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Sunday
Morning
service Readings: OT - Psalm 118 : 1 – 2, 19 – 29
1
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
2
Let Israel say:
19
Open for me the gates of the righteous;
22
The stone the builders rejected
25
LORD, save us!
26
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.
28
You are my God, and I will praise you;
29
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; Gospel –Mt 21: 1 – 11 Matthew 21 Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King 1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” 4 This took place to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet:
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“Say to Daughter Zion, 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna[b] to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”[c] “Hosanna[d] in the highest heaven!” 10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” 11 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
The Triumphal Entry and its aftermath is a tumultuous time and it contains so much to challenge us. It’s the grand entrance of the Messiah into the final dramatic days of his life on earth. It’s certainly no simple “Hallelujah! Here comes the Saviour!” Not if you have your wits about you, it isn’t. It’s approaching the Passover and the foot traffic in the city is increasing as it normally does at this time of year. There is tangible excitement in the air. As you squeeze past a group of Ethiopians, you hear increasing noise. There is a tumult in the street beyond and people are running to see what it’s all about. You approach curiously, fully expecting to come across a riot, after all, some pretty strange types come flooding into Jerusalem in the week before Passover. You round a corner and are immediately swept along by a heaving, sweating, dusty mob of excited people. A man yells, “The Messiah has revealed Himself!” “He’s approaching now!” cries a woman, and the crowd surges forward, carrying you along. A Pharisee shouts, “What is this!” A wealthy trader groans, “Oh Lord. Not another one.” A sweaty butcher asks, “What did you say? The Messiah! Here?” “Hosanna!!” shouts a man next to you. You can see palm branches waving and the noise increases. People are shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” Your heart races as into view comes a man riding on a young donkey, guarded by a group of bewildered looking Galileans. People are throwing their cloaks upon the ground, paving the way for the man and his mount. He’s a man such as you’ve never seen before. Regal yet accessible, loving yet stern, strangely gentle in his country clothing. His eyes are brimming with compassion. His jaw is set and he has a look of determination and authority about him. At that moment in time, what is your response? Do you react angrily like the Pharisee at the thought of another religious crack-pot who may nonetheless challenge your calculated spirituality? Do you respond in annoyance like the wealthy trader at the thought that a disturbance is unlikely to benefit commerce? Or do you respond joyfully like the sweaty butcher at the presence of the living Christ? Where are you in this procession? As Jesus passes by, what decision do you make? What kind of start have you made in the procession of life? We all know the dangers of procrastination. That’s why the scripture says, “Now is the day of salvation. Now is the appointed time.” (2 Corinthians 6: 2). It’s so important to make a start. Equally important is what you start on, what direction you set off in. We know too, having started, just how important it is never to give up. Success is often just a matter of keeping on keeping on. Now those somewhat confused disciples had not done too bad a job of that. Here they are, still with Jesus, just a week from his death. Picture yourself as one of the Twelve in this hurly burly. Jesus has insisted on heading towards Jerusalem to his death. He has strongly rebuked Peter for opposing the plan, and now, like Solomon in his inaugural ride into Jerusalem (1 Kings 1 : 33), he is riding a young donkey. Here he is, the Son of David, behaving like a king. Do you at that moment recall the words of Zechariah, (Zech 9 : 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.”? And if the dust and noise of the crowd are not enough, the people are waving palm branches. You know only too well what that means! 100 years before, the Jews had violently wrested a period of independence from Alexander the Great’s successors under Judas Maccabeus – the Hammerer – whose symbol had been the palm branch. He’d even printed it on his coins. The people are shouting, “Hosanna!” which means, “Please save!” or “Help!” You’re worried about the sudden change in Jesus’ behaviour, you’re worried about the religious authorities, and now you’re worried about the Roman overlords. They do not take lightly to opposition and Jesus seems to be taking them on too, appearing as a king! It’s at times like these in our lives when we face choices. When things get tough, do we stay with the Master or do we fade into the crowd? It’s so easy to simply remain under the radar. Are you going to stand up to be counted? How do you feel, having started in the right direction, about persevering in Christ? When circumstances are not what you’d like them to be, how do you respond? There are as many excuses as there are people in the crowd, but there is only 1 Master. How are you at persevering with what could soon be the unpopular? There’s a wonderful scripture in Hebrews 12 ; 1 b, “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” And in verse 3, “Consider him (that is Jesus) who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” And why was it so important, not only for the apostles, but for Jesus also, to persevere and to finish strongly? What was he doing by setting his face like a flint towards Jerusalem, and then uncharacteristically invading the temple, overturning the tables of the money changers and driving them and their animals out? What was this passion about? What was Jesus signalling here? You recall him saying in (John 2 : 19), “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in 3 days” And in verse 21 “But the temple he had spoken of was his body”. There is a very old understanding in the scriptures that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And that the Jewish temple, with its outer court surrounding and containing the Holy Place, which in turn contained the Holy of Holies – where God dwelt; was a type or a symbol of the human body which contained the soul and the spirit – wherein God dwells. In cleansing the temple Jesus was symbolically pointing to the work of the cross in cleansing us, in preparing us to house the presence of God Himself. We are to be “a house of prayer” – we are made for communion with God. And Jesus’ death on the cross would restore that communion between God and humankind. It’s all about the cross. The Good News, which we carry to the rest of humankind, is centred in the cross of Christ. Paul said, in (1 Corinthians 1 : 23 – 24) “Jews demand miraculous signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Isn’t it amazing – A certain person whom C. S. Lewis calls Smutty Face was busy trying to get Jesus killed and so was Jesus trying to get Jesus killed! How contrary to our ways are the ways of God! Jesus drank the whole cup – saw it through Good Friday to Easter day. He persevered to the end to win us eternal life. Paul says, in (1 Corinthians 15 : 19) “If for this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied.” The cross, towards which Jesus was inexorably proceeding, is our doorway to heaven. Our life is not focussed on the things of this world. It is hidden with Christ. Paul describes our victory through the cross in terms of “being seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus”. Not that we are so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly good. On the contrary, it is precisely because we have the mind of heaven that we are of any earthly good! Or have we lost our vision of eternal life? At the cross we’ll recapture the reality of eternal life - of just how fleeting this little time on earth is. Origen, an early church scholar, was prevented by his mother from joyfully offering himself up for martyrdom, only because she hid his clothes! The powerful reality of eternal life was alive in that young man! Paul says, in (1 Corinthians 1 : 21) “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain”. And so the challenge of the Triumphal Entry is the challenge of the cross. From palm branches to a cross. Spears into pruning hooks, Swords into ploughshares. We begin to glimpse something of God’s plan. Jesus enters Jerusalem with a determination that is rock-like, and He expects his disciples too, to endure with him. He pushes through to the end and is able to say on the cross, “It is finished”. I have run the race. The job is done. Do you have trouble comprehending how important the eternal is? Do you have trouble understanding why the cross (a cruel and unpalatable gallows) is so central to our lives as Christians? Well don’t worry. Think of the apostles. Once brave and faithful, but increasingly confused and soon to abandon the Lord and flee into the night. Don’t worry. Our king comes to us, righteous (strong and able), having salvation (with the solution for us) and gentle (reaching out to us, welcoming). He will help us to do the work of a disciple – to follow – if we stay in the procession! This is the cheerful thing about being a Christian. You don’t do it on your own. But you have to be willing. I’d like to conclude by reading a little piece called:
FINISHING STRONG In the words of the inimitable Bob Dylan, “Ya gotta keep on keepin’ on” Times can get tough. They certainly did for Jesus. Take encouragement from his words in Matthew 10: 22: 22 You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. Amen. |
