Palm Sunday

Lent

As a church here at Tanilba Bay, we typically have not made a significant fuss about the period in the church calendar known as Lent. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept of lent, you could say it is a period where we can prepare ourselves for Easter. It is usually a time of reflection and repentance. Usually it is accompanied with some sort of fasting. Frequently today, that fast can take on many forms. Some people will go without a particular luxury, perhaps coffee.

It has been interesting this year.

Lent started on the 26th February.

In that first week of lent, Australia recorded its first two deaths due to COVID-19.

It wasn’t long before things started escalating. Quickly.

We were told we couldn’t congregate in groups bigger than 500. That was quickly reduced to 100.

Sports were cancelled. Schools told children to stay home.

Places of worship was cancelled.

Now we can’t congregate in groups of more than two and we’re told, unless you need to - stay at home.

Isn’t it curious how it was during lent that we have been forced to restricts so many things.

Now, I don’t want to put too fine a point on it. It’s possible to overplay the significance of it all, but one of the consequences of the pandemic and the resulting restrictions is that it has forced us to re-evalute almost everything.

It has been chaos, but we have had to re-think almost every aspect of life. Shopping. Entertainment. Church. Education. Social gatherings. Everything is different.

Now the question which I’ve heard asked a few times, in fact, I’ve asked myself a few times, is: what is going to emerge from all of this? What will life look like when this pandemic is over?

Will social interactions look different? Will the way we do church look different?

Well, the answer is really anyone’s guess. And I’m not going to stand here and pretend I have the answers.

But while I don’t know what will emerge in specific terms, we do know as Christians what we can look for and how we should respond as a result.

As this period of lent ends, we will still be in the midst of the chaos, but as we approach Easter, we should be in a better place to keep going through.

The Jewish Situation

You see, during the ministry of Jesus, the chaos they are experiencing is very different to the chaos we’re going through, however it was still difficult times.

For the Jewish people they had lost their freedom quite some time ago and they really were struggling with it. Now isn’t the time to recap the history of how they got to the situation, but the end result is that the Roman’s were in control, and though they had managed to learn to co-exist, the tensions ran deep.

The Jews looked back on the days when they were a nation with sovereign powers. And they longed for things to be the way the were.

Back when they weren’t quite so restricted. (Actually, that’s starting to sound familiar, isn’t it!)

Well, during this time, they held onto some of the promises that were given to them centuries before. Promises sent to them from God, via various prophets.

It was a promise that there would be a restoration.

Their king would be restored. Their enemies defeated.

It would be grand. And it would be glorious.

The Messiah

Key to many of these prophecies was a Messiah. The word ‘messiah’ means the annointed one. This Messiah would lead them to this glorious restoration.

But, identifying this Messiah proved difficult. Prior to the time of Jesus, a number of people had come and claimed to be the Messiah, and had even gathered somewhat of a following, but they had quickly faded away.

But this Jesus - he had started to turn heads, particularly with the miracles he was performing.

Of course we get the dramatic confession of Peter that Jesus is the Messiah back in Matthew 16, but other people are still asking the question.

But if Jesus is the Messiah, then this is very good news indeed. Because this oppression that they are under will surely be soon gone.

Triumphal entry

Well, this morning, being Palm Sunday, we are naturally looking at the passage when Jesus arrives in Jerusalem for what is essentially the start of his last week before his death and resurrection.

Now what I want to do as I explore this passage is to pay attention to how Jesus, as the Messiah, emerges through the chaos of their time. Because what we’ll see is their Messiah did not do things the way they expected.

Donkey and colt

Well, the first four verse describe for us how Jesus got the colt that he was to ride into Jerusalem.

In some ways, it seems an interesting detail to focus on, but all the gospels except John describe this event. And when that happens, its often a clue that it’s something worth pondering.

So let’s have a quick look.

