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| The Fruit of Jesus' Sacrifice II by Ilse Fleyn, 2011 A.D. |
Using a pomegranate,
Jesus shared that
to reach the sweetness
of His resurrection,
He had to go through
the bitterness of death.
All four Gospels in the Bible share highlights about Jesus fulfilling the prophecy of entering Jerusalem on a donkey, but John's Gospel gives special mention to where He prepared and waited for this holy moment with His disciples:
The Sanhedrin plotted to take Jesus’ life. Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead He withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where He stayed with His disciples. When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t He coming to the festival at all?” + John 11:53-56
Christian tradition tells us that when Jesus was with His disciples in Ephraim for a few weeks before entering into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, He told the inhabitants of the village a parable relating to pomegranates. This fruit's sweet seeds are protected by a bitter membrane. Using the image of this fruit, Jesus explained that in order to share the sweetness of His resurrection for all who follow Him and trust in Him, He would first need to go through the bitterness of death on a cross.
The Story Behind Ephraim Then & Now
Ephraim, that village north of Jerusalem that Jesus went to nearly 2,000 years ago, still exists. It’s now called Taybeh (pronounced Tie-bay). Christian tradition tells us that when Jesus went to this town, He taught His disciples more about how joy can come out of suffering, sweetness can come out of the bitter moments. In fact, it’s called Taybeh today because when the Muslim Sultan Saladin came to the town more than 1,000 years after Jesus, he changed the name from Ephraim to the Arabic Taybeh, which means “good and kind” because he found the inhabitants to be so hospitable and generous. It seems Jesus' discipleship about sweetness in the midst of suffering endured generation after generation.
The witness of Jesus' time
with His disciples in Ephraim
(it's estimated they spent
about 6 weeks in the village)
has lasted to today,
2,000 years later,
in an area where hostility
to Christianity
can be intense and violent.
In the midst of a majority of Muslims,
Israeli settlements,
and military roadblocks,
there are 1,000+ Greek Orthodox,
Roman Catholic, and
Greek Catholic Christians
who still love each other
and love their neighbors
with resilient goodness and kindness.
with His disciples in Ephraim
(it's estimated they spent
about 6 weeks in the village)
has lasted to today,
2,000 years later,
in an area where hostility
to Christianity
can be intense and violent.
In the midst of a majority of Muslims,
Israeli settlements,
and military roadblocks,
there are 1,000+ Greek Orthodox,
Roman Catholic, and
Greek Catholic Christians
who still love each other
and love their neighbors
with resilient goodness and kindness.
These Orthodox and Catholic followers of Jesus join together to celebrate Christmas on December 25 according to the Western calendar (i.e. Catholic) and then Easter together according to the Eastern calendar (i.e. Orthodox). St. George is their patron saint, who is depicted overcoming the dragon (i.e. works of the devil to lie, steal, kill, destroy).
And Taybeh is where the only microbrewery in the Middle East is. In their timeless and continuing goodness and kindness to their Muslim neighbors who are forbidden to drink alcohol, they also craft non-alcoholic beers to spread generous hospitality throughout the region.
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| The Sacrifice of Jesus (The Fruit of Jesus' Sacrifice) by Ilse Fleyn, 2011 A.D. Pomegranates Over Palms Perhaps the greatest image of the legacy left behind in Ephraim, now Taybeh, is the image of a pomegranate, which you can find imprints of throughout the town. |
Today, pomegranates
are a prominent symbol
of the followers of Jesus in Taybeh
because of how they represent
getting to the sweet fruit often
requires going through the bitter.
The Christians in Taybeh
see pomegranate as a symbol
of the fullness of Jesus’ suffering
and resurrection.
Tradition says Jesus told
the Ephraim villagers a parable
relating to this fruit,
whose sweet seeds are protected
by a bitter membrane.
Using this image,
Jesus shared that
to reach the sweetness
of His resurrection,
He had to go through
the bitterness of death.
And He would lead His followers
through the same.
