The Time of Visitation

Introduction

Outline of the Gospels

Today is commonly called Palm Sunday because it is the day on which we remember Jesus Christ riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, and the crowd throwing palm branches down on the road.

In the Gospels, there is a basic outline to Jesus’ life and ministry presented that is similarly followed in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Together with John, which has a different focus, they present a pretty comprehensive picture of what happened with Jesus. The rough outline of the Gospels is:

Early life

Galilean ministry

Journey to Jerusalem

Jerusalem ministry

Passion

Resurrection

In each synoptic, the shift towards Jerusalem happens just after the transfiguration. Then the narrative begins to emphasize the steady progression of Jesus to this moment: He is entering Jerusalem for the final time.

Church Calendar

This event happened on a Sunday, which is why we celebrate this on a Sunday, and it marks the beginning of Holy Week. Friday of this week is when we remember the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. Sunday is when we remember His resurrection.

This is the beauty of the church calendar when rightly used: the time in our life serves in itself as a reminder of the life and work of Jesus Christ. No one is morally obligated to commemorate these days. And the only sense in which they are “holy” is that we have set them apart for the specific intention of remembering Jesus’ passion and resurrection.

So, here we are at the beginning of holy week. Jesus is about to enter Jerusalem for a final time. And instead of coming as a conquering king, He is coming as a lamb to the slaughter.

On Thursday night he will be celebrating the Lord’s Supper and washing the disciples feet.

Thursday night into Friday He will be arrested and tried.

Friday He will be crucified at the same time that the Paschal lamb was being slain in the temple.

Friday He is dead and in the tomb. He continues in the tomb on Saturday, and rises on Sunday.

Before we jump into the exposition, I would like to quickly address two common questions:

How could the disciples celebrate the Lord’s Supper on Thursday, and yet Jesus be sacrificed with the sacrificial lambs on Friday?

The Galileans and the Judaic Jews had a different regional manner of measuring days. The Galileans measured the day from sunrise to sunrise as we do. The Judaic Jews measured them from sunset to sunset. I’ll let you work out the details; however, just know that there was regional variation as to when these festivals were celebrated sometimes because of these differences in rendering days.

In Galilee, the Passover would be celebrated on Thursday evening. In Judea, it would be celebrated on Friday evening.

So, Jesus can celebrate the Passover with His disciples as a Galilean on Thursday, and still be crucified at the same time that the passover lamb is being slain on Friday. We serve a God of symbols.

How is it that Jesus is said to be in the tomb for three days and three nights? If He was buried on Friday evening, then wouldn’t that be three days and two nights?

The answer to this is, true! He was technically only in the grave for two nights. However, the point is that He was really and truly dead.

The three days and three nights is an idiomatic phrase. The Talmud says that any part of a day is reckoned as the whole. So, if He was in the grave on Friday to Sunday, the Jewish mind would see this as a fulfillment of “three days and three nights.”

I appreciate the expositions of John MacArthur through the Gospels and my outline for this text is not exactly but somewhat taken from his outline.

We will now pray and ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate His Word as we exposit the text.

Let’s pray.

If you would turn in your Bibles to Luke 19:28-44.

Outline:

Careful Fulfillment (28-35)

2. Commendation by the people (36-40)

3. Condemnation by Jesus (41-44)

Careful fulfillment (v. 28-35)

Luke 19:28–35 LSB

And after He had said these things, He was going on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. And it happened that when He approached Bethphage and Bethany, near the mount called “of Olives,” He sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you; in which, as you enter, you will find a colt tied, on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here. “And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘Because the Lord has need of it.’” So when those who were sent departed, they found it just as He had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” And they brought it to Jesus, and after they threw their garments on the colt, they put Jesus on it.

This was all done in fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9 (see Matthew 21:5).

Zechariah 9:9 LSB

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Make a loud shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is righteous and endowed with salvation, Lowly and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a pack animal.

Jesus is very careful to make sure everything is happening exactly as Zechariah predicted. He knew that the people would see this as a sign that deliverance was near. They would see it as Jesus coming not as a savior from sin, but as a revolutionary to destroy all His and their enemies politically. Their promised king had come.

