Matthew 21:1-11
“The Messiah on a Colt”
Palm Sunday stands out.
We celebrate it every year, it’s the only time we get out that wooden donkey and have the children process down the center aisle waving palms.
It’s an incredible worship experience.
At the same time, it can be hard to understand what it’s all about.
A guy named Justin Martyr thought it was so important that he included it in his First Letter of Apologetics in 156 A.D.
He used its fulfillment of Old Testament prophesy (“The Messiah on a colt”) as proof that Jesus was the Son of God.
He wanted the Roman Emperor to see the significance of Jesus as clearly as possible.
Do we see it?
Why does the Messiah ride on a colt with palm branches instead of a war horse with spears?
Why does He enter that Jerusalem “hornets’ nest” on that exact day?
One thing which is interesting to note is the contrast between Rome and Jesus.
From the West came Pilate draped in all the gaudy glory of imperial power: horses, chariots, and gleaming armor.
He moved in with the Roman army at the beginning of Passover week to ensure nothing got out of hand.
Insurrection was in the air with the memory of God’s deliverance of the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt.
From the east came another procession: Jesus in an ordinary robe riding on a young donkey, coming as a new kind of king, a king of peace, not of war.
All four Gospels include this incredible event.
This means that it is especially significant.
We are told that there was a massive crowd of people spreading their cloaks on the road for the donkey to walk on, like a modern-day red carpet, and “the whole city was stirred.”
The Gospel of John adds a little quote from the Pharisees to the end of this: “This is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
As we noted last week, the religious leaders were scared to death of Jesus.
He was a threat to their comfortable lives, their power, and their good-paying jobs.
What would happen to them if Jesus continued on like this?
They didn’t care if He was the Messiah or not.
They wanted Him gone before He overturned the entire apple cart.
Fear can do terrible things to people and cause people to do terrible things to one another.
It is the cause of wars and conflicts.
It is at the root of nearly everything bad in this world.
The Bible tells us in 1st John that fear and love are incompatible.
It is one of Satan’s most valuable tools.
Have you ever found yourself operating out of fear rather than love?
Fear is why bullies bully.
It’s why we discriminate.
And when our power and possessions and egos are at stake, it can lead to murder and death.
The Pharisees feared that the whole world would go after Jesus, yet that’s God’s purpose in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
He came to save the world that God so loves.
He came to save you and me.
And so, He rode that donkey into Jerusalem, knowing that He was riding to His death.
He knew what was going to happen.
He knew He would be arrested and His disciples would flee.
He knew He would be left alone with His tormentors.
He knew He would be crucified and He knew what that meant.
Crucifixion was more than a state-sponsored execution: it was meant to demean and shame the person being crucified.
It was the most horrible thing the Romans could come up with.
Jesus was riding into Jerusalem on a Sunday, and by Friday, Roman soldiers would strip Him naked and then hold a mock coronation.
This is the scene.
They would bring Him a robe, probably one of the soldier’s robes.
Then, they would decide that their newly robed king needed a crown, and they would twist a branch from a thorn tree into a rough circle in a parody of the royal laurel leaf.
Then they would press it down onto His head so that the thorns dug into His flesh.
Then they would put a stick in His hand to mimic a royal scepter.
“Hail, King of the Jews,” they would shout as they saluted.
I know that this is not pleasant in the least, but it is essential for us to have this picture in our mind in order to get a clear and tragic glimpse of what Jesus knew He was in for as He rode that donkey into town.
Jesus could have destroyed His killers with a word, but instead, He took the shame and humiliation.
And He even forgave them as He gasped for breath from the Cross.
The suffering and death of Jesus Christ is meant to affect us deeply.
It is to be a mirror held up to our souls, a reminder of our brokenness and how far God is willing to go in order to rescue us.
Jesus’ suffering and death wasn’t an accident.
He chose the path He knew would end in His this way.
He stood naked as if to say: “Do you see the extent of the Father’s love yet?”
