Greetings friends,
This coming Lord’s Day is known as Palm Sunday. It’s one week before the resurrection. It is called Palm Sunday because when Jesus entered Jerusalem, people laid down palm branches and hailed Him as the coming King. You might recall that when Jesus was born, “A great company of heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.’” Luke 2:13-14. Palm Sunday is significant because we see that He came symbolically as the King who offered peace to His people. Let’s look today at how Luke documented this account. We begin in Luke 19:28-36…
“28 After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 30 “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’ ” 32 Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 They replied, “The Lord needs it.” 35 They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. 36 As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.”
In my series of messages on Luke, we have seen that Jesus had set out toward Jerusalem for some time. He was preaching the “Good News” of the kingdom in towns along the way. His purpose was to talk to as many people as possible along the way to Jerusalem. It wasn’t a straight shot to Jerusalem, but it was His ultimate destination. It was His destiny.
It was after Jesus dined with Zacchaeus in Jericho and taught the people about the parable of the Ten Minas, that we find Jesus going up to Jerusalem. He had a date with a cross there, and knew that this was a time of His fulfillment of the Scriptures. What courage He displayed as He led the way. All of the Scriptures needed to be fulfilled—and even this particular journey going up to Jerusalem. It’s why He stops and gives some directions to His disciples. He is about a mile outside Jerusalem. He tells two disciples to go get a colt… and they go do that. It’s a colt that has never been ridden.
Not surprisingly, the disciples go and do exactly as Jesus says. If anyone were to object, they were simply to say that “The Lord needs it.” I believe there is a good chance that the owners of the colt were disciples as well, or at least familiar with Him. In those days, a donkey or in this case a colt, was akin to lending someone a car. You just don’t do that without knowing the party you are lending it to. And, not surprisingly, when the disciples were asked what they were doing… they replied that, “The Lord needs it,” and that sufficed. It may have been that this “quiet plan” was put in place to protect these disciples from excommunication. This colt was necessary to fulfill Zechariah’s prophesy of the coming king.
Zechariah had written 520 years before Christ—it was a time when the nation of Israel had been conquered and carried off to Babylon. God had told the people through Zechariah that if they returned to God, then God would return to them. In essence, they shouldn’t be like their ancestors who had forsaken the Lord. Zechariah 9:9 records what this coming king will look like. It says, “Rejoice greatly, Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” And now, on this very day that Jesus is “going up to Jerusalem,” He is fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy precisely.
When Jesus got on the colt and rode along, an interesting thing happened. People spread their cloaks on the road. It was a custom—a sign that Jesus was being hailed as the victorious king. This had happened before on the day when Jehu was anointed as king of Israel. His men took their cloaks and spread them out before him, and then blew the trumpet and shouted, “Jehu is king!” See 2 Kings 9:13.
The closer Jesus came to Jerusalem, the greater the excitement. Look now at 19:37-40,
“37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: 38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” 40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
Here we see the “whole crowd of disciples” giving joyful praise to God in loud voices. These guys had seen miracles. They knew the Lord. They couldn’t help but declaring blessings on Jesus. He was the One who would turn this whole nation around. They were so hoping for this. When they shouted, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”, it was recited as part of the Passover tradition. They were reciting Psalm 118:26 in expectation of the Messiah. And Jesus was the Messiah.
Of course, all of this attention going to Jesus was bound to ruffle a few feathers. The ruling class couldn’t stand to see their polls plummet while Jesus’ rose. These Pharisees wanted Jesus to rebuke His disciples. They also wanted to arrest Jesus secretly after the Passover and not during the festival according to Matthew 26:4-5. It was if Jesus was forcing their hand in the matter… being proclaimed the king.
Jesus told the Pharisees in essence, “I’m not going to do it.” You will now have to deal with me. He knew His destiny. He would die on the Passover as the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. This was too big a deal. Jesus’ argument is that if the disciples were quiet, that the stones would cry out. This was His moment. Jesus is quoting Habakkuk, who prophesied that because the nation was so sinful, the very stones of the city wall would cry out against them. Jesus is pointing to the nation’s sin and rejection of their promised Messiah. Time was running out for them to repent and bear good fruit for God. Jesus laments the city’s rejection in verses 41-44…
“41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
Don’t ever say that God is delighted to condemn sinners to hell. He is not. It breaks His heart. He created us for Himself, and when we reject Him with murder in our hearts, it breaks His heart. The shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35 where is says, “Jesus wept.” In that instance it was because of His great love for Lazarus, and because of what sin had brought into His creation… death. Jesus had the power and authority to call Lazarus forth from the tomb and return him to life. But here, Jesus wept because this nation, His nation, had completely rejected him—and would not return to Him. Jesus wept. He weeps for that which is lost. He just told Zacchaeus that the Son of Man had come to seek and to save that which was lost, and now the time for that seeking was coming to a close. The nation would be lost.
As Jesus looked around that day, He saw all kinds of religious activity that was heartless and hollow. The Temple had become a den of thieves. When He looked back on the previous 3 years of ministry, He could see how the nation had wasted its opportunity to repent. When Jesus looked ahead, He saw the terrible judgment that was coming to the nation, the city, and its beautiful Temple. In just 40 years, the Romans would come, lay siege to the city, and not leave one stone on top of another. After a siege of 143 days, they would kill 600,000 people, and take thousands more captive. Rome would seek to obliterate the nation… and they did. Why? Because of what Jesus had taught earlier in the day in His parable, “But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king,’” Luke 19:14.
Everything that Jesus prophesied to those Pharisees came true—and more. Jesus said that it was “because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” What should have been the most joyous day ever, became the saddest day ever. The die was cast, and in five days, Jesus would be crucified for the sin of the world on God’s Passover, according to the Scriptures. The Triumphal Entry had a painful reality. But then comes Easter… because that Story is another chapter.
On Sunday the 17th, as a church we will be celebrating the Resurrection. This fact alone has changed the world, and it can change lives still. We will gather at 9:30 for a wonderful Easter breakfast. And during breakfast, we are asking folks to bring lots of flowers to decorate our Easter Cross. That cross, that was so ugly and cruel, has become a symbol of hope and love because of what Jesus accomplished there. Then at 10:30 we will worship together. I will bring a message about how love never fails. I hope that you will join us—and bring your family and friends. I’m looking forward to celebrating this Easter with you.
My prayer for you is taken from Jude 24-25 “I ask that the Great God who is able to keep you and me from stumbling would do just that. And I ask that He would also present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy on that day. I also pray that endless glory, majesty, power and authority go to our great God and Savior alone. Amen.
