Today is Palm Sunday, one of the most significant days of the church calendar. And I think it’s fitting to remind ourselves that as we worship this morning here in our church we are part of a worldwide celebration, one that has been repeated every year for twenty centuries. In other words, this is not a local event. As we observe this special day, we are united with millions of congregations all over the world, all of them commemorating our Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem at the end of his earthly ministry.
It was only a short journey, Jesus riding into the city on the back of a donkey. It probably lasted less than an hour. There was no parade, no marching band, no military escort. But for two millennia, that journey has been remembered by every branch of the church, whether Protestant, or Catholic, or Orthodox. We share this day with our Christian brothers and sisters in other nations, and languages, and cultures. Not only that, we share it with those of prior ages, those who came before us, and those who will come after us as well. And so this morning we are a part of something far larger than ourselves.
Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem is important, not only because it stands at the beginning of Holy Week, not only because it set in motion a chain of events leading to his crucifixion and resurrection, but also because it communicates vital spiritual truths in its own right. It reveals crucial information about Christ, and about God's plan for his people. In fact, we cannot fully understand the days of Holy Week, including Good Friday and Easter Sunday, unless we first grasp the significance of this day, Palm Sunday.
And so this morning, I'd like to invite you to explore what this day means to you and I as followers of Jesus Christ. Let’s begin by reading from the gospel of Matthew, chapter 21, verses 1-11. The Scripture verses are printed on an insert in your bulletin.
“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.”
When Jesus entered Jerusalem at the beginning of Passover week, he was hailed by the people as a conquering hero, like a king entering his city. As we read this passage, we can picture the crowds waving palm branches and throwing down their coats for him to pass over. Huge crowds of people—thousands, tens of thousands — lining the roadways, spilling out into the fields, filling the streets of the city as he entered the gates, all chanting “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!” We can hear the cheering and the shouts of acclamation – "Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!"
What a thrilling scene that must have been! Imagine how the disciples must have felt as they walked with Christ in the midst of all this – what rejoicing; what excitement and exultation. Christ was being hailed as king, as messiah, as savior. Everything they had been anticipating for three long years was coming to pass! Surely, it was now only a matter of time until their master took his rightful place as the ruler of his people, and they, the Twelve, took their places at his side.
Yes, when Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he was at the height of his popularity. After three years of public ministry, he had established himself as a respected leader: a miracle-worker and a healer, a teacher and a sage, a courageous opponent of the corrupt religious establishment, and a man of compassion, strength, and wisdom. The people loved him. He was mobbed by huge crowds wherever he went. People hung on his every word. They sought his advice. They begged to be allowed to follow him. And they came to him for deliverance—deliverance from disease and injuries, deliverance from demonic oppression, deliverance from every kind of physical and psychological suffering.
Everyone in Israel was talking about who Jesus was and what he had done. And everyone was speculating, as well, about what he would do in the future. There seemed to be no limit on what he could accomplish. Perhaps he could even lead a movement to drive the hated Romans out of the Holy Land, like he drove the money changers out of the temple.
But as we all know, the crowd's adoration of Christ was short-lived. Just five days later, after Jesus had been arrested and brought before Pilate, when Pilate declared him innocent and asked the people what he should do with him, they shouted , "Crucify him! Crucify him!" The people who only a few days earlier had wanted him to be their king now wanted him killed! What an incredible, terrible, turn of events. What happened? How could public opinion turn against him so quickly and so violently? What could possibly explain this extreme reaction, this murderous hatred, this utter rejection of Jesus and everything he stood for?
The answer is simple. He failed their expectations. The people were expecting a warrior-king, someone who would lead them in an armed uprising against their Roman occupiers. They were expecting a military commander, under whose leadership the yoke of bondage to Rome would be thrown off, and the ancient glory of Israel would finally be restored. They were expecting power, and might, and victory. But when Christ was arrested, without even putting up a fight, and was brought before Pilate, what they saw was apparent weakness and defeat. It seemed that their hopes for deliverance had been crushed once again, and they reacted with disappointment and furious rage.
In the space of just four days, the thousands who had joyously welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem as their King and Messiah turned against him, demanding that he be put to death. Why? Because they lost faith in who we was. They lost faith in his mission. They lost faith in his future. They lost faith in what he meant for them. They saw him being arrested, and tried, and accused of the crime of blasphemy, and they turned against him. They no longer believed he was the Messiah. They were no longer willing to trust him, or identify with him, or follow him as their King. And so they rejected him.
