On the Road with Jesus: Jerusalem
Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, John 12:12-19
April 14, 2019 Palm Sunday
For the past several weeks we have been on the road with Jesus. It all started when Lazarus became so very ill and Jesus was sent for. We know that Lazarus died and was in a tomb four days before Jesus arrives and raises him from the dead.
Over the next couple of weeks Jesus encounters many people. We have heard from the leper who was healed and came back to Jesus. Jesus healed his body but the man’s faith saved his life.
The rich young ruler was a good man and did all he could to follow the laws of Moses. There was something missing in his life and so he approached Jesus for the answer to eternal life. Confident that he could do whatever task Jesus gave him, he was devastated when Jesus told him to sell all he had and to give to the poor and to follow Jesus. He went away disappointed because of his great wealth. It’s only with God that we can enter the kingdom and not by our own merit.
Zacchaeus was also very wealthy. He however was not a good person. He was hated as a tax collector. He was an embezzler and cheated people out of their money so he could line his own pockets. When he meets Jesus his life is changed. Not only does he give his heart to Jesus but he backs up his actions by giving to the poor and paying back four times to those that he has cheated.
Mary had an intimate relationship with Jesus. It was not a romantic one but she was filled with great love and devotion to Jesus. She listens to Jesus and seems to be a devoted follower. She shows extravagant love for Jesus as she anoints his head and washes his feet with expensive perfume. This would actually be foreshadowing of Jesus impending death of the cross.
As we have been introduced to these people and their reactions to Jesus there have been others that were there as well. The Apostles or the 12 had been called to follow Jesus. They were a diverse group made up of several fishermen, a tax collector and a political zealot or activist. We don’t know what the other half of the men did before they became followers of Jesus. This morning I will give one of the disciples a profession but we really don’t know. You are encouraged to read the full account of Palm Sunday on your own.
They had been there with Jesus and had been witness to all that he did, all that he said and all that was said about him. In addition to listening and learning from Jesus they were also there to attend to the needs of their master as well. Listen this morning as one of the twelve relives some of his experiences as an apostle on the road with Jesus.
I am a follower of Jesus, a disciple, an apostle to be more precise, one of the twelve. Let me tell you that following Jesus is quite an adventure to say the least. I had been with Jesus for….um….around three years.
As a boy you had hopes that a rabbi would ask you to be one of his followers. It was a huge honor to be asked to study under a rabbi. They were some of the most revered people in our community.
Like all Jewish boys I had studied in the synagogue with other boys my age. We would memorize the ancient texts. Only the smartest boys would be asked to continue to follow the rabbi. I was not one of those boys. I stayed with it for a while but in the end I just couldn’t memorize it all and couldn’t keep up. It was disappointing but none of my friends made the cut either. Most didn’t.
Again, just like everyone else I followed in the footstep of my father who was a carpenter. I learned the family business from him. Family units were important. We all worked together to provide for the family. The business had been in our family for generations.
Everything changed for me however the day that Jesus came to town. It was just like any other day as we worked. My father and brothers were helping a neighbor and I was working at home. Jesus came in and admired the table I was working on and we began to talk shop. He told me that his father had been a carpenter.
Then he changed the conversation and asked me if I would like to follow him, he called me by name! A rabbi asking me to follow him. (Ad lib here a little)
I was shocked when he came to me later and asked me to follow him. At the time it was one of the most amazing things I had ever experienced. He called me by name and told me that he wanted me to follow him. I had never met this man. How did he know my name!
He told me that there were others with him already and he wanted me to be one of his disciples. WHY NOT!! I had always hoped for an opportunity like this.
There was something about Jesus that was so convincing. I couldn’t tell him no. There was something special about him. In just the short time he spoke…..well….I wanted to hear more. There were enough others to work at the family business. I could always come back and pick up where I left off and so I said that I would follow him. I gathered a few things, told my family and he gave me his blessing and I was back with Jesus, having absolutely no idea what lay ahead of me.
I met some of the others that were following Jesus and I must admit that I was quite surprised to find that they were mostly all like me in that we were just ordinary men. Several of them were fishermen. I was quite shocked to find that one of them had been a tax collector! Yes, this was no ordinary group of followers but Jesus was no ordinary rabbi.
All of us disciples talked about our experience of Jesus calling them. They were similar in nature and we realized quickly realized that Jesus was no ordinary rabbi. I was beginning to wonder however who exactly was I following and was it a good idea.
