In Jesus Holy Name March 28, 2021
Text: Matthew 21:10-11 Palm Sunday Redeemer
“Who Is This? On a Donkey!”
On this Palm Sunday, I am disappointed that we are not worshiping together in our sanctuary. It does not matter to Jesus. He wants His story told. These great events, the Trium-phal Entry of Jesus on Palm Sunday, the Holy Supper on Thursday, the Friday Crucifixion, the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday, must be told. Those who were gathering on the streets of Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday were asking: “Who is this?” They wanted to know. There are still those who want to know. We exist to tell His story.
Unfortunately this is the 2nd Palm Sunday that finds us “sheltering in”, at least in part. Unexpected. Waiting for our COVIN shots… then maybe normal will return. Will we have a new normal? No, nothing will be normal again. When this year is finished, even while we pray that 2020 will never be repeated again our normal will be different. The arrival of Jesus on Palm Sunday was about to change the normal understanding of life and death. Jesus had just raised Lazarus from 4 days dead. Soon, very soon, His resurrected body would change normal thoughts about life after death on planet earth.
There was nothing normal about the “parade” in Jerusalem, when Jesus entered the city on a donkey. The visitors to Jerusalem had just witnessed a Roman military parade. Pontius Pilate had also recently entered Jerusalem from his home in Caesarea. His procession was in the Roman style—complete with a display of Rome’s military might. Pilate was perched atop a majestic stallion. He had all the trappings of Roman wealth and prestige. His Roman Officers were in polished armor displaying the banners of captured, vanquished armies.
His parade was a proclamation of Rome’s superiority. And it came with an undeniable message directed to the pilgrims who had gathered in the city from near and far for the Passover festivities: “Keep the peace, or we will control you by force!”
The Palm Sunday Parade with Jesus on a donkey was different, so people were asking: “Who is this?”
Nothing would have seemed more unlikely, a Jewish king riding on a donkey. He didn’t look like a king. No crown. No army marching behind. No banners flying in the wind. It’s not hard to imagine the Romans laughing as they watched the spectacle. A pauper king, riding on a borrowed donkey, his saddle a makeshift layer of cloaks, attended by an unruly mob whose only weapons were palm branches.
This little donkey was part of the great plan of redemption that God had for all of Creation. Jesus knew how this parade would end. He knew the same people who were shouting praises to God would, five days later be screaming “Crucify Him!”. He knew that Jerusalem was where his most an-tag-o-nistic enemies had the most power. He knew they wanted to kill Him. He knew this was God’s plan to fulfill the promise of God to Adam and Eve. His death would procure the forgiveness of sins. The fear of human death will be destroyed when Jesus rises from death and the grave. (Hebrews 2:14)
To the Romans, He didn’t look much like a king that day riding on a donkey,
“nothing to worry about.” This parade, on the cobble stone payment of Jerusalem, did not impress Rome.
Most of us know the general outline of the story. But I suspect that some have never considered the story in any detail. Why did Jesus send two of his disciples into the village to procure a donkey? He has walked into Jerusalem hundreds of times before. He has healed people in Jerusalem before. Why ride into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey? Why did the people wave palm branches, this time? Why did they cry out “Hosanna!” as he passed by? What does it all mean?
Matthew tells us why; Jesus was fulfilling an ancient prophecy from Zechariah 9:9. Words–written 575 years earlier–predicted that when the Messiah came to Israel, he would come riding on a donkey.
He’s a king, but he’s not like any earthly king. The Palm Sunday Parade was an “acted out parable,” in which Jesus was sending a clear message to the nation. “This is who I am! I am your King, but I am not the King you were expecting!” I am not a king who will throw out the Romans. I am the King who will defeat Satan. My cross and empty tomb will strip Satan of His false power.
On that 1st Palm Sunday the day began much like all other days. An early
sunrise. The sound of merchants opening their little shops. The aroma of freshly baked bread floating on the air. Bethany wasn’t a large town, or even a town at all. More like a village, really, a simple cluster of homes. Here and there the farmers made ready to go to the fields–planting season was upon them. Mothers busied themselves getting their children up and dressed.
