The King Arrives

OFFICER NICK RODMAN’S PROCESSION

This past week in the city of Louisville there was a procession. It was for LMPD officer Nick Rodman whose life was cut tragically short after being involved in a high speed automobile accident while serving the city of Louisville. Cars were lined up as far as the eye could see and many people lined the streets as a show of their condolences and support as Officer Rodman was transported to his final resting place in Cave Hill Cemetery.

Unfortunately, these kinds of processions are not unfamiliar to us. We know, all too well, what it is like to gather together, line up and pay our respects in this way when a friend or loved one has departed this life to enter the next. The procession is a sign of love, respect and honor for another.

JESUS’ PROCESSION

Our text today is the account of a procession. It is the event that kicks off what has become commonly known as “The Week of Jesus’ Passion.” Let us read together of this great procession recorded in the Scriptures for us.

Luke 19:

Luke 19:28–44 ESV

28 And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’ ” 32 So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. 33 And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” 35 And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” 41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 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. 43 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 44 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.”

LUKE 19;

Luke 19:28–44 ESV

And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’ ” So those who were sent went away and 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 throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that 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.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” 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.”

There is something extremely unique about this procession. On the one hand, this is a King’s Procession. Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, presents Himself publicly as the One of whom the prophets spoke of years ago—the Promised Messiah that would come to deliver God’s people. Therefore, in a very real sense, this is a King’s Procession. At the same time, this is kind of like a funeral procession as well. While it is certain that many believed this to be a sign that Jesus was about to establish Himself as Israel’s earthly King and thus lead them in victory over their oppressors so that they may experience the national freedom and autonomy that they once enjoyed, the reality is that this event marks the beginning of what has been called “The Passion Week” that would ultimately result in Jesus’ death. Therefore, in a very real sense, this is also a funeral procession that takes place before Jesus’ death.

Having established the uniqueness of this event, let us consider what Jesus would have us to learn from this experience preserved for us in the Scriptures.

GOD’S TIMING IS ALWAYS PERFECT

GOD’S TIMING IS ALWAYS PERFECT

Throughout Jesus’ ministry He often told people who witnessed or were the recipients of His miraculous power to keep quite about what He had done and who He was and the reason He would give for not wanting His identity as the Messiah to spread is because “His time had not yet come.” As we turn our attention to the Scriptures we find that Jesus’ time had finally come. For the first time in His ministry, He makes a public appearance that stirred His disciples to worship and adoration and He did not attempt to silence them. It is this event that is intended to bring an end to all the speculation about the potential of Jesus being the Promised Messiah. All the speculation about the possibility of Jesus indeed being the Promised Messiah was finally going to be clarified.

As good Christians we can nod in agreement when we hear the truth that God’s timing is always perfect but when we get real honest we believe that God’s timing is always perfect but sometimes God’s timing does not seem to make sense to us. For instance, when Jesus entered Jerusalem on this day and in this way it was in accordance to God’s perfect timing. It would make more sense to us, however, for this event to happen at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry than at the end of it. If it would have happened at the beginning maybe Jesus could have avoided some of the hardships that He experienced during His ministry. This, of course, was not God’s plan therefore the timing was in accordance with the plan.

The Bible speaks often of “when the fullness of time had come” to time the events of Jesus’ life and ministry. What this means is that there was things that had to happen and things that had to line up in accordance to God’s plan before Jesus could come and do what was planned for Him to come and do. In other words, God does what we cannot see before He reveals what we can see. God’s timing is always perfect.

Some of you may be here and you have been praying and praying and praying for something to happen in your life. It seems to you that it would make more sense for God to go ahead and do what you are asking Him to do but time continues to pass by and you wonder if the time will ever come. What we know for certain is that God’s timing is perfect and if what you are praying for is in accordance to God’s will and purposes for your life and it hasn’t happened yet then be comforted and strengthened in the understanding that God is working things out that you cannot see and it is all in preparation of bringing to light what you want to see.

The problem in all of this is that the way in which Jesus presented Himself left many confused because what they were expecting did not match up with what they were experiencing. They expected their Messiah to come to them as a mighty military warrior riding on a stallion with a cohort of supernaturally skilled warriors accompanying Him but what they experienced was a humble servant riding a donkey surrounded by a bunch of people that could be described as “down and outs” of society that were certainly not equipped to be warriors but instead were doing their best to be a choir as they sang out a chorus of “hosannas” as Jesus made His way to the city.

Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, on what we refer to as Palm Sunday, has much to teach us

GOD NEVER FORGETS HIS PEOPLE

The second thing we learn, and it goes hand in hand with what we have just learned is that God never forgets His people. If we are honest with ourselves we should all admit that all of this seems quite odd. A borrowed donkey? A rag-tag group of people singing? Palm branches waving. Cloaks being trampled on. It all seems a bit strange but what I can say is that it is all happening just as it had to happen.

Matthew’s account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem informs us that all of this took place to fulfill what the prophet Zechariah prophesied hundreds of years before.

Zechariah 9:9-

Zechariah 9:9 ESV

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.

