Sermon for CATM – April 10, 2022 – The Triumphal Entry: A Perplexing Day – Matthew 21:1-10
On Palm Sunday we remember a truly perplexing day. As part of our worship today we’ve sung songs of celebration, some of which perhaps have some of the spirit and energy of what we imagine the triumphal entry to have been like.
And there was energy in the crowd as Jesus entered Jerusalem, a lot of that energy was present in the people because Jesus was a fascinating, though controversial, figure.
His teachings at this point were becoming quite well known. The upside-down values of the Kingdom (the meek shall inherit the earth, love your enemies, the blessedness of the poor for starters); the values of the Kingdom are the radical values of Jesus, and the authority he spoke with and the following that gathered behind Him generated all kinds of energy, not to mention a lot of raised eyebrows.
It was Passover time, & Jews from all over the world were crowding into Jerusalem. Some historians have suggested that there were as many as 2 1/2 million people gathering in Jerusalem for this most important festival, where the faithful from far and wide gathered to celebrate this Passover, this deliverance from slavery in Eygpt.
News had gone out that Jesus was on His way, just passing by the towns of Bethphage & Bethany. So a crowd of people rushed out to meet Him.
There were actually 2 crowds. One crowd was accompanying Jesus as He came from Bethany, & the other was surging out from Jerusalem to meet Him.
The crowds must have flowed together in a surging mass like 2 tides of the sea. Jesus was coming, & as the crowds met Him they received Him like a conquering hero. Perplexing because although that is who Jesus was to be, but of course not at all like anyone imagine. His victory would be over sin, not Rome. His triumph would be over death, not over any political agenda.
The sight of this massive welcome really bothered the religious authorities. They had spent a lot of time talking to Jesus and arguing with him, in an effort to silence him, but it seemed that nothing they did would stop the people from following Jesus.
But who was there, in the crowd, and how did they see Jesus? That’s the thing about a crowd. It’s not just a crowd. It’s made up of individuals with their own interests and their own reasons for being there. Some in the crowds were simply curious sightseers, impartial observers.
They had heard recently of the extraordinary event of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. And they wanted to see something else sensational, too. They were pumped for a miracle.
And there were those who had heard of Jesus’ miracles but never actually encountered Jesus. Let’s pick a name to represent this type of person in the crowd. Let’s call her Junia. Junia knew Jesus by rumour.
She knew Him by reputation. She had showed up a couple of times a few hours after Jesus had done a miracle…perhaps the healing of the blind man, someone she knew to be blind for their whole lives.
There was still a buzz in the streets. People were talking about Jesus and about how wonderful and strange it was to see.
If Junia had asked what had happened, those there might have said, as Mark records in chapter 8: “…Some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?" 24 He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around." 25 Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26Jesus sent him home, saying, "Don't go into the village."
If you were Junia what would you have thought after hearing this testimony? [been amazed, maybe skeptical. She would have wanted to talk to the one who was healed]
So Junia, standing among the crowd welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem, would have been eager to see Him, eager to know more. Perhaps wondering what made Him tick.
Who else was in the crowd? Well, there would have been workers: people who worked the market, labourers, street-cleaners. They would have been there by happy coincidence.
Into a perhaps typical, dreary day there rode an unknown man on a donkey who a whole lot of people were gathered around. Some of these workers would have just gotten caught up in the celebration, party-ers without a clue. Others might have looked down at the cloaks and palms on the ground and groaned at the extra work that was in store for them.
Also in the crowd would have been the zealots, those who, like Judas, were really hoping Jesus would lead a violent revolution to overthrow the Roman oppressor. These were folks who were impressed by his miracles that seemed to display divine power.
It’s pretty clear that they didn’t listen closely to what Jesus said, things like: “Love your enemies, do good to those who curse you”. Rather they had remade Him in their imaginations into what they wanted Him to be.
Like Judas, all of those zealots would be disappointed when Jesus would not conform to their ideas, would not trade for a kingdom won by violence a Kingdom won by love.
