Thy Kingdom Come

Matthew 21:1–11 NRSV

1 When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” 4 This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, 5 “Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7 they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 10 When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” 11 The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

With the arrival of Palm Sunday, we begin our celebration of “Holy Week.” This week is a yearly reminder and remembrance of the wild swing of emotion from the celebration and parade that characterized Sunday to the traitorous act of Judas in betraying Jesus on Thursday night - to the crucifixion on Friday - there is this wild swing of emotion during these last days of Lent. Of course, for us, it is all tempered by the fact that we know the rest of the story - we know that no matter how bleak the week may appear, Easter Sunday is coming. We haven’t reached Easter yet, but focusing on the waving of palm branches and the shouts of “Hosanna!” still feels like a fresh change from the focus on the sacrifice and pain of the cross.

We have taken over the word hosanna as a shout of praise. Yet, the word in its original language was actually a cry in desperation - Lord, save us - we beg you - please! It is a plea for rescue - much like Volodomyr Zelenski has ben crying out to the world over the last couple of months. This word is a recognition that the only one that can save them is the Lord. It became known as a cry to the Messiah - the one that was to come to set things right for the people of Israel.

The people lining the way as Jesus entered Jerusalem that day weren’t using the word in the way we think of it. They were shouting it out in songs as they were basically begging God to liberate them!

They were an oppressed people who were anxiously awaiting the coming Messiah that in their minds would save them in a very physical & real way from the domination of Rome. Their great desire was to be saved from Rome.

Standing on this side of the whole event - knowing what we now know about why Jesus came and what was about to happen later in the week, we are able to critique what we see in the crowd that gathered that day. It is easy for us to look at the crowd and wonder how they could have missed the whole point of His coming. We think of their expectation of a king that would bring release from the political control of Rome as short sighted and naive. Yet, if we found ourselves in the same situation as them, we would have the same deep desire for deliverance. When you are in the midst of oppression, and you do not know what will happen next, freedom from oppression is about the only thing you can think about beyond daily survival. While the crowd was looking for political deliverance, Jesus came to liberate them from domination of sin in their lives.

We all have found ourselves in the same bondage to sin in our lives. We are in need of a savior. Our reality, in many ways, matches the reality for the crowd that had gathered that day. We know that we are in need of a savior. We use the word Hosanna as a synonym to the word hallelujah - which literally means “praise Yahweh” - but maybe in addition to praising Yahweh, we need to recapture the original meaning of the word - Maybe what we really need to be shouting is “Lord, please save us!”

Let’s not overlook the deep-hearted cries of “Hosanna!”—a humble, desperate cry for a Savior that we very much still need to be crying out in our world today.

Body

The Unusual King

In the Roman empire, there was a tradition known as the Roman Triumph where a general who had won a victory in battle would be celebrated and honored in Rome. Later, these triumphs were only celebrated in honor of the Roman Caesar. These triumphs had become familiar, as the Roman empire was often victorious in war.

There was a pattern and tradition to these triumphal entries. These Roman triumphs were the highest honor given for emperors and generals in the Roman Empire. They were a well-known ritual that occurred throughout the Roman empire.

It was a procession into the city of Rome, led by government officials, followed by sacrificial animals for the temples of the Roman gods, followed by the champion in a chariot, usually wearing purple regalia, followed by the champion’s prisoners of war.

These processionals were given to honor those who were victorious in war. It included festivals, dancing, singing, and flower petals strewn upon the ground. The early triumphs were likely less ornate, but as with many occasions, they grew to become quite elaborate as time went on.

Jesus’s triumphal entry would have been reminiscent of these Roman triumphs, but there were certainly some major differences.

He didn’t enter into the city of Rome, the heart of the empire and the central city of the empire; he went instead into Jerusalem, the location of the temple and the heart of the Jewish faith.

He also was not entering as a victorious war hero. For the people who gathered there that day, they were anticipating that He would be, but they had not yet seen or experienced the victory that they hoped would be coming.

But, as we find out later in the week, he was not marching toward what we think of in terms of a victory, He was marching toward his own death. The Roman emperors would lead sacrificial animals into Rome, but Jesus led no such pack of animals - no, HE was the sacrifice that was going to be offered. Jesus’s triumphal entry is an example of the upside-down nature of the kingdom of God, where victory comes through humility rather than the violence.

Finally, instead of an ornate horse and chariot, Jesus rode in on a donkey, another illustration of humility. Donkeys were pack animals, not war animals, and they were also a symbol of peace, as opposed to horses, which symbolized war and victory.

Jesus was not your typical leader. Throughout His life, this “Peasant King” had been different than the rulers and leaders that the people had become accustomed to serving. It wasn’t just in this triumphal entry that we see the difference. We see it in the circumstances surrounding his birth, and the way He lived His life. It was in the way He poured out His life for those around Him. For the Roman emperor, it was expected that everybody else would pour out their lives to serve and honor him. The triumphal entry obviously illustrates the ways that Jesus is using Roman symbols in a different way, but his entire life was dedicated to a different way. He was born in a stable, not a palace, and welcomed by shepherds rather than nobility. His ministry confounded Jewish leaders as he healed on the Sabbath, ministered to gentiles and women. He was a rebel in the best sense of the word. He was certainly not like any other leader, religious or otherwise, that had ever lived.

The Holistic Liberator

Jesus freed people physically.

As we read through the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we find that Jesus was known as a healer. He performed miracles that restored sight, healed the lame, cleansed lepers, and even brought some back to life from death.

