Triumphal Entry

May 18 is the vote on our next federal government. And some of us love taking part in that civic duty of voting. And some of us love the fact that we get a sausage sizzle in the queue waiting to vote. That's about the only thing we love about the voting process. Either way, we'll be voting for our next prime minister, someone who will be our nation's next leader.

And as voters, we have perhaps all sorts of deliberations over the coming weeks about what type of leaders we will want to be voted in, who will want to be leading us. We might ask things like, will they be fair? Will they be responsible? Will they govern wisely? We'll ask, will they align with our, my personal values?

Now this morning, we also find ourselves one week away from Easter. From the city of Jerusalem, a week out from His crucifixion. Today, we as Christians reflect especially on Jesus as the king entering into His capital city, Jerusalem. Now we'll look when we get to this morning, when we get to Luke 19 where we'll be focusing our reflection on, we'll look at all the signs and the events of this entry, and it points to this idea of kingship. Even though it is a strange entry, even though there are aspects to it that just don't really line up with our understanding of what a king should do and look like, we see something in this event that is muted.

Something that is a bit upside down, a bit skewed about it. But there is something that Jesus is communicating to people in that moment, in that particular day, and it is of immense significance for us today as well. Let's have a look at Luke 19. We're going to turn to that verse 28 through to 44. Luke chapter 19, verse 28.

And when He, who is Jesus, had said these things, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the mount that is called Olivet, He sent two of the disciples, saying, go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, why are you untying it? You shall say this: the Lord has need of it.

So those who were sent away and found it just as He told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, why are you untying the colt? And they said, the Lord has need of it. And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as He rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road.

And as He was drawing near, already on the way down the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of His disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, teacher, rebuke your disciples. He answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out. And when He drew near and saw the city, He wept over it saying, would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes.

For the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you because you did not know the time of your visitation. So far our reading. Now at first we come to this story and we read it as a single event, a pretty straightforward occasion. But if you reflect closely on some of the dynamics happening here, you actually see that there is a multilayered message being proclaimed here.

The overall message is a king has arrived. But there are at least, and we pointed out, at least three things that are being told about who this king is, what He is about. The first and perhaps we can say the most obvious layer to that kingship is that this is a confrontational king. We see palm fronds being waved. We see people standing on the side of the street shouting and celebrating.

We see someone riding on the back of an animal, people throwing their cloaks on the ground before Him. Now if you lived in the first century AD, you would have seen this and you would have known that this is a dignitary. This is a very important person that has come into the city. All signs pointed to royalty. Jesus is being hailed as a king.

But this is also something very surprising as well because the whole length of His ministry, Jesus had shied away from accepting any grandiose acclaim. He shied away from people wanting to make Him their Messiah, wanting to make Him their king. Whenever people wanted to make a big deal about Him, He would tell them, be quiet. Don't say anything. Yet now on Palm Sunday, He decides to reverse this.

Here we find the one time, the one time in His ministry that Jesus is seemingly comfortable with people making a big deal about Him. He accepts very public praise in the biggest city of Israel, of Judea. Why? Well, just before in chapter 18, we find the healing of a blind man. As Jesus is going up to Jerusalem, He is in Jericho which is very close.

He is making his way up the mountain to Jericho to Jerusalem and as He is passing by, a blind man yells at Him. Where is that? In verse 35. A blind man sitting by the roadside. He is begging, and he hears a crowd going by and he yells out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

And the crowd, they say to him, be quiet. You are annoying. Stop shouting. Like, we have to get somewhere. And it says, he shouted all the more, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

And Jesus stops. He is heading to Jerusalem. He knows what lies for Him in Jerusalem, but He stops. And He asks for the man to be brought to Him. And He says to the man, what can I do for you?

The man says, I am blind. And Jesus heals him. But something significant has taken place in this moment. Jesus accepts the title son of David. Jesus does not correct the man.

Jesus does not say, no, that is not me. I will help you, but that is not who I am. He shows, in fact, that the title is rightfully attributed to Him by performing this miracle. And the irony is palpable. A man physically blind has the spiritual vision to recognise the Messiah.

And so in Jerusalem, the people in the streets as Jesus arrives are crying out, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Do you see that? Blessed is the king, verse 38, who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. Jesus does not correct them.

