They welcomed him as king – although what king ever appeared riding on a donkey? But he had preached the coming of a kingdom to people whose thousand-year-old memories of David and Solomon were as fresh as yesterday: memories of conquest, of power and prestige, of wealth and abundance for all, of enemies destroyed. That’s what kingdom is supposed to mean! But not for Jesus. His image of the Kingdom is the exact opposite of all those memories. His Kingdom is upside down.

That’s the question Jesus frequently asks when a sick, lame, or blind person approaches him with the hope of being healed of their malady: “Do you want to be healed?” Imagine this response: Uh, excuse me Jesus, but isn’t that obvious? After all these years of waiting and hoping and praying, what else would I want? “I must ask you the question because if you are healed, your life will change in ways that might be beyond anything you have ever imagined. To be healed is to be fr