Celebrations. In the spring, there were two, the Passover, and then the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost, and then in the autumn, the Feast of Booth. Here, Jesus is coming to Jerusalem during the time of the Passover. We look to the reading God’s word. If you please join me in prayer. Oh, Lord, indeed, the grass withers and the flower fades, but your word will stand forever. As we come then to your everlasting word, Father, we would ask and pray that that you would continue to instruct it through it, that you would continue to change our hearts. Lord, that we would learn to love you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves, that we would glorify you who are the giver of every good and perfect gift. And this we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen. Beginning in verse one, Now when they drew near to Jerusalem to Bethpage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, ‘Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find a cult tied on which no one has ever sat.
Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this? ‘ Say, ‘The Lord has need of it and we’ll send it back here immediately. ‘ And they went away and found a cult tied at a door outside the street as they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, ‘What are you doing in tying the cult? ‘ And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. And they brought the cult to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he said on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the field. And those who went before and those who following were shouting ‘Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. ‘ ‘Blessed is the coming of the Kingdom of our Father David. ‘ ‘Hosanna in the High’ It lifts all boats. It’s simple enough. Somebody has good fortune around them, and it lifts or rises everyone up who is near them. We speak of that sometimes in terms of the economy, a booming economy benefits everyone. You see that in terms of a team winning a championship, and the whole morale of the city is lifted.
And no doubt the disciples thought this was their reality, too, as Jesus was entering into Jerusalem. They’re walking next to Jesus as his close associates, as his disciples, basking in the glow of this adulation and praise from the crowds. The adoration of Jesus, their leader, is casting some warm light upon themselves also. That idea is that I might not have been the MVP, but I’m riding next to him in the convertible. He’s right here. The praise of the crowd for being a part of the winning team is filling the heart. This is what’s taking place with the disciples, with all those who have been following Jesus. But as it is their routine, they miss the moment. They don’t understand what’s happening. Nothing is as it seems on this bright day in Jerusalem, and yet everything is as it’s supposed to be. The disciples continue to misunderstand along with everyone else, and they, too, are going to have expectations that are going to come dashing to the ground in a short while. These two pivotal questions Who is this Jesus and what did he come to do? Those are so important. But everyone missed them because they were unwilling to let Jesus be the one to answer them.
They wanted to tell Jesus how he should be and what he should do. But Jesus will not allow anyone to domesticate him, either himself or his mission, with their own wrong-headed expectations. Jesus sets his own terms. We are to conform to him and not him to us. It sounds simple, but how often does our own disappointment and anger rise up from our dashed expectations and demands from the Lord? He didn’t do what we wanted him to do. Sometimes, like a bunch of terrorists, we say to the Lord, Give me what I want and nobody gets hurt. But not so the Lord of glory. To follow him means he gets to set his own terms. And how easy it is for us to be frustrated with that or pushing him in a direction we think he ought to go. And we see this repeatedly with his disciples. They misunderstood. They didn’t quite get it, and at times, they tried to push Jesus where they thought he should go. Well, how did they misunderstand him? And we see that here in at least two ways. They misunderstand the who of the Messiah, and they misunderstand the what of the Messiah.
Looking first at the who. In verse one, they are on the east side of Jerusalem, across the Kidrin Valley on the Mount of Olive. And before them is the temple wall and the East gate. The population of Jerusalem, normally around 50,000. But during the Passover, it swelled to 100,000, 120,000. The surrounding valleys would be filled with people on a pilgrimage. And every day, people would be flooding into the city and into the temple in celebration and in worship. So Jesus is entering into the city at this time, and in this way, it’s all part of his well-orchestrated plan. He tells the disciples, Go into the village. That would probably be Beth page or Bethany. They’re really close. He said, In front of you, immediately as you enter, you’ll find a cult tied on which no one has ever set. Then tie it and bring it to me. If anyone says, What are you doing? ‘ Say, ‘The Lord has need of it, and you’ll return it promptly. ‘ And this is what happened. Everything happened according to what he said. And immediately it’s like, ‘Well, is this a miracle? ‘ Or did Jesus prepare all of this?
‘ Now, in our text, it’s not really clear. We like that miracle aspect, and it certainly could be the case. But consider that Jesus had a definite plan and a purpose for what he was doing. All the events that are taking place are choreographed by him to speak of who he was and what he came to do. He is in charge of this moment. None of this is happening by chance. Mark doesn’t mention it, but Matthew and John expressly tell us that this was to fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah, Zechariah 9, Rejoish greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold, your king is coming to you. Righteous And having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a cult, the full of a donkey. Who is this Jesus? He’s the humble king coming into his city, not on a giant horse, not on a war charger, but a lowly donkey. Now, it’s not a highlighted detail, but just something to consider because it’s expressly mentioned, it is an unbroken cult. No one had ridden on it. Donkeys and horses need to be broken in in order for people to ride on them.
