Podcast: Palm Sunday (Matthew 21)

Hey, welcome back to another episode of the podcast.

It has been a minute, so we're. Back.

We're back. Why?

Why? What's?

What's been going on? Well, you and I were both out of

the country, Yeah. And we've been gearing up for

Easter. So this is this is a relaunch as

we're working our way during Holy Week toward Easter.

And so we thought this would be fitting.

We've been waiting for Easter to relaunch the podcast after you

and I both were away for a little while and.

I've been sick multiple times. There's, there's been, yeah,

there's, there's, there's been a lot happening, a lot of good

stuff. And, and also we love doing this

and want to continue. And yeah.

So Holy Week leading up to Easter, we thought it would be a

good opportunity to relaunch and we hope you're having a great

week. So a couple of things.

We want this podcast to be a really practical conversation

that follows up on the Sunday service.

And you don't have to have listened to or been at church on

Sunday to see or hear the sermon, but that would be

helpful. This really is a deeper dive

into a few topics that either we've left open, like loops that

we want to close on certain points that were made on Sunday,

or deeper dive into some of the things that we weren't able to

actually get through in a sermon on Sunday.

So, you know, two weeks ago, I preached for 52 minutes.

I think I probably still had like that was 1/3 of the

content. And so like any given Sunday

could be 3 times longer. So really, we want to give you,

hey, listen, you're welcome. 52 minutes was short.

We want to give you an opportunity to kind of jump into

some of these other things that we think are meaningful and

important for walking out our faith and for understanding how

we integrate our faith into everyday life.

That just also don't, you know, necessarily make it into the

final draft of the sermon. So this is not like the second,

you know, best things. It's just the not everything can

preach all the time. So that's kind of #1 #2 we hope

that this encourages you to have conversation.

And so we know that many of you are listening to it.

Like maybe you're at the gym and you're on a treadmill, you're on

a bike or out for a walk, or you're walking a dog driving.

Many of you listen during your commutes on your way to and from

work. All of that.

Great. What we hope this is not is just

more of us talking at you. We want in some way some of the

questions that we're wrestling out to also encourage you to ask

and discuss your own questions as you wrestle your faith.

So, um, you know, this could be like the drive home after church

on Sunday. What are the things that you're

talking about in the car? What are the questions that come

up? This could be 1 evening

throughout the week. This could be as your feet hit

the floor and you're thinking about the week ahead on Monday

morning. We really want these things to

be practical and and helpful to you.

So that's enough welcome. We're in Matthew 21, which is

great. It's good to have a break out of

Luke. It's not Luke, but on Sunday,

and we're going to stick with Matthew for Holy Week, right?

So we will be, we were in Matthew 21 and then in Matthew

is like the structure is a bit funny.

So it kind of there's a whole bunch of chapters in between of

of Jesus talking about various things.

And then it's the passion narrative.

So we'll be jumping to what is like Matthew 2627 for Easter,

for Good Friday and then Easter Sunday, so.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

So Matthew, you're right. Matthew is very interesting in

that there is like the what Matthew includes between Jesus

entrance into Jerusalem and then like, you know, one week later

his crucifixion. Yeah, he's a lot more than any

of the other gospel writers. And you know, we don't have time

to talk about why like so much of that is is really important.

I think the one thing that is helpful to say and that I didn't

say on Sunday and wouldn't have made it into the sermon is that

Matthew is writing predominantly to Jewish audience.

So you have a little bit different of an angle of attack

or approach on the story of Jesus.

What Matthew is really trying to do here is set Jesus up as the

long-awaited and anticipated Messiah.

So he's doing it really, like I said, primarily for a Jewish

audience who would have lived with this cultural and religious

and historic expectation and longing of, of the Messiah's

arrival. And so everything that Matthew

is doing is really designed to construct Jesus's story in, in a

way that walks you toward the cross so that you'd say, of

course, like, of course, this is what would happen.

Jesus shows up and is the Messiah.

Now that happens still in an unexpected way.

That the Messiah would die is not what, you know, the the

anticipation and expectation was.

But really, what Matthew is trying from the beginning of his

book all the way to the end, is constructed in a way that

reveals Jesus to be the Messiah that the people of Israel, like

the biblical Israel, has been waiting.