Jesus does not say, look, that is not me. You have the wrong guy. He accepts that praise, and yet the Pharisees, the leaders of the people, they are seething. And they tell Jesus, rebuke your disciples. They are saying things about You that they should not be.

They have You wrong. They are understanding You incorrectly, Jesus. And Jesus replies, even if I told them to stop, the cobblestones on which I am riding would be saying the same thing. What a dramatic turnaround. Do you get this?

What a dramatic turnaround from three years of being quiet, telling people to shut up. Things have shifted so significantly to the point where Jesus confronts His enemies. He confronts His doubters and He gives them this ultimatum: crown Me or kill Me. Pastor Tim Keller writes, Jesus is the only person I have ever known who is unbelievably humble but not modest. Jesus is tender, friends.

Jesus is sweet and He is gentle. He sees the marginalised. He sees that broken man. He sees the helpless and the poor. He sees the spiritually unclean.

He sees the sinner. He stoops down and He reaches out to them, to the lowest and the loneliest, but He is not modest. If He had an Instagram account or Facebook page, He would not be into the humble brag philosophy of showing off and pretending You are not. He knows who He is. He knows who He is.

He knows that He is king. And all His enemies may reject it. And in their rejection, they may silence the voices of His supporters. But even then, the dead stones would declare, Jesus Christ is Lord. Who is this man?

That the winds and the waves will listen to Him. That cobblestones will shout out praise to Him. Who is this man? Well, the man riding into Jerusalem with palm fronds waving in praise, the man who has subjects throwing their clothes in humble service, the man is the crown prince of Jerusalem. This is not modest.

All of a sudden, Jesus is shown to be king. Now it is obvious that Jesus confronts Jerusalem on that day, but He confronts us today as well. He confronts you. He confronts me. He confronts our Aussie neighbours.

And He says to all of us, crown Me or kill Me. Crown Me or kill Me, but one way or the other, I cannot simply be liked. Who is Jesus to you, friend? Who is Jesus to you? Jesus says He is a king.

He is a king you have always wanted. He is a leader we will never be able to vote in. My friend, listen carefully to me. Jesus cannot be your Saviour without being your Lord.

You cannot say to Him, come into my life Saviour, but stay out of my life. The two go hand in hand. Jesus, even here, confronts the smallness of our view of Him. He cannot be contained by our labels. He will not accept squeezing Him into some sort of box. He is king.

Crown Him or reject Him as your master. You cannot have it both ways. Is Christ your king, or are you playing the game? Is He Lord, or do you want a little friend to complain to? And yet as we look at Him confronting people, as we look at Him confronting His enemies, making a statement to the watching world, we also see there is something about Him that is not quite kingly.

There is something that does not quite sit right with Him. And so we see the second layer. He is a counterintuitive king. Stanley Hauerwas, who is a New Testament scholar, writes that there is some sort of satirical spotlight being put on this whole episode here. He writes, on the one hand, this looks like all other triumphal entries.

Two hundred years earlier in Jerusalem as well, a man by the name Simon Maccabees, who is a famous Jewish leader. The Jews to this day regard him as a very, very great leader in their history. He had defeated foreign armies, and he had kept Israel independent. And he rode into Jerusalem with people shouting cheers and waving palm branches as he came in. This triumphal entry, however, of Jesus parodies the entries of other kings and dignitaries.

Victors do not ride into capital cities on donkeys. They come in on fearsome war horses, but this king does not. A donkey is definitely not a fearsome war horse. Not only that, not only that, Jesus chooses a baby donkey. Can you imagine a fully grown man sitting on a little donkey?

A little baby donkey. I think His legs must have been dragging along those cobblestones. Yet it is very deliberate and it is very clear that this is a fulfilment of Scripture. Zechariah 9:9. The account of Matthew quotes this. Zechariah 9:9 describes the prophecy being fulfilled here.

This is what Zechariah 9:9 says: rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion. Shout, daughter Jerusalem. See, your king has come to you righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. This is Old Testament Scripture fulfilled. And again, in Matthew's account of this happening, Matthew writes that the crowd is yelling the words hosanna.