Here, the cheering crowds, waving branches in front of the cult and shouting. There’s no crazy bolting, there’s no bucking. The one who has the power to calm the raging storm can calm an anxious animal. And so far then in Mark, we’ve seen how Jesus consistently He’s constantly tried to hide his identity, to suppress the knowledge of him. Don’t tell anyone. And now he comes openly to declare himself. There’s no hiding any longer. He openly comes to the city. He is the great prophet, the priest, and king. And all thought of him, of course, as a prophet. That was a label they gave him. The king part was a bit mixed. Some weren’t really sure. And even after the clearing of the temple, most misunderstood in the way that Jesus was to be a priest. But the expectations was that this glorious military ruler would come in some way, a king, maybe from the line of David, maybe a prophet, and maybe a new high priest or a mixture of all these. They weren’t really sure. And here before them is Jesus. John expressly tells us in the gospel of John 12, he said, His disciples did not understand these things at first.
But when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and what he had done. It comes after the fact for them. All of these ideas to sort out who is this Jesus. And no doubt they thought that Jesus was finally doing the right thing. Finally doing what they thought he should do to gain the recognition. I mean, you can be in a little backwater of Galilee for only so long, but you got to go to the capital. You got to go and make yourself known. Certainly, some of his family members told him to do that. Triumphant entry into the city to take it back, to set things right. But Jesus putting everything right looks very different than what they expected. And we see in verse seven, they brought the cult to Jesus, and they threw their cloaks on him. He sat on and they spread out their cloaks on the ground, and they spread these branches before him that they had cut. And they went before him and they followed him, shouting, ‘Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. ‘ Palms, of course, were a symbol of Israel’s nationalism.
It was on coins and other images. Palm branches were not a neutral thing. Strong nationalistic symbols like a flag. Romans were ruling them, and they hated it. They hated the captivity. They hated what was taking place in their land. And they wanted to be free. They wanted to rise again as an empire. And they think they see clearly who Jesus is. They think they understand the nature of his person. This Hosana, it’s Aramaic, which is a form of Hebrew. It’s a save us. It’s a greeting and it’s a blessing. They’re quoting from Psalm 118, where it says, Save us, we pray, O Lord. Save us, we pray. Give us success. Bless is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The Psalms is a part of the Hallel, which means praise in Hebrew. The Hallel is reciting Psalm 113 to 118 during the Passover. This was the songs that they would be singing as they were coming in and during the week. It was already on their lips. And Jesus coming in this way, a course, you’re like, hand and glove. These things match up. This has got to be it. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
And because of the high number of visitors from all over the Roman Empire, Matthew tells us a little extra. Some people are asking, who is this? And the crowd said, this is the Prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee. And there’s this expectation that something messianic is taking place, a religious and a political deliverance. And they go on to say in verse 10, blessed is the coming of the Kingdom of our Father David, Kingdom, Kingship, Hosanna in the highest. They were expecting something great from Jesus. Going to change everything about their prospects. But what they do not see, the Lord of glory, the creator of the universe, has come to die for his creatures. A prophet, a priest, a king, all of these, yes. But more, the word made flesh, the wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of peace. Jesus is all of these. Who is this person? He’s entering into the city of his death. He is voluntarily going to the cross for his people, for the very ones who are misunderstanding his purpose. He has set his face to go here. Everything has been orchestrated by him for this moment. None of it is an accident.
He would bear the sins of those who have the audacity to be angry at God for not coming through for them. In the way that they had anticipated. And he will see the turning of the crowd, the betrayal of Judas, the vacillation of Pilate, the mockery of King Herod. He will see the betrayal of Peter, the knocking and the abuse of the soldiers. And yet he is undeterred, for this is the person he is. He is good and he is glorious. A magnificent king, but his subjects aren’t so great. It’s one of those things where he’s got this great position over a bunch of malcontent. To be a president of a nation sounds great unless you find out it’s a third-world little country. This is King Jesus because his people are not that great. There’s a quote wrongly attributed to Winston Churchill. It goes something like this. A woman was looking at a man in a very disapproving way. She said, If you were my husband, I’d give you a dose of poison. The man looked at her and replied, If I were your husband, madam, I would drink it. We know what that looks like.
