Who is This? Palm Sunday, April 5, 2009 Matthew 21:1-11
Matthew 21
The Triumphal Entry
1As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away."
4This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
5"Say to the Daughter of Zion,
’See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ "[a]
6The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. 8A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,
"Hosanna[b] to the Son of David!"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"[c]
"Hosanna[d] in the highest!"
10When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, "Who is this?"
11The crowds answered, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee."
(NIV)
Can you hear it? It’s getting louder. There’s a noise off in the distance. What’s going on? I see something now. It’s a crowd of people making their way to the gate of the city. There are a LOT of people. Who are they? What are they doing? They’re cutting branches off the trees and waving them. They’re laying them on the road. They’re laying their cloaks on the road too. What is going on?! People are joining the crowd…lots of people. The noise is getting louder, and louder. What is that they’re saying? Hosanna! Hosanna? Save us from what? Are the Romans attacking? What kind of defence is this?
Hang on…what, or WHO is that? There’s a guy on a… on a donkey! He’s riding a donkey in the middle of that huge crowd. People are trying to get close to him. People are clearing the way…for him. Who is this? Hey neighbour…do you know what’s happening? Where’s my family?
Hold on…there’s my family, in the crowd. What are they doing there? It’s getting closer, and louder, and bigger all the time. They’re coming through the gate. There are so many people. They’re singing, they’re shouting, they’re dancing in the streets. The song is unmistakeably clear now… Hosanna! Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! WHO IS THIS?
The crowds answered…THIS IS JESUS!
Pray
Can you think of what it would be like to get up in the morning, knowing that there would be cheering crowds to greet you as you made your morning commute into the city? Everybody loves you, everybody wants you, everyone would do anything to make sure you were the most important person in their day…that was Jesus’ day in our text.
But who of us gets a day like that?
What an incredible day that must have been. Jesus riding into Jerusalem with the crowds all around Him shouting and waving branches and coats and figuring that the good times were rolling now…the KING IS HERE! You know, the KING! He’s the one who’s going to save us from the rule of the Romans, the one who’s going to take over and lead us to greatness again. He’s the gut we’ve been waiting for over 500 years! Our parents told us about him, as did their parents, and their parents, and their parents…we’re ready to be saved! That’s what ‘hosanna’ means…save us…save us now! Bring on salvation! Bring on the king!
What is a kingdom? A kingdom has a ruler and absolute and final authority on all matters of those who belong to his kingdom. A kingdom is a top-down political system where the king is king, and that’s all. Everyone else is subject to the king. What is the kingdom of God? It has but one ruler and final judge over all things and all matters related to those subjects of the King, God. God is King. God is Ruler. God is Judge. God is love. God is God and we are not.
The Jews of the 1st century wanted a king, a conquering, all-powerful, Roman busting king. But that’s not what they got now, was it? The scriptures tell of a messiah who will come to set the captives free. A messiah who will rule with an iron sceptre. A messiah who will sit on David’s throne forever, and ever. So were they excited to see Jesus coming up that road to the city? You bet they were! I can see people getting in the faces of the Roman soldiers in the city, ‘we’re gonna beat you…we’re gonna beat you…’
But Jesus did not come to be THAT kind of king. Jesus did not come to overthrow the Romans. In fact, He came more to overthrow all that the temple had become, and all that the priests and Pharisees and Sadducees and all the other rulers of the temple of God had done!
If you keep reading on in this story, the first thing that Jesus did was head to the temple and cleaned house! He turned over tables of those buying and selling goods in the temple courts. He chased people out of the area who were selling animals for sacrifice in the temple. He flipped over the tables of the people changing Roman currency for ‘temple’ currency at the entrance to the holy temple of God…Jesus first act in Jerusalem was to clean house! “My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers!”
Who is this guy who calmed the stormy seas? Who is this man who fed 4000 men at one meal, and then 5000 at another? Who is this guy who can take a walk on water? Who is this man who heals the sick and opens deaf ears and enlightens blind eyes and strengthens lame legs? Who is He who raises the dead from the grave? It’s Jesus…Jesus the prophet, Jesus the carpenter’s son, Jesus who grew up in some obscure little village, Jesus who was born of a virgin girl, Jesus who everyone talks about…but whom few it seems, are ready to live for.
