Official Presentation of the King -Selected Scripture-

Introduction

Today we celebrate Palm Sunday also known as the Triumphal Entry. For three years, Jesus has traveled, healed the sick, cast out demons, preached to the people with authority. He has been publicly interrogated by the Pharisees, the Sadducees, Lawyers, & many others. He has repeatedly said John 2:4 “...My hour has not yet come.” Even when John the Baptist’s Disciples come to Jesus and ask Jesus if He is the Christ, Jesus’ response was not a simple yes, but rather, look at the evidence and you will find your answer. Matthew 11:3–5 “and said to Him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” This was in fulfillment of Isaiah 35:5 “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.” Isaiah 61:1 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;” Isaiah 26:19 “Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.” And Isaiah 29:18–19 “In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.” You see, Jesus’ answer was for those who had “ears to hear.” (Matt 11:15) Yet now we come to the end of His earthly ministry. He has had His final discussion with the Pharisees found in Matthew 22:41–46 “Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is He?” They said to Him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls Him/Christ Lord, saying, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet” ’? If then David calls Him Lord, how is He his/David’s son?” And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask Him any more questions.” The crowds knew some of the tension between the religious leaders and Jesus and while the people’s focus should have been on purifying themselves for the Passover we read in John 11:56 “They/the people were looking for Jesus and saying to one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? That He will not come to the feast at all?” Meanwhile in John 11:48–50 we read of a conversation among those religious leaders. “If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” So we find the religious leaders plotting to kill Jesus, while the crowds await in excited expectation for this One who appears to be the Promised Savior. Amidst all this, Jesus returns to Bethany and shares a meal with Mary and Lazarus whom Jesus has raised from the dead. It is here when Mary takes a pound “of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” (John 12:3) Judas then asks 5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6 He/Judas said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. 8 For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have Me.” (John 12:5-8)

Triumphal Entry

The following morning Christ sends two of His disciples into the village where they find an unbroken colt and the colt’s mother. When questioned about this, Jesus had told the disciples Mark 11:3 “If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’ ” In this statement, Jesus is referencing His last conversation with the Pharisees and claiming to be the Christ/Lord/Promised Son of David. This happens according to Jesus’ words. Jesus exercised the right to requisition what He needed for His use as the Son of David. The disciples threw their cloaks over the donkey and Jesus sat upon an unbroken colt (colt being a symbol of peace) exercising His authority over Creation itself and as Matthew notes, as a fulfillment of prophecy found in Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Side Note: There seems to be a pernicious mockery of Matthew’s gospel among many well known skeptics who say that Matthew 21:7 has Jesus performing a circus act by riding two donkeys at the same time b/c Matthew says “They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and He/Jesus sat on them.” The argument is that Matthew was so zealous to force Zechariah's prophecy to be true that Matthew made up Jesus riding both the donkey and the colt. Now if you have a basic understanding of English and a pinch of common sense you will notice that the plural “them” is referring to the cloaks and not to the two donkeys. Again I bring this up b/c it a is a popular talking point for antagonistic skeptics. End Side Note. So Jesus sits upon the cloak-covered colt and, with the colt’s mother in tow, begins His procession from Bethany, over the Mt of Olives, through the Kidron Valley, and into the City of Jerusalem. As you picture this, Josephus records the number of lambs sacrificed as being approx 256,000 and this causes some scholars to estimate the number of people to exceed 2 million. As one scholar notes: “It is now hardly possible to form a just conception of the appearance which Jerusalem and its vicinity must have presented at the season of the Passover. All the open ground near the city and perhaps the sides of the very hill down which our Lord had recently passed were now, probably, being covered with the tents and temporarily erected structures of the gathering multitudes, who even thus early would have most likely found every available abode in the city completely full.” (Pentecost, J. D. (1981). The Words & Works of Jesus Christ: A Study of the Life of Christ (J. Danilson, Ed.; pp. 372–373). Zondervan.) And these crowds recognized the fulfillment of Zechariah’s Prophecy as Jesus passed their temporary huts. Imagine as word spread among the thousands who had traveled to Jerusalem that the Teacher was riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. They would have understood the implications and the text tells us that they did understand b/c they responded by shouting (Mark 11:9) “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” Hosanna is a cry for help and success. So these shouts were pieces of Psalm 118:25–26 which reads “Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! (Hosanna) Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.” The crowds knew that Jesus that Jesus was Officially Presenting Himself as the Messiah/Christ/Son of David/Savior. These shouts would have echoed through the hills growing and growing as the crowd swelled and Jesus drew nearer and nearer to Jerusalem. However, the joy was not universal, for the Pharisees wanted Christ to silence the people Luke 19:39–40 “And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” The hour had come and if the people had not proclaimed, the very stones would. Yet amidst all of this, as Jesus neared Jerusalem, Luke records (Luke 19:41–45) “And when He drew near and saw the city, He wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” So we find that amidst all of the cheering and shouts, Jesus wept. Why did He weep? As one scholar notes: The “Messiah as the Prince of Peace came on the appointed day to bring peace to the nation. This, then, was the day of Christ’s official presentation of Himself as Messiah to Israel. Christ was identified before the nation as Messiah at His baptism. He was authenticated as Messiah at His temptation. His glory as Messiah was revealed at His transfiguration. But it was at His triumphal entry that Christ made an official presentation of Himself as Messiah to the nation. Such was the significance of our Lord’s statement, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace” (Luke 19:42). As John anticipated, “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it” (John 1:5). Jesus wept over the city because the people received none of the blessings that He had come to provide for them. Luke described the judgment that was to come on that generation in place of blessing. Their city would be attacked and besieged (Luke 19:43). The people would be killed and the city totally destroyed (v. 44). And this judgment was to come “because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” (Pentecost, J. D. (1981). The Words & Works of Jesus Christ: A Study of the Life of Christ (J. Danilson, Ed.; p. 376). Zondervan.) When Jesus drew near and looked, He knew what would happen. The city surrounded by palisades & ramparts, the city razed to the ground and the bodies of the dead scattered among the rubble. This would be fulfilled in 70 AD. The people would reject their King/Messiah. Yet the colt continued to move toward Jerusalem and upon arrival, Matthew records the affect upon the city. Matthew 21:10–11 “And when He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” So the news spread and by the end of the day, Jesus leaves the city questioning “Is this the Messiah?” Many believe He is and Many deny that He is. Yet all understand the proclamation Jesus has made. He has Officially presented Himself as the Messiah/Son of David. Will the people accept Him or reject Him? This is the importance of Palm Sunday. The Official Declaration & Presentation of the King.

