Branches - Broken And Grafted

Alba 3-10-2022

BRANCHES – BROKEN AND GRAFTED

Romans 11:11-32

Today is the day we refer to as Palm Sunday. It commemorates the event when Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem at the beginning of that week when He would die on the cross for us.

It was a day of celebration. Jesus was being hailed as a king and a savior. Hosannas were being shouted out to announce His arrival. Hosanna means “save we pray”.

It was a thrilling event. And it was a fulfillment of the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 which says, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.

You see, in times of war conquerors would ride in chariots or on prancing stallions. But in times of peace, the king would ride a donkey to symbolize that peace prevailed. So, for Jesus to ride into Jerusalem upon a colt of a donkey was to declare that He is a King proclaiming peace.

Among the crowds praising Him would be people He had healed. Some had been among the thousands He had fed. Many more had seen some of His miracles, and listened as "He spoke with authority." They had listened, and their lives had been changed.

In Matthew 21:8 it says that as Jesus rode into Jerusalem, a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

Both Matthew and Luke tell us that sometime earlier Jesus looked down upon the city and had cried out, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted 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)

And as this triumphal procession continued, Luke 19:41-42 says, Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

Then He predicts the destruction that will soon come upon Jerusalem. And He could see the time coming when as a nation, in the same way they had cut off the palm branches to give Him praise, they would be like branches cut off from the blessings of God.

The apostle Paul in Romans chapter eleven speaking of Israel says they, the natural branches of God's family tree, have been broken off and the wild branches, the Gentiles, have been grafted in. So now the wild branches praise the Lord.

Because Israel as a nation was not believing in Jesus as Messiah, Paul expressed his deep concern for their future. but could see that in the plan of God there was a purpose in all of it.

In Romans 11:11 Paul writes, “I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.”

And in Romans 11:17-18 Paul uses the illustration of Israel and the Gentiles as branches, some cut off and others grafted in.

He says to the gentiles, “17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, 18 do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.”

Israel and Judah were the natural branches of God’s people, chosen by God. Yet they were “broken off” and cast aside as unworthy.

Then, by God’s mercy, the gospel came to the gentiles who are considered to be branches of “wild olive trees”, and who were grafted into the real olive tree by their faith in Jesus.

Paul then warns us, as gentiles who are grafted into the Family of God through Christ, not to think that we can now boast, or brag that we are better than the Jews.

We were cut off from a wild olive tree and grafted into the family of God. It was all accomplished through the blood of Jesus and the power of the Spirit of God. Gentile Christians have no right to despise the Jews as though they were not worthy of anything.

We should be so very thankful and humbled that God allowed us to be grafted in; and we should pray for Israel that they would also learn of Jesus and be saved.

Jesus accomplished what no mere human being can do. He lived a perfect life and died as a complete payment for the sins of anyone who comes to Him. He is the Savior who rescues us from the penalty of our sins. In Jesus, we have been grafted into the God's kingdom.