Mark 11:1-11 Palm Sunday, 2006
Return of the King
An Allegory From the Orthodox Church:
Once upon a time there was a good and kind king who had a great kingdom with many cities. In one distant city, some people took advantage of the freedom the king gave them and started doing evil. They profited by their evil and began to fear that the king would interfere and throw them in jail. Eventually these rebels seethed with hatred for the king. They convinced the city that everyone would be better off without the king, and the city declared its independence from the kingdom.
But soon, with everyone doing whatever they wanted, disorder reigned in the city. There was violence, hatred, lying, oppression, murder, rape, slaver and fear. The king thought: “What should I do? If I take my army and conquer the city by force, the people will fight against me, and I’ll have to kill so many of them, and the rest will only submit through fear or intimidation, which will make them hate me and all I stand for even more. How does that help them – to be either dead or imprisoned or secretly seething with rage? But if I leave them alone, they’ll destroy each other, and it breaks my heart to think of the pain they’re causing and experiencing.”
So the king did something very surprising. He took off his robes and dressed in the rags of a homeless wanderer. Incognito, he entered the city and began living in a vacant lot near a garbage dump. He took up a trade – fixing broken pottery and furniture. Whenever people came to him, his kindness and goodness and fairness and respect were so striking that they would linger just to be in his presence. They would tell him their fears and questions, and ask his advice. He told them that the rebels had fooled them, that the true king had a better way to live, which exemplified and taught. One by one, then two by two, and then by the hundreds, people began to have confidence in him and live in his way.
Their influence spread to others, and the movement grew and grew until the whole city regretted its rebellion and wanted to return to the kingdom again. But, ashamed of their horrible mistake, they were afraid to approach the king, believing he would certainly destroy them for their rebellion. But the king-in-disguise told them the good news: he himself was king, and he loved them. He held nothing against them, and welcomed them back into his kingdom, having accomplished by a gentle, subtle presence what never could have been accomplished through brute force.”
- a Generous Orthodoxy P. 57
Jesus had been living among the people for 33 years, he had been ministering among them for 3 years. Although he gave many hints at his identity, he seldom came out and said it. Up until this point in the Gospel, he is the king in disguise. The story of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Palm Sunday story is where he comes out and says it, “I am the King.”
Jesus is the Messiah
The Israelites had been waiting for the Messiah to come and save them. A King that would bring the nation back to its rightful glory - a time when the borders will be as large as they were when Solomon was king, a time when all the nations around would see the greatness of Israel and turn and worship God as they should, a time when the nations that have been forced to serve would now serve them.
Some people had put their hope in leaders of revolts against the Romans, and the Hellenists before them, but all these revolts were quashed and the hoped for Messiahs were killed.
But they had heard of this Jesus - the Miraculous signs that followed him, the power in his words, his love of God and the people; maybe he is the one!
The people who were looking for the coming of the Messiah would have known all the Prophesies that told of what he would be like, and they would have been looking even more for signs during the Passover festival - a festival that celebrated the great deliverance of the nation out of Egypt.
The people who were waiting and watching would have known the Scripture in Zachariah 9:9 which says:
Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zachariah 9:9 NIV)
And Jesus knew the verse as well - to come into the city during the Passover riding a donkey colt when all the other pilgrims were walking was a powerful sign and statement that said "I am he, I am the one, I am the Messiah!
You can imagine the excitement of the two disciples growing as they went into the town to get the colt, and their amazement when they were allowed to take it just because they said "the Lord needed it."
And then finally as they laid their coats on it, and Jesus sat on it and began the ride into the holy city. The crowds saw him and as word spread that this was Jesus of Nazareth - the teacher and miracle worker, the songs that they were singing suddenly had so much more meaning, so they sang out Psalm 118 even louder so that they were shouting it:
Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes
in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the coming kingdom
of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!
Hosanna does not just mean Hooray! or Hallelujah!, it is Hebrew for "save us" - their Saviour had come, and they were calling on him to save them. In their excitement they spread their coats on the ground as well as palms in a kind of "red carpet" to welcome in the Messiah and cheer him into the city.
