A PALM SUNDAY SPECIAL EDITION
"As He approached Bethphage & Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples, saying to them,
‘Go to the village ahead of you, & as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it & bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it.’" (Luke 19:29-31)
A. The 2 disciples must have wondered about what Jesus told them to do, because none of the Gospel accounts about the ministry of Christ ever mention Him riding any animal to get from one place to another.
He must have walked hundreds of miles up & down the land we now call the "Holy Land," but there is no mention of Him ever riding, except in a boat across the Sea of Galilee.
But now, He gives this unusual command to go into the village to get a colt that had never been ridden, & to bring it to Him. It must have seemed strange, indeed.
He even tells them the exact words they are to use should anyone question them. They are to say, "The Lord needs it." Was this prearranged? Did the owners know what Jesus was going to do? We don’t know.
B. It is obvious, though, that Jesus knew what He was going to face in the city of Jerusalem. So His decision to go into Jerusalem must have been one of the most difficult Jesus ever made.
And on top of that, to ride into the city on a colt, rather than to walk into it as He had often done before, must have been an even more difficult decision, because riding a colt into the city was a public declaration that He was a King.
Five hundred years earlier, the prophet Zechariah had proclaimed that fact when he wrote, “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous & having salvation, gentle & riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9)
ILL. You see, in times of war conquerors would ride in chariots or upon prancing stallions.
But in times of peace, the king would ride a colt to symbolize that peace prevailed. So, for Jesus to ride into Jerusalem upon a colt is to declare that He is a King proclaiming peace.
Of course, this was the beginning of the great 8-day Passover Festival, when the Jews remembered God’s deliverance of their ancestors from Egyptian slavery. Jews from all over the world were gathering in Jerusalem to celebrate, & the city was filled to overflowing.
So obviously, Jesus wasn’t the only one coming to Jerusalem for the Passover.
Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor, had already entered Jerusalem to occupy the Antonia Fortress & the Praetorium with a full complement of elite & battle-hardened Roman soldiers ever ready & willing to suppress any attempted uprising against Roman rule that might occur.
Herod Antipas, Tetrarch (King/ruler) of Galilee & Perea, the one who had imprisoned & beheaded John the Baptist, had also arrived with great pomp & ceremony, undoubtedly occupying the palace of his late father, Herod the Great.
Such power & pageantry the people were seeing that week - & then here comes Jesus fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah: “See, your king comes to you, righteous & having salvation, gentle & riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9)
For the crowds lining the road that day, Jesus riding a colt into the city was a public declaration that He was the promised King!
I. HOW WOULD THE PEOPLE RESPOND TO THAT?
How would the people respond to that? Would they recognize that His Kingdom was not of this world that it was a spiritual kingdom, & He was to be a spiritual King? Small chance, because He had been teaching them that for over 3 years, & still they had not learned that lesson.
A. Perhaps some of them would greet Him with laughter. Maybe they would be amused by what Jesus was doing. After all, it was a rather ridiculous picture. Here is a carpenter declaring Himself to be a King!
Perhaps some would think, "He is a lunatic, living in a world of fantasy imagining Himself to be a King!" And they would laugh at him.
B. Others would greet Him with anger upset because they would interpret His riding into the city as arrogance & blasphemy against God.
C. Of course, many would hail Him with joy, welcoming Him as an earthly King, come to reestablish the throne of David, & overthrow the Roman Empire. They were ready & eager to place a crown upon His head.
D. Among the crowds would be people He had healed. Some had been among the thousands He had fed. Many more had seen some of His miracles, & listened as "He spoke with authority." They had listened, & their lives had been changed.
Jesus knew all of this. He knew that just over the horizon was the cross, looming like a monster ready to consume Him. But Luke 9:51 tells us that in spite of it all, Jesus still "...resolutely set out for Jerusalem."
II. JESUS RIDES TOWARD THE GATE OF THE CITY
As Jesus rides down toward the gate of the city, the crowds are growing, & there is a festive air, for it is Passover & pilgrims are gathering from far & near for this greatest of all Jewish holidays.
A. Even before Jesus arrives, the news has spread that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. You can imagine the excitement that prevails.
"Have you heard the news? Lazarus died, & was buried in a tomb so long that his body was starting to decay. But this teacher from Nazareth called out, ‘Lazarus, come forth.’ & Lazarus came forth. I saw him! They stripped away the grave clothing, & he actually walked & breathed & lived again! Surely only the Messiah could do that!"
The news travels from one person to another, until finally when Jesus was ready to enter the city, great crowds had collected on both sides of the road. They were there! They had cut palm branches & were shouting, "Hosanna to the king!" Excitement prevailed throughout the whole city!
B. Then Jesus looked over His waiting audience. He must have seen the mixture of expressions on their faces.
1. There were those who loved Him: Perhaps Bartimaeus was there, a man who had received his sight, no longer in his beggar’s rags. How about Zacchaeus? He had paid back his debt to society, & had made his peace with God.
And the lepers? Their skin had been cleansed & now they were rejoicing for the healing that the Lord had given them. Maybe Jairus’ daughter was there back to life again after experiencing death.
Lazarus & Mary & Martha & Mary Magdalene they were all there! Their lives reflected the love that was in their hearts for this man who had taught them, & molded them & changed them.
2. There were also sinister faces there. Faces with squinty eyes, waiting for Him to say one wrong word to make one mistake.
ILL. The Sadducees & Pharisees were there. They were supposed to be keepers of the law, the spiritual leaders. But Jesus had gained so much popularity that they felt threatened. So, full of jealousy, they watched Him.
The Romans were there, fearing revolt & watching for any sign of rebellion against Rome. They were ready & waiting to crush any uprising.