For, and you really see that, you know, in these two passages,

cause you really dealt with two different narratives

interconnected and, and, and interconnected in a way that I,

you know, I've heard this story countless times since I was a

kid. And what I really appreciated

was that I've, I've never heard them connected in, in the way

that, that, that you spelled out for us this past Sunday.

And, and so, but it really is, you know, Jesus riding on this,

on this donkey into Jerusalem. And there's a lot of like,

there's a lot of messianic kingly imagery there.

There's, which is, you know, why we end up singing a lot of songs

about Jesus being crowned as king and things like that.

And, and, and then you go into the temple and then you got

Jesus as this sort of prophetic voice as a, you know, all, but

also as a priest. And, and so that's one thing

that we know we didn't get to touch on in the sermon quite as

much. I'm just noticing this, that

these two passages really personify this idea of Jesus as

he's our, he's our prophet, he's our priest, he's also our king.

Yeah, right. And, and that we call that the

threefold office. And and so if there's anything

that you wanted to touch on for that, that maybe feels relevant

for for the listener. Yeah, yeah, I, I mean, I think

it's helpful. Like This is why this is like

theology matters and like the history of the church matters.

And Christians for a lot longer than any of us who are listening

have been alive, have have spoken about Jesus in his roles,

like what does Jesus accomplish as or through the lens of, I

should say this threefold office.

So Jesus is prophet, Jesus is priest and Jesus is king.

And it's, it is very rare that you see Jesus functioning in

each of these or all of these offices together in one passage.

And that's why I love holding those really 22 stories that we

typically read together because at the beginning, Jesus is

welcomed as king. You know, obviously we talked

about how that's a, a king that was showing up in unexpected

ways, but king nonetheless. So he's king and then he's

declared to be prophet. And then if you end there, so if

you know many of I think the readings and many, many years,

you just simply end at 11. So the crowd's answer, this is

Jesus the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.

And you go, OK, done great, done and dusted.

But a, you don't really see what it means for Jesus to be

prophet. So he's declared to be prophet

and they're like, well, did the crowds just get it wrong then?

Are they, are they completely, 100% wrong in declaring Jesus to

be a prophet? And no, they're not like they're

not wrong in saying that he's profit.

They just, it's a, it's a smaller portion of the larger

identity of, of Jesus. So it's to miss the full

picture. But he also doesn't act as

profit if you, if you cut it off there.

So you've got to continue reading at least into the temple

courts to see Jesus begin to act as profit.

Well, what does a prophet do? A prophet was chosen by God to

speak judgment to the people on behalf of God and often, so

often against the religious systems.

So here is Jesus, the people declared to be profit.

I think I said as like an aside in the sermon.

Jerusalem has a long history of killing its profits.

So to be named a prophet in Jerusalem is like, no, no, no,

like don't call me that. Call me the king and call me a

priest and that's fine. Thank you very much.

Don't call me a profit because of profit is gonna be like you.

Jerusalem kills its profits. But again, you know, benefit of

hindsight. But we're going to read into 26

and then 27 and through to 28. We know that Jesus is going to

be put to death just outside of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem will

once again kind of live into that identity of killing its

profit. But he really acts as prophet by

entering the temple. And it's there that we see him

really kind of deliver this judgment on the religious

institution as it was functioning.

And then finally, when the blind, the lame come to him and

heals them, now he's acting as priest.

So we see him acting in each of these three offices as well.

So he he arrives as king. And that's where we get like

Isaiah and Zechariah, these, these prophecies about how the

Messiah would arrive. He would be the King.

Timothy Colour has this great line for Jesus.

He says that Jesus is the final king of the world.

I love that. Right.

So it's like this is like, you know, Lord of the Rings, the

last sequence in the Return of the King where Aragorn is like

he's sitting on the throne. Yes.

Well, yeah. If you haven't seen it by now,

I'm sorry. I mean, I guess, listen, like,

my kids are starting to watch their stuff, so I gotta be more

careful. Yeah.

Not Lord of the Rings yet, but you know, it, it really is like

we, we have these, we have these books and, and movies and, and

we've created these stories that talk about this, you know, final

return of, of, of a righteous king who will rule the people

and there will be celebration and glad like Jesus arrives as

the final king of the world. And that's really found in the

title Son of David. So when the children are saying

hosanna to the son of David and he's like, Yep, that's me.

