The Crying That Stopped The Parade.

THE CRYING THAT STOPPED THE PARADE.

LUKE 19:28-44.

I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t like a good parade. When I was a Boy Scout I was always involved in the Parade

That they had in the small community where I grew up. In later years if the community that we were living in was having a parade Barb and I would take the children and we would all watch the parade. The parade that took place on this Psalm Sunday was one that would make evening news. This parade had a big crowd, it had lots of families along the route, and there was music and dancing where all could see everyone was enjoying themselves. This was a very colourful parade; add to that there were people waving psalm branches. There was that one major item that everyone was watching and waiting for and that was Jesus. If we were to put ourselves into this parade with the purpose of talking to the people who lined the road I would imagine that we would get many different answers to the question of what is this parade about and why are you taking part. Many people on that day believed that Jesus was their next king.

Jesus did something on that day that he never did before.

Zechariah 9:9. 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.

Jesus was not only fulfilling prophecy that said that He was and is the Messiah, but Jesus action was a definite provocation to the religious leaders. What Jesus also did is that He drew everyone attention to Himself and Jesus never did that before. Zechariah wasn’t saying that by riding on a donkey that it showed the lowliness of Jesus; he is saying that when the Messiah came that Jesus would come in regal majesty as a King upon a colt. In war time a King always rode a horse and in peace time the King would ride a donkey. Jesus was the hero and almost everyone was treating him as such. In verses 39-40 we have the Pharisees who are trying to get Jesus to rebuke his disciples. Jesus answer is very interesting. Jesus is saying that this parade is honouring him and that it is so great that if the people are not willing to offer praise that creation itself will offer up praise to the creator.

Jesus was weeping because the son of God came unto His own but they didn’t want Him.

Can you picture coming to your own people and they want nothing to do with you. Someone has looked at the people that were around Jesus that day and they came up with four groups of people. What is interesting is that they also figure that these same people make up the church today.

A. There was a group of people who though a lot of Jesus. We see that by how they showed their worship of Jesus by a personal sacrifice. They took off their coats and cast them down on the road. I want say that as your pastor that this is the group that you all fit into. Yet you must remember that you are a unique and in the minority in the family of the lord.

B. Then there were those who didn’t want to make a personal sacrifice so they cut psalm branches and lay then down. If the first group had coats then it is only very likely that we can say that this second group also had their coats. Can you see these people? They are watching the first group take off their coats a lay them on the ground to be trampled on by all the people. The chances of getting it back in the same shape are very slim to none. These are the people in the church who want to be a part of everything but they don’t want to have to give anything from their pocket. This group of people in the church today do not give the Lord his tithe.

C. Then we also had people who only wanted to worship Jesus with their words. These are the people who can talk the talk but they have refused to allow the Lord to touch their hearts. They know all the right words, they know just how to act when they are around people from the church but they live for themselves. They have a foot in both worlds but they actually only live in the spiritually world because of what they can get out of it.

D. Then we have the people who are finding fault with everything. I think the religious leaders of Jesus day were upset with all the attention that Jesus was getting. They felt that they alone were worthy of that attention because they were the teacher of the law of the Lord.