Jesus realized, as He listened to their "Hosannas," that soon the sinister voices would drown out the voices of love that those crying for Him to be King would soon be crying, "Crucify Him!" or simply standing aside, saying nothing at all.
C. Now Jesus is descending along the road from the Mt. of Olives, across the brook, toward the gate, the crowds thronging around Him.
I wonder how the apostles were reacting to all this? I have always thought that Judas was probably ecstatic basking in the reflected glory because Judas may have wanted an earthly Kingdom more than any of the others.
ILL. I imagine that Peter walked with chest expanded enjoying the throngs & the cheers of the crowd maybe with one hand on his sword just in case something went wrong thinking to himself, "Maybe it was worth it to leave the fishnets & boats. Maybe at last we are going to get what we deserve."
Possibly there was Thomas, a bit skeptical about everything that was going on wondering what is going to happen next.
Maybe Andrew was overwhelmed by it all. He was so used to bringing people to Jesus one by one, or in small groups & now look at them all!
What about James & John? Do you suppose they were thinking about Jesus being crowned King so that they could be on His right & left hand in positions of authority & power?
They were all there in Jerusalem loving faces sinister faces anxious apostles. Crowds trampling almost one upon another when suddenly the whole procession stopped.
III. SUDDENLY THE WHOLE PROCESSION STOPPED
ILL. Do you suppose it could have been a little like rush hour traffic on the big city expressway? One car stops, then all the other cars stop, like a chain reaction. I can just hear the people way back in the crowd that day saying, "What’s the holdup? What is going on? Why don’t you guys move on?"
A. But the people who were closest to Jesus could see & they realized that it was He who had stopped the parade. Then they saw His body begin to shake. Maybe at first they thought He was laughing. Laughter would seem to be natural for everybody else was laughing, & joy prevailed.
But then they saw His face, & they saw no evidence of laughter. Rather, they saw sorrow & tears. He was not laughing. He was crying.
B. The Scripture tells us that Jesus reacted emotionally many times from different scenes that He saw. When He saw the poor. When He saw the hungry. When He saw people sinning. When He saw the ill. The Scriptures say repeatedly that "...He had compassion on them."
But it only tells us of two times that Jesus cried. One time He cried at the grave of Lazarus. You remember, Mary & Martha were both weeping, & it says that Jesus wept with them. He wept for them. He entered into their grief with compassion & He identified with their sorrow & despair.
IV. WHY WAS JESUS CRYING?
Now this was the 2nd occasion. He looked at the city of Jerusalem. He saw the mixture of faces & the masses of humanity crowding there & He realized the emptiness of their lives. They had not heard the message of peace. They did not understand the purpose of His coming.
Listen as I read Luke 19:41 44. "As He approached Jerusalem & saw the city, He wept over it & said, ‘If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace but now it is hidden from your eyes.
‘The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you & encircle you & hem you in on every side.
‘They will dash you to the ground, you & the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.’" (Luke 19:41-44)
They had eyes, but they didn’t see. They had ears, but they didn’t hear. They missed the whole point of the message that God had given to them.
A. The fact they waved palm branches showed that they didn’t understand, because that is exactly what their great-grandparents had done when the Maccabees overthrew the Syrian oppressors & reestablished worship in the temple.
By waving palm branches they were showing that they expected Jesus to be another warlord another general of the armies one who would lead them to overthrow the Romans. They were saying that they were ready to pick up their swords & shields & go to war if He would lead them!
B. Jesus said, "I didn’t come for that purpose. I came to show you a more excellent way. I came to show you the way of love." He had said, "Love your enemies & pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44)
“If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you & take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go with him one mile, go with him two miles." (Matthew 5:39-41)
Those people who listened to Him must have thought, "Well, those are beautiful words, but surely He doesn’t mean Rome? He doesn’t expect us to love Rome? Only a lunatic would command you to love Rome. We can’t love Rome!"
But don’t you see that was exactly what He was saying? "Love even Rome because Rome with her mighty army has seen the power of the sword. But Rome has not seen the power of love. Show them love!"
C. The nation of Israel had the opportunity to show Rome something new & different. But because they didn’t understand Jesus because they completely misunderstood His mission Jesus wept over them because the opportunity would be taken away & they would never have it again.
These were God’s people God’s chosen people. God had loved them & led them across the wilderness & into the Promised Land. But they did not understand the Messiah when He walked in their midst. Because of that, Jesus wept.
D. What a contrast! As He sits upon the beast of burden, He sees the towering Temple of God silhouetted against the sky. But beyond that in the years immediately ahead He sees the armies of Titus surrounding the Holy City. He sees Temple stones being taken down & the whole city leveled.
He sees bodies in the streets & blood running in the gutters & hundreds of thousands of people crying because they are starving to death while Titus waits for Jerusalem to surrender.
All of that because they didn’t recognize the Messiah when He came! How different their lives could have been. How different the history of Israel could have been if they had only recognized the one who came into their midst, riding on a colt.
Both Matthew & Luke tell us that sometime earlier Jesus looked down upon the city & had cried out, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem…. how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing." (Matthew 23:37 & Luke 13:34)
Today, just like the city of Jerusalem, we find ourselves in the presence of Jesus. I wonder what He finds when He looks into our faces?
Does He see people concerned about so many things worried about income taxes worried about job security worried about their health, or lack of it? Does He see people who are so busy doing things here & there so busy that they never bother to consider those things that are eternally important?
Does he see people who recognize Him for who He is - The Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God?
When He turns & looks into our lives, I wonder, will He weep once again because of what He sees? Or will we have the joy that passes all understanding as we respond to His outstretched arms & hear Him say, "Well done, good & faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord"?