And Luke also tells us that Jesus is approaching Bethany near the Mount of Olives. This is mentioned again in verse 37, that Jesus is passing the descent of the Mount of Olives. We know that He is explicitly fulfilling Zechariah 9:9, but the association with the Mount Olives makes people wonder about Zechariah 14, which says this:

Zechariah 14:4–9 LSB

And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east...And Yahweh will be king over all the earth...

So, seeing Jesus coming from the descent of the Mount of Olives, riding on a donkey, it would be a pretty clear indication that Jesus is fulfilling the prophecy. But is Jesus actually becoming the King of all the earth at the triumphal entry? We say no, but the people thought so. The people were seeing this as their promised King coming to be king over all the earth, to destroy all His and their enemies; to inaugurate the millennial reign when the promised Messiah would rescue them and make Jerusalem supreme.

Christ ultimately will ascend from the Mount of Olives and receive the Heavenly Kingdom in Acts 1. Which is so much greater than any earthly kingdom. But the Jews, the crowd, saw this as a fulfillment of the coming Messiah who would defeat all of their enemies right now. Politically and militaristically. He is going to reign in Zion and crush His enemies with a rod of iron.

And it is very clear that Jesus is presenting Himself in careful fulfillment of this prophecy, the people recognize it, but they entirely miss the point.

The Commendation of Jesus by the People (v. 36-40)

Luke 19:36–40 LSB

And as He was going, they were spreading their garments on the road. Now as soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God, rejoicing with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” But Jesus answered and said, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones will cry out!”

The People

These disciples recognized that Jesus was coming as the King promised in Zechariah. And Sproul points out that the proclamation here matches the nativity proclamation when Jesus was born: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men!”

So, how is it that these people could see that Jesus is the king and that He had come in fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy, and yet in the very next verses be condemned? What was it that they had missed?

The text even points to Jesus coming in fulfillment of these prophecies, Matthew 21:4-5

Matthew 21:4–5 LSB

And this took place in order that what was spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying, “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold your King is coming to you, Lowly, and mounted on a donkey, And on a colt, the foal of a pack animal.’”

The people recognized the “king” part. But it seems that they forgot the “Lowly” part. The texts that they missed and that many in the grip of Judaism today still miss, are that the Christ must suffer. Around the time of the transfiguration, when Jesus sets His face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9), His polemic changes. He starts to show how the Christ must suffer (Matthew 16:21).

This makes sense of Isaiah 53 and what is meant by the King coming being lowly and mounted on a donkey. How is it that this conquering King is going to come in a humble manner, suffer, and die? Those portions of the text seem to be overlooked.

So, Jesus is presenting Himself in fulfillment of prophecy regarding the coming Messiah and King. But it is very easy for these people to misunderstand what is meant by His coming.

And they aren’t the only ones who misunderstand.

The Pharisees

The Pharisees then tell Jesus to rebuke His disciples. This entire episode must have upset them greatly. They see a lowly carpenter who is presenting Himself as the Messiah, which they do not believe, and He is therefore blasphemously allowing this crowd of impressionable Jews to praise him and call him the King, which if Herod sees is going to cause many problems for them.

MacArthur points out that this event, in his opinion, is what led to the swift execution of the plot to destroy Jesus. This so incited the religious leaders to wrath that they believed they needed to act immediately. And, in the famous words of the chief priest, it is better for one man to die for the nation than for the entire nation to be destroyed.

The irony is too great to explain adequately.

The people are so caught up in their immediate political context. They viewed the coming King promised in Zechariah to be one who would deliver them from the power of the Romans and conquer the world. Destroy all their enemies.

The Pharisees did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and they further believed that if the people treated Him that way, then this was going to cause trouble with Rome.

Because of the people’s praise and the Pharisees perspective, Jesus is crucified, and ultimately, Rome comes to destroy Israel. Not because they had elected a new King, but because they had rejected the Messiah.

Because of the people’s misunderstood praise and the Pharisees disbelieving jealousy, Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected; ultimately inaugurating the very kingdom that these Jews were seeking.

The people accepted Jesus for the wrong reasons. And the Pharisees rejected Jesus for the wrong reasons.

