The Humble King

I am so glad that we can be here together and that we can worship together this morning. Isn’t it great to be in the House of the Lord this morning as we begin Holy Week.

Today we celebrate. Today we have been invited to a party.

It’s Party Time

Have you ever thought about it. We love to Party. Parties are a part of our culture in a lot of ways. Think about it for a few minutes. There are so many different things that we party about.

Christmas

Easter

Thanksgiving

New Years

4th of July

Birthday’s

Anniversaries

Birth of Children

And many more

That is what is amazing about life we celebrate a lot of things. Even more than we just mentioned. Even here at church we gather together just to enjoy time together and to celebrate our friendships. Today though we are celebrating a Big party. Today we celebrate the Day Jesus stopped trying to hide who he was.

Jesus Tried to hide who he was!

Yes it is true. Up to this point Jesus had multiple times tried to hide who he was. He would often take the time after a miracle to command people to not reveal who he was. He tried his best to limit the spread of what he was doing.

Matthew 9:27–31 NIV

27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” 28 When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied. 29 Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; 30 and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.” 31 But they went out and spread the news about him all over that region.

Jesus didn’t always have a lot of luck with this. The people he healed still went out despite his attempts of hiding who he was. Jesus worked though to keep it from the Public. He wasn’t out to gain fame he was out to do the work of God.

Not only did Jesus try to hide it from the Public he even wanted his close friends to keep it hidden.

Matthew 16:20 NIV

20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

This verse comes right after Peter declared who Jesus was. This grand moment of the disciples gaining knowledge that Jesus was more than just a teacher that he was the Son of God he told them to keep it quiet.

It is strange to think that Jesus would keep these things hidden or close to the vest. Jesus was humble and didn’t want the focus to be on him but on God. That was always his goal and motivation.

Then it came time to celebrate Passover and to head to Jerusalem and everything was about to change.

Matthew 21:1–11 NIV

1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: 5 “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ” 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” 11 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

A couple of important things that we need to be reminded of when we are reading this passage.

Matthew’s Readers

Matthew was writing this gospel to the Early Jewish church. These were believers who had come to believe in Jesus but remained connected to their local synagogues. This created a lot of challenges for them. They did not belong in the same way to the Jewish community but they did not connect to the growing Gentile community because they still had their heritage of the Jewish commands that they would live by.

They were often persecuted by other members of the Jewish community because of their belief in Jesus. This is who Matthew is writing to and because of that he is trying to help them make the connections between the Old Testament and the works of Jesus and who he is. This leads Matthew to often look back at Old Testament scripture to see the fulfillment of prophecy. He does this here as well.

Zechariah 9:9 NIV

9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter 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.

This imagery for Matthew shows the connection to the Old testament and the coming of the Messiah. One intersting challenge with this is the fact that Jesus rode in on a donkey and a colt.

Did Jesus really need two rides?

There are a lot of reasons that scholars have tried to come up with to try to explain why Matthew mentions both or sees this prophecy. One of the most common though is that a young colt or the offspring of a donkey would be calmer in the presence of its mother and that would be helpful when Jesus entered Jerusalem given the size of the crowd.

No matter what the reason we see that the King is coming though and he comes in a humble manner.

Jesus Announces who He is

The real power in this story is this is the public display of Jesus and who he really is. Gone are the days of Jesus hiding it. He is about to make the last journey into Jerusalem and he knows that it is time. He rides into the city and people start shouting out.

Matthew 21:9 NIV

9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

You need to remember this is during the season of Passover. On the low end the amount of people who would be in the city would be around 100 thousand. It has been estimated there could be a half a million though gathered in Jerusalem.

Imagine the party than lining the streets.

Chiefs Superbowl Parade

The Kansas City Chiefs won the super bowl this year. This is a picture of their parade after the game. There is an estimated 800k to 1 million people at that parade. That is a sea of people there. That gives us a little idea of how many people were in the the city. It would have probably been impossible not to hear about what was happening as Jesus entered the City.

These people gathered because they had heard about who Jesus was (despite his best efforts).

They knew that the King had arrived and they wanted to celebrate!

Jesus came in riding a colt and people were praising his name shouting Hosanna Hosanna.

He arrives as the Promised Messiah, The savior, and the one true King of Israel.

Today We Celebrate!

Today is the day we celebrate that moment. We take a moment and praise God for what he is doing in this moment in history.

We have the benefit of Hindsight we know the whole story. We know the real reason that Jesus is entering the City.

Yes, He is coming in as Messiah, Savior, and King but he is also coming to the cross.

This story is powerful to us because we know that this same crowd that is cheering for the coming of Jesus in just a short amount of time is going to be calling for his blood. They will be seeking to have him hung on a cross to die. They will be crying out for a horrible prisoner to be release instead of Jesus. Even his closest friends will doubt and be uncertain of the coming days what is happening.

That is the real power of what is happening right now. No one but Jesus really knew what it meant that the King was coming. That the King wasn’t riding in on a white horse with an army behind him. Instead he rode in on a colt in the most humble way a King could come.

He came for Passover, to celebrate and to share with his disciples the promise of God.

In doing so he set the stage for a promise and reminder for all of us.

Communion