Hosanna in the highest as Jesus rides through, which means God save us. The crowd is urging Christ to rescue them, but from what? From whom? Well, Zechariah's prophecy does say that this coming king arrives righteous and victorious. This king has victory in mind, but He is also lowly, riding on a donkey.

And so this second layer, after the confrontational king, the second layer is an amazing incident. Yes, Jesus is coming to rule. Yes, Jesus is coming to claim the kingship that is His, but it is perhaps not going to happen in the way that we or those people expect.

Victorious kings, the kings that come in on their war horses, have liberated cities, have rescued people, and did so by taking lives. Did so by force of strength, clutching power by killing. But this king is not your typical king. And we know that, right?

We said on the other side of the story, we are able to look back, but one week later, we see how Jesus does conquer. How He does rescue, not by killing, but by being killed. He takes power not by clutching at it, but by submitting in weakness. This king has given us the visible example of the upside down kingdom that He has been preaching about for three years. The kingdom where you turn the other cheek.

The kingdom where you walk the extra mile. The kingdom where you do not curse your enemies, you pray for them. A kingdom where your heart's motives are as important as your hands' actions. Jesus is coming to establish the upside down kingdom. Now what does this mean for us as followers of Jesus?

Well, it certainly affects our view of next month's election. It means that Christians will not save the world through politics. Do you know that? Do you believe that? If force, manipulation, coercion was never a part of how Jesus triumphed, why do we think we can enforce some sort of Christian kingdom through those means?

If we cannot be saved by a show of our strength, if we can only be saved by acknowledging our weakness, knowing our brokenness, reaching out to receive forgiveness, why do we feel compelled to tell people they need to be better? Our Lord triumphed through weakness. He conquered through humility. What should that mean for us? We are not saved, friends, by a fearsome hero or a giant stallion that yells to his onlookers, do good and be like me.

Jesus' entry is a foreshadowing of His death on the cross. Make no mistake, it is a triumphant entrance. It is certainly a foretaste of His victory, but it is a salvation one in an upside down kind of way so that we can have salvation despite our sin, despite our weakness. It means that anybody can get in to this kingdom. So Palm Sunday is an incredible parable of the lifelong mismatch of what we think we need and what God has provided.

What we think we need is almost always shallow. It is almost always flawed. Think of the passage and what it teaches us. What did these people think they needed when they shouted, Hosanna, God, save us. What did these people think?

They hoped that Jesus would bring judgment on the Romans. They thought that the Romans were their greatest threat, that the Romans were the ones ruining the world, but the irony of the triumphal entrance on the back of a donkey and a humble king who dies a criminal's death is the realisation that what they really needed was for someone to bear God's judgment on their behalf because they are the ones ruining the world. Our greatest threat is not a particular political party. Our greatest threat is not some sort of ideology. Our greatest threat is not Muslim immigration.

Our greatest threat is not social media outrage at a certain rugby player. Our greatest threat is us. Us. So before we get too self righteous, before we think we have nailed what is wrong with the world, see how the crowds misunderstood Jesus. They are us.

They wanted a warrior, but what they really needed was pardon. What we really need is a God to end evil without ending us. And so finally, we see the king as counterintuitive, the king of this upside down kingdom. And then finally, we see something of the future king, the coming king. When it comes to Easter, we get a little bit traditional.

I mean, even the palm fronds are a bit of a tradition. We are not overly traditional in our church, but Palm Sunday, we get the palm fronds out. When it comes to Easter, we do not mind being a little traditional, and I think that is human nature. I mean, that is why we have friends that will come to church for the one time in the year at Easter. When it comes to Palm Sunday, the Anglican Church, in their very regimented prayer book, quotes this on Palm Sunday from Revelation 1:7.

Remember, this is about a historical moment. Jesus entering into the city and they read from Revelation, which is about the end time. Revelation 1:7: behold, Jesus is coming with the clouds and every eye will see Him. Even those who pierced Him and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him. Yes, even so, amen.

We might look at this and think why are they looking at Revelation on Palm Sunday, the historical event? Well, because in part, Jesus' triumphal entry is also prophetic. It also casts the eye and the mind forward. We see this with explicit mention of the palm leaves. Why is it important for us to know that these leaves were used? Why not just say they cut branches and just waved it in front of Jesus?

