The human reckoning of calendar time has been something of a moving target. Some are lunar, some solar. Mayan, Egyptian and Chinese calendars for example. In the west, the Julian calendar was succeeded by the Gregorian, resulting in minor dislocations of events from past to present. The earth’s annual turning however is predictable and reliable.

The spring equinox marks the season for planting seeds and welcoming newborn creatures. The days grow warmer and lighter. Yet this is when Jesus, paradoxically, began moving toward the cold darkness of the tomb. He began on the outskirts of Jerusalem, as the city prepared for the joyous Passover festival.

Everything about Jesus’s arrival into Jerusalem was intentional; orchestrated for maximum drama. It began with Jesus instructing two disciples to collect a colt from a small village. They would have no difficulty finding the animal tied up in a conspicuous place.

A passphrase and counter phrase was provided in case they were challenged, “If anyone asks you, ‘why are you untying it? Just say this: ‘The Lord needs it.’” Predicable, the disciples were confronted, and responded on cue. It all suggests that the owners were in on the plan from the beginning.

There’s more than we expect going on here. The untrained young animal would not have been ridable by any ordinary person. The words about untying the tied creature correspond to the language of Jesus when he had earlier spoken of unbinding people bound by demons and sins. Was he somehow suggesting that all hell was about to break loose?

People are predictably drawn to spectacles. Circuses and carnivals, accidents and disasters. Is it wise to linger near the sea after a tsunami warning, or to chase a tornado?  No. But people do anyway.

Was Jesus creating a spectacle? He didn’t discourage the disciples from making a seat of cloaks for him on the colt. There is no record of him saying anything to restrain the people on the roadside as they invoked God’s powerful deeds, and laid their cloaks before him. They were jubilant, as if Jesus were arriving as a hero.

It must have had the feel of a near riot. It was not a scene that Rome would tolerate for long. Some who watched were clearly unnerved by it.

Several Pharisees reasonably asked Jesus to quell the outcry. But Jesus declined with a reference from the prophet Habbakuk about stones that cry out in witness to unjust nations. And they could not deny that Rome was indeed an unjust ruler over the people.

But returning to the timing of this event, we may ask, what was Jesus up to? His aim was not to overthrow Rome. He had no inclination to rule as a king or god. This would only lead to his death.

His time for teaching was over. Seeds of wisdom had been generously scattered. One final seed remained.

A plow furrows the earth, so that the seed may be laid down in the soil. It is a necessary disruption. As Jesus entered Jerusalem he was preparing creating an open place for himself to be placed. He would rest in death, bound up in the dark soil for a season. To wait.

Finally the water breaks. Labor is messy and risky and also beautiful and natural. It takes the time it takes. A new creation breathes.

Birth and death are a mysteries to us. We are all bystanders to them, even our own, as unseen forces take over. Jesus’s lifeless body would be tied up in linen cloths for a time, and then, at the right time, untied again – bound and unbound. He always did say death is the way to new birth.

For now all we can do is wait and watch, believing with all our hearts that out of this season and out of our loss and grieving, will come new life.