HG128b Pt1 Matthew 21:1-11
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1 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. 3 And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”
4 All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:
5 “Tell the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your King is coming to you,
Lowly, and sitting on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”
6 So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. 8 And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:
“Hosanna to the Son of David!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’
Hosanna in the highest!”
10 And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?”
11 So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”
Jerusalem was getting excited for the Passover was coming up and it was one of the great feasts of the Jewish calendar. They were to celebrate their liberty from Egypt by the miracles wrought through Moses with the Ten Plagues and then the destruction of Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea.
Now Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem in time for the feast. Like all Jewish men he had been to Jerusalem, probably every year, though in our Bible only a few of those instances are recorded. One of which we have looked at before when He was a child He was left behind by Joseph and Mary and He was found in the Temple asking and being asked questions. He was about His Father’s business.
And what an entrance into Jerusalem. There He was sitting on a White Stallion Horse in battle gear, flowing with purple robes, a crown on His head, with people shouting: “Long live the King! Long live the King!” it was exactly how it should be.
Though does not quite sound like any other Palm Sunday message from before does it?! It’s because this did not happen. Oh, but it will one day. But this day was not that Day.
Of what does this poem remind you of?
When fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born.
With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil’s walking parody
On all four-footed things.
The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.
Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.
And so goes the poem by GK CHesterton called: The Donkey
How strange that Jesus would come on a donkey. These are those that bear burdens from one place to another. They get no respect. And their riders don’t often get respect either. Yet the cheer went up; “Hosanna in the Highest!”
Jesus had sent two of His disciples, we are not told which ones and what were they to do? To get donkeys. Did Jesus have a Word of Knowledge that the donkey and its foal would be there? That’s how I have always read it. And that the disciples would be accused of stealing them but would let them go when they say the Lord needs them. How did that work? Why did they let them go?
Some think that, perhaps, Jesus had made arrangements earlier with the owner. We’re just not told. Either way it seems they were understood when the people there were told the Lord had need of them and immediately they sent them away as if it was nothing at all. I think it was impossible to be in Israel at that time and not know something of Jesus. They knew that there have been some special things going on in Israel for they had all heard of all the works He was doing and the miracles being done.
No matter what there were specific donkeys chosen for the task. Not only that they were chosen well ahead of time through prophecy.
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is just and having salvation,
Lowly and riding on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.
550 years earlier Zechariah had prophesied about this little donkey. God had a plan and this donkey was selected by God to play a part in His plan. And he has selected us too. We have a part to play in His plan.
It’s not the first time a donkey has been used by God if we remember Balaam and the rebuke spoken by the donkey to him. That one was certainly not mute like the one in Chesterton’s poem. God can choose anything to use and in this case He had chosen a particular donkey for a particular task and he would not be noticed for it. Maybe right up to the moment it was used of Jesus it thought ‘what was the point of being around, is this all there is to life’? But there was a moment, a day, an hour that was the very reason for its existence, all the past had led up to this very moment. This is very much the same as it was for Esther who was brought to the Kingdom ‘for such a time as this’. (Esther 4.14)
So what does God say of us?
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
We have been chosen not only for blessing but for service. We may not be anything special in the world’s eyes but God knows us all by name and he has a plan for us to serve him, He has prepared in advance good works for us to do.
1 But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name;
You are Mine.
What a promise.
Next, notice with me that this donkey who was selected was one that had not been used before. We know that because Mark fills in the detail:
and He said to them, “Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it.
Such animals in Jewish tradition often had special religious significance because they had never been used for any worldly purpose. And just as the animal was pure in the sense it had not been used already we too must also be separated from the world to be useful to the Lord.
But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.
If we keep ourselves unspotted from the world then we have a greater chance of being used by God for more precious things. It’s necessary for us to preserve our time and energy to use for the Lord’s service. So often we give him the left overs of our life when He desires our first fruits. For instance, what is the best time of the day for you? Use it for the Lord rather than for anything else.
