Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

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?

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.

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:

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.

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.

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:

But the donkey, as us, have to present ourselves to God for His use:

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.

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.

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.