The King's Humility

We hope that you enjoy this teaching from Christ Church.

This material is copyrighted and no unauthorized duplication,

redistribution, or any other use of any part is permitted without prior consent from Christ Church.

Please consider donating to this work in the San Francisco Bay Area online at ChristChurchEastBay.org.

Today's reading is from Matthew chapter 21, verses 1 to 17.

Matthew 21:1–17

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet.

Say to daughter Zion,

See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them.

They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on.

A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road,

while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

Hosanna to the son of David.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest heaven.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked,

Who is this?

The crowds answered,

This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there.

He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.

It is written, he said to them,

My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.

The blind and the lame came to him at the temple and he healed them.

But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did,

and the children shouting in the temple courts,

Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant.

Do you hear what those children are saying?

They asked him,

Yes, replied Jesus.

Have you never read?

From the lips of children and infants, you, Lord, have called forth your praise.

And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Good morning, Christ Church.

This Palm Sunday is the day, and it's really the doorway through which we enter into Holy Week,

at which time Christians all over the world every year gather together to read and to remember

and to prayerfully celebrate the final days of Jesus leading up to his climactic crucifixion

and his resounding resurrection.

If you're here today and you're exploring Christianity,

I want to say this is a wonderful time to have a front row seat into what Christianity is all about.

If you've ever wondered why Christians see this as the turning point in history

and the center point of humanity,

if you've ever wondered how in the world can the life and the death of someone in the first century

have an impact on me here in the 21st century,

my life, my condition, my destiny,

this is a great time.

There's no better time, really, to get involved and to come and ask these questions.

If you're a Christian, perhaps you've experienced many, many Holy Weeks through the years.

You know Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday like they're old friends.

And my prayer and hope for you this week is that you would be surprised by God,

that his Son and his Spirit would meet you in some fresh and powerful ways.

The Gospels have been described as passion narratives with long introductions.

And that's because all four Gospels really spend the latter half of their narratives

talking about the suffering of Jesus from four different angles, four different perspectives.

That is that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they give us a total of 30 chapters

on this final week of Jesus' life leading up to his death on the cross.

And so I imagine that even for those of us who are deeply familiar with these events,

that somewhere in those 30 chapters,

you might encounter something that you haven't encountered before.

You might integrate this week something into your faith and life that you haven't integrated before.

And that's my prayer, that the Lord would reveal more of himself to you,

more of his presence and more of his power.

So here's Palm Sunday.

It's recorded for us in all four Gospels.

What does it mean and why does it matter for us and for our lives?

I think this narrative before us in Matthew 21 tells us that

Jesus is the King who rides a donkey and transforms the temple.

Jesus is the King who rides a donkey and transforms the temple.

I want to focus for a minute on this theme of Jesus as the King.

A lot of us, we assume that on Palm Sunday,

he kind of just stumbles into Jerusalem and sees the reaction of the crowd.

And he says, oh, shucks.

Okay, I guess, I guess.

You know, I'll go along with this.

But really, Jesus is this reflective theologian and a strategic revolutionary

who's given a great deal of thought and energy to what he's going to do

and what he's going to say to intentionally bring his story to a climax

and to bring his public vocation to its proper conclusion.

And so what we have here is premeditated symbolic action.

Jesus is making all these decisive, calculated arrangements

to enter into the holy city on this particular Passover feast.

In verses 2 to 3, he's giving detailed directions to his advance team.

And he says, this is how I want you to set up the staged campaign.

And in many ways, Jesus is recreating an enthronement scene.

In the ancient Near East, a king would go out to battle.

They would defeat their enemies.

And then they would return in victory.

And they'd be welcomed back into their capital city with great celebration.

And Jesus says, that's what we're doing.

For one mile, for 30 minutes, there's going to be this red carpet event,

this ticker tape parade where people are going to welcome their king

in this royal reception and procession.

Now, how do the crowds and how do the disciples respond to this?