I imagine that in the crowd, among the zealots, were those who had listened more closely to the teachings of Jesus and had perhaps already given up hope of a violent revolution led by Jesus. These were nevertheless perplexed by the kingly way Jesus rode into Jerusalem.
Show Scripture without comment: "Say to the Daughter of Zion, 'See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.' " Matthew 21:5
You see a practice in ancient times was for a wise conquering King to ride among his entourage into a captured city. By HOW he entered the city he would indicate the type of ruler he would be.
If he came in on a chariot, a tool of war, or held up high riding on the shoulders of servants in a sedan chair, what might he be communicating in terms of how he would rule them? Well, it would suggest a cruel overlord, possibly one who was going to enslave the city. But what does sitting upon a donkey, an animal familiar to the people, communicate?
This would suggest that the people needn’t fear the new king. A king rode upon a horse when he was bent on war, but he rode a donkey when he came in peace. So again for the zealot, the way Jesus rode into Jerusalem further dashed, or perhaps confused, their hopes for revolution.
And of course there were many disciples, both the ones, male and female, we know that traveled with Jesus and were closest, perhaps to Him, but also the many, female and male, who had chosen to follow Him, some He had healed, some who had been converted to Jesus through His teaching.
Among them would have been many women, like I said, such as perhaps Mary Magdalene, Mary and Martha and others named elsewhere in the gospels and in the New Testament letters addressing the early churches.
And there were, of course, the Pharisees and Scribes and priests who found themselves frequently in opposition to Jesus.
These leaders were held in high esteem among the people, but Jesus did not give them the respect they felt they were due. Often those in authority expect that because of their position, they should be respected. That may be how things used to be generally.
Of course nowadays respect has little to do with a person’s official position and much more to do with a person’s character and reputation, which is, in my mind, a much better approach. Although that means then that the person has to have character and a good reputation.
Jesus wasn’t interested in the slightest in pomp and ceremony, which is interesting because the fact that He is God is not unknown to Him. He just saw pomp and ceremony for what it was, and it wasn’t much.
He had no patience for people who led or misled people. At one point, to illustrate, Jesus had said in Matthew 23:15:"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are”.
There were, of course, Pharisees like Nicodemus who were very open to Jesus, and we can assume I think from that that there were others among the religious leaders who were either skeptics or who did follow Jesus, but in a way that was concealed until they found courage to take their stand for Jesus.
Needless to say, the teachers of the law and most of the Pharisees were not, for the most part, among those who were celebrating the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. This day was, for them, very, very tense.
Would this Jesus who had publicly dressed them down, had publicly rebuked them, would this Jesus, who they knew for a fact was a miracle worker and who held sway over the common people, would this Jesus do something in Jerusalem at this holy time of Passover that would finally threaten their place and their power and their position? Some massive miracle?
All the miracles Jesus had done up to now were enough of a problem because there were so many witnesses and the miracles Jesus had done were in fact impossible, yet He did them.
These miracles healing the blind, the lame, feeding massive crowds with next to nothing, raising the dead, they were enough of a threat to the power and authority of the religious leaders.
Would He now do something so magnificent that their resistance to Jesus and their rejection of Him would display their hypocrisy for all to see? Was there a coming change, a revolution perhaps that would be attached to Jesus? That was the big question.
Finally, and most importantly, Jesus was there, in the flesh. He had planned this. The Bible says, in the prophetic book of Revelation that before the world began, God planned to send His Son into the world to be slain, to die for the sins of the world. “...the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world”. Revelations 13:8
We’re also told that the salvation that is so precious to us, that was won for us by Christ, was intended since before the earth was created. Eph 1: 4 says: “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves”.
So, riding into Jerusalem, Jesus knew what He was doing. He knew all along. He knew that those He had taught on the Mount of Olives were the ones He came to die for. He knew that those who opposed Him were the ones He came to give His life for.