And how profound a contrast to the image of palm branches for what Jesus was intending to do as He entered Jerusalem. Remember, Jesus did not choose palm branches to represent His entry. He chose a donkey (see Rev. Dr. Esau McCaulley's wonderful essay, "This Palm Sunday, Ponder Donkeys, Not Branches" if you would like to reflect more on the significance of this). For why the people chose palm branches, here is a little more historical background:
On that first Palm Sunday, two processions entered Jerusalem – one from the west, where Pontius Pilate and his entourage of military calvary came into the city with swords, armor, and all the trappings of empire, and another from the east, where Jesus rode into the royal city to the waving of palm branches, just as Judas Maccabeus had done two hundred years earlier when he kicked out the Syrians. It was a sign to all that Jesus had come with a Kingdom in mind.Many pilgrims arriving for the Passover celebration surrounded Jesus as He moved toward the city, singing the psalms of festival time, including Psalm 118, which begins with the language of conflict and ends with pilgrims making their way to the temple on Mount Zion to worship. This psalm among many others that may have been sung has heavy overtones of war and God's triumph over a tyrant. And now, after decades of oppression, Jesus gave the people a reason to sing. Many of those singing had prayed for years that someone empowered by God would come and, like Joshua entering Canaan or Gideon fighting the Midianites, drive out the pagan occupiers and reclaim the former glory of Israel. Jesus possessed that power. Not only could He raise the dead and heal the blind; Jesus could walk on the sea and feed thousands from simple items such as a few pieces of bread and fish. He commanded the weather with His voice, and, more important still, Jesus was a man of God. John the Forerunner and Baptizer – a prophet to be sure – had anointed Jesus and it was rumored that a voice from heaven spoke over Jesus that day. The solution to years of misery was here at last. Surely at Passover – the celebration of the Jewish exodus from Egypt – the Messiah would call on God to destroy the pagans and reconstitute Israel as the light of the world.
With palm branches in hand and shouts of "Hosanna" (a word of praise for God's coming salvation) on their lips, the people were expressing their expectation. Each palm branch was a vote for rebellion; each shout of blessing was a call to pick up the sword.
But Jesus wasn't going to
pick up the sword,
nor call anyone else to
in Jerusalem that week.
Instead,
He was going to be pierced
after Passover.
He was going to drink
the bitter cup
so that friends and enemies,
Jews and Romans,
peaceful and violent
could be invited to taste
the goodness of God
at His table He was setting
then and is still setting today.
pick up the sword,
nor call anyone else to
in Jerusalem that week.
Instead,
He was going to be pierced
after Passover.
He was going to drink
the bitter cup
so that friends and enemies,
Jews and Romans,
peaceful and violent
could be invited to taste
the goodness of God
at His table He was setting
then and is still setting today.
Back to Ephraim, Pomegranates in Hand
Pomegranates in Ephraim provide a better image than palms of what Jesus was really teaching His disciples about the Kingdom of heaven breaking into earth on that first Sunday of the first Holy Week.
Look at how the prophetic reading from Isaiah 50 reads now in light of pomegranates as Jesus' plans to enter Jerusalem:
The Sovereign LORD has given me His words of wisdom, so that I know how to comfort the weary. Morning by morning He wakens me and opens my understanding to His will. The Sovereign LORD has spoken to me, and I have listened. I have not rebelled or turned away. I offered my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mockery and spitting. Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face (see later in Luke 9:51: When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem) like a stone, determined to do His will. And I know that I will not be put to shame. He who gives me justice is near.
+ Isaiah 50:4-7
In the hard, bitter moments
of life that taste like death,
God has not abandoned us
even if victory looks different
than we expected.
We need Jesus to show us
His Way again today
that even in a moment
that is painful,
looks weak,
tastes bitter,
and appears shameful,
we have a God
who is set on saving us.
Because Jesus was willing
to be delivered
into the hands of enemies,
we are delivered
from our ultimate enemies
sin, death, and the hellish one
that seeks to devour us.
From Ephraim
of life that taste like death,
God has not abandoned us
even if victory looks different
than we expected.
We need Jesus to show us
His Way again today
that even in a moment
that is painful,
looks weak,
tastes bitter,
and appears shameful,
we have a God
who is set on saving us.
Because Jesus was willing
to be delivered
into the hands of enemies,
we are delivered
from our ultimate enemies
sin, death, and the hellish one
that seeks to devour us.
From Ephraim
to Jerusalem
to Golgotha,
Jesus was trampling
over death by His death.
over death by His death.
With these truths in mind,
we can sing together Psalm 118
like those pilgrims mostly likely did
as they trampled into Jerusalem
on the first Palm Sunday,
we can sing together Psalm 118
like those pilgrims mostly likely did
as they trampled into Jerusalem
on the first Palm Sunday,
but with a different tone
and towards a different end.
With pomegranates in our hands
instead of palms,
we return to Jesus' teachings
in Ephraim
so we can better learn
how to walk with Jesus,
bearing our crosses with Him,
trusting Him to be the Master
in the mysterious and marvelous.
and towards a different end.
With pomegranates in our hands
instead of palms,
we return to Jesus' teachings
in Ephraim
so we can better learn
how to walk with Jesus,
bearing our crosses with Him,
trusting Him to be the Master
in the mysterious and marvelous.
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