What he's he's declaring himself to be the final king of the

world. Like this is the king to come

back and deliver the world. So he rides into into Jerusalem,

he's acting as king and then he enters the temple, he's acting

as prophet and then he fills the temple acting as priest.

So we see him moving all through the, you know, these, these

three things. And there's something worth just

worth noting as the prophet that he does, I would say like the

most sort of like profit like thing he does is is when he

overturns the tables. Because it feels like when you

read through some of the some of the ways the profits acted in,

you know, like they were feisty. They did some, there was

physicality to the way that they often went about their, their,

their itinerant ministry quite often, right.

You think of Elijah and and Jeremiah, you know, Jeremiah

particularly who would like, you know, lie down on that, you

know, on that bench or whatever for however, however many long

until, you know, they repented and that kind of thing.

And so there's, I mean, there's something very obviously very

physical about about what Jesus is doing here.

And I think it's just worth noting that Jesus is doing this

and we're not Jesus. And sometimes, you know,

sometimes like maybe just asking the question, you know, like,

are there times, is there, is there something for us to take

away from the way that Jesus goes about kind of cleansing

this, this temple here? Like it's, it's a dangerous

line. It's a dangerous line to kind of

like, on one hand it's like, yes, this is what Jesus does.

We're not Jesus. But also, are there times when

when we might be called to do something similar?

There's so much there. So like baked into that baked

into that question is the assumption that that the office

of profit is still something that exists and is is used by

the Holy Spirit. And I would.

Say Christians are divided over, but I think we would generally

say yes, yeah. Absolutely right.

So, you know, nobody, nobody acts as king in the way Jesus

does, nobody acts as prophet in the way Jesus does and and

nobody acts as priest in the way Jesus does.

And, and yet, you know, we talk about.

So to remove the profit for a second, we talk about the

priesthood of all believers and in well, in, in, in Peter,

there's, there's passages that talk about our identity.

And so listener, like if, if you're a follower of Jesus, like

the priesthood of all believers means that you are called and

even equipped and, uh, challenged toward acting as

priest. So in, in.

Yeah. So in first Peter, your holy

priesthood, right, royal people, holy priesthood chosen by God to

declare his praises. So, and you know, that's a,

that's a very, that's a grant version paraphrase, so don't

quote it, you know, so, so, yeah, to, to go back to your

profit question, I think we need to be careful in noticing a, a

few things in the way Jesus does this.

Number one, I think we tend to and, and this is where like the

the picture or like your image of what Jesus is doing is it can

be really powerful. There's nothing here that that

says in Matthew's Gospel that Jesus is angry.

I think sometimes we picture Jesus being angry and doing this

like he's doing it, almost like he's flipping tables and there's

an anger about him. And we often point to passages

like this and say, well, Jesus was righteously angry and

therefore. Yes, yeah, yeah.

And, and so I think it's important to notice, like in

Matthews version of this, Jesus entered the temple courts and he

drove out all who were buying and selling there.

He overturned the tables of the money changers, the benches of

those who were selling doves. And he says it is written, my

house will be called a, a House of prayer.

But you are making into a den of robbers.

Now, is it, is it a stretch to think that, that there's a

motion involved here? No, but it's very careful to not

say that Jesus is angry and I think it's important to not

ascribe to him emotions that are not there.

Like, well, I would feel angry if I was in Jesus issues.

Yeah, sure. I I do a lot of things poorly if

I was in Jesus's shoes, right. So, so I think like just a a

word of caution, but then BA word of no, I do actually

believe that the Holy Spirit uses people to speak into

moments and groups of people into moments in prophetic ways.

Now, does it accomplish the same thing as the Old Testament

prophets? No.

Does it accomplish same thing as Jesus in his prophetic role?

Absolutely not. No.

But is there still a reason for within this world, people to

speak a word of God into what is broken in a way that would lead

to it being restored and made, you know, righteous?

And and I don't wanna be like, that's not like to say make

everything overly righteous and legalistic.

But I'm saying, you know, is there is there a need in the

broken world in which we live for Christians to speak what is

true and right and good so that there would be more life and

goodness and grace and hope and peace?

Yes, absolutely. And that at the end of the day

is always what a prophet does. So prophets role is to speak a

word of judgment over a situation.

