INTRODUCTION
All of us are making choices all the time. Most of the choices are completely inconsequential. But sometimes the choices are really important. A long time ago I taught some lessons on business ethics. I read various books on business ethics and based my lessons on them. One book was called ‘Defining Moments’. You can imagine the idea. The author suggested that in business there are critical moments which will define who we are forever. Another book used the phrase ‘Career-Ending Moment’. A wrong choice can end our career.
That was the situation on the first ‘Palm Sunday.’ The people of Jerusalem were facing a choice. Someone called Jesus was coming into the city. What would they do? How would they respond? It was the start of the Passover festival. Lots of people were coming into Jerusalem. But Jesus wasn’t just anyone.
WHO WAS JESUS?
Jesus had appeared on the scene about three years before. The religious leaders in Jerusalem heard about him early on. They sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’
Jesus had done some remarkable things. On one occasion he fed 5,000 people. Later on, he fed 4,000 people. He’d calmed a storm. He’d healed countless people. And just a few days ago, in a nearby village, he’d raised Lazarus from the dead. Crowds flocked to hear him. But he was a controversial figure. He told some people that their sins were forgiven! Who had the right to do that? And he clearly wasn’t impressed with the religious leaders.
One thing for sure was that Jesus wasn’t a nobody. But who was he?
People had all sorts of ideas about who he was. Some people thought he was John the Baptist or Elijah or one of the prophets of old. Earlier in Luke, Peter declared that Jesus was ‘The Christ of God.’ But so far, no one in Luke’s gospel had declared that Jesus was king. That was now going to change.
WHAT DID JESUS CLAIM?
On the first Palm Sunday, as Jesus rode into Jerusalem, he declared that he was king. Well, he didn’t say straight out, ‘I am the king.’ He was a little more subtle!
Jesus has been heading towards Jerusalem for quite a time. Until now, he’s never ridden a horse or a donkey. But today, he wants a ride. Specifically, a donkey.
Luke takes quite some time to explain HOW Jesus got the donkey. It’s clearly significant. Jesus sends his disciples into a village to get a donkey. They are to untie it and take it. Jesus tells them, “If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’” Why is this significant? By his actions Jesus is saying that he has the authority to simply take the donkey; he doesn’t need to ask. He is acting in a way that’s consistent with him being king.
This is already a strong hint. But Jesus makes his claim to be king much clearer when he gets on the donkey and rides towards Jerusalem. To understand why, we need to know a prophecy in the Old Testament. It was a prophecy made by a man called Zechariah. I’ll give you a little background before I tell you Zechariah’s prophecy.
About 1000 years before Jesus, David was king of Israel. He was succeeded by his son Solomon. After Solomon’s death, Israel split into two parts, Israel and Judah. Many years later, the two nations were attacked by the Assyrians and the Babylonians. Israel was destroyed; Judah went into exile. When that happened, Judah no longer had a king. Perhaps 60 years after that, Zechariah started to prophesy. This was one of the things he wrote:
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O DAUGHTER OF JERUSALEM!
BEHOLD, YOUR KING IS COMING TO YOU;
righteous and having salvation is he,
HUMBLE AND MOUNTED ON A DONKEY,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey” [Zechariah 9:9].
As I mentioned, when Zechariah wrote, Judah didn’t have a king. But Zechariah looked forward to a time when a king would come to Jerusalem, righteous and having salvation, riding on a donkey.
When Jesus got on a donkey to ride into Jerusalem he was consciously and deliberately fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy. He was declaring that he was the king who Zechariah prophesied about, ‘righteous and having salvation.’ Indeed, he was righteous and he brought salvation.
Jesus’ actions weren’t lost on his disciples. They start hailing him as king. ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!’ They laid their cloaks in front of Jesus – they gave him the red-carpet treatment. They treated him as king.
Jesus didn’t object. If what they were saying wasn’t right, I’m sure he would have told his disciples to stop.
Some Pharisees in the crowd, hearing Jesus’ disciples hailing him as king, think it’s all very inappropriate. They tell Jesus, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples.’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.’ Jesus is absolutely affirming his disciples. They’re declaring one of the most fundamental facts in the universe: that he is king!
HOW SHOULD JERUSALEM HAVE RESPONDED?
