King Jesus (2)

A Palm Sunday Sermon on Luke 19:28-44

ME — The holiday frustration

Easter bunnies and Crosses. There is an odd blend of Spring time celebration and the death of Christ that we remember this week. There are easter egg hunts with laughter and somber services with tears. 

For our families, it means that we gather together for a big Easter dinner next weekend. For us as Christians it’s the celebration of our Risen Savior and his triumph over sin and death. For our family and friends who do not believe, it is a celebration of Spring, not much different than a long weekend like Memorial Day or Labor Day. 

Maybe your neighbor's big plans for the weekend are an egg hunt and brunch. A coworker says "Happy Easter" the same way they say "Happy Monday" — it's just a day off.

And something in you feels frustrated or sad. Maybe it's subtle, maybe it's not. But there's this feeling you have; how do you not see what today is about? How can you miss this?

You are not the only one that experienced this reaction, Jesus had a similar situation the first Holy Week. Jesus encountered many people who don't recognize who he is and misunderstood what this was really all about. 

We are going to see how his response is going to be nothing like ours, but it is going to be the response of a faithful Savior, our Faithful Savior and King.

WE — We love the celebration, but we skip the tears

We love the triumphal entry. Crowds shouting, cloaks on the road, praise filling the air.

But Luke's version of this story has a detail the other Gospels don't emphasize the same way. It seems odd to us, but by the end of the passage, Jesus is weeping.

We want to stay at the parade. The celebration, the joy of the children waving the Palm branches and the Hosannas. 

There is this same odd blend that we have in the church on Palm Sunday, it is this Joyous celebration, but the next time we meet we will weep together as we remember Jesus’ death on the Cross. It is this odd paradox of Joy and Sorrow all held in tension on this day. 

When we really pay attention to what Luke says here in this passage, Jesus takes us somewhere harder.

We see that he is not as Jubilant as the crowd announcing Him as King. As he is entering Jerusalem, as he sees the cross now at the end of the road, he weeps. 

GOD — What's actually happening in Luke 19:28–44

The Praise (vv. 28–40)

Jesus sends for a colt, rides toward Jerusalem, a deliberate fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9, the king coming in humility.

The whole crowd erupts: "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"

The Pharisees tell Jesus to shut them down. His response: if they stay silent, the stones themselves will cry out.

The praise is right. Jesus really is the King. This is the only fitting response to who he is.

The Tears (vv. 41–44)

But then Jesus sees the city and weeps over it. Not just a few tears; the word Luke uses means he wailed, he sobbed.

"If you had known the things that make for peace — but now they are hidden from your eyes."

The crowd is praising the right person, but Jerusalem as a whole still doesn't get it. They want a political rescuer. They want a king on their terms. They don't see the kind of salvation he's actually bringing.

Jesus knows what's coming — for him (the cross) and for them (judgment, the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70). And it breaks his heart.

The Grace in the Tears

Here's what we can't miss: Jesus doesn't weep out of anger. He doesn't weep out of frustration. He weeps because his heart is the heart of a savior.

He is days away from dying for the very people who refuse to see him. He's going to the cross for Jerusalem — even the Jerusalem that rejects him.

There is grace in those tears. They reveal the character of our God. A God who pursues, who longs, who grieves over those who don't yet know him.

YOU — We do the same thing Jerusalem did

Remember that frustration I talked about at the beginning? Easter dinner, the neighbor who doesn't get it?

Our instinct is anger or frustration. But look at Jesus. He looks at the same people — people who don't see him for who he is — and he doesn't get angry. He weeps. For them.

That's the gut check of this passage. Do we have the heart of the Pharisees — frustrated that people aren't getting with the program? Or the heart of Jesus — broken for those who don't yet see him?

And honestly — we can be more like Jerusalem than we realize. We praise Jesus as King but quietly want him to be king on our terms. We want him to fix our problems, take our side, make life comfortable. That's the same mistake the crowd made.

WE — Seeing and announcing the true King

Jesus says that if we go silent, the rocks will cry out. This mission of salvation will not be stopped.

But he invites us into it. Our call from this passage is twofold:

See Jesus for who he really is — not a king we get to define, but the Messiah who saves us from sin and death through the cross. The one who brings true peace.

Carry the heart of Jesus toward those who don't yet see him. Not anger. Not frustration. But the longing, grieving, gracious heart of a savior who still weeps for the lost.

As we celebrate our King this morning, his heart still beats for those who aren't here; those at home, at brunch, going about their week as if nothing is different. Jesus longs for them. And he sends us to them.