Well, it says in verse 8,

that a very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road

while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

Now, you can imagine a person visiting our city

and you see a crowd of people taking off their very nice and very expensive jackets

to lay them down in the dirt for people and animals to walk on.

And what do you conclude?

You conclude this must be a very important person,

a person that's worthy of great respect and great honor.

You also conclude this is a great time to be in the dry cleaning business

because that's a lot of dirty jackets on the ground.

And what about these branches?

The Gospel of John tells us that these are palm branches.

And every Jew would know the meaning of this

because 200 years before this time, there had been a Jewish rebellion.

The Greek Empire had been oppressing the Jews,

had outlawed their practices of Sabbath and Scripture

and the sacrament of circumcision.

They went and set up pagan idols in all the Jewish towns.

They even set up pagan idols in the temple in Jerusalem itself.

And there was this one family, the Maccabean family.

They led a rebellion that was successful

and enabled Israel to practice their faith freely again.

And that's what's celebrated in the festival of Hanukkah.

But after that great rebellion,

this family made a crest and the nation minted new coins.

And you know what was on that crest and on those coins?

Palm branches.

Palm branches became the symbol of the nation.

It became a symbol of resistance and revolt.

It became a symbol of liberation and freedom.

And so they're laying down their coats,

but they're also laying down their palms before Jesus.

And what else does it say that the crowds give to him?

It says in verse 9 that the crowds went ahead of him

and those followed behind him and they shouted.

They shouted.

Now, why are they shouting so loudly?

Well, if you go back and you skim the Gospel of Matthew,

you can read all about these great deeds of supernatural power

that Jesus performed over Satan,

over the demons,

over disease and seizures and paralysis,

where he healed people who were crippled

and he healed people who were blind.

And he fed 5,000 people

and he calmed the storm

and he raised the dead.

And most outrageously of all,

he said to people,

your sins are forgiven.

Jesus is exercising the power

and the authority of God

over sickness

and over nature

and over death

and even over our greatest problem.

Sin is selfishly ignoring our Creator God

and Jesus says,

that's okay,

I can deal with that too.

And that's why these people say,

this isn't just one king

in a long line of kings.

This is the king.

This is God's only chosen king.

And so they're shouting at the top of their voices

and what are they saying?

They're saying,

Hosanna to the Son of David.

Blessed is he

who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest heaven.

Hosanna in the highest heaven.

This is Passover.

And so this is one of their Passover hymns,

Psalm 118.

And it basically means,

long live God's king.

Because all through Moses and the prophets,

all through the Old Testament,

they were,

Israel was looking for a king

in the line of David

who would come

and put everything right.

This is a victory chant

of Israel's hope

that God will help us,

that God will save us.

That's what Hosanna means.

God, save us.

Come and defeat our foes.

Come and bring deliverance to your people.

Come and establish your kingdom of peace

in its fullest measure.

Now, I believe that hope for a king

is not just a Jewish hope,

but it's a deeply human hope.

And of course,

there's a bit of a problem

because we're Americans

and we don't suffer our sovereigns lightly,

do we?

We like to be our own masters

and the authorities of our own lives

and in charge of our own selves, right?

You look at the flag

of the Commonwealth of Virginia

and what does it say?

It says,

Sic semper tyrannis,

thus always to tyrants,

where it has Lady Liberty

or Lady Justice,

I'm not sure which.

She has her foot on the chest of a king

who's lying on the ground

and his crown is toppled off of his head.

Thus always to tyrants

is what we Americans say.

This is how we like our government,

of the people,

by the people,

and for the people.

And yet,

there's a tension there for us

because even though we're Americans,

most of our literature

and most of our movies

abounds with kings and queens

and royal figures

and messianic heroes.

Why is that?

Why are we so fascinated

by royal weddings?

I know some of you are.

Royal babies,

royal coronations.

Why is that?

Well,

C.S. Lewis wrote an essay in 1943

and he says this.

