Jesus Wept - Palm Sunday

Mark 11:1-11 This morning we are going to take a look at what is entitled in many bibles as the ‘Triumphal Entry.’ This is a very well known story that takes place on ‘Palm Sunday,’ the Sunday before Good Friday. This Sunday which began the last week of Jesus’ life is mentioned in all four Gospels. (Matt 21:1ff.; Mark 11:1ff.; Luke 19:28ff.; John 12:12ff.) so it is obviously very significant. Before we look at the story let me give you some background. 1. This was at the time of the Passover. Passover was a very important time for Jerusalem. The population of the city was approximately 40,000, and because Passover was one of the major Jewish pilgrimages, during this festival the population would increase to about 240,000 people, six times its normal amount. There was great anticipation for those celebrating this festival, and the city would have been buzzing. There would have been a carnival feel of celebration in the air. People would have been very excited hoping for a Messiah to come and deliver them, especially at this time of passover when they were remembering how God had delivered their forefathers from Egypt. If ever there was a time that nationalistic fervour would be whipped up and the people tempted to rebel against their Roman masters, it would have been this week. 2. Also at this time there was an other official entry into Jerusalem. At this time Pilate came to town. The coming of a provincial governor often took on the trappings of a stately, if not royal, procession. He would have had an impressive entourage. The largest, most formidable group to travel with a governor would have been the soldiers under his command. It seems probable that both infantry and horsemen would have accompanied Pilate from Caesarea. And because of the massive increase in Jerusalem’s population during the festivals. These troops would have been used to put down previous disturbances, and would try to prevent further disturbances. It is likely that something in the order of one thousand troops would have been with Pilate. 3. Up to this point Jesus had refused to make a public deceleration of his Messiah-ship. Often in Mark’s Gospel when Jesus healed people he would tell them not to say to anyone. In Mark, Jesus never claims publicly to be the Messiah, and when people do recognize him as such, as in Peter’s great confession in Mark 8.29 “You are the Christ” or “You are the Messiah,” Jesus strictly charges them to tell no one about him. But now he wants people to see that he is the promised Messiah so he orchestrates this entry into Jerusalem to show them. This is the first time in Mark’s gospel that Jesus visited Jerusalem. 4. So Jesus sets the stage where he is going to reveal himself to the nation' ‘Jesus sent two of his disciples and saying to them, "Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.'" And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?"And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go.’ Mark 11:2-6 This was a very suggestive act, it was an act of great prophetic significance. The prophet Zechariah had prophesied that their king would come riding on the colt of a donkey. No one there would have missed the significance of what was happening. They would have been able to connect the dots between this prophet from Nazareth and the prophecy of Zechariah. ‘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.’ (Zechariah 9:9). The crowds knew about this prophecy. Jesus is declaring himself to be Israel’s Messianic King. The crowds begin to respond with loud acclamations and the waving of palm branches. They want to welcome and honour their new king; they even take the words of Psalm 118 to their lips to praise and celebrate his coming:- ‘And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” Mark 11:8-10. The word ‘Hosanna’ literally means save us now. They were crying out for salvation. BUT And that is the Problem with the story of the ‘Triumphal Entry’ We have this picture in our minds of a great crowd celebrating Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. In our understanding we become part of the crowd. Or put it an other way, it is so easy for us to get caught up in the celebrations of the crowd that we miss what the gospel writers want to teach us. 1. Palm Sunday is more about sorrow than joy. I think that this may be one of the most tragic experiences in the life of Jesus, and caused him great pain and distress. Luke 19:41 tells us that as they got nearer to Jerusalem Jesus wept over it. The word wept klaio means to howl with sobbing and wailing. It was a word used to describe a loud expression of pain and sorrow. It was visible distress. This is the same word used in Luke 22:62 where it said, ‘Peter went out and wept bitterly.’ It is interesting that when we read about Jesus weeping at the grave of Lazarus the word used there carries the idea of a more muted expression of grief. As Jesus looked over Jerusalem he was overwhelmed by the horror of what was going to happen there. Stop and listen to the howling sobs of the Son of God Through his tears he is saying, If you had only recognized this day, and everything that was good for you! But now it’s too late. In the days ahead your enemies are going to bring up their heavy artillery and surround you, pressing in from every side. They’ll smash you and your babies on the pavement. Not one stone will be left intact. All this because you didn’t recognize and welcome God’s personal visit.” Luke 19:42 The Message When Jesus said’ If you had only recognized this day, and everything that was good for you! But now it’s too late. These were more than Jesus reflecting on how his ministry in Jerusalem was not received, they were also a commentary on what was happening at that moment, he was grieving about an on going rejection, a rejection that looked like acceptance. What the crowd was doing and what Jesus was saying did not add up. If you had been standing on some roof top in Jerusalem watching the procession you would of concluded that Jesus was loved, accepted and worshipped. This was an Isaiah 29:13 moment for Jesus. If only the crowd had stopped and listened, if only they allowed their hearts to be touched by his heart, but they were too caught up in the moment. They were crying out ‘Hosanna’ save us NOW. NOW NOW save us NOW, as Jesus cried painful tears they remained oblivious to his heart. We will come back to this in a moment, but first let me ask this question. ‘Have you ever seen a man cry, a man break down in howling sobs. A dad, a husband, a leader. I don’t think it is something we can easily cope with. It almost feels inappropriate or even ‘wrong.’ we don’t like it, it make us feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. Like the crowd we would rather be ‘hosanna-ing.’ Save US NOW 2. Palm Sunday is about wrong expectations. As the crowds of people welcomed Jesus with singing, palm branches and coats spread on the ground they pursuing their own agenda. They wanted a military Messiah, someone who would deliver from the oppression of Rome. They saw Jesus as a means to an end. As Jesus sobbed as he drew near the city they were incapable of sharing his pain or feeling his grief. They were blinded and hardened by their own agenda. SAVE US NOW. Sometimes we are not too different than is crowd. We can come to Jesus with our agenda, with our wants, with our desires. We may not be oppressed by a foreign occupying army, but more often than not all we want Jesus to do is to come and tidy up our lives, change our circumstances, and if he does, we would be willing to make him ‘King for the day.’ Paul talks in the book of Philippians, about the ‘fellowship of his sufferings.’ Part of what that means is we share the pain of his heart, we embrace his sorrow. We allow the sorrows of his heart to become contributing factors in defining our character’s our lifestyles and our purposes. For Jesus this entry into Jerusalem was entry ‘Into the valley of the shadow of death.’ The dark shadow of the cross could not be eradicated by the joyful cheers of the crowds. Three times Jesus had predicted his death, and this was part of the journey to the cross. 3. Psalm Sunday is about worship without devotion. As the pilgrims made their way to Jerusalem for the passover on their way the would sing Hallel psalms which were psalms 113-118. as they entered the gates Jerusalem they would sing:- “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”  “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” quoting Psalm 118:25-26 Psalm 118, a patriotic national hymn which celebrates the ancient victories of Israel over its enemies. The message of the psalm is straightforward. While Israel was surrounded by enemies as by a swarm of angry bees, God has delivered Israel from their wrath. The enemies relied on their own power, but Israel's king relied on God alone. Israel ought therefore to give thanks to God, because he is good and because his mercy has no end. When the choirs chant, "blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord," they are welcoming a real conqueror, a Nelson or a Churchill not an itinerant preacher whose victories are spiritual and whose kingdom is heavenly. Here is the point, they were using the language of worship without having a heart for worship. They recited the verses they always recited at this time. They politicized these verses believing that they promised military deliverance from the Roman empire. Look at how they address Jesus, the crowds welcome him as someone coming “in the name of the Lord” from Psalms 118: 25-16. They also praise the coming of the “kingdom of David,” which isn’t quite the same as the coming of the king. None call him Messiah, Son of God, Son of Man, or any of the titles traditionally attributed to Jesus as Messiah. At this time their praise of Jesus was an expression of their own agendas through the misuse of scripture. Someone has said, ‘The exuberant crowds are chanting the right psalm even though they are drawing the wrong conclusions from it.’ It is so easy to fall into the same kind of thinking, we often miss-quote scripture, taking it out of context, miss applying it and interpreting it to accommodate our agenda. Then we create a language or a way of speaking that can sound spiritual but is not rooted in truth. As these people quoted well known verse, they were expressing misunderstanding and a wrong view of Jesus rooted in their desire for transformed circumstances rather than transformed hearts. 