Our King Weeps At His Parade Series

Message

Luke 19:28-44

“Our King Weeps At His Parade”

You know something is important in a person’s life when they have multiple words to describe the same thing.

(Picture of a toilet)

Toilet, WC, Dunny, Throne, John, Loo … quite a lot of other names that are not so polite.

(Picture of Me and Corianna)

Pastor, Wife, Mum, Magena, Oma …

You can see what I means can’t you. When multiple words are used in a certain situation it shows that something important is going on.

With that in mind it is interesting to discover that, in the New Testament, there are six different words that can be described as “weeping words”

• they had a “weeping word” for when people died.

• there was a “weeping word” used when in physical pain or mental anguish

• another “weeping word” described emotional grief.

• still another word was used when tears were shed.

• they even had two “weeping words” for the purpose of bringing lament to God.

From this it is clear that the Jewish people were not shy when it came to expressing their emotions. Not only that. Because they have so many weeping words we can have a reasonably good idea about the cause of that weeping. Which is very helpful. Especially for the text we are about to read.

Read Luke 19:28-44

Now I am going to focus more on verse 41.

As He approached Jerusalem and saw the city He wept over it.

When you look at the situation it is a little hard to understand why Jesus is weeping … in fact there are lots of reasons to believe He should be happy.

At this moment Jesus is surrounded by people who are joyful at His presence. The crowds have ignored the warnings of the religious leaders not to follow Jesus. Instead they see Jesus as the One who they want to follow.

And look at the object of their praise – they are praising God in loud voices.

They praise God for the miracles.

Peace in heaven. Glory in the highest.

You would think that nothing pleases Jesus more than to hear the people praising God.

And here they are on the road to Jerusalem. Jerusalem marks the ultimate fulfilment of the Lord’s work – which was to save people from their sin and reconcile them with God. While it was going to be a great time of anguish, it was also going to be the greatest triumph of Jesus.

Is this the place to be weeping? What’s going on?

I’ve heard multiple stories of newly-weds who go on their honeymoon.

They book online and they make all the arrangements and they have a certain expectation as to what the honeymoon place will look like.

Picture

But when they get to the location they discover that the place they book is very different.

Picture

It is true isn’t it.

What you expect to see, is not actually what you get.

That is what is happening here. The people think they are seeing something unfold … something very significant. But what they are getting is something quite different.

And the reason this is happening has all to do with the fact that Jesus is riding a donkey. When we think about a donkey we think about a stubborn animal that is not very beautiful. But in the world of Jesus donkeys were much more than that.

Donkeys were used to plough the fields and to pull carts. These animals were a means of transportation and did many strenuous tasks that a man could not do by himself. In that culture at that time a donkey was a very valuable possession.

Not only was the donkey valuable - it also was a sign of status. Kings, princes and judges rode upon donkeys. It was not considered lowly to ride a donkey rather it was quite a noble thing to do.

When Jesus commanders the donkey it’s not as if Jesus was asking the disciples to go to some poor farmer and choose one of his many animals. Jesus has asked the disciples to go and get the best animal for His purpose. We could liken it to Jesus telling the disciples to go and get your neighbours red Porsche – and to do it without asking.

Which would be a lot to ask. But there is more to it.

When Matthew recounts this event he tells us that Jesus didn’t get one animal, He got two

In Matthew 21:2 Jesus says

Go to the village and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to Me.

This man is not just giving up losing his most valuable animal, he is being asked to give two for the price of one … and the price was nothing.