The Return of the King

Good morning and welcome to another week of church here at the Bridge. I am so glad that you could join us here this morning.

It is Palm Sunday. It is the day that we traditionally celebrate the coming of the King to Jerusalem. It is the day that we look to see the Glory of God shown through Jesus as he enters into the final days before the cross.

Luke 19:28–40 NIV

28 After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 30 “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’ ” 32 Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 They replied, “The Lord needs it.” 35 They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. 36 As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. 37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: 38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” 40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

The Triumphal Entry

One of the first things that jumps out to me in this story is like last week story Jesus is making some bold moves. I found it interesting that after Lazarus was raised form the grave Jesus secluded himself to because of the threat on his life. Than after some time he starts making some risky and bold moves. Think about it returning to Bethany to eat with the family of Lazarus and now he is being bold enough to enter into Jerusalem riding on a colt or donkey. Jesus knew the implication that had to come with that moment of entering into Jerusalem. He knew that his time was marked. Yet, it didn’t stop him. He knew it was his time and what he was going to Jerusalem to do. Let’s take a look now though at some of the details of this story.

Jesus’ Ride

I kept putting this story into the modern day. Imagine if Someone told you. Hey I want you to walk into town and your going to come up on someones home and there you will find a car parked in their driveway. It is brand new and has never been driven. I want you to walk get in the car and prepare to drive it away. If anyone asks you what you are doing let them know that “the Lord needs it”.

Tonight we will be seeing you on the evening news for grand theft auto.

That is pretty much how it went down for the disciples. You have to imagine that after they left Jesus they had to be thinking about what was going to happen when they got to town to take someones donkey. This is a bold move and they had to trust to make it happen.

One of the interesting things about this section of the passage was that when I was studying it I came across two different perspectives on it. Now, i have to admit this really surprised me because I didn’t think this was that controversial of a section.

Besides the Grand theft Donkey.

Like I said i was reading and a couple of the commentaries on the passage presented the view that Jesus must have had a prearranged plan with the owners of this donkey. One author said that the chances of there being a donkey that had never been ridden in just the right place had to be low.

Now that seems like a really logical perspective on this passage. Sure Jesus could have talked with some people before hand and told them that he would need a donkey and that it would be right before Passover on this particular year. He even went so far to set up a special password to help the owners know that the people taking the donkey were his disciples. That is actually very logical.

How else could the owners know to have that donkey ready?

Why else would the owners be willing to give up their donkey?

I reread this perspective and I can see what they were talking about but I kept struggling with the very idea because it just didn’t seem right. In fact i opened a third and a fourth commentary to confirm that this was really the consistent perspective.

I was struggling with this idea of Logic overriding the view i had always had of this passage that required Faith.

Logic and Faith

This is one of those passages where we like to look at things logically and try to explain how things happen. While i am a fan of logic and i think there are definitely times for us to examine scriptures that way there are others that i think we can potentially ruin our understanding of a passage if we only look at it logically.

Could Jesus have set up this moment? Sure

Did Jesus set up this moment? I am not so sure

The truth is that when i read this passage I believe that the truth is that Jesus sent his disciples on faith and with knowledge that God was going to provide this donkey for him to ride on. Knowing full well that it was going to be there and that the simple command of the Lord needs it would be enough for the owners. One of the authors in the commentaries said that the chances were low that this could have happened. I want to ask the question what are the chances that a lot of the miracles that happened in the Bible happened?

Jesus knew that this was a moment that the Glory of God was going to be testified to. That his entry into Jerusalem was a marked moment. The authority that was given Jesus is certainly more than enough that the simple command of the Lord needs it would be enough. Just because a situation can be explain away with logic doesn’t mean that the miracle didn’t happen. Sometimes the danger here is that we allow our logic to stand in the way of God.

It distracts us from true message of the story. It distracts us from the Coming of the King

The King Enters

One of the most interesting things about this particular entry for Jesus is that it doesn’t mention palm branches. Today is palm Sunday but if we read this passage we see that there is no mention of palm branches. Instead the scriptures tell us that people put their cloaks down.

This image is a lot more powerful to me. The idea of taking off your cloak makes it much more personal for the people where were present at the event in their honoring of the king. There is an element of sacrifice that comes with using your belongings to honor someone. It was more than just saying down the palm branches.

Than there is the praises that rang out to Jesus. It is clear that this bothered the pharisees. In fact i imagine that they were frustrated in multiple ways in that moment. Think about it. They wanted Jesus to be killed. They were after his life. Yet, in that moment they knew they couldn’t act because it was clear that in that moment that Jesus had the favor of the people and if they were to take him than they would not be looked on very highly. They had to wait for the moment that they wanted. Not only that they had a fear that this was going to bring down the roman empire upon them. When people are hailing Jesus as King that could be seen as a direct challenge to the Empire and the fear of what would or could be taken was on their minds. That is one of the reasons that they said.

Luke 19:39 NIV

39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”

The Rocks

Jesus response to their challenge is amazing. The very rocks would cry out if the people were quiet. The truth is that in the moment the whole earth was aware of what was coming and who was riding into town. This wasn’t just a conquering king come to free his people from the oppression of foreign government. This was the Son of God come to earth and who was about to give his life to free of us of the bonds of sin so that we can restore our relationship with God in new ways.

It is in this moment that if we were silent even the rocks would cry out in testimony to who Jesus is. It is in this moment that we see faith expressed that Jesus came to free us. It is here we begin the celebration of the coming Holy week. We Celebrate and remember that Jesus came that day despite dangers of his life and in spite of the harm that others wanted to cause him because he loved us. We see the Glory of God for just a moment that day in the story.

This morning we shout

Luke 19:38 NIV

38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

or

Matthew 21:9 NIV

9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

Let us celebrate the arrival of our King and Savior this morning, and thank him for all he has done for us this day.