Now, in order to understand their dramatic change of attitude, we need to realize that their expectations of a military deliverer, a warrior-king, were not unfounded. Their hopes were based on Biblical prophecies concerning the Messiah. For example, in Psalms chapter two, verses 7-9, we read this:
"I will proclaim the decree of the Lord: He said to me, 'You are my Son; today I have become your Father. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery."
Likewise, Isaiah prophecies this concerning the Messiah:
"He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. . . . He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth." – Isaiah 11:4, 12
Not only that, but many times throughout their history, when the people of Israel were conquered and oppressed by a foreign power, God raised up a military leader to take them into battle, and God did in fact defeat their enemies. Reading through the book of Judges, we learn of valiant men like Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Barak, Gideon, Tola, and Jephthah – not to mention valiant women, like Deborah. Names unfamiliar to us, but well known to them. The author of Hebrews, referring to these heroes, says that they "became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies." [Hebrews 11:34] This was their history.
And so it wasn't unreasonable for these first-century Jews, believing that Jesus was the promised Messiah, to expect that he would be this kind of deliverer as well. It wasn’t unreasonable to imagine that he would lead an armed rebellion against the Romans and defeat them by the power of God. It wasn't unreasonable – but it was wrong. What they failed to grasp was that the Messiah, on his path to glory and victory, had to first pass through suffering and death. They failed to take into account other messianic prophecies, prophecies such as Isaiah 53:5-8. That prophecy describes the Messiah in this way:
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”
And so we see that the Old Testament contains two strikingly different portraits of the Messiah. Why is that? Because they describe two different appearances of Christ. The first appearance took place two thousand years ago, when Jesus came to suffer and die for the sins of his people. The second, still future, coming of Christ is when he will appear as a conquering warrior, utterly destroying the wicked. Let me share with you a couple of verses that describe the SECOND coming of Christ:
“Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” – 1 Cor. 15:24-25
“For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.” – 2 Thess. 2:7-8
Jesus will return again, and he will fulfill all of the expectations of the conquering Messiah. But that wasn’t the purpose of his first coming. And the people of the first century couldn't reconcile these two portraits of the Messiah – one a suffering servant who would be pierced, and crushed, and wounded, and killed; the other, a conquering hero. And so when they saw that Christ would not fulfill their expectations of victory and deliverance; when they heard him declare to Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world," [John 18:36] they rejected him. They had no use for that kind of Messiah. They didn't recognize the presence of God in their midst.
Let's pause here for a bit of self-reflection. And ask ourselves this question: are we really so different than they? Do we recognize God's presence and activity in our lives when it involves disappointment, or suffering, or weakness, or apparent failure? Are we willing to accept those things as part of God's good, and wise, and loving plan for us? Jesus told us that in this world we would have trouble [John 16:33]. Will we accept that? Or, will we ignore it, and listen only to His more encouraging promises? Like the crowds who at first hailed Jesus as Lord, but turned against him when he failed to follow their script, will we give him our allegiance only when things are going well, but turn away from him, angry and disillusioned, when things go badly? Is it true of us also, that we only have use for a victorious, conquering savior? Or will we continue to trust in God, and follow him, and obey him, even when he allows our trials to persist?
In short, will we accept the savior God has given us, or will we seek another one, one of our own choosing, perhaps even one of our own making? That's the question. Because there is no shortage of alternatives to Christ—people and movements that promise to heal, and deliver, and protect us. You see, we don't really have the option of demanding that Christ work in our lives in the manner that we expect. If we are to be his disciples, and he is to be our Lord, then we must accept him as he is, and accept from him what he chooses to give us. We have to trust that he knows what is best, and that he will do what is best. We have to trust that even our suffering is an expression of his love and care for us. That's very difficult at times. But I can promise you this: if we will do that, we will find in the end that he is better than we could have imagined, that his ways are wiser than we could have conceived, and that his love is more wonderful than we could have hoped for.
But understanding the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday requires more than just knowing what it was not. The crowds saw it as the prelude to a revolt, the beginning of a popular uprising against the Romans. They were wrong. But that doesn't mean it had no importance. On the contrary, it had far greater importance than they realized. It signified, not something as minor as the overthrow of Roman government in Palestine, or something as relatively insignificant as the defeat of the Roman empire. Governments come and go, after all; empires rise and fall.
No, Palm Sunday represented something far greater than the defeat of the Roman government. It signaled the defeat of Satan and his kingdom. It meant that the power of sin and death would soon be broken forever. And when Christ rode into Jerusalem, his arrival also anticipated what would take place after the resurrection – his victorious ascension and entry into heaven; his enthronement at the Father's right hand as ruler and sovereign over all creation. And it foreshadowed his future return to earth in glory and power, to claim the fruits of his victory once and for all.
