Opening illustration: Every spring, hundreds of Hollywood stars gather for the Academy Awards. Very few “slip in the back door:” instead, they make an entrance. They walk down the long red carpet, smiling at the cameras and waving to the people in the stands (who, by the way, all had to apply and go through extensive background checks), showing off their clothing (and undoubtedly a bit more), chatting with the reporters. Some will go to great, great lengths just to be noticed.
Contrast that with Jesus: to the man healed of leprosy in Matt. 8, He said: “See that you don’t tell anyone.” To the two blind men He healed in Matt. 9, He, “warned them sternly, ‘See that no one knows about this.’” And in Mark 1, a demon possessed man in Capernaum yelled out “I know who you are – the Holy One of God!” to which Jesus replied “Be quiet!”
Jesus often chose not to be in the limelight. In fact, most of Jesus ministry happened outside of the capital city of Jerusalem, away from the big pomp and ceremony of the Temple, in small towns and villages along the way.
Until today, until the event we know as “The (un)Triumphal Entry,” the day we remember each year as Palm Sunday. This day all of that changes. Now, we see Jesus entering the city of Jerusalem being proclaimed as Messiah and King.
Let us turn to Luke 19 and catch up with the Palm Sunday story and see who this donkey King is and was He really out there to show off or gather people’s attention. What were His qualifications?
Introduction: I’ve always puzzled over the Triumphal Entry. On the one hand, the enthusiasm of the crowds is contagious. The King is coming into the Holy City! Hosanna! On the other hand, I see Jesus filled with pain. He accedes to the celebration -- indeed, he initiates it. But he is somehow detached. Instead of lifting his hands in victory as might a politician or conquering general, he is subdued. And when Jerusalem comes into sight he begins to weep -- not for himself, but for the city and its inhabitants.
In a day when Christians in America are increasingly in a crusading posture to capture more political, social, and economic power, the picture of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a lowly donkey and anticipating intense opposition, rejection, and death makes us rather uneasy. We want a Messiah who comes in power, not in weakness, a Messiah who judges the wicked, and a Messiah who conquers the Romans and establishes Israel. We want a nationalist Messiah. "Will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" We are too much like James and John who want to sit on the right hand and on the left hand of Jesus in his kingdom. We are too much like the disciples who argue as to who is the greatest among them, while Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem riding on a common, ordinary donkey. Zechariah 9: 9 is well known to us as a prophecy of an anointed king who would come into Jerusalem on a young donkey.
The story of Palm Sunday is not merely a rebuke of national policy that seeks power and domination. It is also a rebuke of individual ambition to dominate others on the basis of power rather than love. Pride, arrogance, self-centered ambition and self-seeking are brought out into the open and judged. In the presence of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who rides a donkey, all feelings of superiority, competitiveness, power struggle and strife become all too evident as manifestations of sinfulness. Jesus on a donkey calls us into accountability, if indeed we are serious about making him our model and paradigm.
The Triumphal Entry is essential in God’s plan -- we’ll look at that this week. And so is weeping part of God’s heart – He still and weeps for the world and His people even today … Today, my dear children, let’s walk with Jesus along the road that leads from Bethany down the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem, and seek to understand our Master. After all, we are his disciples. We should know him better than anyone.
Qualifications of the Donkey King:-
1. Humble (vs. 30-32)
• Why did Jesus choose a donkey over a horse for his final entry into Jerusalem?
• What did the donkey represent otherwise?
