Jesus Weeps At The Parade Series

Jesus Weeps at the Parade

Luke 19:41-44

April 13, 2014

I’ll make a little confession to you this morning. Especially since Debbie is at the youth retreat I know I can say this. But, she already knows I’m this way. I’m not really a big fan of parades. I get bored pretty easily and quickly. Now, I like the Alexandria parades, because they aren’t long and they throw candy your way. Victory parades are always good too.

But Debbie likes to watch parades. Like the New Year’s Day and the Thanksgiving Day parades. They are too slow moving, last too long and interfere with the food I want to eat and the football I want to watch! WOW! I feel so much better.

I’m not sure how I would have felt about the parade that occurred on the first Palm Sunday. I mean, what if you were on your way somewhere and traffic came to a stand still? Your way behind the crowd, you don’t have a clue to what’s going on. Would you have been up for a parade that wasn’t even on the calendar? Nobody knew it was coming.

As Jesus was nearing Jerusalem, He told 2 of his disciples to go ahead of the group and there would be a colt nobody had sat on, tell the owner, the Lord needs it, and bring the colt to me, so I can ride it into Jerusalem. This was to fulfill what the prophet Zechariah 9:9, wrote, ~

9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your king is coming to you;

righteous and having salvation is he,

humble and mounted on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

These were very prophetic words. Remember, we never hear of Jesus riding into any town. He always walked in, but not this time. This was the fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy. Jesus was telling the people of Jerusalem, “Here comes your King!” And the people are lining the streets of Jerusalem, shouting and dancing and celebrating.

Matthew 21 tells us, 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

So, people are really getting into this parade and celebrating the arrival of Jesus into Jerusalem. As always, we know there were people who weren’t very happy about Jesus’ arrival. But the entire city was stirred up and the Romans were on guard. Remember this was the beginning of the Passover celebration and the for the Jewish people this was a time of great celebration because of the miracles God performed to get the people out of slavery while in Egypt.

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Can you imagine some of the people in the crowd that day? There would be Mary and Martha and the newly revived Lazarus. Maybe there would be Bartimaeus, the man who was blind, but now could see. Maybe Zacchaeus made the trip with Jesus. What about the lepers who were now clean and came to give thanks to Jesus. Or Jairus and his daughter, who Jesus brought back to life. Or the mom and her son from Nain, who Jesus brought back to life. The centurion and his guard who Jesus healed. There would be the women, led by Mary Magdalene; and so many more followers and curiosity seekers who wanted a glimpse of Jesus.

There were also the faces of the ones who were against Jesus. The Sadducees and Pharisees were there. They were supposed to be keepers of the law, the spiritual leaders. But Jesus’ popularity led them to feel threatened. So, with hatred and jealousy they looked at Jesus. They were waiting for Jesus to make one mistake and that would be it for Him. That is, until they discovered Judas’ weakness.

The Romans were also there. They feared some sort of revolt. That happened before, so especially when the city would be filled with people, they were ready for any signs of rebellion. Their job was to stop and thoroughly crush any uprisings.

Jesus fully understood what was happening as He listened to their “Hosannas.” Soon those happy voices would turn into the voices which would cry out, “Crucify Him!” or simply stand aside and say nothing at all.

As Jesus was descending along the road from the Mt. of Olives, He stopped walking. They weren’t sure what was happening. Maybe He was going to say something to the people. Maybe someone had touched his garment and were healed. Maybe there were others who needed healing. Something was happening. The look on Jesus’ face said it all. The smile and laughter was gone. There was a look of pain. The pain turned into sorrow and tears. Jesus was weeping.