the internet. There is a huge influx of messaging, teleconferencing, live broadcasts, all about the pandemic – many are questioning, many are prodding, many are advocating…

This is the war between truth and falsehood. False hoods are lies and crookedness which are being exposed by the pandemic.

When this pandemic is gone, the truth will be revealed about the incapacity of our present economic and political system to sustain and protect the lives of the most vulnerable members of society, not just the elderly but the economically poor.

The whole City of Jerusalem was in turmoil – but there is peace and hope for people who knew that Jesus is indeed the prince of peace.

The world is in turmoil but there is hope that there will be healing not only from the pandemic but from the disease and corruption which infect humanity. That there will be justice and peace built by peacemakers like you and me who love God, who follow Christ, and who love the least of our brothers and sisters.

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Amen.