• Important fulfillment of prophecy, which our Lord was intent on fulfilling precisely
• Lord’s choosing to ride on a never-ridden animal is a miraculous event and displayed His deity
• Jesus’ instructions are clear that the donkey must be one that has never been ridden (see Numbers 19: 2; Deuteronomy 21: 3; 1 Samuel 6: 7; 2 Samuel 6: 3). It is set apart, consecrated for a specific use -- for the Master’s use. There is a rabbinical tradition that no one should use the animal on which a king rides
• When Jesus indicates to his disciples that he should ride on a donkey that no one had ever ridden before, he is initiating a public, kingly act. He is revealing openly that he is the Messiah
• Jesus was a perfect pattern in every phase of humanity. His example of humility is the standard for us. We see His example to us corresponds with God’s requirement of us. The Father could not have fulfilled His design in the Son, had He not kept under His mighty hand every moment. Jesus acknowledged that He could of Himself do nothing. It was the Father that dwelt in Him who did the work; but that work could never have been done through Him, had He not humbled Himself to every precept of the Father’s will
• “Have this mind among yourselves” (Phil 2: 5) is a powerful phrase. Paul is saying don’t just know that Jesus humbled himself for you but you also have the same mind as Him. Be the way He was in the way you consider others. We need to do more than know about Jesus’ humility, we need to have His same mind of humility
• What a ridiculous picture of the King of kings on a donkey. A king does not ride donkeys. He rides horses. The next verse in Zechariah clearly states what 9: 9 presents metaphorically. The ridiculous picture of a donkey-riding king is explained in v. 10 as one who "will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations." What? No more weapons of war? Dismantle our arsenals? Turn in our guns? Turn the other cheek? Be a pacifist? How will we curb evil people without a police force? How will we resist an enemy nation if we do not have aircraft, missiles and nuclear weapons? This peaceful Messiah coming on a donkey does not fit our agenda
• We know that when the Kingdom of God comes, the King will come, and He will possess His kingdom, and all that is in it. None are exempt
• Those who have renounced and resisted His ownership will resist Him no longer. His enemies will be defeated and destroyed
2. Vulnerable (vs. 33-36)
• Vulnerability. When you hear this word what comes to mind? Is it weakness, struggling, strength, success? I would venture to say that along with myself before I really experienced vulnerability, most of you thought of the negative connotations this word carries. Vulnerability as weakness, vulnerability as something that is a marker of an unsuccessful or very negative experience
• In stark contrast to these intimates of Jesus, the minor characters in Mark’s story, like the blind man, are those vulnerable individuals on the fringes of that society who seem to understand the authentic Jesus
• To see the authentic Jesus we must embrace vulnerability that opens our eyes to the vulnerable Jesus. Embracing vulnerability, however, means we reject our self-interests, our need to lord over others, our propensity to use violence, and our intolerant and exclusive attitudes towards others.
• But we must also reject a Jesus we have crafted to fit our own prejudices and preconceptions
• But the idea that Jesus embraced human vulnerability raises a crucial question. For what reason did Jesus live as a human susceptible to the struggles of life? Did he become incarnate and face human vulnerability just so he could be a sacrifice for our sin? While many Christians answer this question with a resounding yes, it seems to me that there must be more to Jesus being human than just God’s plan for him to become a sacrifice
• An easy explanation to Jesus’ sensitivity would be to say that because he was God in human form, he would have felt this woman touch him (woman with the flow of blood), for he had divine senses. But it seems to me that the gospels lean more toward portraying Jesus as the human who is keenly aware of the vulnerability of human existence, mainly because he has experienced that human vulnerability himself. He is sensitive to the needs of those on the very bottom of the social and religious rung
• Jesus’ life and lifestyle was an open book. Anyone could have access to Him at any time. His life was very open and even at risk for His enemies could kill him whenever they wanted. Have you ever thought why celebrities, politicians and very important people in the world have body guards and their lives are locked in a box … maybe protection or whatever we may call it, but rarely does anyone have any access to them. Is their life an open book? Always living in fear! Sad to say, today even many pastors who have a celebrity status seem to be sailing in the same boat. Where is their Christ like vulnerability?
• John the Baptist and many saints in the OT & NT were vulnerable in their ministries for God. They could not afford to shut themselves off from people …
• Even in today’s passage we see the vulnerability of Jesus in the crowd with no protection sitting on the donkey … anyone could have access to him
• As Christians, our role model to lead a Christian lifestyle, Jesus Christ provides (among other things) a specifically powerful lesson when it comes to vulnerability. Jesus voluntarily entered into life. Ultimately he died because he knew nothing else but to be passionately vulnerable to the plan that God had for him. In terms of relating this to my experience I will start with how I have been vulnerable. I have not build walls around myself to shut myself from others and have a cocooned life and just show up on Sundays. Kept my life as an open book where anyone can come and read it anytime they desire
• This understanding of Jesus’ mission as the Human One must have a life-altering impact on our living as humans. If Jesus embraced human vulnerability for the purpose of associating with those who were exposed to the pains of life, how much more are we called to sacrificial living that causes us to renounce our comfort and to identify with the most vulnerable of our world?
3. Empowered (vs. 37-40)
What had most of the crowd that welcomed or followed Jesus witnessed in His power ministry (mighty works)?