You don’t You don’t want to be associated. You’re embarrassed. It’s the parents driving the kid to school, and they won’t be dropped off a block before. I love you, dad. I’m good walking. There’s this sense of, I’m embarrassed by you. But Jesus is not. Jesus is our willing groom. He knows the bride in front of him. It’s not great, it’s not glorious. That’s us. This is the church. And he openly declares his love and his claim on her. This is right on the Ephesians when Paul is talking about what it looks like in marriage and the love of Christ for his bride, how he lays down his life for her, how he washes her with renewals through the word and will wipe away every spot and every blemish. And Paul goes on to say, This is a mystery that marriage is but a picture of. I’m talking about Jesus and his bride, the church. Church. You reflect that in a small way if you’re married. Jesus loves his bride. He knows what he’s getting, and he steps right into the middle because that’s who he is. And the other great misunderstanding was this misunderstanding of the what of Messiah, the who and the what.
We speak of that in theology as the person and the work. This is the work of Jesus. In verse 11, they entered Jerusalem and they went to the temple. And when he looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. Now, this is very anticlimate. You’re coming in, you got throngs of people cheering you in this great What’s happening here is what’s going on? And he just comes in and does a little loop and leaves. Wasn’t quite what we were thinking, but he goes. And the next day, Jesus comes in and he confronts everyone in the temple. He throws over the tables of the money changers. He won’t allow anyone to carry anything across the temple courthouse. And quoting from Isaiah 56, he says, My house shall be called a house of prayer for the nations, but you have made it a den of robbers. It’s interesting, Jesus is saying, My house, the temple, God’s temple. He’s saying, This is my house, and you’ve made it a den of robbers. Apparently, a couple of years before this, as Ciofus, who is the high priest, he had allowed animal stalls and money changers to be moved from what used to be on the Mount of Always, this is across the way, to the outer temple courts.
Now, if you were a traveler to Jerusalem, which There were thousands of them. You brought money and you had to come and get an animal for sacrifice, and you wanted it near the temple because there was an exchange that took place. This is super convenient. This is like sacrifice kiosk. It It’s just right there. It makes a lot of sense. There’s just one problem. The outer court was the court that the Gentiles and the women would worship on. So if you are a Jewish male, super convenient. If you’re not, like worshiping in the food court at the mall. Jesus is highly offended because His house is a house of prayer for the nations. Our great high priest cleanses the temple. The temple was a part of his great work because he will be the sacrifice for the sins of the world. And he is giving access to the world to come to him. And let’s go back just for a minute to this whole part about the unridden cult. He’s on a cult of a donkey, and it’s unridden. It’s specifying that. Well, in Numbers 19, in verse 2, for the purification offer, it speaks of a heffer that was to be sacrificed, but has specific instructions.
Tell the people of Israel to bring me this heffer without defect, in which there’s no blemish, in which a yoke has never come. And in Deuteronomy 21, speaking of another sacrifice, bringing them to this cow that has never been worked and has not been put to the yoke. And 1 Samuel 6 is also speaking of an offering, and they’re specifying an un worked animal for the sacrifice. What is that all about? You do not give to the Lord a has been offering. You don’t take an old cow that’s been worked to death and it’s found on its last legs and like, Oh, let’s just go sacrifice it to God. Good for nothing else. No, you brought your very best, the first fruits of your produce, the best of your flock, that which had been unworked, unblemished, the best, the perfect. And this is what Jesus is riding on as he’s coming in to the temple area. Because Jesus is coming in as the highest and best sacrifice to God. This symbolism is not lost on Jesus. He is orchestrating this. It’s going to be after the fact that people start putting these things together. Oh, yeah, there was this, and, oh, yeah, there were this.
As he says, the scriptures speak to me. All of the scriptures speak to me. Everything that he’s doing is not an accident of history. Consider the location for a moment. The Mount of Olive, specifically mentioned. Right across the way, there’s probably a bridge that connected the two. The prophet Ezequiel, Ezequiel 11, you might recall the incredible vision that Ezequiel has of the glory of the Lord in the temple area. It’s just an amazing sense of vision and all the things happening. But what you see is that the presence of God, his glory is lifted up from the temple and it departs east, out the east gate and settles on the mount next to, which the Mount of Alice. And from there, the glory of the Lord departed. D dramatic fashion. And then Ezequiel at the end of his prophecy, Chapter 43, the renewal of all things, the temple being built and the wonderful things happening and what we see there. But the glory of the Lord appears in the east and it comes just as it left, coming from the east into the east gate, back into the temple, the restoration of all things. This is Zechariah speaking of the coming of the end in chapter 14, saying, On that day, the Lord his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olive that lies to the east of Jerusalem.