That is until the wedding. Jesus had been invited to a wedding and since we were with him we went as his guests. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary at first. We were all enjoying ourselves as weddings were festive occasions.
Jesus’ mother, Mary, came to Jesus and you could tell that something was troubling her. We overheard her tell Jesus that they were out of wine. Oh man! Seriously, so soon! Someone didn’t plan to well, this would be such an embarrassment for the groom and his family. Mary wanted Jesus to fix it. I guess she was used to relying upon him because she was a widow and Jesus had been taking care of things.
We wondered if he was going to send us out of find more wine. You see as his disciples not only were we there to learn from Jesus we were also there to attend to his needs. Instead of doing that however he told some servants to fill a bunch of ceremonial washing jars with water. He then instructed them to take a glass of it to the master of the banquet.
“Umm Jesus….this water doesn’t taste good.” What was he doing? Oh do you know this story?!? Yeah, turns out that Jesus turned that water into the best tasting wine I have ever had. All of us put our faith in Jesus that day. Each and every one of us!
It doesn’t mean that we fully understood all that was going on. There were things that Jesus did and things that Jesus said that at the time made absolutely no sense to me. To be with Jesus was not for the faint of heart. It took a lot of faith to follow him and trust that he knew what he was doing.
We watched Jesus do all kinds of amazing things. While it almost became routine, Jesus healing people, I never grew tired of watching it happen. So many would come to Jesus trusting that he could heal them. All of these people that would be considered “unclean” and Jesus never turned them away. He had such compassion for them and he healed so many.
The look on someone’s face when their site was restored. It was priceless. Some of them had been blind since birth and others had lost their sight but their reaction to when Jesus would heal them was the same. A look of sheer joy and utter amazement. Most of the time the first thing they would see would be Jesus’ face. That warm, smiling, loving face. I’m not always sure who had the bigger grin, Jesus or the one who could see.
Strength would be restored to the lame and they would walk away from Jesus rejoicing. Sores would be cleansed….he would even make leprosy disappear from people. The most impressive ones though were the ones that were dead and he brought them back. Yeah, we knew that he was from God.
The demon possessed they hated to see Jesus coming because he would call them out of people. Sometimes they would violently shake those who they possess but ultimately they would come out and Jesus would often shut them up so they couldn’t let others know who Jesus was. That would always confuse me but later I would come to understand that it just wasn’t time for people to know. There would come a time however.
I should have known that something was coming. I mean a lot had been happening. Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. I mean I always wondered just a little bit with the others but with Lazarus it was different. I mean he hadn’t just died. No, he had been dead for 4 days when Jesus called him out of the tomb. There was no denying his power and many believed that day that he was the promised Messiah!
As the Passover approached I wondered if we would be going back to Jerusalem. We all knew that it wasn’t safe there for Jesus and when he went to see Lazarus we were willing to go to battle and die to protect him in necessary.
Jesus and the religious leaders always seem to be butting heads. I guess I could kind of understand their frustration because Jesus challenged their teachings. He challenged the way they put so much emphasis on the laws and all of the laws that they had added. He challenged them at every turn. He always had an answer for them and he answered in such a way that they couldn’t ever refute him.
Given their feelings for Jesus I wasn’t sure if it would be safe for him or us in Jerusalem so I wasn’t sure if we would be going there for the Passover. It had become apparent however that is exactly where we were headed.
The crowds coming to hear Jesus had been growing and growing. As we came to Jericho, it seemed like half the city came out to greet us. I think so many were just wanting to get a glimpse of Jesus. Word of what he had done with Lazarus had spread.
You should have seen that crowd change their tune and grumble when Jesus stopped to talk with Zacchaeus. I didn’t know who he was but evidently he was the chief tax collector. Say no more! We should have condemned him but after three years with Jesus it didn’t surprise me when Jesus said he wanted to go and dine at his home.
As we left Jericho there was a blind man named Bartimaeus and he was calling out to Jesus. He kept calling him the “Son of David”. We told him to be quiet but Jesus didn’t, he allowed him to acknowledge him as such and of course Jesus called to bring Bartimaeus to him and he healed him. Looking back I see that the time was drawing near and Jesus was now okay with people referring to him as the Messiah.
As we approached Jerusalem we stayed at the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus as we had done many times before. Word had gotten out that Lazarus and Jesus were together again because a large crowd of people came out to see them and many more were putting their faith in Jesus.