That's a lot to take in, so let me expand on it a bit. First, consider the defeat of Satan and his kingdom, the triumph of Christ over our ancient enemy. In Colossians, Paul says of Christ that,
". . . having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross." – Colossians 2:15
What does this mean? That by offering up his life on the cross, Jesus Christ broke the power of Satan and rendered his authority over us null and void. As believers in Christ, we have been forgiven of sin. We are no longer under judgment; we are no longer under condemnation. Therefore, we no longer fear death, nor do we fear the one who holds the power of death. Satan is a defeated and vanquished foe. In saying that Christ "made a public spectacle of them," Paul is using a phrase that would bring to mind the kind of victory parade that Roman generals gave when they returned from a foreign military campaign. As the victorious armies marched through the streets of Rome, the rulers and assorted dignitaries of the conquered enemy would be forced to walk at the end of the procession, stripped of their royal robes and fine clothing, stripped of all power and authority, and stripped of their dignity. That's what Christ did to Satan and his demonic powers on the cross.
The author of Hebrews makes the same point,
"Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." – Hebrews 2:14-15
At the cross, Jesus Christ overcame the power of the enemy, utterly and completely. He set us free from Satan's tyranny. Although the crowds didn’t realize it, Christ’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem was a celebration of this fact, a celebration of what he would soon accomplish by his death: the overthrow and utter defeat of Satan, and sin, and death.
Someone might ask, then why is there so much evil in the world? If Satan is defeated, why does evil seem to triumph? Recent events in Ukraine and Israel have reminded us of the depravity and brutality and monstrous cruelty that mankind is capable of. If Satan has truly been conquered, how could something that evil still exist? Good question. And the answer is that, although Satan is a defeated foe, although his destruction is certain, he remains active until Christ returns, doing what he can to oppose God. But it is only a matter of time until he is destroyed. As Paul tells us in First Corinthians chapter 15, after the return of Christ and the resurrection of the saints,
"Then the end will come, when he [Christ] hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet." – 1 Corinthians 15:24-25
Christ is reigning over the earth now, although for the time being he is permitting Satan to do evil. But the last chapter has already been written. The outcome is not in doubt. Christ's death on the cross guarantees the final destruction of Satan and his works.
And so, there are many things that Satan cannot do, as a result of his power being broken at the cross. He cannot tempt us beyond our ability to withstand. He cannot bring such severe trials, or such intense affliction into our lives that we lose our faith. And nothing he can do will ever separate us from God. Consider these promises:
"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you may stand up under it.” – 1 Corinthians 10:13
"In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." – Romans 8:37-39
As much of a struggle as it may be for us sometimes, to trust and obey God, and as much as Satan would like to destroy our faith and snatch us out of God's grasp, he cannot do it. God keeps us in union with himself by his own power, and he will never let us go.
So, given that Satan has no power over us, given that we are under no obligation to obey him – are we nevertheless voluntarily granting him an authority that he has no rightful claim to? Are we choosing to walk in disobedience to God, are we choosing to yield to sin, even though it has no power to compel us to obey? That is what we must avoid. As Paul exhorts us in Romans chapter six:
"Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness."
– Romans 5:12-13
In other words, Paul is telling us – don't act as if Satan still had some kind of authority or power over you, because he doesn't. Don't think, or speak, or act as if sin were still your master. Instead, use your freedom to obey God; make a free choice to give yourself wholly and completely to Christ. Remember that your freedom to follow God was purchased for you by Christ at great cost, through his triumph at the cross. And so make use of that freedom for good, and not evil.
During the civil war, after Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves, history tells us that for a time, many of them continued to serve their masters. They continued to live in the slave quarters, continued to work in the fields, continued to obey their former masters' commands, although their masters no longer had any legal authority over them. They had been slaves for so long that they didn't know any other way. They continued thinking and acting like slaves even though they were free. And Paul is telling us that we must not do this. If you have trusted in Christ for salvation, then sin is no longer your master; it no longer has any authority over you. Christ has broken its power, and you are free – free to serve God. No longer enslaved to sin.
Finally, let me say that the victory which Christ won at the cross will someday be evident to all. His triumph will be acknowledged by every creature. His power, and glory, and might will be fully revealed. And when that happens, we will share in his glory. We will wear the victor's crown, we will receive from him the crown of life. And so let us conduct our lives in this world with joy and faithful obedience, as people who know we are on the winning side. I'll close with this promise:
"[Christ] humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." – Philippians 2:8-11
That's the day we all long for, and that's the day Palm Sunday looks forward to.
