Palm/Passion
Sunday 04/14/19 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “Continued
fulfillment of the Prophecy”
(“The road to
the cross” Series – Part 6 of 7)
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
New Testament
Scripture: Philippians 2:5-11
Gospel Lesson:
Luke 19:28-40
Welcome again my
friends, my brothers and sisters, on this our Palm/Passion Sunday, and this the
first day of Holy Week. We call this Holy Week, because from today up until
this coming Friday, we are moving ever closer to the cross of Jesus Christ.
Today Christ enters into Jerusalem triumphantly, on a donkey or a colt. As it
says in Mark’s gospel in 11:9b-10 the crowds shouted:
“Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the
name of the Lord! Blessed
is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” (Mk. 11:9b-10, NRSV).
Jesus Christ, the savior of the world, who was fully God
and fully human, enters Jerusalem on a donkey. God in the flesh, enters the
holy city, Zion, on a donkey or a colt.
How can this be? How can the savior of the world, the
person of God who came among us, be so humble and so human? The answer brothers
and sisters, is that God sent his son Jesus to become like one of us.
As many of us know, I have been preaching a sermon series
called, “The road to the cross,” and this sermon series looks more at not
Jesus’ divine nature, but his human nature. Was he God in the flesh? Yes. Was
he sinless? Yes? Did he die for us? Yes. Jesus also came to earth in a human
body though. He lived, he breathed, he taught, he loved, he healed, and he forgave.
He experienced what we do. He gets us and our struggles.
While there are a multitude of the human characteristics of
Jesus, I am discussing just some of them in this sermon series. What was it
like to be God in the flesh? How did Jesus experience life on earth? How can we
relate to our savior?
Thus far in this sermon series, to emphasize the human part
of Jesus, I talked about how Jesus was “Tempted and Tried”. Jesus was not only
“Tempted and Tried” by the devil in the wilderness for 40-days, he was “Tempted
and Tried” often. If we have ever been “Tempted and Tried,” then Jesus gets us.
In week two of this series, I talked about how Jesus was
“Persecuted,” as people wanted to kill him. How many of us have ever felt
mistreated or persecuted? Jesus gets us.
The third installment of this series on “the road to the
cross,” was about how Jesus “came for the sins of all”. So loved us all, he
came for us all. He became like one of us, and died for us.
Two weeks ago, I talked about how Jesus was “Questioned and
Challenged” wherever he went. People tried to confuse him, tried to trick him, tried
to embarrass him, and they challenged his authority. If you have ever felt like
this or have been treated this way, well then Jesus gets you.
Last week in installment five of this sermon series, I
talked about how Jesus performed “Many Miracles”. Jesus performed so many
miracles in fact, that we don’t even know all them, as they all weren’t
recorded. Jesus performed many of his miracles so that we would have faith, but
he truly had compassion for those who were suffering. If seek to alleviate
suffering, if you want to help people when they are sick, if you like to help
the oppressed, the down trodden, and the hurting, then you are seeing the world
through the loving eyes of Jesus Christ. To see a broken and a hurting world
and wanting to heal it, is to understand Christ and to try to be more like
Christ.
This morning though, as I said, we are now beginning “Holy
Week” in this season of Holy Lent. Today is a day of triumph, as Jesus enters
into Jerusalem, into the city of God, into Zion, in the most humble of ways.
Jesus enters Jerusalem like a poor person, like a person of no wealth or
status. He came to be like one of us.
Jesus will have his Last Supper this Thursday, as we will
have a Maundy/Holy Thursday service this Thursday at 7:00 pm. Jesus will then
be tried, whipped, and crucified this Friday, as will have Good Friday services
at both 12:00 pm and 7:00 pm. As I said though, this day, Palm or Passion
Sunday, is a day of triumph.
My sermon this morning is called the “continued fulfillment
of the prophecy,” as Jesus fulfilled countless prophecies in the Old Testament written
hundreds of years before his birth about who and what he would be. The
fulfillment of many of these prophecies about the life and death of Jesus were
ones that were not glamorous. Being whipped or “stripped” as the prophet Isaiah
prophesized is not glamorous, for example.
So not only did Jesus have his mission from God, to come to
earth, to love, to heal, to forgive, and to die for us, he also came to fulfill
all of the prophecies about him in the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible. Many of
these check points were ones of suffering and humility, not pride and arrogance.
This morning, as Jesus triumphantly enters Jerusalem, this
event was foretold hundreds of years earlier. In fact the prophet Zechariah
wrote in the Book of Zechariah in the Old Testament that:
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout
aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey”
(Zech. 9:9, NRSV).
