The Triumphal Entry Series

If I were to ask you if you ever felt out of place, or like you didn’t match the expectations that people had of you, how many of you could relate to that statement? I know that I certainly can! And this looks different for everybody. For some people, it’s the big things. Maybe your parents had really specific expectations for your life when you were young, maybe a certain career path they expected you to go down, and you just didn’t fit that at all, it just wasn’t who you were. Now that wasn’t my experience, but I know that for me, everyone around me expected that when I enrolled at MCC, I would be there for four years, graduate, and then move on into ministry. But nobody expected me to take TEN YEARS to finish a degree, and many people are surprised to find that a) I haven’t finished yet, and b) I’m actually still enrolled!! The way that I have done my schooling doesn’t fit the typical mold, or the typical expectations, that people have when they hear about someone going to get a degree.

I have experienced this as well when I explain to people that my goal is bi-vocational ministry. Often when I tell people that I’m going to Holland College for Electrical, I will get the comment, “Oh, you decided not to go into ministry then?” The reason they ask this is because somebody being both a pastor and an electrician does not fit into the mold or the expectations that they have of someone who is a pastor. And that's fair! It’s not common these days!

Now I’m saying all of this, because sometimes, things aren’t what we expect them to be. We all have preconceived ideas about the way that things are supposed to be, based on our experiences in life, and our cultures and background. We all see the world through a lens or a pair of glasses, a worldview, and it is through that set of glasses that we begin to expect things to be a certain way. And this has been true for all time. Different cultures and religions have different sets of glasses on, and through those glasses, they interpret the world around them.

Today is Palm Sunday. On Palm Sunday, we celebrate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. And when we picture this scene of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, we see a huge crowd of people laying tree branches in the road, and people spreading their coats on the road ahead of Jesus as a royal welcome, and people are crying out Hosanna. This is the day that we remember the people of Jerusalem finally recognizing that Jesus is the promised King and Messiah, who has come to save them. But in this moment, while everything seems to finally be coming together, there is a huge problem. The problem is that the people were wearing a set of glasses that prevented them from seeing what was truly happening, they didn’t understand what God was doing before their own eyes. They were celebrating because they thought that this coming of Jesus meant that they finally had a king who would drive out the Roman oppressors, and so they gave that king the welcome that he deserved as he came victoriously into his capital city. But the problem is, the only thing that they had right was that he was the Messiah and King. In every other way, their expectations were way off. And we know what happened when they figured out that he WASN’T there to get rid of the Romans. 5 days later, those same people were yelling for him to be crucified. You see, Jesus didn’t fit their mold. They wanted a warrior, but they got a king of peace and gentleness. He wasn’t interested in a revolt, his plan was way bigger than a revolt against the government. That may have been what the culture expected of him, but he was counter cultural. Jesus did not match the world’s expectation of the Messiah, and we should strive to follow his example.

Let’s read this story, Matthew 21:1-11: “When they had approached Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to Me. “If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “SAY TO THE DAUGHTER OF ZION, ‘BEHOLD YOUR KING IS COMING TO YOU, GENTLE, AND MOUNTED ON A DONKEY, EVEN ON A COLT, THE FOAL OF A BEAST OF BURDEN.’ ” The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them, and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their coats on them; and He sat on the coats. Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road. The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!” When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.”