He says,

We Britons should rejoice

that we have contrived

to reach a much legal democracy

without losing our ceremonial monarchy.

A man's reaction to monarchy

is a kind of test.

Monarchy can be easily debunked,

but watch the faces.

Mark the accents of the debunkers.

These are the men

whose taproot in Eden

has been cut.

Whom no rumor

of the polyphony,

the dance can reach.

Men to whom pebbles

laid in a row

are more beautiful

than an arch.

Now,

that's an Oxford professor's way

of insulting me,

right?

And people like me.

But here's what he says.

He says,

Yet even if they desire equality,

they cannot reach it.

Where men

are forbidden

to honor a king,

they honor millionaires,

athletes,

or film stars instead.

Even famous prostitutes

or gangsters.

For spiritual nature,

like bodily nature,

will be served,

deny it food,

and it will gobble poison.

See,

Lewis is telling us

that in our heart of hearts,

we long to honor a king.

And you can tell yourself

you don't need a king,

but your spiritual nature

says otherwise.

We're starving

to crown someone

who has the authority

to give us identity

and belonging

and meaning

and purpose

and significance

and value.

We're longing to say

to someone

who's much greater

than ourselves,

much higher

than ourselves,

please tell me

that I matter.

Please give me

a peace

that I cannot achieve

on my own.

Please give me

a glory

that's greater

than what I've got.

Now,

why do we do that

as human beings

psychologically

and culturally?

Well,

before the breaking

of our world,

the human race

stood in the presence

of the true king

in absolute glory

and splendor,

a king of justice

and power

and wisdom,

a king of great compassion

and nobility

and beauty

who was shining

like the sun

and yet evil

entered our world

and we became

our own masters

and we lost

that king

and yet we did gain

this promise

in Genesis 3.15

that said

this great one

is going to come

and he's going to

trample on evil

and even though

he will be wounded

and he'll suffer terribly,

he will triumph,

right?

And the whole Bible

from that point on

is just rustling

with this whisper

and this rumor

of a king

who's going to come

so that on Palm Sunday

when Jesus comes in

and people begin

to treat him

as a king,

he does not blush,

he smiles.

Jesus receives

their praises

and he embraces

their hopes

and he affirms

all of their desires

and he says,

yes indeed,

I have come

in the name

of the Lord.

I do intend

to be your king,

I do hear

your cries

of Hosanna

and I do intend

to save you.

Now those are

incredible,

audacious,

implicit,

really immodest

claims

that Jesus

is making

on Palm Sunday

and I believe

his dramatic entry

into the capital city

is a throwing down

of the gauntlet.

It's Jesus saying,

crown me

or kill me.

I'm either

of ultimate

importance

or of no

importance

whatsoever

but the one

thing I cannot

be is of

marginal importance

to any of you.

Jesus is saying,

I've not come

to be admired,

no,

I've come to force

my identity

upon you.

I've come

to be a supreme

and absolute monarch

who's to be worshipped

and to be obeyed.

And so if you're

here today

and you're exploring

Christianity,

I want to ask you

as you hear

about these mass

shootings,

you know,

as you take in

the news

about these

school shootings

with these

small children

and their teachers,

isn't there

something inside

of you

that's crying

out and longing

for evil

to be trampled

upon

and to be triumphed

over?

And my question

to you is,

if that longing

is in your heart,

how in the world

is that going

to happen?

How will that

possibly happen

within the reigning

plausibility structures

and paradigms

of modernity

and post-modernity?

Who will make

it happen?

Who will usher

in a new age?

And if you can't

come up with anyone

to fill in that blank,

I want to ask you,

might it be

that Jesus

really is the king

who's come to undo

all the powers

of evil

and Jesus is the king

who's come to

ultimately eradicate

the presence of evil

in this world?

Your heart is crying

out for that.

If you're a Christian,

you've come to see

that Jesus is

your supreme

and absolute monarch,

but the question

for you today is,

how are you going

to roll out

the red carpet

for your king

this week

and in this next season?

