Palm Sunday 2008
This morning’s Gospel reading is the beginning of one of the most momentous weeks in Antiquity – in AD 29.
Indeed one of the most important weeks in history.
We know the story so well that it is hard to find something new to say.
So I would like to ask you a question this morning:
“Why do you think that in the space of one short week Jesus could go from being the most popular person on the planet to public enemy number 1.”
The key to the answer can, I believe be found with the ownership of the Donkey.
In a parallel passage in St Luke’s gospel, Luke records this:
33As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?"
PAUSE
I’ll explain that later.
1. Background
But let me start with the background to the political situation in Jerusalem at the beginning of the third Decade of the First Century AD
The Jews had been waiting a long time for a Messiah – someone who would free them from the oppression of a foreign ruler.
They looked back in history about 200 years to BC 167 the time when Judas Maccabees threw off the yoke of the Seleucid kings of Syria - and reclaimed Jewish independence.
For the Jews THAT was the type of Messiah they were expecting at the beginning of Holy Week.
However in Holy Week Jesus dispels their illusions.
Why did the crowd change in one short week from worshipping Jesus to baying for his blood?
I would like to suggest to you it is because Jesus brought unacceptable CHANGE to their thinking
He challenged their concept of the Messiah - and as with change – religious people didn’t like that
In fact if the crowds had been watching carefully they would have realised that - even on Palm Sunday itself -that something wasn’t quite right.
Why?
Because if Jesus was coming as an all conquering King, he would not have ridden into Jerusalem on a donkey
Instead had he come as a political Messiah, he would have ridden into Jerusalem on a white stallion – the symbol of power.
But he came to Jerusalem riding on a donkey – the symbol of servanthood.
You may recall earlier in my sermon, I said that the key to understanding why the crowds turned on Jesus lay in the ownership of the donkey.
Let me explain now why I think that
2. The donkey was planned
And I believe that Jesus had purposely planned riding a donkey into Jerusalem – that was no mere chance.
Why do I think that?
3.1 Jesus instructions
My evidence starts with Jesus’ instructions:
Let me read them to you. He tells his disciples
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. 31If anyone asks you, ’Why are you untying it?’ tell him, ’The Lord needs it.’
Clearly the disciples did not know the donkey’s owners – otherwise Jesus would have simply said “Go and get the donkey from whatever the owner’s name was.”
St Luke then records that when the disciples
did go and fetch the donkey, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?"
NOTE: Plural owners
This is important because if the donkey had at least two owners you can be sure the owners were poor.
The donkey didn’t belong to some rich landowner to whom the donkey wasn’t a prize possession and he wasn’t too worried if one of his donkeys when missing for a week.
So the donkey would have had to be a sizeable investment for each owner.
So WHY would the owners would have parted with such an investment to complete strangers - the disciples.
The only reasonable explanation is that the expression “The Lord needs it" was a pre-arranged codeword.
If this is so, Jesus has put a lot of meticulous planning into riding the donkey into Jerusalem
3.2 So what was Jesus saying by using a donkey
So if Jesus has planned the event, what is the point that He is making by riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.
Jesus was well versed in Scripture.
And he would have been well aware of Zechariah’s prophecy – given four centuries earlier that said one day the true King would come - not on a charger but on a donkey
The prophecy reads like this:
9 Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zech 9:9)
But the crowds couldn’t hear the statement Jesus was making when he came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey.
They were too caught up in their own preconceptions of the Messiah and what Messiah meant to them
They weren’t listening to the change in their thinking of Messiahship that Jesus was making
For the donkey reflected the servanthood of the Messiah encapsulated so well in Isaiah 53, where
When Jesus rode into Jerusalem, there was an air of expectation
The Crowds were simply waiting for Jesus to give the word and they would rise up and storm the Roman garrison
But he didn’t. Instead St Matt in the following passage to that of the gospel this morning records:
Jesus ….entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves “It is written” he said to them “My house will be a house of prayer but you have made it a den of robbers” (Lk 19:45, 46)
Instead of leading a revolt to throw out the Roman secular power, Jesus goes into the Temple to “clean up shop” there.
Why – because he came to CHANGE their expectation of what Messiah meant
He attacked the corruption in the Temple. God’s people need to be reformed first before those who have no allegiance to God.
He took the Jews - not the Romans to task.
And instead of listening to the change Jesus brought – they turned on him.
When what Jesus was saying finally sank in – the religious Jews rose up in fury
For it was when He went into the Temple that they began to realise how different Jesus’ mission was to their expectations
Conclusions
So what can we take from our Gospel reading this Palm Sunday
Jesus’ mission rocked the folk religion of the day.
Jesus came to change the mindset of those who called themselves God’s chosen people
But the way they reacted showed that they weren’t God’s people.
Let us – as God’s Church - be careful not to miss the Change that the Donkey of Christ heralded.
Jesus’ Kingship is not one of power and might but of servanthood - and we his disciples should reflect that way of living in our lives too
Let us pray:
Father, during this time of Lent and Passiontide, may you give us ears that are willing to listen to what you want to say to us.
May we keep the Cross of Christ before us – realising that we need to crucify our own carnal nature and take on the nature of Christ
May we be willing to embrace the changes you wish to bring to our lives
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.