And He knew His disciples well. He knew that after spending 3 years with Him, after they had witnessed miracle after miracle and had heard Him teach again and again about the Kingdom…He knew that they would all, except the women and John, abandon Him in His hour of need. (Pause)
He knew that Peter who had confessed the truth of Jesus’ identity as the Messiah…He knew that Peter would deny Him.
He knew that Judas, who Jesus hand-picked as a disciple, would ultimately betray Him. Jesus, referring to Himself as the Son of Man, said in Matthew 26: 24The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."
Jesus knew. Jesus knew the world-altering impact of His suffering and death and resurrection. He did not take what was ahead of Him in Jerusalem lightly. We’re told that as events further unfolded
He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, He sweat, as it were, drops of blood as He prayed: Luke 22:42 "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."
Jesus knew. Jesus knew…you. And His motive for going to Jerusalem where He would be unjustly tried, falsely accused and then finally murdered, crucified…was to win…your life. To win your heart.
As a young 17 year old, new to anything to do with things of the Spirit, I heard this gospel. I heard that this Jesus willingly laid down His life for me. I heard that His motive was to bridge the huge gap, this gap that I was aware of and felt as this massive hole in my life, this terrifying emptiness and purposelessness in my life, this chasm between God and me. I heard that Jesus did this because He loves me.
And I was moved. My heart was tilted toward the gospel when I learned that Jesus loves me, and He loves me enough to die for me. My heart was won by the gospel. And I have never looked back, nor have I had reason to in 42+ years.
When one human responds to this gospel by saying “yes” to Jesus, something happens in heaven. The Bible says that there is joy in heaven over one who repents, over one person who turns to God.
Luke 15:7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
Jesus was motivated to enter the city where His crucifixion awaiting Him. What was His motive? It’s very simple. Love. The purest love, the greatest love imaginable. And by the knowledge that when He completed the ultimate task He came to fulfill in love, humanity would have a way home to God. You would have a way. You have a way. And Jesus is that Way.
This was and is the coming change, the revolution that would be attached to Jesus. The pharisees and teachers of the law did lose their grip on those among the nation of Israel that chose to follow Jesus. In fairly short order the gospel of Jesus spread through the disciples who became Apostles. It spread through small little house churches, through open preaching in public squares. It spread through
John 4:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus risked everything going into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday. As we began today’s message you may recall that I said that today marks a most perplexing day.
It is perplexing in hindsight because of course much of this same crowd welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem with cries of “Hosanna!”, which means “Save!”, would soon turn on him and instead would be shouting “Crucify Him.”
The fickleness of the human heart is perplexing. How and why do we flip back and forth, on and off, hot and cold, impassioned and then bored, welcoming to the King of kings, and then, caught up in a crowd’s frenzied mania, calling for the end of the Master - the release of the guilty, Barabas, and the condemnation of the innocent, Jesus.
Nevertheless, Jesus risked everything and willingly went through the crucifixion and all of its humiliation for a reason. It was perhaps in part to break through all that very human double-mindedness that leaves us quite unstable in our ways.
It was in larger part in response to the human cry: “Hosanna!”, a people's cry for deliverance and for help in the day of their trouble; it is an oppressed people's cry to their Saviour and their king.
Hebrews 12: 2 says: Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. That joy was the joy in heaven that He shares over one who turns to God.
Jesus risked everything. What might you… risk for him? What are you being called to in this season of your life? In what ways are you being called to find courage to obey God, to do His will…even when it’s truly difficult? Or maybe when it’s kind of easy, but seems to require of you a courage that you’ve not yet imagined in yourself.
May we each embrace Jesus with renewed passion and love, and as we enter this holy week and prepare for Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, may we listen carefully, with ears finely attuned to the Spirit of God.
May our hearts be full of appreciation and gratitude for all that God has done for us, has won for us in Jesus. In His name, may we live as the redeemed of God who live with the courage to love and obey our risen King. Amen.