How will you put

your donkey

at his service,

as it were?

How will you put

all of your possessions

at his disposal

for him to use

as he sees fit?

How will we spread

out our cloaks

for him to walk upon

and give him

our highest

and our best

to honor him

this week?

How will we wave

our palm branches

and give him

public allegiance

and let the world

know that all

of our hopes

for freedom

and liberation

are found in him

and him alone?

How will we sing

these psalms

and hymns

and songs of the Spirit

giving him

the passionate worship

that he deserves?

I want to encourage

you this week,

if you do see Jesus

as your king,

to wake up every morning

praying this prayer,

blessed are you.

Blessed are you

who's come

in the name

of the Lord.

Hosanna.

Save us.

Lord, save us.

Friends, Jesus is the king.

But Jesus is not just any king.

He's the king

who rides a donkey.

Jesus is the king

who rides a donkey.

Now, many of us,

this idea,

this notion

of living under a sovereign

is perhaps threatening.

I mean, I'm like you.

I want to be in control.

I don't want to submit

my will and my desires

to the will and desires

of another.

And I've read enough

history like you

to know that history

is full of kings

and queens

that are marked

by overweening pride

and oppressive power.

Kings who rule

not to enhance human life

but to diminish

human life.

But I want to suggest

to you today

that Jesus is different.

I want you to notice

his chosen means

of transportation.

It's not a war horse.

It's a donkey.

And in the first century

and in our century,

everybody looks at that

and goes,

what?

Jesus,

what are you thinking?

This is your moment

to make history.

This is your moment

to be like Alexander the Great

and Caesar Augustus.

This is your moment

to have your name up there

with Attila the Hun

and Charlemagne

and William the Conqueror

and Genghis Khan

and Napoleon.

Jesus,

don't you realize

that right now

is your moment.

You can either triumph

and deliver

or you can be trampled upon

and demolished.

But this is the moment.

This is a do or die situation.

So Jesus,

let us come around you

with all of our wisdom

and be your PR consultants

for a moment.

Let us be your marketing team.

If we're going to give you a brand,

if we're going to give you a logo,

if we're going to give you a message,

we really want to encourage you,

Jesus,

to come up with something

that exudes power and pride.

And what does Jesus do?

How does he respond

to this great advice

that we have to give him?

He chooses a little baby donkey.

And he says,

I don't need the mighty steed

of a triumphant king.

I want this donkey.

And Jesus,

when he says that,

he's making a statement

about the kind of king

he would be

because he's a serious student

of the Bible.

His main purpose and aim

is to bring his life

under the authority

of the Bible

and to live in alignment

with the power

of God's word.

And he knows,

since he's been

a small child,

he's memorized

the prophecies of the Bible

like this one

in Genesis 49.

It says,

the scepter of the king

will not depart from Judah

nor the ruler's staff

from between his feet

until he to whom it belongs

shall come

and the obedience

of the nation

shall be his.

He will tether his donkey

to a vine,

his colt

to the choicest branch.

Jesus also probably

memorized these words

that are in our text today,

Zechariah chapter 9.

Zechariah 9 · chapter mention

which says,

Rejoice greatly,

daughter Zion.

Shout,

daughter Jerusalem.

See,

your king comes to you

righteous and victorious,

lowly

and riding on a donkey,

on a colt,

the foal of a donkey.

And then the next verse

that's not printed for us,

it says this.

It says,

I will take away

the chariots

from Ephraim,

the war horses

from Jerusalem.

The battle bow

will be broken.

He will proclaim peace

to the nations.

His rule will extend

from sea to sea

and from the river

to the ends

of the earth.

Jesus says,

my brand,

my logo,

my message

is definitively

not the chariot

and not the war horse

and not the battle bow.

And Jesus has so arranged

this moment

to deliberately fulfill

these prophecies.

He says,

don't get me wrong,

I have come to rule

and to reign

as your king,

but I've not come

to rule

in any of the ways

you're used to ruling.