How wise we are in our own conceit. But even the sinfulness of man is turned for the good of man. This plot to kill Jesus happens from the Pharisees perspective exactly according to their plan. Everything comes off without a hitch. They agreed that Jesus was a threat and needed to be killed. They arrest Him at night and give Him something of a trial. They then get the approval of the Roman governor to kill him. Then Jesus is killed just before passover and put into the grave.

A perfectly executed plot.

Now no one would remember this would-be Messiah. The status quo with Rome could be maintained, and more importantly their positions of religious prestige and authority could be maintained. But they did not recognize the time of their visitation.

But Jesus sees through all of the pomp and circumstance. The complexity of the situation is most certainly not lost on Him. We read in verse 41:

The Condemnation of the city by Jesus (v. 41-44)

Luke 19:41–44 LSB

And as He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He cried over it, saying, “If you knew in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

Jesus saw what was happening. Immediately after this event Jesus goes into the temple and begins driving out those people who were selling. From the perspective of the people, He was supposed to attack the enemy, not them. This is surprising. The one who many were seeing as the potential conquering king who would restore Jerusalem is now attacking Jews and their center of worship and culture.

Jesus gives this prophetic statement regarding what was going to take place in Jerusalem. And there are allusions in this text, pointed by Carson, that seem to connect this with the same reasons Jerusalem was destroyed so long ago by Babylon. They rejected Yahweh and His free offer of peace. They did not recognize the time of their visitation.

Jesus came into the world not to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved. We can say that in one sense, the rejection of Jesus by the Jews led to His atoning sacrifice which was salvation for the entire world (Romans 11).

However, in another sense, Jesus was sent to correct the unfaithful stewards. Others had been sent before and mistreated, and now the Son is sent, perhaps they will listen to Him. But He too is despised and rejected. This free offer of peace from God to this people was rejected. And instead, they chose to war against the Almighty as the Serpent of old.

Summary

So, Jesus is very careful to fulfill the prophecy in Zechariah 9 with this final entry into Jerusalem. His entry is associated with the Mount of Olives which is perhaps an allusion to another prophecy in Zechariah 14 which describes the conquering king standing on the Mount of Olives, being Lord over all the earth. And the people seem to make that connection. This is the time when the promised King will rule the nations with a rod of iron.

The pharisees see this upstart carpenter as a prideful counterfeit who is going to bring the destruction of the Romans onto them. Jesus says that the destruction is coming, but not because He is going to be raising an army to conquer the world, but because these stiff-necked people did not recognize the time of their visitation.

The Time of Visitation

As we remember this Palm Sunday, I want us to reflect on the two groups that were mentioned: the crowd of disciples and the Pharisees. But I’m going to add a third group, the true disciples.

The People

The Gospel is not logical to us in our fallen flesh. It is foolishness. To think that submission and service leads to the conquering of all His and our enemies. I’m reminded once again of the prayer of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2:9, where she says it is not by power that a man prevails. Jesus was coming to save the world. He was coming to conquer all of His and our enemies. But, not in a human way. His way required humiliation and death. And now he requires the same from you.

Jesus says take up your cross and follow me. If you would save your life, you will lose it. But if you lose your life for my sake, you will find it. Jesus did not come and die so that we can be fulfilled and live our best life now: full of pleasure and free from pain. He came so that we could be saved from the meaninglessness of existing for our own good pleasure. Now we have an opportunity to recognize that our existence is for God’s good pleasure. And only in recognizing our chief end as the glory of God, do we find fulfillment as God’s creatures.

When we live lives for ourselves, we find them empty, void of fulfillment. When we are seeking our own, we lose ourselves. But if you die to yourself; if you are buried with Jesus Christ, then you will have life. And not just any life, but life more abundantly.

But because Jesus, who was the KING of kings, came in a manner that they did not expect, they rejected true power and authority. The one that they rejected upholds the entire universe by the word of His power. And they threw that away because they did not recognize the time of their visitation.

You have the same opportunity now. In the Supper, Jesus has given His church a visible symbol of the free offer of Himself to you in the bread and wine. This simplicity, many reject because how can the church, the institution of worship and community, not war and the sword, break down the gates of hell? How can these meager means of Word, water, bread, and wine, ultimately win the victory? How can that be?

