This is the sixth week of the Lenten season and today we’ll be taking a look at the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
Matthew 21:1-11
“As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying 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. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.’
“This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
“Say to Daughter Zion,
‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
“The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on.
“A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.The crowds that went ahead of Him and those that followed shouted,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
“When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, ‘Who is this?’ The crowds answered, ‘This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.’”
In the past three years of His ministry Jesus had done some amazing things!
- Jesus had had some “intense theological” discussions with the Jewish leaders of the day.
- Jesus had attended dinners in the homes of those considered by the religious elite to be nasty sinners.
- Jesus had fed four thousand men plus women and children with only seven loaves.
- Jesus had fed five thousand men plus women and children with only five loaves of bread and two fish.
- Jesus had actually touched someone with leprosy and had healed the dreaded disease.
- Jesus had healed a dying servant of a Centurion just by speaking from a great distance.
- Jesus had healed a man who was blind from birth on the Sabbath.
- Jesus had healed a crippled woman’s arm on the Sabbath.
- Jesus had healed a lame man on the Sabbath.
- Jesus had even healed a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years, almost it seemed, without Him even knowing it until after the fact. (Luke 8)
- Jesus had raised the daughter of a synagogue leader from the dead.
- Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead!
And now, Jesus is coming to Jerusalem for the Passover! Can you even imagine the excitement? Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people from all over the known world coming to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration! Many of them have heard of the miracles of Jesus. Miracles did not go unnoticed in Jesus’ day any more than they would go unnoticed now.
Certainly this Jesus who had worked such powerful miracles could devastate the Romans with one word from His mouth!
The people of Israel were thinking, “Could this be our King?
Could this be our Redeemer who would free us from the tyranny of Rome?”
He had done so many mighty miracles, only one more was necessary to fulfill the earthly dreams of the Hebrews of that day, just one more.
There’s a Southern Gospel song that says, “Can He, Could He, Would He? Yes, He can, He could, He would and He did!”
But, on this Passover week the refrain would go, “Can He, Could He, Would He? Yes, He can, He could, He will but not now!”
Jesus would certainly accomplish what was necessary to free all people from slavery but it would be from slavery to sin, not slavery to Rome.
Try to place yourself back to the time of Jesus as He was going into Jerusalem. As a person from that era you are familiar with the culture, the history and the current political and religious framework.
Imagine this, try to get this image of Jesus of AD 30 in your mind:
Isaiah 53:2b
“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.”
So, He’s not spectacular in stature or looks. Is He ordinary or even homely? We don’t know, but we do know that it was not His looks that attracted people to Him.
He was a Rabbi. Rabbis were well dressed, it was part of the image. Rabbis were also married as The first commandment of the 613 mtizvot (commandments) in the Torah is “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28) and a Rabbi would have a home.
Jesus had none of these.
Of course He was dressed but most likely He was the most humbly dressed rabbi in the entire nation of Israel.
He was not married. There have been many claims that Jesus was married in the past few decades, but, if He was it is curious that in the entire text of the New Testament there is no hint of this whatsoever.
He did not have a home as He said in Matthew 8:20, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”
So, here we have an ordinary looking, modestly dressed, unmarried, homeless Rabbi Who is being hailed as the King of the Jews as He enters into Jerusalem a few days before the beginning of the Passover festival.
Now, up to this time Jesus has told those who have desired to declare His praises to keep it to themselves.
Just one of the instances is found in
Mark 8:30 where Jesus says,
“Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about Him.”
But, today was different. Today He’s going into Jerusalem with a host of followers, another crowd streaming out of the city to greet Him and they are all proclaiming Him to be the King who will save Israel!
Now a king in the time of Christ would either ride a horse or a chariot! At the time of the patriarchs such as King David a king would ride a donkey if coming in peace or a horse if coming in the time of war. But, by the time of the Roman Empire no king would ever find himself riding a donkey! It would be too humiliating.
But, here comes our humble Savior, riding the colt of a donkey.
A donkey that He doesn’t even own! He had to borrow one to ride into Jerusalem. But, by doing so He fulfilled the prophecy found in
Zechariah 9:9
“Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
So, do you have all of the blanks filled in? Do you have an image of Jesus as He rode into Jerusalem to the praises of the people and the disdain of the Jewish leaders?