He also performed miracles that met basic needs, like hunger and thirst (feeding the multitudes, turning water into wine, helping the disciples catch fish.)

Next Sunday, we know that we will celebrate Jesus’s resurrection. That is something, that despite His foreshadowing, the disciples could never have anticipated. In fact, at this point of the gospel story, the disciples cannot imagine that in 5 days He would be nailed to a Roman cross. We know the outcome, but they thought they were about to go to war. Yet, in the resurrection, we get a glimpse of the resurrection that awaits us all. Jesus freed people physically, but -

Jesus freed people in social ways too.

He freed people from bondage to destructive systems, calling people to live according to a different economy. He called tax collectors to stop cheating people; he called the wealthy to lives of generosity; he called workers to rest from their labor; he pronounced blessings upon the poor; and he overturned tables in the temple. In doing these things, He showed that He hated injustice and stood with the oppressed!

Jesus called people out of legalism, breaking religious rules by being willing to physically touch and talk to women who weren’t part of his immediate family; by healing on the Sabbath; and by touching the diseased, even lepers, who were considered untouchable and unclean.

Jesus called people out of their own systems of prejudice by recasting a hated ethnic group (Samaritans) as heroic in the parable of the good Samaritan and worthy of his personal attention, even a Samaritan woman that was an outcast among her own people. Jesus honored and elevated the position of women, and He socialized with outcasts and sinners to the dismay of the religious leaders of his day.

He was not only concerned with the physical and social freedom, Jesus freed people from spiritual destruction as well.

He cast out demons, pointed people toward His Father, called his followers to righteousness, and urged the people to repent of their sins.

In every way imaginable, Jesus sought to save people from sin, destruction, and brokenness.

The People’s Savior

The road that led through Jerusalem was the same road that lHe would travel later this week as He carried His cross. When He came into Jerusalem, He went to the center of worship - to the temple, symbolically bringing Himself as the sacrifice. His death on the cross would become the ultimate act of liberation from sin, the work continues in the resurrection as the liberation from death, and it will come to completion when Christ finally returns to make all things right.

The Savior was present in the people’s midst in Jerusalem—they just didn’t understand that the way to be freed wasn’t through power and control but through love and humility. They longed to claim the kingdom of the world, but Jesus longed to give them the kingdom of heaven.

I entitled this message Thy Kingdom Come, and yes, I know that those words do not appear here, but are rather part of the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples.

Jesus taught his disciples to pray that the kingdom of God would come on earth as it is in heaven—that the true liberation would not be in escaping this world and going to heaven, but that God’s kingdom would come here and now - that His kingdom would take hold here on earth - Lord, let thy kingdom come!

Hosanna

We often miss the kingdom of God in our midst today in much the same way the crowd did that day in Jerusalem. We sometimes find ourselves looking for a political hero, or we look for fulfillment in idols of our own making. You say, we don’t serve or worship idols, but we have made idols out of so many things in our lives today.

We get bogged down in despair when the problems of the world feel too big for us, so we stop looking for solutions. I am susceptible to that despair as well. When I watch the daily news, or in the early hours of the new day, I sometimes fail to remember that our liberator has already come.

Jesus longs for our true and whole liberation—physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. He longs to liberate us from our systems of sin and social oppression—racism, sexism, greed, our lust for power and control. He longs to liberate oppressors and oppressed from our systems of sin.

Jesus came to save us—to respond to the deepest cries of “Hosanna!” - Lord, Save us - we beg you! We must be open and surrender ourselves to that work by reflecting on the ways we’ve fallen short, repenting and turning toward Jesus and away from sin, allowing God, through the Holy Spirit, to have free reign to work in our lives, and joining the work and mission of God in the world to share the good news.

Conclusion

Hosanna—Lord, please save us! We cry out from the deepest and most broken places of our lives. When we stop and listen, we can hear that cry all around us as well. We can see the consequences of sin and brokenness in so many places, and feel the deep need for a Savior. We cry out, and others cry out, yet we know that while we cry God is already answering our cries. God already answered those cries when coming to earth to take on humanity. He has shown us another way - a better way to live. He came to heal, to restore, to say the hard words that needed to be said that would free us from oppression. We know that Jesus hears our “Hosanna” cries, is with us, and answers us.

The journey that day in Jerusalem was a parade to the cross, not a throne—yet the greatest kingdom of all was being declared. The kingdom of God is present here, and we are invited to participate in it now, but still we pray that that kingdom would come in its fullness. We pray that the Savior would come again to make all things right, and we trust that he will. We are still in Lent. We declare our humanity and our need for a Savior. Where do you need a Savior today? Where is Jesus seeking to free you? What systems is Jesus seeking to tear down? Where are you being called to join in the work of the kingdom of God? Whose cries for salvation are you being urged to listen to more deeply? May we surrender fully to the saving power of Jesus. May we confidently cry out, “Lord, please save us!” with the knowledge that our cries are already heard. May we stop trying to find our salvation in anything but Christ alone, that we may truly see the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

I have struggled with how to bring this service to a close this morning - perhaps you would like to come and pray together here at the altars. There is hope and healing, there is help and forgiveness and restoration at the feet of Jesus. I invite you to come as we prepare out hearts to pray together.

“Come, Holy Spirit, I need thee - Come, sweet Spirit, I pray. Come in Thy strength and Thy power - come, in Thine own gentle way.”