Amen, and please be seated. And if you have a Bible, let me invite you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 21, verses one through 11. Excuse me. This morning we return to the gospel of Matthew and we find that we are turning to a, well, it's turning a significant page in the story.
For here and from here in chapter 21, we come to the first day of what Christians sometimes call Holy Week and the rest of the book is about that. And here on the front end of the week, we come to what is often called Palm Sunday, the Sunday in which Jesus enters Jerusalem, where he will spend his final days preaching and teaching. And then ultimately, as we know, be betrayed and abandoned and killed, Palm Sunday is the day in which he enters Jerusalem and is announced King, hailed as King. And what we have here is sometimes called the triumphal entry, though as we'll see, it was something less than a triumph by worldly standards certainly.
Perhaps because we're a half a year away by our own calendar from thinking about Palm Sunday ordinarily in Good Friday and Easter, perhaps this passage might feel inappropriate for the season, but of course, A, it's the next passage in our study of Matthew. We don't tend to jump passages, but also perhaps just because it's a non-traditional time, perhaps we'll give greater attention to the details and not presume we know them all. What sort of King is this Jesus? Who is hailed King?
And what view of him do you yourself have? We invite you to consider these things for Matthew chapter 21, verses one through 11. This is the word of God. Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethpage in the Mount of Olives, Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, "'Go into the village in front of you, "'and immediately you will find a donkey tied "'and a cult with her, untie them and bring them to me.
"'If anyone says anything to you, "'you shall say the Lord needs them, "'and he will send them at once.'" This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, "'Say to the daughter of Zion, "'Behold, your King is coming to you, humble, "'and mounted on a donkey, on a cult, "'the full of a beast of burden.'" The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the cult and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowds spread their cloaks on the road and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road, and the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, "'Hosanna to the son of David, "'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, "'Hosanna in the highest.'" And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up saying, "'Who is this?'" And the crowd said, "'This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.'" Amen. This is God's word.
When he write in our hearts, let's pray, Father in heaven, we would see Jesus. Give us eyes to see. Give us ears to hear. Grant us hearts to believe by the work of the Spirit through this word, in Jesus name I pray, amen.
What sort of king is this Jesus? I want you to see three things. In verses one to seven, we see, he's the sovereign king in control of all creation. And then we see as well in verses four and five, that he's the humble king who comes in peace.
And at the end of verses eight to 11, we see he's the celebrated king whom the people misunderstand. Let's think about these three things first. He's the sovereign king in control of all creation. Now, why would I say that?
Well, notice verses one to three again. They drew near Jerusalem and to Beth Vaych to the Mount of Allums, and Jesus set two disciples saying to them, "'Go into the village in front of you, "'and immediately you'll find a donkey tied "'with her and untie them and bring them to me. "'And if anyone says anything to you, "'you shall say the Lord needs them, "'and he will send them at once.'" What's going on? Well, Jesus is orchestrating his own entrance into Jerusalem and on his own terms.
He has perfect knowledge over the location of these animals. He sends two disciples to retrieve them, knowing they're in the village up ahead, knowing they're tied there, a donkey and a cult with her. Some, of course, speculate that Jesus had planned this ahead, and that's how he knew. Others suggest that Jesus is here, actually demonstrating his perfect knowledge in accordance with his deity as the eternal Son of God.
How does he know? He either planned it ahead in his life, or he, we might say, as God himself had planned it from eternity past. But in any case, I don't think we actually have to choose between those. He decides when he will go to Jerusalem and how he will arrive when he does.
And that, of course, is important because Jesus had set his face toward Jerusalem, knowing that when he got there, what would happen? Knowing that when he got to Jerusalem, it would actually not go well for him. Three times he had explicitly, even in the Gospel of Matthew, told his disciples, for instance, Matthew 2017, that he was going to Jerusalem, and he will be delivered over to the chief priests, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him over to the Gentiles, to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and be raised on the third day. And yet he freely chooses to go, and he plans for how he'll get there, and notice his control not over only the circumstances of his arrival in Jerusalem, but his control over people.
He tells his disciples on their mission, verse three, if anyone says anything to you, you shall see the Lord needs them, and what will happen? He will send them at once. How does he know that he will send these animals? How does he know the owner is going to give them up so readily?
And yet he does know this, and he tells them this is what will happen. And in fact, in the other Gospel accounts, this happened just as Jesus anticipated and foretold, in Mark 11, some of those standing there, I think it's Luke or John, says the owners were among them who said, what are you doing? I'm tying the cult, and they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. He knows what people will say.
He tells his disciples what to say, and they say it. And the owners of the donkey do just what Jesus says they will do, because Jesus is in charge of all things, including not just people, but beasts. Oh no, I've never thought of it, but stumbled across somebody who pointed this out. You ever thought about this animal that Jesus rides?