This great cataclysmic event that’s surrounding God’s people focused on the Mount of Olive. Just think of all the misunderstood ironies that are taking place here. There’s so many opposites happening all at once. A triumph entry, and yet we hear in Matthew that Jesus has tears of mourning. A great king comes on a lowly donkey. The Messiah of Israel is unsupported by the Jewish priest. The Prince of Peace comes, and in anger, he tips over tables. The light of Jesus would soon give way to darkness. Crowds cheering turn into crowds demanding his death. The branches from a palm tree give way to the beam of a tree in punishment. Jesus purifying word can be seen in bringing greater access to the people to worship. And in fulfillment of all of this, the veil of the temple is torn from top to bottom. And now there is unhindered access to the Father that comes to his people through Jesus. Jesus, the King, the Jewish King, is making way for the Gentiles to come streaming in to the Kingdom. That A place of worship as the Father’s house has been included for them. They are now in. Those who are out have been brought in, and the ones who have been in are remaining on the out by their own choice.
Everything is turned around. And in Jesus, there is this single-minded perfection of who he is, of what he thinks, of what he says, and of what he does. He is the priest and the offering. He’s the who and the what. He has come to offer himself in our place. He’s the great King who comes to lay down his life for his people. He is the prophet who doesn’t just bring us the word of God. He is the word made flesh. We see at this time when Jesus comes in Matthew, he records the work that’s going on. He says, The blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. Notice who comes to Jesus. It is those who are defiled, those who are blind, those who are lame. They’re the ones who are responding to Jesus. Those who have nothing but their desperation and helplessness to offer him. They come. But the ones who are self-sufficient, who are confident of their own righteousness, they are the ones who turn on him, who refuse to let Jesus define who he is for them The irony, of course, is that this triumphant King is coming in and there is a dilapidated state of his people everywhere.
His kingdom is a mess, and they think they’re too good for Jesus. In his person, Jesus is the man of sorrows. In his work, he is the one who redeems. He bids his subject to follow him down his path, to take up their crosses, to follow. The palm trees of praise have to include the tree of crucifixion. That’s a part of coming after him because that’s what our savior looks like. Where we move aside from what we think is presentable and respectable. Where we Repent of our damnable good works. Because none of that is going to be currency in this kingdom. It has no value. There’s no value in it. It’s tainted and filled with sin and selfishness. We need a savior who in his purity and his goodness, will come and remove that from us. You cannot domesticate this Jesus. You cannot put him into the mole that you want. When you try to do that, people get angry, upset. Even if you think of the list of sins in our confession, there are people who get upset about calling some of those things sins because they want Jesus to look like a certain way and to pronounce certain things.
Condemn this, but don’t condemn that. And that changes depending on what group you’re in. Jesus won’t let you do that. He said, This is what I’ve come to condemn. I’ve come to condemn your rebellion, your selfishness, your sinfulness, and the ways that you have broken my Father’s word. But the good news is, is I will take upon myself the punishment that you deserve. I will break the back of sin and death so that you will have new life in me. And no one was expecting that until after he was raised from the dead. Then the lights start coming on for those who are following him, those who know him, those who understood their desperation. But the ones who continued to walk away were confident in their self-righteousness, so much so that they could look at the Lord of glory in his tremendous work and say, he’s in league with the devil. When you get to where you’re calling Jesus satanic, you’ve made a wrong turn. When you get to where you’re looking at Jesus and you’re saying, he’s just a good and kind teacher, you’ve made a wrong turn. When you get to the place where you are sure that Jesus is the one who’s going to lead us into a path of victory, where we’re going to be prominent in some national, cosmic, empirical way in this time and place, you’ve made a wrong turn.
Because this Jesus has called you to follow him in the path of suffering and death because it is there that you will find life. It turns everything upside down on its head. The triumphful entry is triumphful because of who Jesus is and what he came to do. The glory and the joy of being his disciples come when we throw away all of our expectations of what we think he should be doing for us. And we come with our own dependence saying, Jesus, just do with me what you will, because in you alone is life. We look forward to the coming of Easter, but we’re doing so from the other side of it. There’s no reenactment here. It’s just a celebration of what Jesus has done. And where we have misaligned purposes or crossways with him, we are called then to surrender that and allow the Lord Jesus to define who he is and what his mission is and where we come in behind him for that. And that is good and great and glorious news. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Pray with me. Father Almighty, we do thank you and praise you for your goodness, your mercy.
Father, thank you that you have brought your son to us in the fullness of time, according to that which you have set and ordained before the foundation of the world. Lord, we are so not in control of what you are doing. And Lord, we confess what we try to grasp and hold on to the strings. We confess that as sin. Father, where we have tried to redefine your savior. Father, forgive us. Open our eyes to see. Increase the awareness, Lord, of our helpless state. We bless you for removing us from a state of sin and misery. Through the righteousness of Christ, for in his name that we do pray. Amen.
Discaimer: This sermon text was generated by an automated transcription service.