MONDAY, 15 February, 2021 “Parades”

Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,

Do you love parades? In America perhaps the most amazing parade is the annual Rose Bowl Parade held in Pasadena, California on New Years’ day. The float engineering is magnificent, but most amazing is that all the floats are decorated with real, live flowers. The colors are brilliant and it requires an army of people working 24 hours a day, for several days, under careful supervision, to assemble these spectacular displays and have them ready for daybreak on January 1st each year! Of course there are also marching bands and other celebration groups walking along the parade route, in this wonderful welcome of a new year. Sadly this COVID year, many such displays were cancelled. So would you join me as a spectator at a similar wonderful parade, held many years ago in Jerusalem? It’s reported for us in Nehemiah 12:27-43.

The occasion of this great parade was not welcoming a new year, not a sporting event, not even something like the global Olympics. This was the dedication of the Jerusalem wall which had been built by the people, despite widespread opposition, miraculously, in 52 days! People came from miles around to celebrate the powerful work of God in accomplishing this project and protecting the people as they worked. The people came with a great sense of anticipation.

Nehemiah was the organizer of this event and he records that the people came to “…celebrate joyfully the dedication with songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, harps and lyres. I (Nehemiah) had the leaders of Judah go up on top of the wall! I also assigned two large choirs to give thanks. One choir was to proceed on top of the wall to the right…along with some priests with trumpets…. Ezra the teacher of the Law led this procession. The second choir proceeded in the opposite direction, I followed them, on top of the wall, together with about half the people…” (Nehemiah 12:27-38)

Could I invite you to close your eyes for a moment and imagine this scene? The Jerusalem wall is high, more than 30 feet in some places. It is wide, at the top easily 6-10 feet wide and it is very solid, enough to support this parade going in two directions simultaneously. Can you see the Levites and the priests in their colorful garments, and musicians with many types of noisy instruments climbing the steps to the top of the wall?

You’ve seen those long silver trumpets used at very special ceremonies, right? Well, those are the types of trumpets some of the priests were blowing as they marched in this Jerusalem parade. And there is Ezra the scholar, the teacher of the law, likely carrying a large scroll at the front of the procession, like the grand marshal in the Rose Bowl Parade. And Mr. Nehemiah, the man who mobilized this city to build this wall, well, he is at the end of the procession as the grand finale.

The noise is nearly deafening as the people sing and cheer and the musicians play and the cymbals crash. Can you hear it? And of course the cheers and shouts of the people, especially the children in the streets below.

This wall is likely more than a mile in length all around Jerusalem, and from the lowest end of the city of David up to the highest point where the great Temple stands, is a significant elevation difference. The Kidron valley is on one side of the city and the valley of Ben Hinom on the other. Look, over there, on the other side on the Kidron, are the hillsides of the Mount of Olives. Can you see all the people who have come from villages further away, watching and cheering this great parade?

Pause for a moment… it almost takes your breath away doesn’t it? Now, imagine what this sight looks like to Jesus as He watches from His heavenly throne room! He looks back in time to the day king David led the parade of Levites and priests and musicians and singers as they brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, this very city, for the first time. Of course it was a much smaller city then. But the parade was no less enthusiastic and you’ll find the account of that parade in 1 Chronicles 15&16. King David himself was the grand marshal of that parade, and the golden Ark of the Covenant, gleaming in the sunshine was the focus of attention as it entered the city of David on this inaugural trip.

And then about 40 years later, in this very same place, the spectacular ceremony of dedication of the magnificent Temple of God constructed by king Solomon and more than 150,000 workers! Choirs, and musicians, and priests and Levites and of course king Solomon himself in all his royal robes, oh my what a procession!

On that occasion, of course, the great celebration was interrupted by God responding to Solomon’s dedication prayer, by His dropping a fireball from heaven to burn up the sacrifice on the altar in front of the Temple, and the cloud of God’s Presence descended on the Temple, and all the people bowed with their faces to the ground in worship of Holy, Almighty God! (2 Chronicles 5,6,7) Oh my what a parade that was!

And then my friends, I can imagine Jesus looking forward in time from the day of this wall dedication with Ezra and Nehemiah, to a day about 460 years later when He, Jesus is leading a parade early on a Friday morning, in this very city of Jerusalem. On this occasion, it’s not a parade with trumpets and choirs, it’s a parade of anger and tears. Roman whips crack in the air and women cry, as a bloodied man, badly beaten, with a crown of thorns on His head, stumbles along the narrow Jerusalem streets, bent over under the weight of a heavy cross.

Screams and shouts, taunts and tears, even some people reaching through the crowd to hit Him. And over there, His mother, Mary, with His friend John at her side, both weeping. What they are witnessing is unthinkable, it’s unexplainable. This is Jesus now stumbling to the ground under the weight of that cross. The same Jesus who healed blind eyes so they could see, and healed crippled limbs so they could walk. The same Jesus who fed 5000 people with a boy’s little lunch. The same Jesus who raised a widow’s dead son to life as they were carrying his body to the grave, and the same Jesus who called Lazarus out from the tomb in which his body had already been for four days.

How could it be? How could so many people be so very wrong about this man? He had loved, even those no one else loved, like lepers and a woman caught in adultery. He had served those who needed someone to care, someone to understand, someone to help them, when no one else would. And now… He was stumbling along this road to the hill of Golgotha to die. What a contrast to what was happening in Jerusalem with the Nehemiah parade!

Nehemiah concludes his parade description with this: “The two great choirs gave thanks and then took their places in the house of God (Temple); so did I, together with 1/2 the officials as well as the priests with their trumpets. The choirs sang…and on that day of celebration, they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them all great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away.” (Nehemiah 12:40-43)

On this Monday, as you and I look around our part of the world, do you see great contrasts between the anger, the harsh words of some people, and the calm and compassion, the peace and patience of other people? And what makes the difference… the parades! Those who understand and celebrate David’s parade, and Solomon’s parade, and Nehemiah’s parade, and even Jesus’ parade, give praise to God that each and all of those parades were for God’s honor and glory and the accomplishment of His peace on earth among mankind.

Do you have that peace of Jesus today? Even though it’s Monday, can you celebrate the potential of this day, because you are living a parade of two… you and Jesus, walking this day together!? Now can you wrap your arms around that reality and live it today? A parade of two, you “walking with Jesus”!!

I’ve got a great song for you to sing with Jesus as you walk with HIM today, no matter where you are in the world, I’m sure your language can sing this triumphant song. . .

Today’s Scripture is Nehemiah 12.

Choose below to read or listen.

Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.

Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.

Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)

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