Paul writes in Romans, “God proves his love toward us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us,” and John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
We are told in our Gospel lesson for this morning that Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem “took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”
Jesus was a king.
But the Cross is not a place for a king.
Kings don’t go near Golgotha.
Kings don’t get stripped of their robes.
Kings don’t lose their undergarments for all to see.
Kings don’t get executed like criminals.
Everything is backward, everything is all wrong.
But it’s not.
It’s not because this is what love does and God is Love.
This is what the Good Shepherd does in order to rescue the lost sheep and Jesus is the Good Shepherd.
When we try and fathom how great the love of God is, let’s consider that Jesus did all this on purpose.
It was the plan.
Back in Chapter 10, on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus took the twelve, His inner circle of disciples aside and said to them, “We are going to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law.
They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified.”
He did this on purpose!
Not in the sense that He threw in the towel, but He was in control.
He came to Jerusalem knowing the soldiers would get Him, the nails would pierce through His hands.
The real scandal of Christianity is that Jesus wanted sin to crush Him rather than you and me.
The worst thing you and I have ever done, all the things we have committed, all the hurt and damage we have caused throughout our lives, Jesus would rather have it stuck through His hand than read in the eternal courtroom.
If you are tired of sin trapping you in life, tired of looking back with regret, tired of hurting people, tired of trying to be good enough but not being able to do it…
…well, it’s Palm Sunday and here comes life and love and forgiveness marching through Jerusalem’s gates.
He doesn’t bring a spear because forgiveness can only happen on the Cross.
Christ has to die in order for us to live.
And this shows us just how hard forgiveness is.
It’s difficult and dirty work.
It is given to people who don’t deserve it.
It is a gift, it is grace.
When we ask Jesus Christ to forgive our sins through His death on the Cross, we are given the greatest gift anyone could ever know.
We experience freedom from those things that we can not rid ourselves of on our own.
And we get just a taste of what God’s agape, unconditional love is about.
And if we are paying attention, being forgiven transforms us in such a way that we are moved to forgive those who have hurt us.
How incredible it is to take the mercy of Christ and share it with our spouse, our children, our brother, sister, friend, neighbor or enemy?
How other-worldly it is to forgive as we have been forgiven.
It goes against our nature, but it is what being a Christian or a Christ-follower is all about…
…to love as we have been loved—unconditionally…
…to serve as we have been served—humbly…
…and to forgive as we have been forgiven—fully!
We don’t always get that right, do we?
I know I don’t.
That is why we all need Jesus all the time.
That is why we are called to follow, to travel with our humble God Who rode toward His death so long ago.
We can’t do this love thing, this forgiveness thing, this life-giving, peace-bringing, joy-filling thing on our own, by ourselves.
One of the greatest challenges Jesus ever gives us is the call to love and forgive our enemies.
It’s not humanly possible.
But with God, it is possible.
And that is why Palm Sunday is so significant.
It’s more than waving palm branches and singing hosannas.
It shows us God Who loves you and me and all people enough to purposely take the journey through Jerusalem to His death to save us.
It shows us what God is like, and as people who were created in God’s image—it shows us what we are created to be like.
And the first step in the journey of becoming fully human…to becoming whom we are created to be, is to follow Jesus to the Cross and all the way to the Resurrection and eternal life.
And then we can sing with all the saints, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.”
(pause)
If you have not decided to follow Jesus Christ, please do so today.
For God so loves you…
If you made the decision a long time ago or sometime in the past, but you have gotten off track, you have left Christ…
…He has never left you…
…will you decide this morning to begin to follow Him again?
People will let you down.
The church will let you down.
But Jesus will never let you down.
Imagine a world where people forgive one another as they have been forgiven…
…imagine a world where people love and forgive, even their enemies.
Imagine a world filled with folks who are truly following Jesus Christ, the King Who rode into Jerusalem, not for earthly glory, but to die for the sins of the world.
Let’s imagine it and then live into it, be part of it, help make it happen.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