Our conquering King came on a colt. Not a horse. He came as a carpenter, not a warrior. He came lowly, not high and mighty. And if anyone had reasons to come as a conquering king on a horse, it was Jesus. The Son of the Almighty God. Are we greater than our Lord? Do we recognize the time of our visitation?

The Pharisees

These were the religious people. They knew the Scriptures and they valued the symbols. But what they also did was believe that they were righteous because they were legally innocent. Legal innocence is not the same as righteousness.

I can hide malice in my heart and yet never outwardly break a law of God. Then, when someone approaches me about their perception of malice in my heart, I can say, “well prove it.” And if you can’t prove it, then that must mean I’m innocent. And if I’m innocent, then I am righteous. But even more than that, it means you are breaking a commandment, because you are accusing me of doing something that you cannot prove.

When we are thinking in this way, I believe that we would have a similar outlook to the Pharisees in this passage. They were so diluted in their thinking that they believed it was better to unjustly arrest and try Jesus on the basis of false accusation, a breach of the 9th commandment, and then deliver Him to the Romans to be unjustly executed, a breach of the 6th commandment, all under the pretense of righteously caring about the nation’s wellbeing.

So, it could happen like this: You say to the Pharisee, “how could you arrest and try Jesus, He is not guilty.” They can respond, “He was accused of blasphemy by the mouth of two witnesses, so by our laws He is guilty.” Legally speaking, they did nothing wrong. But morally speaking, they had sinned a great sin. But because they can point to the absence of evidence which says that they have sinned, then that must mean that they are innocent.

This is classic self-justification. This is difficult for all of us.

Now, there are times when we will be falsely accused. Then, we should to the best of our ability, seek to vindicate our innocence. However, we must take great care that we don’t deceive ourselves by denying our intentions and justifying our behavior and then seek to prove our innocence on the basis of that.

Example:

Just say that Bob is a manager in a workplace and Jim a very talented member of his team who, from Bob’s perspective, consistently makes him look bad because of the good work that he does. In fact, Bob is jealous of Jim.

So, as a manager, Bob gives Jim a workload that is not reasonable within a time frame that is not reasonable. Then, when Jim fails to accomplish the tasks at the date appointed, Bob points it out to others, saying that Jim may not be a good fit for that position because he struggles with deadlines. When in reality, Bob is just seeking to put Jim down in order to preserve himself.

So, Jim goes to Bob and says, “why are you trying to get me fired,” and my Bob’s is, “I was just seeing if you were up to the task. I wasn’t purposefully trying to get you fired. We have to make sure that our team is able to handle pressure.”

So, Jim complains to upper management. Then when upper management reviews the case, they acknowledge that the workload was too much, but they cannot prove that this was done with ill motivation.

So Bob says, see? Not only does Jim struggle with deadlines, but he also struggles with blame shifting when he’s under pressure. When he realized he couldn’t meet the deadline, he started blaming me as if I had some ill motivation in giving him this project.

And because nothing can be proven, he can persist in thinking this and even come to believe that his original motivation, which was jealousy and self-preservation, was actually ultimately, good: he was trying to address a potential weak link on the team. As a matter of fact, he was trying to help this person see themselves as they really are, not all that great.

The Pharisees saw what they were doing as the ultimate good, so, naturally they justified every nefarious action along the way in order to accomplish it.

Although the Pharisees saw themselves as the keepers of the true religion of God, they came to value the keeping of the law, the keeping of their religious legalism, much more than they came to value the Lawgiver. So much so, that they added all kinds of rules onto the law so that they would be very safe from ever breaking the law. They came to not only value God’s law more than God, but worse, their own laws more than God. So, when God came in human flesh, they rejected Him because He did not keep their laws. They did not recognize the time of their visitation.

When we fail to discern the Lord’s body; when we judge our brothers and sisters by our own standards; when we look down our nose at the very body of Christ, then we have come to value the law more than the Lawgiver. We have come to value our idol of Jesus, rather than Jesus Himself. For if we loved Jesus, we would also love His body. How will they know that you are my disciples? When you have love for the brethren. Do we recognize the time of our visitation?