He says,

I've not come

in the shining armor

of a war horse.

He says,

I've come to make

donkeys great again.

This is a king

who's going to ride Eeyore.

He's riding this beast

that's fit for a child,

that's fit for a hobbit.

A beast of such

extraordinary humility.

Now,

I want us to think

for a second.

Why do we resist

submitting to a sovereign?

Well,

we resist

because a sovereign

by nature

demands

total surrender,

an exclusive allegiance,

an absolute obedience.

And Jesus says,

I have,

in fact,

come to demand

those things of you,

but I'm unlike

any king

the world has ever seen.

Again,

if you go back

and read the Gospels,

you see Jesus

time and time again.

First of all,

he resists

the offer of the devil

to rule over

the kingdoms

of this world

through illicit means.

And then,

having resisted

that offer,

he goes out

and he preaches

the Sermon on the Mount

where he says,

love your enemies,

do good to those

who hate you,

pray for those

who persecute you,

and blessed

are the peacemakers

for they will be called

the children of God.

At one point,

they tried to come

and make Jesus king

by force,

but he resisted

that as well

and he withdrew himself

into the wilderness.

And we'll see

later this week

when he's on trial

before the Roman Empire,

on trial under

Pontius Pilate,

he tells Pilate,

he says,

if my kingdom

were of this world,

my people would fight

for me.

But as it is,

my kingdom

is from another place

and therefore,

it's altogether

different

from your kingdom.

Friends,

Jesus rides

in humble

and meek

and gentle

and lowly

on a donkey

to tell us,

I'm a king

that you can trust.

My power

is the power

of my lowliness.

My power

is the power

of giving up

my power.

Friedrich Nietzsche

philosophized

in the 19th century,

he philosophized

about the will

to power.

He said,

modernity

should be marked

by dominating,

an ethic

of dominating power.

And then

in Nietzsche's wake

came another philosopher,

his successor,

Michel Foucault

in the 20th century

and he said,

we should unmask

all of these

power relations,

these pervasive,

internalized,

structured powers

of modernity

need to be

subverted

into a post-modernity

if any of us

are going to survive.

And of course,

the world we're living in

in the 21st century

is some strange brew,

some powerful cocktail

between Nietzsche

and Foucault,

is it not?

But what if the world

needs not

the uber power

of Nietzsche

or the deconstructed

power

of Foucault?

No.

But what if the world

needs a different kind

of power altogether?

The power of a sovereign

who comes not to take life

but to give life.

The power of a sovereign

who comes not bearing arms

but comes to disarm us all.

This donkey king

comes to us

not saying

surrender or else.

No,

he comes with no horse,

no sword,

no army.

He does not use

any brute force

to seize

and coerce

and demolish

and pillage

and enslave

and oppress.

He comes vulnerable

and defenseless

on a donkey.

And he says,

I've come to serve you

as a gentle

and a lowly

prince of peace.

I've come not to threaten you

and to surrender.

I've come,

in fact,

to surrender myself

and my life

to you.

And we're going to see that

this next week

as we go through the events

of Holy Week.

Jesus washing

the feet of his disciples.

Jesus giving

the poured out

wine

and the broken bread.

And Jesus literally

doing that

on the cross.

Taking our judgment

upon himself.

God's just judgment

for our sins.

And again,

if you're exploring

Christianity,

is there any other

power like this?

Is this not utterly

unique in all the world,

all the philosophies

of this world,

all the religions,

all the life systems

of this world?

Is there any other

kind of power

like this?

And even more

to the point,

what are you afraid

is going to happen

to you

if you submit yourself

to this donkey king?

He's not going

to oppress you.

He's going to liberate you

and humanize you.

He's not going

to disempower you.

He's going to empower you

with this sacrificial love.

And so,

I want to implore you,

open the gates

of your city.

Open the doors

of your heart

to welcome this king

of lowliness,

this king of gentleness

to come and be your king

even this week.

