Preview(S): Palm Sunday...Commandeering a vehicle.

    In all of my movie viewing I have to admit that police movies, especially the Lethal Weapon / buddy-type of movie, rank up there in my top five movie genres.  My favorite scene in any cop movie happens when one of the officers, while pursuing a criminal on foot, leaps into a car and and whips out their badge and says something like, "Follow that car!" The civilian then gets to drive like a stuntman (because they are a stuntman) while chasing down a crook....and it's all legal!  My entire life I have waited for a day when a police officer desperately needs my stunt driving ability, but

so far no luck.  Now, there also tends to be the scene where the police officer, who's own vehicle has been recently destroyed, boldly steps out in front of a vehicle, badge in hand, and commandeers the vehicle leaving the civilian behind (usually destroying this vehicle too).  This is more likely my luck.  One way or another, life is not, thankfully, an action movie and our streets are not swarming with high speed police chases.  Most cars could not put up with the rigors of an actual "movie-style" police chase.  Ever notice how the movie cops use the same civilian style vehicle in scene after scene,... chase after chase? In real life it would take an army of mechanics to keep those cars operational as the wear and tear of those sorts of maneuvers would quickly decimate those vehicles.  As Elwood 

Blues so adroitly points out to his brother Jake in The Blues Brothers when he picks him up from prison in a decommissioned police car: cop cars have special suspension, tires, brakes, and engines designed to put up with those sorts of trials.  For this reason I have often wondered if police in actual life really do commandeer vehicles.  

    The answer is that they actually do.  Like everything else though, it's nowhere near as cool in real life.  Most occasions of police either taking cars from civilians or asking civilians to drive them somewhere occur in urban areas where there are still "beat cops" doing walking patrols. There is almost never a high speed chase involved and most of the time it is a taxi cab that gets commandeered to transport a police officer to an emergency or to the precinct with a suspect for which municipalities usually have standing accounts with cab companies to pay the fares. The only risky part is if the driver forgets to submit a form to get reimbursed and risks losing their job. However, there are a great many laws on the books that allow a dully sanctioned government employee 

to commandeer anything they need for the good of the community.  So, when police commandeer things it could be almost anything. Recently a pilot of a small single engine plane (a Cessna to be exact) had his plane, time, and safety commandeered when the local police required his aid in searching for a fleeing suspect from the air.  The pilot, Mike Spicer, was grazed by a gunshot as the suspect fired on his plane as Spicer circled the suspects vehicle leading police to the scene.  

    Anything can be commandeered and when I say, anything I do mean anything.  During the catastrophe in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina police commandeered an entire drug store in order to distribute essential help to first responders.  

    The law goes back almost as far as law has existed, all the way to kings and lords.  The principle is simple: if the government decides something is essential to the public good, the needs of the many outweigh the rights of personal property.  If the Lord has need of it, you give it. 

   You can see this ancient law in action this Sunday as we celebrate Palm Sunday with the retelling of Jesus' triumphant entry to Jerusalem.  In this story we have a classic example of a king commandeering a vehicle...in this case a donkey, and or, a colt (depending on how you read the text). 

Matthew 21:1-7;When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, 'The Lord needs them.' And he will send them immediately." This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,  "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." The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them.

Yep, that is simple police commandeering but it has amazingly deep connotations:

• Jesus is announcing himself to be king, and not just any king, but one who has earthly authority and rights.  His kingdom isn't metaphorical or virtual, it is real.
• It establishes jurisdiction.  Jesus is announcing that his kingdom's jurisdiction supersedes the jurisdiction of the Jewish king, the temple authorities, and the Roman governor as he has declared himself THE Lord when there are already other people sharing that title.  
• He is setting forth a precedent that other things can also be commandeered as the kingdom has need. 

    The simple act of riding on a borrowed donkey and foal actually sets the power structure of the entire ancient world on it's ear.  In one ride to the temple Jesus announces a literal revolution that ushers in a new kingdom even while leaving the old kingdoms of this world in place.  He usurped their authority without challenging their existence.  He declared a new kingdom had come, and a new king with it, without dismantling the old kingdom or kings.  The reason for which was simple: he didn't need to.  

    Jesus actually did something far worse than attacking the powers

that be. He shrugged his shoulders and dismissed them as irrelevant.  The new kingdom has come and a new king with it, the old kings can stay put if they want to, but their power and their authority now belong to Jesus.  His kingdom does not need their armies, does not need their taxes, does not need their politics, or policies.  His kingdom ignores borders, races, government decrees, and earthly rulers.  He did not commandeer a donkey and a foal, he commandeered a planet, and there is not a thing this world's powers can do about it.  They tried...they even killed him...but it did not work. 

    As exciting as it might be to have an officer commandeer our car and direct us in a high speed chase, how exciting is it to think of our Lord commandeering the world, including our very lives, in pursuit of the great enemies of the faith: death, sin, suffering, and sorrow.  When Christ calls us to the gift of new life it is with the understanding that this new life is lived in his kingdom, and as such he has the right to commandeer anything...even us.  This new life that comes from the complete forgiveness of our sins and inclusion into the life that knows no end is lived at the command of the Lord. When God looks at our lives he sees beloved children whom he loves deeply and completely...he also sees a vehicle to commandeer to carry Christ into our world.  How might Christ look at your life and say, "the LORD has need of that"? Will you go along for the chase of a lifetime?