The King We Needed

To understand this text, I think there’s a value in us getting a picture of it into our mind because the sight of that day on that day must have been absolutely spectacular. So Jerusalem sits on a relatively minor hill, 1600, 1700 feet above sea level. There’s a valley and then to the east of Jerusalem is what’s called the Mount of Olives and that’s much taller. 3,000, 3,500 feet above sea level, something like that. I don’t remember the exact dimension or the exact height, but it’s much higher. Bethany and Bethphagy are probably just on the far side of that Mount of Olives. Maybe they’re right at the top, but probably just on the east side of that hill. And to get into Jerusalem, you’d have crested the hill and then you’d have come down the valley and then gone back up into the city. Here’s a picture I’m hoping that it got in there. Whoop, need to switch the slide? Alex missed that email. Never mind. There was a cool picture that I was going to show you of Jerusalem as we come down, but to be fair to Alex, I sent that email at about 10 o’clock last night. If you’re able to pull it up, Alex, go ahead and pull it up, please, and we’ll show it later. For you to come down and there have been throngs of people in this valley. Why? Because it’s Passover time and the people are coming to Jerusalem for the Passover. And if our archaeological understanding is correct, archaeologists think that the population of Jerusalem at that time was somewhere between 20 and 30,000 people. But they also think that during the Passover, it swelled to at least a quarter million people. And this day, what you and I call Palm Sunday, was probably the biggest day. Monday would have been close, too. Why? Because on the 10th day was the day they were to bring their lambs to the temple for the high priests to inspect, or for the priests to inspect their lambs to make sure that they were lambs without blemish. Oh, is that ringing a bell? We needed a savior who was a lamb without blemish. Yep. And so they were to bring their lamb to the temple to be inspected. Is this lamb good enough? Or isn’t it? And so the people would have been coming like crazy. And it was probably quite festive. We think that they sang through Psalms. Oh, I should have double checked this. I didn’t think about it. I think it’s Psalms 112 to 118. I’m looking at Professor Otto. He’s shaking his head. Yes. So, Psalm 112 to 118, and particularly with the focus on 118, which is a song of praise, “Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” And so it had been fun. It had been festive. And then they found out that Jesus was coming. Oh, boy. Jesus is coming. And why is that so cool? Because Jesus has done all this amazing stuff. You’d guess that a good number of the people who were coming to Jerusalem had knowledge of at least some of Jesus’s miracles. Some of them may have even been there at some of Jesus’s miracles. For example, Jesus had fed the 5,000, which was 5,000 men plus women, children. How many people were there that day? 15,000, 20,000 people. He had later fed the 4,000. Again, 4,000 males, women, children, in addition to that. Had some of the people on Palm Sunday been there for those days? Could be. Jesus had done lots of other miracles very, very publicly, healing blind people, healing lepers, healing people with various diseases. And if they hadn’t seen him, they’d probably heard about him. And just a few days earlier, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead in Bethany. Remember my picture. Bethany is like right here. So it’s right on the way to Jerusalem. And a guy being raised from the dead after being in the grave several days. You think word about that got out there? Oh, yeah. And now Jesus is coming. And here comes the crowds, and they’re coming into Jerusalem. And it’s Passover time, and it’s going to be great. And Jesus is coming. And he’s done all these strong, powerful things. What’s he going to do? Oh, maybe this is the time. Maybe this is the time that Jesus is going to drive out those cursed Roman people. Maybe this is the time where he’s going to ascend to his father David’s throat, in power and glory, and make us great again. Oh, what are they seeing as they look at Jesus? It strikes me that their narcissistic tendencies are coming out. Oh, so clearly. Aren’t they? But there’s oh, so much more here. Yes, what the people were saying was right. Blessed is he who comes to the Lord. Blessed is the king. He was the king. Blessed is the son of David. He was the son of David. But he was not riding into Jerusalem as a conquering hero. He’s coming for an entirely different purpose. And did you hear it? In the words he spoke to his disciples, the two he sent ahead. He’s showing his