Oh, it's a donkey, but it's the cult of a donkey, which is less than four years old, and ordinarily a donkey isn't ridden until it's four years old, and Mark 11 actually tells us no one had ever yet sat on this animal, let alone ridden it. And so what you have is an unbroken cult or donkey, and it is what? It is likely, as these animals do, horses include it, it's likely to buck when somebody throws a cloak over it and tries to harness it, and when somebody gets on it to ride it, just as horses need to be trained to accept the bitten bridle and rider, so do donkeys. And then there are, well, these people cutting branches and waving them around as they throw them right in front of the animal who's never had a rider before.
And now you've got this, well, from an animal's perspective might be a bit of an unstable and unsure pathway. Sure, the palm branches are big, there's sticks attached to them, and cloaks being laid down, all this was in service of this symbolic and ceremonial, well, crowd, celebrating the king, of course, but just imagine you're the cult for a moment, and yet it knows the hand of its maker and master, and he gets on and he rides it into town. And all of this shows, of course, that Jesus has his own agenda, and providence, and circumstance, and donkey owners and unbroken cults will all serve his agenda. They all do his bidding, and isn't that amazing?
And especially when you consider that while the week starts out celebratory on Palm Sunday, it's gonna take a turn for the worse, as we said. He'll be betrayed by Judas this week. He'll be abandoned by his disciples. He'll be denied to his face by Peter, all of which he foretold.
He'll be arrested and tried and condemned and mocked and spat upon and nailed across and killed just as he foretold. He, in fact, even has his enemies serve his own agenda and purposes. I mean, how much power do you have to have to make, says, reco-tise, your enemies do your bidding while they're acting against you? But that's precisely what happens.
His enemies act against him to put him on the cross, which is exactly his own agenda. He's absolutely sovereign and in control. He is not, says David Jackman. He is not a helpless victim swept away by an irresistible tide of human opposition.
He is always the sovereign Lord, working everything out according to his father's will, the master of every circumstance. He's controlling and orchestrating it all so that when it comes to his own being crucified, we understand that nobody took his life from him, he willingly gave it up. And if Jesus did that for himself, that he might die for our sins upon the cross, well, then what does that do for us? Does he not have mastery as well over our lives and our destinies and our circumstances and our enemies?
Does he not have authority over them all to make them serve his agenda, which includes our eternal well-being? We're all who trust in him as Savior and Lord. Yes, he does have that authority. How else can the Apostle Paul in Romans 8 ask and answer, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword know in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us? If he was in control when his enemies sought his destruction and he used his power to see that they actually did his bidding, that he's in no less controlled today of the circumstances of his kingdom, of the well-being of his church and of the care of his people. He's the sovereign king in control of everything. But notice secondly, he's the humble king who comes in peace.
Matthew explains it to us in verses four and five, well, this took place says Matthew to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet saying, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you. Humble and mounted on a donkey and a colt, the full of a beast of burden. The first line, say to the daughter of Zion, is a quote from Isaiah 62. That was written 700 years before the coming of Jesus.
And the rest of the quote is from Zechariah written about 500 years before his coming. And let me just remind you that fulfilled prophecy is a supernatural confirmation of the reliability of the scriptures. God doesn't simply show up on earth incarnate and expect everyone to believe in Jesus without other witnesses, without prior witnesses, without telling us ahead of time exactly what he's gonna do. So that when he does it, we'll trust him and we'll trust this word about him.
God gave the world, in fact, many witnesses over thousands of years in the 39 books of the Old Testament, which promised the Messiah, prophesy who he will be and what he will do. And Jesus came to his Matthew in fulfillment of those prophecies, many hundreds of them, including the ones quoted here in Isaiah, especially Zechariah. Matthew points that out explicitly, because he knew his audience. He was writing and he knew that many Jews would be interested in the story of Jesus, but many would be skeptical that he was the true Messiah.
He was so contrary to what they imagined the Messiah would be. And what he's doing is he's trying to persuade them that they have every good reason to believe the events of the life of Jesus as he recorded them. God in the scripture foretold them. So he quotes Isaiah, quotes Isaiah 62 verse 11 in verse five, say to the daughter of Zion.
And then he actually jumps away from Isaiah to Zechariah. And that's interesting. The quote as he quotes it ends there. Matthew is saying though that Jesus fulfills Isaiah.