So they they're their job is to speak on behalf of God.

They were called by God to speak.

So you better be pretty sure, yes, like do a lot of prayer and

thought and work and then, you know, check with other people

and check with more other people and you know, maybe even a third

group of other people. Like, you know, there's a good

way to discern, but called to speak something into the world,

usually a word of judgment. But the net result is always

peace with God. It might take a while, right?

So we see this with the exile and with the prophetic word

that's spoken over Israel. Like you'll be driven out of of

your land. Ultimately, though, it's so that

you can be brought back into peace with God.

So I think that's the other thing is, yeah, it is that still

necessary? Yes, the outcome.

So you better be crystal clear and sure and certain that that's

the outcome that we're working toward because I think again,

just naturally, right, we can kind of read our own things into

it and go, well, Jesus did this. I don't like what's going on

over here, so I'm gonna go flip some tables like we say, right

And like, Hey, back up a not Jesus be like what he's doing

here is to draw the temple back into its like Kingdom purpose,

right. So it had been taken out of

alignment and was used in ways that profited on the backs of

those who are the most poor. And so it really was operating

in an unjust manner. What Jesus does here is speak

prophetically in a way that draws it back into its Kingdom

purpose. So what I'm, what I'm

envisioning is, is that there are going to be followers of

Jesus who rightfully are, are looking at a, a situation in, in

our, in our world, perhaps even in their, in their church or

their city, their country, and are saying like, Hey, this isn't

right. Yeah, this isn't right.

And, and there is like they're moved to action in some way.

And I think there actually is something beautiful about that,

that, that when we see something that is unjust, that God stirs

in our hearts to say or do something about it.

Not in a rogue, you know, because I think that's what you

talking about with, you know, community and what not.

I'm not just going in some rogue fashion like you're not going to

like like there are what I what I'm, what I'm picturing is being

like a potentially bad way to go about it would be like, hey,

something's happening in the church service that someone

doesn't like and they're just gonna interrupt it.

Right. Yeah, that's probably not gonna

go so well. Probably not gonna go so well,

Yeah. I mean, there could be a

circumstance where there is something so completely unjust

happening that that maybe, maybe that ought to happen.

But like, you better be like real darn sure.

Yeah. You know, anyway.

Yeah. So, OK, just to kind of name the

thing which I think you're talking around in in some sense.

So Jesus entrance, there's, there's, I know I wanna be

careful with my words here, but generally I always want to be

careful with my words, hopefully, but you know, more so

with what I'm about to say. So Jesus enters Jerusalem and

he's declared to be king. So people are saying, you know,

shouting hosanna to the son of David.

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

Like they are ascribing kingship to Jesus.

That's a political statement. Yeah, right.

So, so much so that people in the city are stirred up.

We talked a little bit about how that word actually means

shocked. Like it, it's not like, it's not

like they're stirred emotionally.

It's not like they're kind of feeling like, oh, cool.

Like this is like how nice and. And like, they're not like, it's

not like a happy, sappy, emotional, like that was so

moving, right? Like they're shocked and, and

even a little bit afraid. Like that's the, the degree to

which this word I think can be missed sometimes.

So they're stirred, they're stirred up in some some

translations. And so, so much so they go out

and they ask, who is this? Like, who's this guy who's

coming in who people are declaring to be king?

What's going on? And that is a political move.

Hmm. And Jesus embraces it.

Now, what happens then is, I think, a religious move.

He moves into the temple and I think it's important to name

that for Jesus. These are not different things

happening like so we, you know, in the West modern, whatever

sort of current contemporary society has worked very hard to

separate church and state, right?

Right. So it's baked into the American

Constitution. It's it's.

Not it's. Not in Canada, but but we we

generally try to have fairly strong lines.

Functionally. Functionally, that's a

completely different topic for another day.

Yes. How like we don't have

technically separation of church and state, but functionally

vastly more. And in the states there's

technical like constitutional separation of church and state,

way less separation like, right. It's, it's interesting how those

things got different, different, different conversation for

another day. But you know, so in general we

say, you know, separation of these two things.

We in everyday language use language like the sacred and the

secular or the holy and the mundane.