all his all knowingness, his omniscience is the Latin for that. He’s showing his all knowingness, his omniscience, as he says to the disciples, go to the village in front of you. When you get there, you’re going to find a cult there, which Greek literally no one has ever sat on. How does Jesus know that? Well, because he knows everything. Untie it. Bring it to me. If someone asks you what you’re doing, then you will say this. The Lord of it has a need. Wait, did you hear what Jesus said? The Lord of it has a need. Wait, he’s the Lord. He’s the all powerful son of God. He’s the same God who could feed the five thousand, the four thousand, who could heal the paralyzed people, who could give sight to the blind, who could raise lasers from the dead. He has a need? Yeah, a need. And what does he need? A pack animal. Seriously? The Lord of the universe needs a donkey? Really? Yeah. Why? Because again, he wasn’t going to come rolling into Jerusalem on a war horse, the powerful, conquering, political rescuer. But he was going to come in lowly, humble, the Savior King who is coming to win salvation for all of us human beings. Did the crowd see that? What? Did the crowd see him as the humble, saving King, not coming for glory and power, but to come to lay down his life? Do they see that? It seems as if most of them did not. Why? Because Jesus lets us know what he sees as he comes into Jerusalem. In the verses immediately after text, we read that Jesus started crying. Wait, you’ve got crowds out here welcoming him. Wouldn’t you think Jesus would be thrilled and excited? Oh, this is awesome. So many people are getting it. That’s not what he says at all. Instead, he says, “Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I wanted to gather you together.” The way a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings. And you aren’t willing. If only you had known who it was who was coming to you. He goes on to say, “Jesus seems to be telling us that many, if not most, of the people who were there on Palm Sunday were unbelievers, that they weren’t looking at him as being their spiritual Messiah. They weren’t looking to him for forgiveness of sins, life, and eternal salvation, and horror of horrors. The implication is that some, many, maybe even most, of those people who were shouting those praises on Palm Sunday ended up in hell. And my brothers and sisters, that ought to terrify us. Because Dr. Luke is revealing to us the problem with our heart. That we have this tendency to look at Jesus as if he’s our personal vending machine. Yesterday, most of you know that we were at the funeral for our stillborn grandchild. Thank God we have a grandchild who’s in heaven. And afterwards, I was talking with the pastor, and he told me a story about a time when he did a funeral similar. It was another stillborn, or maybe very early infant death, I don’t remember. And not terribly long after that, terribly unfortunately, the family quit the church. And the pastor spent hours talking to them. And at the end of the day, it came down to this. Pastor, I refuse to believe that God would allow something like that to happen to me. What was he looking at God for? What was he looking at God for? He was looking at God to be his personal vending machine. To make his life work out the way he wanted it to work out. God’s omnipotence be damned, God’s omniscience be damned. Oh, unfortunately, who is it that’s in danger of being damned? It’s easy for us to point the finger of blame at those people on Palm Sunday and say, “How could they miss it? How could they miss the glory of what was happening, that Jesus was coming to save them?” But oh, so easy it is for us to fall into the exact same trap, my brothers and sisters. What do we see when we look at Jesus? Do we thrill to see the gracious Savior? Do we thrill to see the one who laid down his life? Or do we get angry because he didn’t give me that job promotion, that entrance into that school, that boyfriend, girlfriend, that husband, wife? What did Jesus see as he came into Jerusalem that day? What were his eyes fixed on? Most gloriously, my brothers and sisters, his eyes were fixed on the cross. And for the glory that was in front of him, he scorned its shame and died and rose for you. If I can say it a little differently, what did Jesus see as he wrote in Jerusalem? He saw sinners who needed to be saved. Yes, including those throngs there on that day, but also my brothers and sisters, he saw you. And he saw me. And so relentlessly on he wrote, no matter how most of the people were responding, no matter how many, because your God wanted to win salvation for you and for me. Oh, my brothers and sisters, may that always be what we see when we see Jesus. Amen. And amen.