The people of Jerusalem and the religious leaders had heard of Jesus. There’s no doubt about that. They might not have recognized Jesus as king or messiah – but he had done things over the past three years which no one had ever done.
Let’s think for a moment how Jerusalem might have responded.
You know that Priscilla [my wife] and I lived in Azerbaijan for many years. We lived in the second-largest city, Ganja. The president was, of course, based in the capital, Baku. From time to time he would come to Ganja. When he did, the roads would be sealed off. They often remained sealed for hours as no one knew quite when the president was coming. Schools would close and teachers and students would line the route, ready to wave flags as his cavalcade of Mercedes sped by. They also often had to wait beside the road for hours. When the president arrived, he would visit one or two places and then hold an assembly with the city officials. They would put on a banquet. So the city responded in a way that befitted a president.
People have been welcoming kings and presidents to their cities for millennia. We have perhaps half a dozen accounts of Greek and other kings visiting cities in the centuries before Jesus. These accounts relate to some kings we have probably heard of, such as Alexander, and to kings we may not have heard of, such as Mithridates, Demetrius and Attalus III. They give us a picture of how such visits were conducted. Typically, the city elite would meet the king some distance outside the city. City officials, military officers, priests and the general population were all expected to be there. Everyone had to dress up. The city would be adorned with wreathes. There might be singers and dancers. There would be flattering speeches. The city officials would then escort the ruler back to the city and they might visit the temple. These cities received visiting kings in a fitting way.
Jerusalem could have received Jesus in a similar way.
HOW DID JERUSALEM RESPOND?
On Palm Sunday we’re used to the children from Sunday School waving palm fronds. We imagine that Jerusalem warmly welcomed Jesus. But that isn’t the picture we get in Luke’s gospel. Look at verse 37: ‘As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude OF HIS DISCIPLES began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen…’
The only people acclaiming Jesus as king are his disciples. The only other group of people Luke mentions is the Pharisees. They ask Jesus, ‘Teacher, rebuke your disciples.’ So, it doesn’t seem that the people of Jerusalem welcomed Jesus. Zacchaeus, at the beginning of the chapter, knew how to welcome Jesus. This was nothing like that.
Certainly, there were crowds. But I imagine it was a bit like a Middle-Eastern wedding. The wedding guests drive through the streets sounding their horns and making a lot of noise and everyone else is wondering what all the noise is about. Jesus’ disciples were making a lot of noise. The crowds were watching and wondering, asking, ‘Who is this?’ But clearly, the way Jerusalem welcomed Jesus was nothing like the way that ancient cities welcomed a king.
If Jesus was merely another pilgrim coming for the Passover festival, it wouldn’t have mattered. But if he actually was the king, then this wouldn’t do.
On that day, when Jesus entered Jerusalem, the people of Jerusalem did not recognize him as king. They did not know who was visiting them. For Jerusalem it was a defining moment. In fact, it was a ‘career-ending moment.’
HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND?
We need to apply this to ourselves. There will be times in our life when Jesus, in some way, enters our city, our world. We notice him. At that moment, we have a choice. We can be like Jesus’ disciples, grasp the signs and hail him as king. Or we can be like the people of Jerusalem, ignore the signs, and ignore him.
If Jesus is the son of God then he is the legitimate king. We can choose which house to buy. We can choose which ice-cream flavour to have. But we can’t choose our ultimate king. The choice we have is whether to recognize him or not.
We can be like the disciples, and hail him as king. We can rejoice that we have the most wonderful, gentle, humble, self-sacrificial king in the world.
Or we can be like the people of Jerusalem. We can say, ‘We don’t want Jesus as our king.’
That, regrettably, was a career-ending choice for them. Within a week the city had condemned Jesus and put him to death. God would not ignore that. Jesus foresaw the result – the destruction of the city. He didn’t want that and he wept as he contemplated the tragedy that would unfold. ‘Would that you,’ he said ‘even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.’ The opportunity was there – and missed.
There will be moments when God draws close to us, when we recognize him laying out his claim as our king. Will we pay attention? Will we accept him as king? The writer of Hebrews wrote, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts’ [Hebrews 3:7-8]. When that defining moment comes for US, when WE recognize that Jesus is drawing close, may we seize it and receive him in a way that befits our king.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 28th March 2021