4. Psalm Sunday was about symbolic submission not real surrender. Mark tells us Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Why would they spread their coats in the road?  That was an old, ancient gesture, a custom that showed submission. “You can walk on me, you can step on me, I’m below your feet.” Kings were always elevated and people were under their feet. And this was a way to symbolize that. You can...you can walk all over me, I am submissive to you. Think about this, this act of ‘submission,’ was done in the heat of moment when an excited crowd was being motivated by a desire for a political revolution. This was not a thought through devotion where the cost had been counted, and a commitment of absolute surrender made no matter the outcome. This was just a symbolic submission that would lead to nothing because it was fake. You could refer to this as tokenised devotion. It was not the real thing. Mark wants us to see the contrast between these people in the crowd and Bartimaeus in the previous chapter, in verse 50 we read ‘Throwing His cloak aside he jumped up and came to Jesus.’ ‘Being a beggar was somewhat of an exclusive profession. Not everyone who wished was allowed to beg, for fear many lazy people would take up the vocation and impose on the truly needy. In order to beg, you had to obtain a license from the authorities. The right to beg publicly required a person to present himself to the authorities and provide documented proof of his or her disability. If the evidence satisfied the requirements to the satisfaction of the council, a begging license was issued. Bartimaeus had no doubt experienced this process. In the 1stcentury AD, licenses did not come in the form of a paper certificate or a letter delivered by email, which one could carry in a wallet or a pocket and present to authorities upon request. Rather, proof of your begging license was issued in the form of clothing. Specifically, a beggar was given a cloak of a certain style and colour, which distinguished him/her from other professions. These cloaks were every bit as distinctive and identifiable as the high priests’ linen garments and ephod. Whenever a beggar chose to attend to his occupation, he was required to don the beggar’s cloak to validate his legitimacy. When Bartimaeus cast aside his cloak, he gave up more than just his outer garment, he gave up his privilege of begging, which served as his life support system and his sole earning potential.’ Jeff Myers I am Ministries The word Mark uses for throwing in 10:50 is only found twice in the New Testament and —conveys the thought of a reckless rejection of what is valuable When Bartimaeus threw away his coat he was making a radical statement, he was abandoning his old identity, he was throwing his source of security and life as he knew it away. Bartimaeus had dreamed and longed for a day like this a day when he could leave his old life behind. Unlike the crowds who throw their cloaks on the road he was an individual who was not influenced by others. He was determined to get to Jesus no matter what others thought or said. He grasped the radical nature of following Jesus. Tokenised devotion lacks individualised expression, it is mass produced and is dependant on others and will never have the courage of throw away their old way of living Bartimaeus. 5. Palm Sunday is about an anticlimax Look at what Mark says, ‘Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.’ This is one of those verses you could easily skim over. It is completely anticlimactic! Jesus is hailed as king by the crowds, so what does Jesus do? Nothing. He does not confront the Roman oppressors, He does not call people to arms. According to Mark all he does is look around the temple then goes to Bethany. The crowds have gone, the singing of ‘Hosanna’ has stopped, the palm branches lie discarded at the side of the road, and the cloaks have been lifted. This anticlimactic end to palm Sunday was the most appropriate ending. You see if we are going to respond to Jesus in the way the crowds did, then we too will have an anticlimactic experience of Jesus. Let me ask you is your experience of Jesus an anticlimax? Is your Christian life an anticlimax? Are you the kind of person who does not get too excited about Him? You like the crowd are happy for Jesus to be your king for a day, king on your terms. If my relationship with Jesus is an anticlimax then it his never his fault, it is because I have tried to make him into the kind of king I want. Stand beside Jesus in the temple as in the silence he looks around him. Remember the harrowing words. ‘If you had only recognized this day, and everything that was good for you! But now it’s too late. Luke19:42 message ‘But now it is too late. ‘He was silent and sad among this excited multitude, the marks of the tears He had wept over Jerusalem still on His cheek. It is not so, that an earthly King enters His City in triumph; not so, that the Messiah of Israel’s expectation would have gone into His Temple. He spake not, but only looked round about upon all things, as if to view the field on which He was to suffer and die. And now the shadows of evening were creeping up; and, weary and sad, He once more returned with the twelve disciples to the shelter and rest of Bethany. Albert Edersheim. Conclusion:- What kind of king do you want Jesus to be?