And Matthew is saying, now I'm talking to you skeptics, you daughters of Zion, to show that, well, Jesus is exactly who your prophets prophesied. And just to be brief or briefly noted, Isaiah, though in quoting just one line from Isaiah 62, he has in mind, of course, the broader context of that passage, which in verses 10 to 11, actually says this, go through, go through the gates. Well, Jesus is about to do that on a donkey through the gates of Jerusalem. And prepare the way for the people, build up the highway, clear the stones, lift up a signal over the peoples, behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth, say to the daughter of Zion, and then that's the phrase, say what though?
Well, that's what Matthew doesn't tell us from Isaiah, even as Jesus prepares to ride through those gates. What is the Lord proclaiming to the end of the earth, Isaiah 62, 10? What is to be told to the daughter of Zion? What is to be said to the people of Jerusalem?
Isaiah 62, 11, say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your salvation comes. And that is who Jesus is. He is their salvation. Now the way that Matthew gets to that saved idea is to skip then to Zechariah 9 about this saving king who comes to make a further point, of course.
And he quotes Zechariah 9, which says, rejoice 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. What kind of king is coming to you? A humble king. How will he come?
Mounted on a cult, the full of a donkey. Not on a horse arrayed in armor and bearing a swordsman. Not a war horse coming to conquer at the point of a spear, but on a beast of burden, a working animal, and less than that, a cult, a young fool, never been ridden, never been tested, never been to war. It's not a war horse.
It's not a royal steed. It's not a king's chariot. It's a donkey. Why does that matter?
What's going on here? Well, because a man's transportation reveals a lot about the kind of man he is. You know, the man drives a minivan with car seats in McDonald's. French fries scattered all around the back with broken toys and dolls.
He kind of figured out he's a family man. If a young man drives a 20 year old car with rust holes in the size of a fist, you might think he's probably a student of some kind. He's paying people. He's not being paid.
And if he drives, I don't know, as a 45 year old with little flecks of grain as hair, he pops out of a little red sports car. You might imagine, I think maybe a little mid-life crisis is going on here. The transportation reveals the man. Jesus rides a donkey.
What does that say about him? His king. It says he comes humble. He comes peaceable, unthreatening.
His kingship doesn't look like much here. Where's his army? This is a crowd of people in front of him behind him, shouting stuff and taking off their coats and throwing them on the ground. Where is chariots?
It's all very small, all very humble. And yet, of course, we know his kingdom takes over the world. Well, don't despise the small beginnings. You know about the Chinese bamboo tree?
You just learned this after planting the seed. For years, it appears as if nothing is happening. The tree shows no visible signs of growth for the first four to five years. However, what's really happening is it is slowly developing an extensive root system underground.
And then in the fifth year, it suddenly shoots up over 90 feet in the span of six weeks. Out of humble beginnings, it bursts into the world. And holy week is like that. It seems small, barely significant.
In fact, the later you go in the week, the more it looks like an utter failure, the king has come. And then at the end of the week, he's mocked as the king of the Jews as they crucified him. But on Sunday, he'll burst forth, alive, forevermore to rule and reign forever. And one day, he will come back.
And then he will not be riding humbly on a donkey. Oh, no, the Apostle John in Revelation 19 saw a vision. He says, I saw heaven standing open and behold, a white horse whose rider is called faithful and true. And with justice, he judges and makes war.
Thighs are like a flame of fire. On his head are many crowns. And he has a name written on him which is called, no one knows but he himself. And he's clothed in a robe dipped in blood.
And the name by which he has called the word of God and the armies of heaven arrayed. In fine linen, white and pure. We're following him on white horses. And from his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.
He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God almighty. And on his robe and on his thigh he has this name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. And he will ride in victorious over all his enemies on a horse but on Palm Sunday.
He's on a donkey. And that's because this is his first coming in Matthew 21, not his second coming. And he came not to triumph over his enemies by killing them, but to triumph over all the forces of darkness by being by them. To win his great victory not by carrying out the wrath of God against sinners, but by bearing in himself the wrath of God due to sinners.
He came not to destroy his enemies, but to redeem them. One day he will return riding on a horse and put everything right. But here he's on a donkey. It's so humble.
It's almost as if he announces, yes, I'm the king. And here I am. Come get me. Come get me.
I'm just on a little donkey. You go to war riding on a donkey, you're asking to be killed. Says another. And he said that he had to go to Jerusalem.
He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and be killed. It is, he said, necessary that I go to Jerusalem to be killed. And he's predicting what's going to happen. And he's taking deliberate actions to see that his words are fulfilled.
He didn't do this in a corner of a park on some, you know, the end of a dead end alley. Oh, no, he did this publicly, spectacularly, that people would see and call him the king so that the Romans and the Jewish leadership would all be provoked by him so that he could bring it all to a head, even his death, and then his resurrection. So don't you see how his first arrival puts on display? Well, not only his power and authority by which he controls everything and all of creation, but it puts on display his kindness, his gentleness, his meekness, his graciousness, his mercy, his humility, his love, that love which would take him right to the cross for our salvation.