Jesus is the king

and he rides

on a donkey.

but he also comes

to transform the temple

and I just want to say

a final word

about this transformation

of the temple.

Jesus comes

and he comes over

the Mount of Olives.

He comes in full view

of Jerusalem

and its magnificent temple

at the center

which is not only

the beating heart

of Israel,

it's the center

of the cosmos.

This is the place

where heaven and earth

come together,

the house of

I am who I am

where he dwells

among his people.

And it says

Jesus in verse 12,

he entered into that place,

he entered the temple courts

and he drove out

all who were buying

and selling there.

He overturned the tables

and the money changers

and the benches

of those selling doves.

Why in the world

is Jesus relocating

all the people

and rearranging

all the furniture?

Why is he disrupting

this sacrificial system?

Doesn't he know

this is not how

to win friends

and influence people?

Why in the world

is he making

such a ruckus

in the temple

of Almighty God?

Well he says

in verse 12,

he says,

verse 13,

he says,

it is written,

my house will be called

a house of prayer

but you're making it

a den of robbers.

That's a provocative quote

from the prophet Jeremiah

where Jesus is begging

the question,

whose house is this?

And Jesus says,

well it's my house.

Wait,

what do you mean?

Jesus,

God's house

or your house?

Yes,

Jesus says.

This is the place

where you're to come

in contact

with your creator God.

The place where

by his word

and by prayer

and by the sacrifices

of blood

you can have

a personal,

intimate communion

and relationship

with God himself.

But Jesus is signaling

to us

that something

has gone deeply wrong

with this place

of sacrifice

and this place

of worship

and this is why

he's come

to enter Jerusalem.

This is why

he's marching

to Good Friday

so that he

can become

the true temple.

So that he can become

the true priest

and the true sacrifice

and the true place

of communion

between humanity

and God.

He's come

so that people

who are far away

from this temple

can be brought near

to God

so that people

who are enemies

of this temple

can be made

children of God

and that's why

Jesus is not surprised

at all

by this great turn

from Palm Sunday

to Good Friday.

He comes in

as a king

on Palm Sunday

but he leaves

as a criminal

on Good Friday.

He comes on a donkey

but he leaves

under a cross.

He comes hailed

with palms

but he leaves

bearing a crown

yet it's a crown

of thorns.

He comes in

hearing hosannas

but he leaves

with this cry

of crucify.

He comes in

bearing our praises

and yet he leaves

bearing our reproach.

So why Jesus?

Why?

Why would you do that?

Why would you

so deliberately

and even joyfully

enter into

all of this suffering?

Well we'll learn

and hear it

at the end of this week

from Matthew chapter 27

Matthew 27:51

verse 51.

It says that

when Jesus Christ

our king

died on his cross

the veil

in this great

magnificent temple

that separated

a holy God

from unholy humanity

would be torn in two

from top to bottom.

And that's a picture

of the very hands

of God

rending

this separation

between us.

Of God saying

as it were

my innocent sons

once for all

sacrifice

of himself

on his cross

is throwing down

the sin barriers

throwing down

this separation

so that the way

in

the way

into my holy

presence

is opened up

for all people.

The whole

wide world

can come back in

and that's why

our king

came

riding

on a donkey

to transform

this temple.

Jesus has come

to bring us

back to the

house

of almighty

God.

Jesus has come

so that

each of us

could be at home

again with our

heavenly father.

Jesus has come

so that we can

enjoy a relationship

with him

as dearly

loved

and dependent

children.

Each of us

enjoying such a

personal and intimate

communion with God

that our church

and our homes

and our very

hearts

might be called

a house

of prayer

so that God

can look upon us

that God can look

upon you

God can look

upon me

and he can say

that's

my house

that's the place

where I delight

to dwell

among these people

and in this place

this

is my home

and this is where

God wants us

to be at home

with him.

May it be so

as we enter

into this

most holy of weeks

in the name

of the Father,

Son,

and Holy Spirit.

Amen.