It starts with Jesus sending two unnamed disciples ahead to get a donkey and her colt. The instruction are fairly simple. Untie them and bring them, and if asked say that the Lord needs them.

God in control

So we can ask, what’s the significance of this part of the story.

Well, one obvious lesson is that God is in control of all aspects of carrying out his plan. He brings all things together.

I always love when God gives his affirmation that what you are doing is the right thing by just bringing everything together.

I remember for example when Fiona and I first spent a year in Bible College back in 2007 and God just lined everything up so perfectly that we knew that God was in it.

The colt

But there is also significance with the colt. The significance is really spelt out for us when we look into the quotation in verse 5. You see, the Biblical writers see a direct connection between what is happening with this colt, and what was prophesied in Zechariah 9:9.

Unfortunately, this particular verse was not one of the favourite verses of the Jews in those days - if it were, perhaps they would have realised what they should have been expecting.

Zech 9:9

So let’s really quickly look at Zechariah.

The writing of Zechariah is set as the Jews initially returned to their land after spending seventy odd years in exile which was in the land of the Babylonians.

This period of exile had really been their first time as a nation to be stripped of everything. I think as they returned they might have hoped that things would have got back to what they thought of as normal. But it didn’t.

But it is Zechariah’s writings, in part, which kept them going. Because though he often used strange imagery, he spoke of a future time when things would be right.

Which brings us to chapter 9.

In this chapter we get a picture of a Messiah figure - a king, who is going to bring peace.

But there is this juxtaposition in the picture given which I think the Jews didn’t quite understand.

You see, the natural inclination is to think that peace will come when the enemy is vanquished by force. To do that, you would expect the king riding in on something showing his strength.

But that is not what is pictured. Rather it is a picture of lowliness.

And this then is the significance of the colt. First it is a donkey not a horse. Donkey’s are useful for lots of things, but they don’t signal strength. And the colt is a young one at that. Doesn’t even have any experience.

So the colt of a donkey is almost a low as you can go in terms of strength and force.

And so back to Jesus instructing his disciples, this is why Matthew Mark and Luke each record this detail. They fully intend on showing the irony of their Messiah coming into the city on such a low animal.

They wanted a military take over.

But Jesus comes in meekness and humility.

Not looking for strength

There is a real lesson in this for us.

In times of chaos, we want the answer to come with strength.

We want God to some how come down and bring and end to everything. Make it all better. Fix it now!

But you know what? More often than not, that isn’t the way God operates.

More often we see him emerging through the chaos in far more subtle ways.

Often what you’ll find is that when you’re in the middle of a crisis, rather than God suddenly bringing the crisis to an end, he’ll instead give a little insight to you here, or perhaps a little extra courage there. Or maybe he’ll clear a little obstacle or open the right door.

Whereas we pray for a the crisis to go away, instead, God uses the crisis for His glory.

It is not in strength as we typically understand strength that God operates. It is in meekness and humility.

That’s important as we look for God in this current pandemic. One could easily conclude that God hasn’t ended it yet so he either mustn’t care or mustn’t have the ability.

Neither is true. Rather we need to adjust the way we look for God.

You see, when we recognise that Jesus typically walks in on a lowly donkey, rather than a strong war horse, we recognise he normally operates in a different way.

Respond by Worship

But let’s now follow the account of Jesus entry into Jerusalem, because now that’s I’ve considered how we should alter the way we look for God in our current situation, it’s important to consider the way we should respond.

Now something truly remarkable happens.

Very large crowds appear and start worshipping Jesus.

Now I say that’s remarkable because from a worldly perspective, you might not think the event would have been conducive to worship. It was just a man on a lowly donkey.

Why they worshipped

Of course, had they fully known what we know about who Jesus is and what he has done (or in their case, about to do). Sure they might have heard rumours of some pretty impressive miracles, maybe even heard suggestions or people questioning whether he was the Messiah - the chosen one come to save them. But if he had come to save them, why come in such an odd way.