And what we're saying is that there are certain things in

life, they're wholly certain things that are religious,

certain things that are of God and spiritual and other things

that are not, that are mundane, that are secular, that are not

wholly or not religious, that that have, you know, we, we

speak about these two realms or two realities that are

completely separated. And, you know, I think that's

the general consensus about how life should be.

There's internal life that you can have your own belief and

your own belief system, but publicly you can't allow that

belief system to impact anything you do.

You have to act differently in public than you do in private.

Like these are ways that I think they're just baked into modern

society for Jesus, A those distinctions never existed.

So to say that something was secular isn't a thing.

To say that something is sacred isn't a thing.

And we don't see it baked into his theology either.

So immediately what we see is this, this, this marriage of a

political statement about Jesus and a religious statement about

Jesus. Jesus is the king.

He's the intimacy, Kelly's language.

He's the final king of the world.

Sounds kind of like the final boss in Mariota.

But like, anyways, it's like he's the final king of the

world. And what that means is that he

is the king over everything, over all that we as humans would

name political, and over all that we as humans would name

secular, and overall that we as humans the name religious or

sacred or holy. And he brings all of it

together. So he's making a political

claim. He's making a political

statement, which in many ways is why he was crucified, because

this is a political claim. His kingship is an affront to

King Herod, but more so to Caesar, right?

Caesar is in Rome like Caesar is is God.

And so for Jesus to come in and make this political claim is

also he's also making a religious claim, right.

And to make a religious claim like to to say, hey, I'm going

to go straight to the temple to the heart of religion.

What he's saying is that all of this matters and all of it is

broken and all of it needs to be redeemed.

And that's what this that's what Holy Week is about.

So for us, the challenge is we can take this sideways in so

many different. Ways I'm in, I'm imagining all

of. It.

So let me name two of them. Yeah, one, we can buy into the

separation and go wholesale in that direction.

Yeah. And say, you know, my religion

is my religion, your religion is your religion.

And fine, if we can talk nice, great.

But like, we're gonna stay so far out of the public.

Sphere little boxes, yeah. And like, you know, don't let

like I'm not gonna let my religion impact my politics.

And I think to do that is to air like I think that's an error to

go to the degree that you say, you know, everybody just hold

your own internal beliefs will all just try to get along in

public, you know, anyways, I think you can see where that

goes. Now.

There's another error, though, on the other side of the

pendulum, which is to say we are going to take back church and

state for God, and we are going to create finally a good

Christian nation where everybody is saved.

And so you go like the, the, the, the Christian, like the,

the, the caricaturized, like Christian nationalist, right,

who, who does the like? We're taking back our country

like for God. And we don't care what that

looks like or how many people we hurt along the way.

If you're not with us, you're against us in a way we like.

And the question is always, well, don't you want your

country to uphold Christian values?

Yes, yes, and also we live in a society and also like, so I

mean, the, the one thing though, is that what kind of Christian

values are we talking? You know, because when I see

what Jesus does here as he, as he goes through this movement

of, of, yes, he's been both religious and political the

whole way along here. He's not trying to reenact or

he's not trying to reinstate Israel's status as, as a

sovereign nation. He's not trying to do that.

He's not trying to clamour for for power.

Yeah, Jesus comes and he comes to surf and he serves all the

way to his death. Hmm.

And and and to me that is like, and maybe I'm jumping the gun

here, but like it feel it feels like that is what is so often

missing from these conversations is like, hey, like, yeah,

Christian values fantastic. Like let's continue to to serve

the poor. Well, let's, let's continue to,

let's continue to build systems that honor God in the way that

we, in the way that we spend our resources and whatnot.

Anyway, I know that there's a million different ways we could

go in that direction. But I just think like just

noticing that Jesus goes about political power and and

religious power in such a different way than our human

minds tends to want it to go. Yeah, absolutely.

So, you know, I, I think I want to read from Philippians in a

minute because I think that that's, I think that's just a

helpful, a healthful framing. Yeah.

Right on how Jesus acted. Yeah.

And so like just to to bolster what you're saying about

embracing like Christ's attitude and strategy of becoming a

servant in Philippians. So I'm reading from Philippians

2 says it's starting in verse 5. Inner relationships with one

another have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who, being in very

nature God, did not consider equality with God something to

be used to his own advantage. That's where we go wrong all the

time, right? Yeah.

