Bible Passage: Matthew 21:1-11
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: April 2, 2023

Bulletin April 2, 2023

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

It happens all the time.  There is excitement.  There is commotion.  Just yonder, something is going on.  A crowd gathers.  It seems all the commotion is over some person.  And the question buzzes through the crowd, “What’s going on?  Who’s over there?”

It is Palm Sunday.  There is excitement.  There is commotion.  Just yonder, something is going on.  A crowd gathers.  It seems all the commotion is over some person.  A question buzzes through the crowd, “What’s going on?  Who’s over there?”

Christian, that’s the all-important question today.  What is going on in Jerusalem that is so important?   What is all this commotion?  Who is this?  That is THE Palm Sunday question:  Who is this?  Our text will give us the answer.

The roads leading to Jerusalem were always busy the week leading up to the Passover.  Pilgrims were arriving from all over Israel.  The Passover was one of the festivals when the Lord required the men to be present in Jerusalem.  So busy roads would have been nothing new.  But this day was different.  A crowd was coming together just to the east of Jerusalem at Mt. Olive.  As the road descended into the city, it was lined with people who were running to cut palm branches to wave and lay on the road.  They were taking their coats off and laying them on the road.  Now the buzz reaches the city.  “He’s coming!”  A crowd begins to stream out of the city to meet the crowd approaching from Mt. Olive.  All of this commotion was surrounding a man coming to town on a little donkey following its mommy.  Who is this? (v. 10) some asked.

The last verse of our text gives one answer.  This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. (v. 11)  And they were correct.  In recognizing Jesus as a prophet, they were acknowledging that Jesus spoke the very Words of God.  And he spoke the words of God in a way they had never heard before.  When he spoke, he claimed authority.  When he spoke, he said, Amen, amen, I say to you… The prophetic “formula” of the Old Testament prophets was to begin by saying, “Ko amar Adonai!”  “Thus says the LORD!”  In contrast, Jesus says, “I say…”  This is divine authority!  The Pharisees once sent the Temple guards to arrest Jesus.  They came back without Jesus.  The Pharisees demanded, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”  They answered, No one ever spoke the way this man does! (John 7:46)

Just look at the way Jesus speaks in our text.  As the day began, he perfectly predicted every detail about what the two disciples would find.  The village.  The donkey. The colt.  The one who would question them.  The permission given to take the donkeys.  Everything!  His word was, and is, true and certain and reliable!  No one ever spoke the way this man does!

But there is more to the one arriving today.  Take a moment and picture in your mind Jesus sitting on that juvenile donkey as it walks behind its mother.  That picture was painted by the prophet Zechariah hundreds of years before.  Zechariah 9:9-10 is quoted:  Tell the daughter of Zion:  Look, your King comes to you, humble, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (v. 5)  Who is this?  God wants us to see a King today!

It’s not the picture of the King many were expecting.  There is information about this King in the word used to describe him, “humble.”  In some translations the word is translated as “meek.”  The word does not mean weak and helpless.  Quite the opposite.  The meaning of “meek” is “restraint of power.”  It is having power but choosing not to use it.

Jesus is a meek king.  Oh, to be sure, King Jesus has power and glory.  And the next time there’s a huge commotion because Jesus is coming, he will be riding on the clouds of heaven with his glory and might on full display.  But today, as he rides into Jerusalem, we see meekness.  What we see today is a reserved King.  A King using restraint.  A King sitting on a little donkey.  He needs to be a meek King this week, not the omnipotent, majestic King.  He is not coming to flex his muscle.  He is coming to die.

The people cry to their King, Hosanna.  It is a Hebrew word.  Literally it means, “Save us now!”  They want this King to save them.  And he will, but not the way many of them think.  They should take note, Jesus is riding INTO Jerusalem on a donkey, not out of Jerusalem on a warhorse.  The mission this King is on takes place there.  Not on a battlefield in Moab or Assyria or Philistia.  He is here to save, but not by military conquest. This King is on a PRIESTLY mission.

He is coming to save by offering a sacrifice.  He is not going to dress himself in priestly vestments and take a shift at the Temple and offer some bulls and goats with his own two hands.  He is coming to dress himself in the sin of the world and offer himself on the cross.   The cry of Palm Sunday, the cry of every sinner, “Save, now!” will be answered.  It will be answered at the altar called the cross.  Jesus will give his holy life to pay for the sins of every man, woman, and child who has ever lived, is living, or will ever live.

On the day of Jesus’ baptism, he was anointed by the Holy Spirit.  The titles “Christ” and “Messiah” mean that very thing:  Anointed One.  Like the prophets, priests, and kings of old, Jesus was the new and final and ultimate Prophet, Priest, and King!  That is who comes today!  It is the Christ, the Lord’s Anointed.  He has arrived.  It is Holy Week.  Our cry goes up.  “Save us now!”

Amen.