He's the sovereign king, he's the humble king. And notice, finally, he's the celebrated king whom the people misunderstand. Again, verse eight, most of the crowds spread their cloaks on the road and others cut branches from the trees spread them on the road and the crowds that went before him and followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.
They're giving him what they can to give him a royal treatment, right? Put the cloaks on the donkey, Jesus sits on it. They cut palm branches, they lay them in the road. We know that that had been done before when Simon Maccabees had liberated Jerusalem in the year 165.
They're probably picking up on that history and revisiting it now that this leader, who they expect will liberate them, has come. They shout Hosanna to the son of David. They're quoting from Psalm 118, which would have been a psalm in their hearts and on their minds. It's one of those psalms from 113 to 118 that the people of God sang at the great festivals and this is the cusp of Passover.
So it's on their mind, it's in their heart and they credit it to him, but 118 celebrates the victory of him who comes in the name of the Lord. And they shout Hosanna, meaning God save or God save us or God save the king, something of that nature to celebrate their hope that God will deliver them from their Roman oppressors and occupiers. It's quite a spectacle. So much so in verse 10 when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up.
Who is he? And the crowd said, this is the prophet, Jesus. There's much wrong here with the crowd's praise. First, when they think of him as son of David, they're thinking of him as a king, no doubt, and a king like David as promised in the scripture, so far so good, but they understand the Messiah, King is going to come and fight and destroy the enemies of Israel.
They hope for a warrior who will liberate them and they believe that he's the Messiah and they've seen some of his miracles and they expect this Messiah miracle worker to work his miracle and destroy the Romans and establish Israel as the great, grand, glorious nation state of all. And so the rule is the Messiah on the throne in Jerusalem. But as Christopher Wright notes, if Jesus had allowed himself to be the kind of king the crowds wanted, he would never have been the savior they actually needed. Now Jesus hadn't come to conquer Rome, he'd come to conquer sin and death, to be victorious over the devil and the grave, to satisfy divine justice and redeem his people safely to himself.
There's a second thing wrong here, and it's a problem with how they identify him. When the city is all stirred up, they say, this is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee. It's not so much wrong though, as it is inadequate. When Jesus is a prophet, he does speak for God.
He's more than a prophet, of course, though. He's in a class by himself as Hebrews chapter one tells us that long ago and many times in various ways, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us in his son who is the heir of all things, through whom he created the world. He's the radiance of the glory of God and the exact representation of his nature and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
But these folks think of Jesus as merely a great prophet. They don't yet see that he's the Lord God almighty in human flesh. They don't understand who he is and what he came to do. They see him as the son of David, but not as the son of God.
And so they celebrate him, but they really do misunderstand him. And a few short days later, undoubtedly, many of these same folks in this crowd will join in the crowd's cry, crucify him. And so I'll close with this. What about you?
What about you? This is a reaction to King Jesus. And some of us in this room, we have begun to be thankful that this King was crucified instead of us. That is we've begun to be grateful, because we know what our sins deserve.
Oh Lord rule over me more and more. Subdue me thoroughly to yourself. You're so good at loving. But you might not be so sure about Jesus.
You perhaps aren't sure he's the king or haven't embraced him as your king. You might agree he says some really good things like, well you know, Jesus famously said, love your enemies. Jesus said, love your neighbor as you love yourself. I mean, he's pretty widely recognized to have been a good moral teacher.
Maybe you're even willing to say, well, he's like the prophets who spoke from God. God's good things, but he's really not more than that. But do you see if that's your view that, well that puts you with the crowd who celebrated him on Palm Sunday and called for his crucifixion on Good Friday. C.S.
Lewis said it well back in 1942. I am here trying to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him. What's that? Well, I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God.
That's the one thing we must not say, C.S. Lewis. A man, speaking of Jesus, who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher, he would either be a lunatic on the level of the man who says he's a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice.
Either this man was and is the son of God, or else he's a man man, or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool. You can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet. Call him Lord, God.
Let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. No, he is the king.
The king of kings. He's the sovereign king in control of everything. The humble king who comes to us even this day, which is a day of salvation. He comes to us in peace.
He who laid down his life. And he's the celebrated king certainly, whom the people misunderstand. What about you? Do you see him for who he truly is?
Let's pray. Father, we glory in this king. He turns everything upside down about what we know a king is and does. He's humble.
He's gentle. He came to make peace between us and you. And he did. And we thank you for that.
We pray that you would grant each one here to know him as their Savior and their Lord. In his name I pray, amen. Amen. Let's stand together and sing.