Jesus is the Conquering King
In our culture the donkey is not a highly regarded. Images come to mind of a stupid, ornery, stubborn, funny looking beast of burden - but the donkey was not viewed in this way in Jesus day. In the Ancient middle east the donkey was an animal of peace and victory - the king or general who was going out to battle would leave in a big parade on a horse, but he would return in victory riding a donkey - to show that he has conquered.
Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey just like a king who has conquered the enemy - it is a prophesy of what would come in one short week.
Jesus had already fought many battles with the enemy in his ministry - resisting temptation in the desert, casting out demons, struggling with the religious rulers of the day, but the greatest battle was still to be fought.
In 5 short days the cries of “save us!” turn to “crucify him!” Jesus will be beaten and crucified and he will die on the cross and all his disciples will scatter - he will not look like a conquering king, in fact he will look like a defeated criminal
But Jesus death on the cross is the greatest battle that he will fight, and it will be a battle that he is victorious over.
On the cross Jesus fulfils the first prophecy given to the serpent after the fall:
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’’ (Genesis 3:15 NIV)
Matthew tells us that when Jesus died the curtain of the temple was ripped in two - that thick curtain that separated the general temple from the Holy of Holies was a symbol of our separation from God.
It is Satan’s goal to separate humankind from our creator, and have us serve him instead. To do this he tempts us to sin so that we cannot be in communion with a holy and just God.
When Jesus died on the cross he made up for all the sin that we have committed so that we can once again return to full communion with God - the curtain that divided us has been ripped in two, and through Jesus and his sacrifice we can return to God.
Earlier in his ministry, after casting out a demon, Jesus tells this parable: “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils.
In this story Satan is the strong man, and he keeps us, and the world, captive through the weapons of sin and death, but Jesus is the stronger man, and on the cross he removes Satan’s weapons - he takes away the punishment for sin by taking it upon himself, and he rips through the power of death on the third day by rising again.
At Jesus’ death and resurrection, there is a regime change in the world. The Prince of the power of the air is defeated, and the King of Glory comes to reign.
The cross looks like a defeat, but it is a great victory, the greatest victory ever - the victory over sin, death, and Satan: and Jesus is so sure of this victory that he holds the parade 5 days before the battle.
Satan is defeated at the cross. Now you might look at the world around you and question that defeat, but he is defeated. We have the choice, do we follow the ways of the defeated prince, or the ways of the victorious king
In the film version of the Return of the King in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, after the battle against the great evil is won, Aragorn is finally crowned the rightful king of Gondor
Gandalf, as he crowns Aragorn, proclaims, “Now come the days of the king! May they be blessed.
Aragorn turns to the people and says, “This day does not belong to just one man, but to all.”
“Let us together rebuild this world that we may share in the days of peace.”
At the cross, God has declared “Now come the days of the King!”
After his resurrection, Jesus turns to us and says: “All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” – Matthew 28:18-20
In effect, he is saying, “Let us together rebuild this world that we may share in the days of peace.”
Effect of the reign of the prince – war, AIDS in Africa, problems here – this does not look like the reign of the King
Luke 4
At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he made a proclamation of what his mandate for ministry is by quoting Isaiah 61: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim
that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors,
and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come."
Part of joining in this regime change is working against all the vestiges of the old regime, and teaching people who are stuck in the old regime how to live in the new one!
Jesus taught us to pray “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” God has a habit of inviting us to partner with him in seeing the answer to our prayers. What are you doing to see God’s reign in the areas of the world that you have influence?
At the end of the book, “The Return of the King,” after saving middle earth from the great evil, the hobbits return to the Shire, their home, to discover that it had been taken over by Wormtongue and his band of bad men. They have to set about clearing their home of evil.
We might get all excited about helping to see God’s reign come to the whole world, and we can get caught up in freeing the downtrodden from their oppressors, when our own back yards are a mess. When the King returns, he is the king of the world, and the king of our hearts.
Romans 6:12-14 says:
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. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
Conclusion
In the triumphal entry of Jerusalem that we celebrate on Palm Sunday, Jesus comes out and says yes he is the Messiah, the King has returned: and he has his victory parade even before the battle is fought!
Jesus invites us into his kingdom – to join him in the rebuilding of this world. Will you join him?