Who is this king? Jesus. Who am I? Who are you? What will the crowds say about us?
A crowd mentality is an interesting thing. I’ve met a lot of kids, young and old, from a lot of different backgrounds in my day. Kids who, on their own, are what I would call ‘good’ kids. Spend time with them one on one, and they’re nice, they’re calm, they’re rational. But something happens when kids get into a crowd, or gang, or group, or whatever you want to call it. Something happens when the ‘crowd’ begins to think or act a certain way. The crowd begins to think or act as one unified body, and if that body suddenly decides it wants to do something, then all the members of that crowd have to decide if they want to join in the movement. And f that decision is to act rudely to someone, to intimidate someone, and perhaps even hurt someone, then these nice, moral, calm and rational individuals can become violent, aggressive and uncaring towards persons and property. Those nice kids become a mob. Those whom we would never think could act in such a way…do so. And we are shocked at what can and does happen.
Crowds are a scary thing to me. I remember being in the crowds around Victoria during the Commonwealth Games in ’94. We went to one of the concerts/fireworks nights down at the legislature and man that was scary. You couldn’t move in the direction you wanted to. If the crowd was moving one way down the street…so were you. I had Lauren on my shoulders as I was scared to lose her in the pull of the crowds of strangers. There was an eerie sense that if things got out of control, we would be stuck in the middle of it.
The crowds in Jerusalem would have interesting, perhaps even scary, to be part of as well. You see, these same crowds, who had just in the last few days seen Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead, give blind men back their sight, cast out demons, and feed thousands of them; these same people would, in the next few days, not cry out in praise of Jesus, but instead they would cry out for His death. Who is this trouble-maker? Who is this blasphemer? Who is this guy who says he can destroy the temple and re-build it in three days? Jesus? CRUCIFY HIM!
Crowd mentality. It’s a powerful thing. Can we be swayed by a crowd? Hey, look, everyone’s driving that kind of car now, we should too. Everybody’s wearing this style of clothes now, why aren’t you? Married to someone you don’t like anymore, just get a divorce, everyone else does. Jesus is the only way to get to God? Nah, there’s many ways to heaven. God doesn’t exist, what are you wasting your time at church for? Go enjoy your life.
Have you heard that crowd of noise in your life? What has your answer been? Do we join the crowd, or step out of the crowd and take a stand for what we know is true?
Because a day will come when we aren’t part of any crowd anymore. A day will come when we are one on one with the Creator of us all, God the Father. And we will be judged, not on what we did as a crowd, but what we did as individuals with His Son, Jesus Christ. Take a look at this short video on whether or not we are ‘good enough’ for God.
(video – "Good-o-meter")
Jesus, the One who takes our sin, our mistakes, our shortcomings, our faults, and all the stuff that could stand between us and God the Father removed all those things from us, IF we accept the gift of His sacrifice for us on the cross. If we choose to reject him, and try to stand on our own, we will fail. We can do all the good we can do in this life, but it will never be good enough. We need Jesus to come into the temple of our lives and clean house. We need to let Him drive out all the things that are not in line wit His teachings and His laws. Why? Because He IS King, and we are His people.
I would love to see a new crowd formed in this area. A crowd of people who love God and love each other. A crowd of people who are willing to lay down their agendas on life and live for Jesus for the rest of their lives. I would love to see each of us who are followers of Jesus lead 2 or more people to Jesus and disciple them, and teach them, and have them lead more and more and more people to Jesus. I would love to see this building filled not once, but twice every week, and homes filled during the week with people who are hungry for the Word of God, thirsty for the Truth, and longing to see this community claimed for Christ!
Can you hear it? It’s getting louder. It’s the sound of people praying, the sound of people singing, the sound of people praising the Name of Jesus from Colwood to Langford to the Saanich Peninsula to Shawnigan and downtown and everywhere on this Island saying Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord!