As I was writing this sermon my brain was numb and I was having “preachers cramp”. It’s like “writers cramp” but more worrisome! Then I got to thinking about the participants in this procession.
You’ve got the people who have only heard stories about Jesus and are looking for Him to see what He looks like, will He perform a miracle? But, they don’t really know what’s going on this very day.
You’ve got the close friends and disciples of Jesus who know His great power and have seen the miracles first hand. They know very well that the Jews want to put Jesus to death because He is a threat to their authority. But His close friends and disciples want Jesus to be the King of Israel and so that He can overthrow Rome and they can vie for positions of authority and prominence in His kingdom. And, even though they are close to Jesus and have proclaimed at one point that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, they really do not understand what is happening this day.
Then you have the religious leaders of the day. Jesus has given some of them a black eye in a few of their theological debates and that is not the sort of treatment they’re used to. In addition to this they know if any riots get started with the Romans, the Romans will clamp down hard they will lose their places of authority and semi-autonomy. And, they don’t really know what is taking place that day either.
Then there was one other group that is not normally mentioned in the throng. They are not a group like you normally think of a group of people traveling together in a cluster. No, they are a group in that they have a single purpose on their minds and that is to go to Jerusalem and make the annual sacrifice that is required for their sins. That is their purpose but something far greater is taking place and they don’t know it either.
All of the folks headed to Jerusalem for the Passover know the historical event of the first Passover when they were slaves in Egypt. Where a lamb was sacrificed and the blood of the lamb was applied to the doorposts of the house and when the LORD saw the blood of the lamb on the doorposts the firstborn of the house was left alive and not destroyed.
And, so it was instructed that each one of them should take a Passover lamb to Jerusalem each year as a remembrance of the Lord’s great deliverance and as a sacrifice for their sins. Year after year after year for hundreds of years this had been done whenever Jerusalem was not in captivity. And, so it was this year. There must have been hundreds of people leading their little yearling lambs to Jerusalem for the festival. The one great difference was that the Lamb of God, the Perfect Sacrifice, Jesus the Christ was headed to Jerusalem as well.
He would be the Sacrifice, given once and for all for the sins of all of humanity. Not the sacrifice but THE SACRIFICE!
So, you’ve got all of these people, many of them traveling with Jesus Himself, toting their little lambs right with them. And, unknown to them, in this particular annual trek to Jerusalem is the long awaited Lamb of God Himself!
Do you ever find yourself looking at the small picture? These people are making this sacrifice so that the sins of their particular family will be forgiven for this one past year. That’s all, one sheep for one family for one year!
And at that very same moment in that great throng headed to the Passover is the Sacrifice for all of the sins of the world for all of time! All sins, committed by everyone in all of history and the future. Provision would be made through the blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of sin.
As it says in Isaiah 53:6
“All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all!!!!”
We as humans are drawn to the little picture, the temptation to take our little sheep to Jesus and offer it for the forgiveness of our sins.
We bring our little sheep of an offering and hope that covers us for the past week.
We bring our little sheep of sitting on some church committee and imagine that God is putting some little weight on the good side of some cosmic justice scale and we hope that when we die there is more weight on the good side of the scale than the bad.
We can help little old ladies cross the street from now until eternity and it will never be sufficient to cover the least of our sins.
But, back there 2,000 years ago when the meanly dressed, impoverished, homeless Son of God was riding into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey He had an appointment with destiny that would change the balance of sin -vs- forgiveness for all of eternity!
That’s the big picture! That’s the only picture! And that’s what was happening that day!
Now, here’s the thing! Each one of us has an appointment with this Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. It will happen.
If you only see the small picture of trying to earn your way to heaven by your good works then your appointment with God will take place before the great White Throne judgment and that will be a sad and terrifying day. A day when your name will not be found in the Lambs book of life and eternal judgment will be pronounced.
If, however, you see the big picture and you respond to the invitation of God calling you to salvation and make your appointment to meet with God on this side of eternity, then, eternity will hold no fear for you. You will have made the decision to trust in the Holy Lamb of God, the Perfect Sacrifice for your salvation.
Which will it be for you today? Little Alexis made that decision this past week? Have you made it, too?
Exhortation to come to the Good Friday service.
Benediction:
May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. May He strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all His holy ones. I Thessalonians 3:12-13