Then there is a time of preparation to be used by the Lord as found in verse 7 They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. The donkey was prepared for the Lord’s use and we need to be prepared too.
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Spending time getting to know the Lord in Prayer and study of His Word prepares us for his use and allows the Holy Spirit to work in us to sanctify us for Service. Donkeys are not known for a submissive temperament as we see in:
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will guide you with My eye.
Do not be like the horse or like the mule,
Which have no understanding,
Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle,
Else they will not come near you.
But the donkey, as us, have to present ourselves to God for His use:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Yes, He has chosen us, but he will not work against us for He wishes us to present ourselves to Him; to be submissive to his will in our lives. It is too easy to be an uncontrollable donkey that needs to be struck many times to get in line. Here the donkey still plays a bit part. The donkey’s job was to lift up Jesus so that Jesus could be seen by the crowds. In so doing the donkey was not noticed. It was not to the donkey they sang and shouted Hosanna in the Highest to, it was Jesus. We have a similar role in God’s plan, not to be exalted but to exalt Christ. To make him be seen by the world.
But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Dr. Bonar once said that he could tell when a Christian was growing. In proportion to his growth in grace he would elevate his Master, talk less of what he himself was doing, and become smaller and smaller in his own esteem, until, like the morning star, he faded away before the rising sun. It might be that the donkey was being used by God in His plan but the people shouting Hosanna were shouting it to Jesus.
Many of the people there that day did not know really know was going on or they thought they did. They should have known as the Zech 9:9 prophecy is very clear that this is the King and He will come humbly upon a donkey.
There a number of reasons people were rejoicing over Jesus and no doubt some of them were genuine in their praise of their Lord and Saviour but most of the people were expecting a victorious King and the people were loyal because Jesus had made a name for Himself. They were shouting ‘Hosanna’ which means ‘Save us, please’. But they were expecting Him save them from their situation, to destroy the Roman Empire and save them that way. Some of them may have joined in because the whole crowd was, kind of a mob rule. The majority though did not know what was going on and were simply swayed by a false hope. But their shouts of Hosanna got answered but not in the way they thought it would – He came to save them from something more virulent, more destructive, and more powerful than the Roman Empire; He came to deal with sin, the bugbear of the human race.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
Yet despite all the Country knowing something of Jesus less than a week later they still rejected Him and crucified Him. But again it was all in God’s plan.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
And like the donkey we must be satisfied with a humble part in God’s plan sometimes not knowing the reasons why things happen the way they do. Not all are called to greatness in this life but we can be great in the Kingdom of God by simply serving God. Just before His entrance into Jerusalem Jesus made it clear that He was not going to be the One to exercise authority but He was Himself going to be humble in God’s plan, too:
But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Jesus used a donkey to come into Jerusalem. You know donkeys really aren’t all that great. They’re stubborn, they’re smelly, they’re small, not really able to do that much. But Jesus used a donkey in his most triumphant public moment here on earth. He could have chosen a white stallion outfitted for battle as he’s portrayed in the book of revelation. But He didn’t. He chose a donkey. And if He chose a donkey despite their temperament He also chooses us and has a use for us too. The good thing is that if He can use a donkey God can use us for His purposes.
Maybe we have never really thought of ourselves as part of God’s grand plan, but the Bible says that’s exactly what we are. We have each been selected by Him to fulfil a part of His plan prepared in advance for us. To fulfil that role We need to be separated to God. We need to be separated from the world. We need to be separated to serve. We need humility to let God use us in whatsoever way as He chooses fulfilling God’s plan not for our satisfaction, not for our honour, not for comfort and satisfaction but for His glory. And this is our privilege whether we are a donkey or a King.
Benediction
Benediction
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has become His counselor?”
“Or who has first given to Him
And it shall be repaid to him?”
For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
Bibliograhy
Bibliograhy
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