But yet they worship him. I want to suggest that the reason they worshipped him was because it was the most natural thing to do.

In Luke’s account of this event, Jesus is quoted as saying “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out”.

You see, the Bible doesn’t really give us much of an insight into what was going through their minds at this time. But whatever it was, they were doing what was natural - praising Jesus.

How they worshipped

Now look at the way they show their worship. They get cut branches from the trees. Interestingly, it’s only in John’s account of the event that we hear that it was Palm branches and hence the name we give the day today.

But not only branches but their own cloaks as well.

We can look at some of the significance of these items. For instance, the cloaks on the road recall the events that took place when Israel was still a sovereign nation and they were welcoming one of their new kings, namely Jehu.

But the aspect I want to draw from this is that they just worshipped with what they had before them.

It would seem likely that the branches were just the branches from the trees beside the road. And the cloaks were just what they were wearing.

And I think this comes back to the idea that they were just doing what was natural. They were worshipping Jesus with what they had before them.

What we can learn

And I think there is something really important for us to note in this.

Sometimes I think we can have a tendency to overthink worship.

What words should I say? What actions should I do? Do I need to raise my hands when I sing? Do I have to have the right posture when I pray?

But do you know what? Worship just needs to be a natural things that comes from your heart.

This might mean raising your arms. It might mean falling prostrate before God.

It might even be praying in tongues or reciting a Psalm.

The only real right or wrong about how we worship is whether it’s coming from the heart or not.

These crowds weren’t told what to do.

They obviously just had a stirring in the heart, and they followed that stirring.

And that’s what we need to do as well. Particularly during this time of isolation when we’re not worshipping in a group, we need to make that effort to find your expression of worship.

If you’re not sure what that looks like for you - perhaps try a few different things like, putting on worship music. Or painting a picture. Dedicate time to just say words of worship in your prayers.

Whatever works for you, just do it and give praise to Jesus.

The words they spoke

But let’s just briefly look at the words they then shouted as Jesus went by,

“Hosanna to the Son of David”.

The word Hosanna literally translates to the word save.

Whether they understood quite how true their words of praise are or not, is not clear - but here they were, saying such an amazing truth.

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

Can I suggest that what we are seeing here is that in their act of worship, they are actually speaking words that are more true than they even realise.

They speak of the salvation that will be the ultimate result of Jesus entering this great city. They speak of the heavenly origin of where he comes from.

I actually find it curious that even though in their act of worship they can speak such great truths, when actually asked in verse 10 who Jesus is, all they respond with is that he is a prophet from Nazareth.

I want to get back to this idea of the naturalness of worship.

When we worship in our natural way, we can understand things in a much deeper way.

Seeing Jesus in worship

Now let me bring this idea of worship back to my original question of what we see emerge from our current chaos.

You see, in the chaos of everything, and particularly all of the rapid changes we are seeing, it is easy to become overwhelmed. When we’re overwhelmed it is hard to look for the movement of Jesus.

Sure, we might even know in theory that Jesus is still working for our good, but it’s hard to see.

Well can I suggest that worship is one means in which we can allow ourselves to see.

As we take time out. We might have a lot of time on our hands being all stuck at home, but we still need to deliberately stop. Praise God in the way that is most natural to you. And I’m going to suggest that you will be in a much better place to see Jesus emerging out of all this. It might not be in the way that we necessarily want him to. But it will be perfect - because God always does things perfectly.

Conclusion

It would be nice to think that when we get out of this period of lent, we can go back to not having all of these restrictions. Unfortunately, it would seem that things are set to last a bit longer yet.

But lent this year can be used to prepare us for this ongoing crisis. It will prepare us because we will be better at seeing Jesus in the middle of the crisis and responding in the way that we should.

So can I urge you to take that time to worship Jesus in whatever way seems natural to you. Because in doing so, you will see this servant king - the one that will truly save us.

Let me pray...