The fact that this prophesy was spoken hundreds of years before it was fulfilled reminds us that God’s timing is not our timing and that God never forgets His people. Let’s be honest with ourselves, if somebody promises us something and fails to follow through with the promise within a day/week/month or two most of us assume that the promise was not genuine but only a way to appease the moment in which it was made. Take that feeling and multiply it by thousands and you will begin to get an idea of how Israel must have felt. God was silent for 400 years between the last prophet of the Old Testament and the ministry of John the Baptist. The hopes of One that would come in accordance to the Promises made by God through His prophets had probably been watered down to some sort of cultural fairy tale or “pie in the sky” fable because surely if God was going to come through on what He said He would do then it shouldn’t take this long! Again, however, we are reminded that God’s timing is not subjected to our timing of events. His timing is perfect and our is not. When the time was right, Jesus, the Messiah, revealed Himself publicly and it was a sign that God had not forgotten His people. He still had plans for them. He still had promises to fulfill to them. He had not forgotten them.

Have you ever felt forgotten by God? One of the most famous stories in all of Scripture centers around a two sisters that must have felt forgotten by Jesus. The two sisters are Mary and Martha. They had a brother named Lazarus that had become sick and ultimately died. Jesus was aware of both Lazarus’ illness and his death but did not immediately go to be with the family as it was expected that He would. Instead, He waited to show up four days after Lazarus had died. We get a glimpse into what was going through the hearts and minds of these two sisters when, upon hearing that Jesus had finally shown up, she ran to Him and said point blankly “If you had been here my brother would not have died.” This was a statement driven by the feeling of being forgotten. What she didn’t know, however, was that Jesus had not forgotten them at all. Those four days, as dark and sorrow-filled as they may have been, were necessary in order for them to experience the miracle that Jesus had in store for them in bringing their brother back from the dead. What seemed to be a season of being forgotten was actually a season of preparation because Mary, Martha and all who were there that day had to be prepared to experience the miracle that Jesus had in store for them.

In the same way, we go through times in life where we may feel as if God has forgotten us. Maybe we feel like He is not listening to our prayers. Maybe we feel like He is using and doing great things for everybody else except for us. Whatever the situation may be, it is easy, sometimes, to feel like God has forgotten us. We need to learn what Israel had to learn and what Mary and Martha had to learn. We may feel, at times, like God has forgotten us but there is nothing farther from the truth. Those seasons are seasons of preparation God uses to get us ready for the next step in our journey of faith with Him.

THE DANGER OF DISTRACTION

There are two groups of people highlighted in this passage of Scriptures. Both have a response to Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem. One group are those called Jesus’ disciples. This group includes the 12 that were His closest disciples as well as throngs of men and women that believed Jesus to be the Messiah through His ministry to them. While there were probably some devout Jews included, this crowd would have most likely been made up largely of the people characterized as the “unwanted” of society that Jesus was known to minister to. It is this group that praised and adored Him as He entered the city.

The other crowd mentioned are the Pharisees. They certainly are not singing Jesus’ praise in this procession but are actually commanding Jesus to “rebuke” those that were. While some were rejoicing in Jesus’ presence others were rejecting Jesus’ presence and if nobody was there to rejoice in His presence the rocks on the ground would start rejoicing. Following the confrontation with the Pharisees we read . Jesus cries over the city of Jerusalem. Why? Because they missed their Messiah. The Pharisee’s rejection of Jesus is indicative of all those who did not receive Jesus as Savior and Lord both during His earthly ministry and even yet still today.

HOW DID THEY MISS HIM? How did they miss Him? They saw the signs and miracles! They heard the authoritative teaching and preaching! He fulfilled the prophecies spoken about Him hundreds of years prior, the very Scriptures that they knew by heart, before their very eyes and yet they missed Him. How? I would suggest to you that they missed Him because they were distracted.

Following the confrontation with the Pharisees we read . Jesus cries over the city of Jerusalem. Why? The rejection of the Pharisees is reflective of the rejection of Jerusalem in general. The Pharisees are representative of Jerusalem because they are the religious leaders and decision makers in Jerusalem. They have fought hard to persuade people to reject Jesus as the Messiah and had found great success in doing so. Jesus cries over the blindness and unwillingness to believe. The fulfillment of the promise that had sustained them for hundreds of years was verified among them with signs, wonders, miracles and authoritative teaching and yet they missed Him. They were close but close isn’t good enough.

They were distracted by the desire to please others. They told Jesus to rebuke His disciples because they knew that the Romans would not approve of what was taking place. On the opposite side of the city the Roman prefect, Pontius Pilate, would have had a procession of his own as a show of strength to the Jews. This was a reminder to the Jews of Rome’s power and might and to discourage any sort of uprising as they celebrated the Passover which was a celebration of how God delivered them from the mighty Egyptians. Therefore, the Pharisees were distracted by their desire to please the Romans and missed Jesus.

They were distracted by their religious efforts. The purpose of, what we would call, the Jewish religion was to point Israel to their need of a Savior and to foreshadow the Savior that was coming to save them. Unfortunately, however, many of the Jews, the Pharisees included, got distracted and fell into the trap of thinking that their standing before God was contingent upon their religious performance. Therefore, while they had all hopes for a Messiah that would come to be a military leader that could deliver them from their oppressor they saw no need for a Messiah that would come to be their Savior and deliver them from an even greater oppressor and that was their sin.

They were distracted by

THE DANGER OF DISTRACTION. There are many other reasons for distraction that we could list but we will stop with just these two because the point I want to make is that living a distracted life is dangerous. Consider this video clip [SHOW VIEO].

This is a lesson that close isn’t good enough.

Living a distracted life can be dangerous because it keeps us from seeing what is right in front of us—a pool, a wall, a pole, a stairway, etc… Worse yet, living a distracted life can keep us from seeing Jesus both in our need for Him as Savior and Lord and His work in and around our lives.