Jesus and the divine revolution of love
Palm/Passion | Luke 19:28-40
Jesus enters Jerusalem like a rockstar. Which is to say, with great anticipation and fanfare.
When I was a kid, rock was dominated by classic rock giants like the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and Aerosmith who were followed by the rise of hair metal bands like Def Leppard, Poison, and Whitesnake. And what was common about all of these artists was not the music, but the image. Being a star was about style more than substance, and devoted fans worshipped them.
The word fan is short for fanatic. At its heart, the desire to follow a star requires a kind of irrational obsession, to show fanaticism to someone without their returning the favor. The same goes for following a favorite sports team or politician.
But in the winter of my 8th grade year, a different kind of rock arrived on MTV with an entirely different sound and style. We saw “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on 120 Minutes and our jaws dropped — that the thing that was missing from our lives, which were dominated by hair metal and pop princesses, was this. And at its heart was the star who didn’t want to be a star.
The tension of being the biggest name in music would eventually take the life of Kurt Cobain, but his legacy, of genius and a kind of anti-supremacy, anti-popularity, anti-style vision would define a generation of flannel-clad Xers who would seek, not to follow a king, but the one who refused to be a king. … keep reading.
For a limited time, you may find the audio here.