Jerusalem was overflowing with those who had made the annual pilgrimage for the Passover. Some have said that well over 1 million Jews would make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It was no wonder that many came out to see Jesus.
The next day we arose and Jesus approached me and one of the other disciples. After greeting us he had a request for us.
He told us to go on ahead and in the village as we entered it there would be a colt tied up there. The colt of a donkey. This specific colt, no one had ever ridden before. Once we located this colt that was tied up….on someone’s property…..we were to go and untie it and take it.
If anyone asks us why we were doing this we were supposed to say, “The Lord needs it.” And then he walked away. We looked at each other. Now we had been asked to do some crazy things before but this one took the cake.
We bickered with each other all the way into the village. “Who is just going to let us take their colt?” “How are we going to find it anyway?” “We are going to get arrested or beaten.” “UGH!”
It was just a short walk to the village and as we walked into the village there they stood, a donkey with her colt. We just kind of looked at each other. This is even crazier than going to find food in a Samaritan village while Jesus stayed out by the well but this….was….well….this one was new to say the least. I said to the other disciple, “You go untie it and I’ll keep watch.” “Oh no,” he said. “I’ll flip you for it.”
“Fine”, I said. I’ll call heads. He took out a coin and flipped it. Great, just what I wanted to do was to go and grab someone’s possession. The other disciple stopped as I walked up to the colt and began to untie it and sure enough I hear a voice, “What are you doing?”
Before I can say anything, the disciple that was with me says, “The Lord needs it.” The man nodded in approval and away we went rather dumbfounded but relieved none the less.
We brought this little colt back to Jesus and we placed our cloaks on it so Jesus would have something to sit on. As Jesus climbed aboard this little colt he nodded to us and we began the two mile trek to Jerusalem.
As we began to make our way to Jerusalem we were immediately met by crowds of people that were streaming out of the city to see Jesus. As they saw him coming many of them began to take their cloaks off and they laid them out in front of Jesus for this little colt to ride on.
Others ran and cut down palm branches and they began to wave them at Jesus. I’m not sure which of the disciples was the first but one of them yelled out, “Hosanna!” Then we all started to yell, “Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna to the Son of David.”
I don’t know that I had ever seen so many people in all of my life. It seemed like everyone who had come to celebrate the Passover was now coming out to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem like a king! This was it!
But he was on this little colt! Shouldn’t he be on a stallion? This should have been planned better. Then I remembered the words written by the prophet, Zechariah, “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, you king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
It was just as Zechariah said it would be. Jesus was always humble and this was no different and yet it was different. Just like Bartimaeus, he was not silencing the people. I guess his time had come and in that moment I shouted all the louder (ad lib praises) as Jesus, the Messiah, the coming king was being celebrated by the crowd!
The chief priests came out and implored Jesus to silence the crowd but Jesus told them that if they didn’t continue then the rocks would cry out. HAHA! Oh you could just tell that this infuriated them all the more but there was nothing that they could do at that moment.
At that moment….at that moment all was good but they would get their moment. I couldn’t believe how fast this crowd that celebrated Jesus would turn on him and call for his crucifixion. Then again just a few weeks earlier we had been willing to die for Jesus and would push came to shove in the garden with the temple guard we all pretty much fled.
We watched helplessly as they crucified him and we wept at his death. That wasn’t the end however but I’ll let John tell you more about that.
I’m a disciple of Jesus. It was the hardest and yet most gratifying thing that I ever did. There were times that I was utterly confused and times where Jesus brought clarity. Even though I bailed on Jesus he still loved me. I had to be such a disappointment but Jesus didn’t lose faith in me or the other disciples for that matter.
He gave us more instructions and things began to finally all makes sense. He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and we helped establish and build his church.
I tell you all of this because being a follower of Jesus is hard. The world will fight against you. There are times where you will be utterly confused. There are times where you will mess it all up. That was me and my friends but Jesus believed in us.
Jesus calls you to be his followers too. Are you willing to take up the call for him? We devoted the rest of our lives to it and it cost us our lives too. We were all too die for Jesus, to die spreading the good news of the gospel. Spreading the love of our Savior who will come back again. This time it will be on a stallion, a white horse. Won’t you follow him? Won’t you give your life to him? Jesus has arrived as your king. Embrace him. Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Amen
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