When Expectations Fail

A God Who Doesn’t Follow the Script (Matt 21:1-9)

HOOK- A Clean Script

Imagine you're handed a script of your newborn child's entire life. Better yet, you're given an eraser and five minutes to edit out whatever you want. You read that she will have a learning disability in grade school. Reading, which comes easily for some kids, will be laborious for her. In high school, she will make a great circle of friends, then one of them will die of cancer. After high school, she will get into her preferred college, but while there, she will lose a leg in a car accident. Following that, she will go through a difficult depression. A few years later she'll get a great job, then lose that job in an economic downturn. She'll get married, but then go through the grief of separation.

With this script of your child's life and five minutes to edit it, what would you erase? Psychologist Jonathon Haidt poses this question in this hypothetical exercise: Wouldn't you want to take out all the stuff that would cause them pain?

If you could erase every failure, disappointment, and period of suffering, would that be a good idea? Would that cause them to grow into the best version of themselves? Is it possible that we actually need adversity and setbacks—maybe even crises and trauma—to reach the fullest potential of development and growth?

Ortberg contends that God doesn't always erase all our stress and pain before it starts. Instead, God can use the failures, disappointments, and periods of suffering to help us grow. Ortberg writes, "God isn't at work producing the circumstances I want. God is at work in bad circumstances to produce the me he wants."

Trans-that’s what this passage highlights for us today

Big Idea: God does not follow the scripts that we write for Him—neither is he required to. He has his own.

Purposeful Preparation (vv.1-3)

Jesus doesn’t back his way into this moment

We are reminded in Luke 9:51 that Jesus “sets his face” toward Jerusalem, which is to say that he got bold, he bowed up—he became more resolute in his attitude

Bethphage and the Mount of Olives are mentioned not just for geographical clarity, but to provide a Messianic connection with King David, who when exiled left Jerusalem along this route and likely returned the same way

As he is making the journey, he instructs two disciples to break off and go into the next town to retrieve two animals he has already procured

Untie the donkey and her colt

And if anyone asks, “what are you doing?” Tell them, the Lord has need of them

It happens just as Jesus said it would

However three things are worth noting

First, Who is this that Jesus knows and his disciples do not?

And he knows them well enough to let him borrow an atypical resource—after all, Jesus nor the disciples had animals of their own

Why isn’t he with us on the journey or already in Jerusalem?

This is a reminder to us that not everyone who believes and serves the Savior is doing the same thing—as a matter of fact, we all can’t do the same thing—when he was on earth some got to walk with him in close proximity, while others were there in critical times of need

And even now, we all don’t serve him the same way, but we all get to serve!

The owner of these animals also remind us that the Lord has disciples that we know not of

And we must be careful in a climate where everyone is angry and we are so quick to create villains out of people—some of the people we villainize are claiming to believe in and worship Jesus too—so I ask, what makes your Jesus better than theirs? Sounds like a house divided, which cannot stand!

Second, is to note that there is a promise to return the animal (v.3); invoking the custom of Angaria, which allows the temporary procurement of resources on behalf of a venerated figure

Here I simply want to say that Jesus has no plans to keep the animals—he’s already made plans to give them back (more on that next week)

Third, hopefully I’ve convinced you by now that this trot into town was not casual but rather decisive trip intended to setup a confrontation with Jewish leadership, while also making a public announcement to the Jewish nation—Jesus was never scared!

He’s journeyed 100 miles from Caesarea Philippi just for this

What do learn: Face whatever things that are on the path to your purpose—you must

Though they make you uneasy and squeamish, fulfillment is never accomplished by running away from the rough spots in life

Ida B. Wells-Barnett (Women’s History Month)

Was convicted that lynching was used as a tool of terror across the American south

She could have chosen the convenient path of silence—after all, she had her life, home and livelihood to think about

Because of her investigative journalism, she ruffled the wrong feathers, which resulted in the destruction of her newspaper office

She was forces into exile for 30 years, but she didn’t quit—instead she took a localized issue and made it a global issue

She admits that she learned about the power of the pen

But most importantly, her activism was rooted in her Christian faith, where she believed God had declared a moral mandate to protect the least of these

What’s your excuse...

Prophetic Yet Political (vv.4-7)

Jesus makes a definitive statement—the King is Here!

He fulfills prophecy—specifically Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Look! Your king is coming to you: he is legitimate and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey— on a young donkey, the foal of a female donkey.”

He comes on an humble beast and not a war horse

Such would have sent the crowds into more of a frenzy

He chose the prophetic route knowing how corrupt the political was, but he couldn’t avoid the political altogether...

Because, if the political structures were in the way of people’s freedom, the real king had come to conquer them

If the quasi-religious had acquiesced to Rome for a seat at the kiddie table, and had only used oppression as their modus operandi, while having traded in their priestly and sacred responsibilities only to become adult baby sitters and spies on their own people—such had to be overcome

Jesus enters the city on a donkey, but the foal or colt

Matthew mentions two animals which helps us make sense of the story’s reality

Jesus is going to ride a colt, so the mother comes with it to keep it calm—but there is something else

A foal is a young animal of the horse family, typically under a year old and not ridden

As a matter of fact, Champion race horses are between 2-5 years old

Labor horses begin taking loads at 3-4 years old

Jesus’ riding the foal demonstrates his dominion and authority over creation

And that’s what you need to know about this scene in the life of our Savior

And so he makes his way into town...