The Disciples

But there is a third group. This is the group that consists of those who also believed that Jesus was coming to inaugurate a kingdom on earth at that time. They also denied him publicly and doubted that He could rise from the dead. In fact, the very one who denied Him also rebuked Him for going to Jerusalem to suffer. It seems that this group also did not recognize the time of their visitation.

But Jesus, in His sovereign grace says that He will not lose any that the Lord has given Him. So, these disciples, sinners as they were, by God’s grace were brought after the resurrection again to the Mount of Olives, where the King of all kings, having suffered, been buried, and risen from the dead, ascended to receive His kingdom. The true fulfillment of Zechariah 14:4. There was nothing more pious or good in these disciples than in the pharisees or in the mob of disciples that welcomed Jesus on Palm Sunday. Merely God’s grace.

And it is the same for us. Despite all of us fitting into one of the two categories above (or both), all we have to do is believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God; that He came to suffer and die in our stead, and we can be saved from our deceitful and wicked hearts. We can be saved from our confused minds. We can be granted new life in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

The Holy Spirit who has granted every blessing of the heavenly places in Christ Jesus has given the Word of God which is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. By it, we can be rescued from ourselves. And the simplicity of that plan is this: believe and live. This is Wisdom from above. How can that be? By this wisdom Kings rule and princes decree justice. By this wisdom the very earth was founded. By this wisdom shepherd boys defeat giants. By this wisdom men slay lions. By this wisdom, 300 conquer a host. And lowly carpenters save the world.

So, what’s your perspective as you reflect on these things? I pray that you can see yourself as one of the disciples of Jesus: sinful, erring, always falling. Yet, by God’s grace rising again. Always, daily, reminding ourselves of the great debt of sin that Christ came to take away. Always reminding ourselves that we must decrease, and Christ must increase. Always reminding ourselves that we must take up our cross and follow Jesus. Always reminding ourselves that we must feed upon the flesh of Christ and drink His blood, by faith.

Will you recognize the day of your visitation? I want to end with an excerpt from a poem by William Cowper:

Grace leads the right way: if you choose the wrong,

Take it and perish; but restrain your tongue;

Charge not, with light sufficient and left free,

Your wilful suicide on God's decree.

Oh how unlike the complex works of man,

Heav'n's easy, artless, unencumber'd plan!

No meretricious graces to beguile, No clustering ornaments to clog the pile;

From ostentation, as from weakness, free,

It stands like the cerulian arch we see,

Majestic in its own simplicity.

Inscribed above the portal, from afar

Conspicuous as the brightness of a star,

Legible only by the light they give,

Stand the soul-quickening words—BELIEVE, AND LIVE.

Too many, shock'd at what should charm them most,

Despise the plain direction, and are lost.

Let’s pray.

The Lord’s Supper: The Time of Our Visitation

2 Corinthians 6:16 LSB

Or what agreement has a sanctuary of God with idols? For we are a sanctuary of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

This is our time of visitation. Christ is here in our midst. The victory has been won. The kingdom has been inaugurated. Babylon has fallen. We are now sent as heralds to the surrounding lands to proclaim victory to the nations. There is a Supreme King who rules over all the earth. He will subdue all His and our enemies. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending.

But because the earth continues to rotate, and the sun continues to rise and set; because things seem to be moving exactly as they always have, how often do we fail to recognize the reality of our situation? Christ is King! Our sins our forgiven! We have peace with God. And now we can eat the victory meal, with our Lord. At peace. We are a sanctuary of the living God! And if God is for us, then who exactly can stand up against us?

So, as we come to the table, let us receive Christ with thanksgiving and joy as we celebrate our victory. I just want to point out that we are in a very confused land. WNY is not an easy mission field. But we are fighting where there is a true fight. Covenant Reformed Chruch, and every true church in this area represents a forward operating base. We are in the thick of it. And praise God. I wouldn’t be anywhere else. I pray that God would cause our mustard to die so that WNY can live. Let’s continue to fight as we receive these gifts of remembrance and assurance from our King who reminds us that He is with us even to the ending of the age.

Let us pray!