Jesus enters
Jerusalem “on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey,” because the prophecy
said that he must. He humbled himself as the Messiah, all for us.
Another
scripture from the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible that connects with the
“continued fulfillment of the prophecy” is from 2 Kings 9:13. This scripture
says:
“Then hurriedly they all took their cloaks and spread them
for him on the bare steps; and they blew the trumpet, and
proclaimed, “Jehu is king”
(2
Kings 9:13, NRSV).
Now this scripture does not speak of
Christ directly, but it shows you the culture of the ancient Jewish people, and
why they received Christ the way they did on this day.
As Jesus enters Jerusalem this
morning, he comes in to shouts of what it says in our Psalm 118:26 reading for this
morning:
“Blessed is the one who comes in
the name of the Lord.
We bless you from the house of the Lord” (Ps. 118:26, NRSV).
We bless you from the house of the Lord” (Ps. 118:26, NRSV).
So let’s look once again at our scripture reading from this
morning from Luke 19:28-40. It says once again, leading up to the events of
today:
“After he
had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near
Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of
the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter
it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and
bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this,
‘The Lord needs it.’” (Lk. 19:28-32, NRSV).
So,
to fulfill the prophecy, Jesus sends two disciples to get this donkey, this
colt for him to ride into the city of Jerusalem. The gospel continues on to
say:
“So those
who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were
untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They
said, “The Lord needs it.” Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing
their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept
spreading their cloaks on the road” (Lk.
19:33-36, NRSV).
So
the donkey, the colt was in fact there, as Jesus said would be. Cloaks are put
on this donkey, and people are putting their cloaks on the road for Jesus, just
like in 2 Kings 9:13.
The
next part of this gospel mirrors the prophecy made about Jesus hundreds of
years before his birth in our reading for this morning from Psalm 118. The
gospel continues on saying:
“As he was
now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of
the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds
of power 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 heaven!” (Lk. 19:37-38, NRSV).
So
this is a triumphant entry for Jesus on this Palm or Passion Sunday. Jesus
rides a donkey, a colt, cloaks are laid before him, palms are waved and laid,
people shout. It is truly a powerful moment, but not really a glorious moment.
You
see if God in the flesh really wanted to show his power and his authority, then
he would have entered Jerusalem on a golden chariot covered in armor. He would
have had legions of soldiers and war drums playing. Yet the prophecies of old
said that savior, the Messiah, would enter the holy city of Jerusalem humble.
Remember, in Jesus’ humanness, he became one of us. He entered in today like a
common man, not a general, or an earthly king. He entered in simply and perhaps
like we would have entered.
To
put it another way, Jesus entered Jerusalem in a Ford not Porsche. He came, as
the prophecies of old said he would, to be just like one of us. He is a savior
that came to earth, to live, to breathe, and to be like one of us.
I
remember some years ago reading about presidential inauguration ceremonies in
the United States. The great general George Washington, and of course the first
president of our republic, entered his inauguration on a horse. From my understanding
he dressed to nines like a conquering general. George Washington in fact, was
just that. He had defeated the largest and most power army in the world, from
the strongest country in the world, England. He was a natural hero, and he was
inaugurated as such.
Yet
when our third president Thomas Jefferson was inaugurated, he walked to the
inauguration simply and plainly. President Jefferson was seen more as a common
man of the people. He certainly wasn’t perfect as he owned slaves, but many
Americans said of Jefferson, “he is like one of us”.
Jesus
Christ came to earth in part to become like one us. Our gospel lesson concludes
for this morning from Luke 19:39-40, saying about people praising Jesus as he
enters Jerusalem:
“Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher,
order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent,
the stones would shout out.” (Lk.
19:39-40, NRSV).
Jesus
said, the people are praising me on this donkey, this colt, as I enter
Jerusalem, because I am the Messiah. Jesus, the God man did all of this,
suffered, lived, healed, cared, fulfilled the prophecies of old, will die for
us this Friday, just so we can know him. Through Christ, we can be reconciled
to God, if we repent of our sin and accept him as our Lord and Savior. All of
this he did for us, as he became like one of us.
With
said, I want to close with a quote this morning by a man named Henry B. Eyring.
Eyring is actually a Mormon, but his quote is right on, even we other strong
theological differences. It says:
“Our Heavenly Father knows us and
our circumstances and even what faces us in the future. His Beloved Son, Jesus
Christ, our Savior, has suffered and paid for our sins and those of all the
people we will ever meet. He has perfect understanding of the feelings, the
suffering, the trials, and the needs of every individual” (https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/jesus_christ).
Jesus
came to earth to become like one of, he gets me, and he gets you. Amen.
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