Performative Praise (vv.8-9)

He is greeted by a very large crowd

We know this grammatically because Matthew uses a superlative adjective—large (normal), larger (comparative) and largest (superlative)

We also know that historically, this would be the most well-attended week on the Jewish calendar because Passover was approaching

Scholar Joachim Jeremias notes that the city more than doubles in size, while Josephus writes some 30 years later that this feast attracted some 2.7 million people from all across the globe—it was alotta people

They create a makeshift red-carpet by laying their garments over the pavement as he rode the donkey

This was only done for important individuals

But then, they are also shouting something—

Hosanna to the Son of David, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord

The cry Hosanna!, originally a transliteration of Hebrew hôšî‘â nā’ (lit. ‘give salvation now’; Hosanna (אָנָּ֣א יְ֭הוָה הוֹשִׁ֨יעָ֥ה) Psa 118:25), had come to be a term of acclamation or praise, but was originally a prayer

Psalm 118 is the longest of the Hallel psalms and would be chanted at major festivals, but is this perfunctory performance or genuine praise?

There are Messianic expectations, but what kind of Messiah are you calling for?

John assists us, when he says that there are Palm Branches

From about two centuries earlier, palm branches had already become a national (not to say nationalist) symbol. When Simon the Maccabee drove the Syrian forces out of the Jerusalem citadel, he was honored with music and the waving of palm branches

There is a militaristic expectation attached to these cries

And so while they see—they don’t see

And perhaps you can relate, because the political scene they endured was exhausting

They would have known about political leadership only concerned with their own financial gain

After being ruled by Rome proxied through Herod the Great, after his death, they would be overseen directly by a Roman prefect who only intensified economic hardship

Taxation and census requirements (the attempt to say that I count) would only intensify

More than that, their own Jewish leadership was not al all concerned for the welfare of the people, but rather preserving whatever small amount of power Rome had carved out for them

Some fled to the mountains and became separatists

Others joined the revolution and prepared themselves for all out war

Others still, waited patiently for their promised Messiah and it appeared that he’d arrived

They thought: “Now is the time to get all the oppressive and suppressive feet off our respective necks...”

But here is the lesson for us: just because there is a script that makes sense to us doesn’t mean that God has to follow it

It makes sense to YOU that God would give you that job, but it may not be the one God has for you

It makes sense to YOU that God should give you that man or woman to be with forever and always, but they may not be the one for you—stop trying to force it

It makes sense to YOU that your boss should choose you to head up a certain project, after all, it seems to be in your wheelhouse, but it may not be God’s plan for you—learn to be supportive even when you’re not in the driver’s seat—we have to learn to follow before we can lead.

When your expectations of God fail, you need to ask yourself, Was this my plan that I wanted God to sanction, or is it His and I’m just in too much of a hurry?

This is exactly what God tells his people through the prophet Jeremiah and what he might be saying to us—get comfortable, settle in, build houses and do the family thing, because this mess you're in, you brought it upon yourself

Stop listening to naysayers and prophe-LIES and do your best to make the city prosper

But when it comes to the timetable of deliverance

29:11 'I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

TOOK- Plan A to Plan B

A special report on This American Life followed the lives of several people who were living what they unequivocally called "Plan B." Host Ira Glass expounded his thoughts on an informal poll and a seemingly universal human reality. He asked a room of hundred people to think back to the beginning of adulthood when they were first formulating a plan for their lives. He called it "Plan A," "the fate you were sure fate had in store." He then asked those who were still following this plan to raise their hands. Only one person confessed she was still living Plan A; she was 23 years old.

No one gets to live in Plan A forever, so that when God edits the script of your life, it’s alright to be upset initially, but learn how to hand him the pen and tell—keep on writing, because all He’s doing is editing your script to look like his

And know this—He won’t be on a donkey forever, eventually the Savior will mount a horse

Revelation 19:11–16 “Then I saw heaven opened and here came a white horse! The one riding it was called “Faithful” and “True,” and with justice he judges and goes to war. His eyes are like a fiery flame and there are many diadem crowns on his head. He has a name written that no one knows except himself. He is dressed in clothing dipped in blood, and he is called the Word of God. The armies that are in heaven, dressed in white, clean, fine linen, were following him on white horses. From his mouth extends a sharp sword, so that with it he can strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod, and he stomps the winepress of the furious wrath of God, the All-Powerful. He has a name written on his clothing and on his thigh: “King of kings and Lord of lords.””

Why: because He has His Own Script!

Ride on King Jesus, No man can-a hinder me. Ride on King Jesus, No man can-a hinder me.

In that great get’n up mornin’ Fair thee well, fair thee well. In that great get’n up mornin’ Fair thee well, fair thee well.