"Is This The King? On A Donkey!” (Plus Outline)

In Jesus Holy Name March 24, 2024

Text: Luke 19:11b Palm Sunday Redeemer

“Is This the King? On a Donkey!”

There is nothing normal about “parades.” There is always preparation. Anticipation is in the air. So it was in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Luke writes: “the people thought the kingdom of God was going to appear at once.”….. because Jesus entered the city on a donkey fulfilling the prophecy.

This is the 2nd parade in Jerusalem. The first was a Roman military parade led by Pontius Pilate. He was arriving in Jerusalem from his home in Caesarea. He needed to be in Jerusalem for the Passover, not because he was going to celebrate the Passover but because there was always the possibility of a Jewish riot. His procession was in the Roman style—complete with a display of Rome’s military might. Pilate was perched atop a majestic stallion. He had all the trappings of Roman wealth and prestige. His Roman Officers were in polished armor displaying the banners of captured, vanquished armies.

His parade was a proclamation of Rome’s superiority. And it came with an undeniable message directed to the pilgrims who had gathered in the city from near and far for the Passover festivities: “Keep the peace, or we will control you by force!”

The Palm Sunday Parade with Jesus on a donkey was different. The people knew the miracles of Jesus. They heard Him speak about “the kingdom of God”. They know the prophecy of Zechariah: “Rejoice, O daughter of Zion, Shout Daughter of Jerusalem see, your king comes to you. Righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Excitement was high.

Jesus enters the ancient city. The crowds went wild with their cheering. “Hosanna to the Son of David”. People grabbed anything they could get their hands on. They tore palm branches from trees. They took the clothes off their backs to throw them in his path. It was a red-carpet 4th of July parade all wrapped up into one for the Messiah, the King of the Universe. Jesus enters the Temple and throws out the money changers. People asked: Is this the new Jewish King?

Nothing would have seemed more unlikely to the Romans as they watched this unique Jewish parade, a Jewish king riding on a donkey. He didn’t look like a king. No crown. No army marching behind. No banners flying in the wind. It’s not hard to imagine the Romans laughing as they watched the spectacle. A pauper king, riding on a borrowed donkey, his saddle a makeshift layer of cloaks, attended by an unruly mob whose only weapons were palm branches.

To the Romans, He didn’t look much like a king that day riding on a donkey,

“nothing to worry about.” This parade, on the cobble stone payment of Jerusalem, did not impress Rome.

It was Passover week. There are three words that are important today. Launch. Membership. Culture.

This is “holy week”. God is about to “launch” a new people of God, but it would cost the death of the “Lamb of God.”

The city was packed with Jews from all over the world who had come to remember God’s action in their history. The inns were full. They were sacrificing lambs, remembering the blood on the door posts in their Egyptian hovels that saved lives when the angel of death passed over. Soon, very soon, the blood of the Lamb of God staining a wooden cross beam, would save people from their broken commandments.

God’s holy and righteous character demands punishment for the sinner. We know it. We feel it in our soul. Human beings are seeking peace with their Creator. As we remember, from the message two weeks ago, Nicodemus thought “his genetics, his Jewish blood heritage, his keeping of Jewish laws” would allow him to have the blessing of heaven.

Jesus said, “no”. In the past God had always accepted the offering of a lamb, a bull, or a goat. For the blood made atonement for sins. (Lev. 17:11) But now He has arrived in Jerusalem in the midst of his people, in the person of His son, Jesus. (Heb. 1:1) For God did not sent His son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through His sacrificial death.”

The Passover celebration remembered God’s action in the past. God was launching a new people, descendants of Abraham and Jacob. God’s people were enslaved, but soon would be set free through the actions of Moses. There would be a parade of millions leaving Egypt. But first God had to make preparations for the launch.

Preparations for the “Launch” began with 10 plagues to prove that the God of Moses was stronger than the gods of Egypt. The final judgment, the angel of death was in the misty fog that drifted through the streets and back alleys. To be saved from death the Jews had to kill a lamb and place the blood over the door frames of their homes.