Why palm branches? I do not know if you are into archaeology or history, but if you ever look at a Roman coin, you will see the emperor's head and around the emperor's head palm fronds. Why palm fronds? Because palms represent peace. Represent stability, stability.

The emperor is in control, so you guys are safe, is what the propaganda on these coins says. Jesus, in His entry, is ushering in peace. But there are also throwbacks to the Old Testament that speaks of how creation itself is waiting in anticipation for the arrival of God. Psalm 96:12 says, then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the Lord when He comes, for He comes to judge the earth.

Isaiah 55:12 and 13 says that the word of God shall go out and not return to Him empty. That famous verse that we always quote. But then it goes on and says that the mountains and the hills shall break forth in singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. And we get this image of creation having been so long removed from their Creator. Creation somehow remembering who God is and waiting and waiting on account of sin, rejoicing at His coming.

There is another bit of symbolism found with Jesus riding that baby donkey. Don Carson, in his commentary on Matthew, notices that Jesus is riding an unbroken animal. An animal, it says in Luke as well, that has never been sat on. Now if you have ever worked with horses, and I have not, you should know that you cannot ride an animal before it is broken in. Yet Jesus is riding a baby donkey through a yelling crowd.

Carson writes, in the midst of all this, an unbroken young animal remains totally calm under the hands of the Messiah who controls nature. All this is symbolism pointing forward to the time when God returns, when God in Christ comes back. But this time, far less humbly. He comes back as the king of glory, glory, where every eye shall see, every knee shall bow. This time He does not come on a donkey, He rides on clouds of glory.

And He will not enter quietly into this place or that, but with trumpets blowing, every eye in the world will see. And even as He arrives to mark the beginning of the final judgment, it is not the final judgment that is what He is concerned about. It is the peace that He is bringing for eternity. And this is what the palms of peace are pointing to. This is what creation come under the Master is pointing to.

Jesus is the Lord of all, and under His hand, nothing but harmony and peace will come. It is a great foreshadowing of the healing and the completion of all of nature found in Isaiah 11. Also that famous passage where the wolf lies down with the lamb. Where the leopard lies down with the goat. What a time that is going to be.

What a joy that will be for us to see Him return and we say, Lord Jesus, come. Lord Jesus, please come soon. And so in wrapping up, at one time, Jesus entered the gates to the city of kings, Jerusalem. He came in weak. He came in humbly, and yet He would triumph through defeat.

But there is a time, friends, that He is coming in glory. Dear friend, I want to ask you personally, are you ready for that day? Are you ready for that day? Are you nervous because you do not know Him? Are you nervous because you do not know if salvation will be yours?

While there is time today, today, make that decision. And I am going to pray soon and I want to ask you to pray with me that you will receive this Jesus into your life, not only as your Saviour, but as your Lord, as your king. Turn away from your unbelief. Turn away from the life you lived as though Jesus was not your king. Believe in His work and friend, please receive what He wants to give you, what He wants to give you, salvation and peace for all eternity.

Let us pray. Father, we thank you that we may come this morning together to hear, receive, and acknowledge Your word to us. Lord Jesus, some of us here want to be reconciled to You. Some of us here need to be reconciled to You. And so, Lord, with them I pray, will You forgive my sin?

Lord, will You receive me as Your follower? Lord, I give my heart to You. I give my mind to You. A heart and a mind that may still wrestle with so many things. And I just want to say, help me.

For those of us who have walked with Jesus for a long time, we want to say thank you. Thank you that You loved us so much that You came. Lord Jesus, it could not have gone any other way. You surprised all of us, not only in this entry but in how You conquered and became victorious over sin and death. We thank you, Lord, for Your love.

We thank you for our life. We pray, Lord, that we may live now as free people, as people that know You as our Saviour and our as our king. We pray that we may live a life worthy of being called Yours. And that we may be obedient to live in the kingdom of peace, to live according to the laws that bring peace. Father, we do pray for our election.

We pray for our friends that do not know You. We pray for a country that is, in many ways, very far from You, that do not know You. But we pray, God, for each and every person's heart because Your kingdom begins in those hearts. Establish this upside down kingdom here in Australia, we pray. Amen.