Healing
• A paralyzed man (Matthew 9:2-8)
• 2 blind men (Matthew 9:27-31)
• A deaf man (Mark 7:31-37)
• A blind man at Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26)
• A man blind from birth, at Jerusalem (John 9:1-41)
• A woman who had been crippled for 18 years (Luke 13:10-17)
• 10 people with leprosy (Luke 17:11-19)
• A high fever in Peter’s mother-in-law (Matthew 8:14-17)
• The Centurion’s servant (Matthew 8:5-13)
• Malchus’ ear after Peter sliced it off with a sword (Luke 22:50-51)
• "News about Him spread all over Syria, and people brought to Him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, the epileptics and the paralytics, and He healed them all." (Matthew 4:24)
Nature
• A large catch of fish (Luke 5:1-11)
• Calming of the storm on the Sea Of Galilee (Matthew 8:23-27)
• The feeding of the 5,000 (Matthew 14:13-21)
• Walking on the water (Matthew 14:22-33)
• The feeding of the 4,000 (Matthew 15:32-39)
• Money needed to pay taxes obtained from inside a fish (Matthew 17:24-27)
• A fig tree withered (Matthew 21:18-22)
Demon Possession
• In the synagogue (Mark 1:21-28)
• A blind and mute man who was possessed by a demon (Matthew 12:22-23)
• 2 demon-possessed men in the region of the Gadarenes. The demons went into a herd of pigs that then ran into the lake and were drowned. (Matthew 8:28-34)
• The Canaanite woman’s daughter (Matthew 15:21-28)
• The epileptic boy with a demon (Matthew 17:14-21)
Raised From The Dead
• Jairus’ daughter (Matthew 9:18-26)
• The widow’s only son at Nain (Luke 7:11-15)
• Lazarus at Bethany (John 11:1-44)
Luke 4: 18 & 19 speaks about Jesus’ call "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD."
And Matthew 9: 35 tells us about His mission “Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.”
The miracles of Jesus range from changing water into wine to healing the lame, the blind, delivering the demonically possessed and raising the dead which apparently triggered His own death on the cross and His ascension three days later. While there are many explanations for what a miracle is, we can probably all agree that the word ‘miracle’ describes an event that occurs outside the bounds of natural law, and which is beneficial in its result. During the course of His three-year public ministry, Jesus performed miracles that demonstrated His ability to heal, to master the elements, to affect the outcome of our endeavors, and even to raise the dead. Every one of His miracles occurred outside the bounds of natural law, and all of them had beneficial results.
We must not forget that Jesus had no sin, wrong thinking, or impure motives that gave Satan legal access to His life. Satan could find no sin in Jesus - not even one square inch of territory - to which he could lay claim and thus gain access to Jesus’ heart. The enemy continually seeks occasions where he can obtain a legal entry point in our lives. Sin and spiritual ignorance open the door and invite his hold over us. This is the reason why there was prominence and profound manifestation of the Holy Spirit and His works through the life of Christ. This is one of the major essentials of Jesus’ power ministry.
The above two passages confirm and endorse that His ministry was Spirit empowered and filled with many miracles and healings. For many years there had been a drought and lull which had many laid back but now the Messiah had come on the scene and was making a difference. The crowd had witnessed His power ministry and were drawn and driven to follow Him because of the difference He had made in the lives of many people and families. They had seen things which the prophets of old had prophesied and desired to witness. Most of them were following Him for the wrong reasons. They followed Him in the flesh. They thought He would use His miraculous powers to overthrow the Romans and get Israel for them and thus they would be independent again. Apparently that was not His mission. His mission was to ‘heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed.’ He had come for their redemption not to make them happy but holy people. He had come so that every day they would not have to go and conduct animal sacrifices. He had come to do it once and for all. Forgive their sins and save them from eternal death. He had come to give them life and life abundantly. This is the power of the donkey King. If you are following Christ today, why so? Are you really doing it out of selfishness or selflessness? In the flesh or Spirit?
Application: Dwelling on the qualifications of Jesus this morning brings us to the point where we need to ask ourselves whether we are Christ-like … Do we have and exhibit humility through our lives? If God has called us to be His very own and at the same time fulfill His commission and mission here on earth, are we vulnerable to the people God brings about our lives to minister? And finally after knowing Christ’s vision, mission, will and call upon each one of our lives, are we empowered by the Holy Spirit to venture out, risking all, without any inhibitions to beyond what the eye can see, i.e. to live and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit by bearing fruit and manifesting the gifts (inclusive of the ones that defy natural laws)? Is this what Palm Sunday means to you?