Jesus enters the ancient city. The crowds went wild with their cheering. “Hosanna to the Son of David”. People grabbed anything they could get their hands on. They tore palm branches from trees. They took the clothes off their backs to throw them in his path. It was a red carpet 4th of July parade all wrapped up into one for the Messiah, the King of the Universe.
Joe Parks in his Easter Cantata put this epic event in words to music:
“Singing, shouting, the crowd, swept through the city gates
Visitors and pilgrims joined the shepherds from the hills.
Peddlers with their camels and donkey’s with their loads.
…they were all on the highway called the Calvary Road.”
It was Passover week. The city was packed with Jews from all over the world who had come to remember God’s action in their history. The inns were full. They were sacrificing lambs, remembering the blood on the door posts in their Egyptian hovels that saved lives when the angel of death passed over. Soon, very soon, the blood of the Lamb of God staining a wooden cross beam, would save people from their broken commandments.
God’s holy and righteous character demands punishment for the sinner. We know it. We feel it in our soul. Human beings are seeking peace with their Creator. As we remember, from the message two weeks ago, Nicodemus thought “his genetics, his Jewish blood heritage, his keeping of Jewish laws” would allow him to wear a white hat. Jesus said, “no”. In the past God had always accepted the offering of a lamb, a bull, or a goat. For the blood made atonement for sins. (Lev. 17:11) But now He has arrived in Jerusalem in the midst of his people, in the person of His son, Jesus. (Heb. 1:1) For God did not sent His son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through His sacrificial death.”
Jesus was the substitute, the perfect Lamb of God whose final steps to the
cross would free from slavery to sin and the fear of eternal death. When I began this message is said: “The arrival of Jesus on Palm Sunday was about to change the normal understanding of life and death.”
You and I know that we are going to die someday. Many of us have lost loved ones this past year, weeks, or recent days. Human nature being what it is, we tend to live in denial. We generally think someday is a long way away. We cling to the word, “someday”, as if it is never going to come. Reality tells me that “someday” I will be a photograph on the “Eisberg” Ancestry.com page, but no one will really remember knowing me. Just a name and a photograph.
We do not know the day nor hour, but Jesus did. He knew that His “holy” week would end not on a Roman cross but at an empty grave, and a resurrected body. Jesus knew even at the age of twelve He was about His Father’s business. Just a few Sunday’s ago we read about a conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus. Jesus reminded Nicodemus that just as Moses made a metal snake and put it on a pole so that all who looked at it might be saved from the bite of poisonous snakes. So, on this Palm Sunday, Jesus knew how and why His parade would end at a cross.
On this Palm Sunday we too need to look past our weekly journals of recorded life events lived. The promise of Jesus: “In my Father’s house are many mansions and I will come back and bring you to where I am.” That is a promise that changes normal ideas of death and dying. We who lift our eyes to the cross on which Jesus was crucified, will be saved from the poisonous broken commandments that alienate us from the harmony and peace with our Creator.
Bill and Gloria Gaither created the lyrics to a song we love. They knew that Jesus changed the thinking about what was once normal thinking about life and death. Our very soul wants to believe there is life beyond the cemetery. Where can we find hope? Some religions created “re incarnation”. Other religions say there is no “hell”, everyone goes to heaven. Others simply say, “Eat, drink, be happy for this is all there is.”
No, Palm Sunday and events of “Holy Week” proclaim a promise of forgiveness that God made to Adam and Eve.
God, the Creator of the Universe, was pleased to have all his full deity dwell in Jesus….in order to bring humanity back into harmony and peace by His blood shed on the cross”. (Colossians 1:19-20) Promise fulfilled. Sins forgiven. Satan and death defeated.
God sent His son, they called Him Jesus
He came to love, heal, and forgive.
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives.
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives, All fear is gone.
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living just because He lives.
Let me close with the words of a young widow to her pastor: (she wrote) “As I stared out the window last night, I saw the moon shinning in the heavens. As my thoughts often do, they turned to my spouse and how the moon was shining upon his grave. I thought of the coldness of the evening and the harshness of the wind. And then I thought: No, that’s wrong. My husband is not in the cemetery”….He like the thief on the cross is in heaven with his savior.
God sent His son, they called Him Jesus.
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives.
Because He lives, All fear is gone.
And life is worth the living just because He lives.