Application

We know that so many accepted Him upon His triumphal entry, yet we know that they would reject Him. Which causes me to ask why? You see all understood the claim that Jesus was making, namely He is the Promised King.

So why would so many who had accepted Him later reject Him?

Because they wanted a King of their own making. The people wanted a King who would throw off the Roman oppression and usher in an earthly kingdom where they would have it easy and be on top. And to be fair, that is part of what the coming King would do. However, they wanted it on their timetable and when they realized He would not do it on their time table they stopped believing that He was the promised King. He failed to fit their expectations and do all the things they wanted Him to do. So their cheers of Hosanna/Save Us would become shouts of Crucify Him. They wanted a King to fulfill all of their desires and expectations and when Jesus didn’t fulfill those expectations when they thought He should, they cursed Him. And before we become too judgmental on them, how many times has our faith wavered when God doesn’t do things the way we think He should and when we think He should? Illustration: There is a gentleman who I graduated seminary with. After graduation, he walked away from the faith. You see, he really liked the loving Jesus the kind and compassionate Jesus, but he could never seem to accept a Jesus who would call certain lifestyles sin or who would punish sin. He wanted a King of his own making and not the King as He revealed Himself. If that is your attitude, then Jesus is not your King, He is your servant. And your faith is not in Jesus as He has revealed Himself in scripture, but rather in a partial made up version of Jesus as you desire Him to be. Folks, you must accept Jesus in His entirety, His love and His wrath, His mercy and His justice, His wisdom and His longsuffering. Jesus does not promise you health and wealth and easy living here on this earth. In fact Jesus said in John 16:33 “I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” In Christ we may have peace, but that does not mean there will be no tribulation. He is the King and in Him we may find peace amidst the storms of life.

What will you do with Jesus?

He was either a Lunatic, a Liar, or He is Lord. The Jews knew what Jesus was proclaiming when He entered Jerusalem at the Triumphal Entry. The only thing left to them was to either accept Him or reject Him. Jesus left them no other options. Folks, that is the decision left to each of us. He was either a liar and a lunatic or He is Lord. In the words of C.S. Lewis: “Jesus [. . .] told people that their sins were forgiven. [. . .] This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. [. . .] I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. What will you do with Jesus?