So did not consider equality with God something to be used to

his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing,

taking on the very nature of a servant being made in human

likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled

himself and becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

And so we like we wrestle with that not considering equality

with God something to be used to his own advantage.

I think that perpetually the what human brokenness and sin

points us and leads us toward is that piece using things to our

own advantage. Yes, and so I, I do think that

the the best route for the Christian is to embrace this

same mindset as Jesus in becoming a servant.

Now, does that mean that you should not care about things

politically from a Christian perspective?

No, absolutely not. I think I got that right.

You should absolutely care. We need more Christians who know

what they believe and why they believe it, engaging in the

things of politics, the public sphere of life because of their

belief in Jesus. But what we also need is more,

more people not using positions of power to their own advantage,

which we also see, you know, wrestling out.

So I think that's like that's, that's a hard thing to do.

You can only do that, you know, You certainly can only do that

with community and accountability and people around

you like you. You can't do that on your own.

But I do think that it's there's a way forward for Christians to

care deeply about the things that are going on in our world

because otherwise, like man, otherwise I just, I see and I

hear and we talk to people about this all the time.

I see people go, I care so deeply about what is happening

and I can do so little. I'm exhausted all the time.

So I'm just going to ignore all of it.

Yeah. And I go, that is, I get it and

I understand. And it is such a sad response.

And like I said, like if that's you right now, if you're

listening like 0 condemnation because we've sat in that spot

and perpetually almost in that spot, right of like.

Just overwhelmed and like, absolutely, yeah.

And it's like I've just this, it's too much.

I can't handle anymore. I just need to like delete all

the apps and not watch any news for a while and.

That was the summer for me. I'm like, I'm done with all

things digital. I'm like, yeah, absolutely.

But what we, what you can do, what you can do is in your

circle of influence, you can choose to serve others.

Yeah. And so that like, you know,

there are so many more meaningful like deeper

theological takeaways from Jesus entrance into Jerusalem.

But, but if we're talking about like the most practical thing

that you can do, yeah, tomorrow, like so we're recording this on

Monday. So I'm like, by Tuesday, if this

thing's out and you're listening Wednesday, like the most

practical thing you can do is choose to serve people in your

circle and like, push against some of the darkness in the

world. Just you can't do everything

about everything. And we all need to wrestle with

that. Yeah, but you can choose to

serve somebody. You can go out of your way to do

something this week. I'm convinced everybody can do

that. No matter where you are, no

matter where your circle is, I'm convinced everybody can do

something this week. And it's like, OK, it's not the

most like provocative thing to say.

It's not the most like, it's not what it's it's it's not like.

It's not like that's not like the sexy.

Option. No, it's not.

It's not. Like the go out and like, you

know, lead the charge. No, it's like go out and serve

somebody, but all the dude who carries Jesus cross.

Yeah, or, or like, I mean even just like looking at Jesus.

And you touched on this in the sermon of like Jesus coming out

on a donkey, you know? Like.

Baby donkey, right baby donkey, like just a little wussy little

wussy animal, not a War Horse, not anything like that.

Like Jesus comes out on this woozy little creature and he's

like, I'm king, you know, like, and I mean did doesn't even come

with that sort of pump. Like it's there's just something

so different when we, when we just think about, when we think

about worldly powers. Yeah, there's something so

profoundly different about the the way that Jesus goes about it

that is so important for us to notice.

Right, OK, but here's the subversiveness of the gospel and

like of the Kingdom of God is that Jesus does arrive riding on

a donkey and it's not a War Horse.

And he doesn't come in with, you know, the generals and the

military behind him and might and power.

And yet what he accomplishes throughout Holy Week with his

death and resurrection is the single most powerful thing to

happen inside of the course of human history.

Hmm, right. So it's not like it, it is like

I agree with you. It's it's almost comical.

Like it is this, it's a donkey and with a cult like there's a

baby donkey beside and he's not doing the pomp and circumstance

thing. And yet it's the most powerful

thing that has happened and will happen like inside of human

history. Like this is this is this is the

rescue of the entire world happening through Jesus death.

And that's why like it is it is such a backwards upside down

Kingdom. But really, and this is like, I

love anti rights language. He's like, you all call this an

upside down Kingdom. But really what he's doing is

setting everything right. Yeah, he's he's taking

everything that was upside down and writing it.

So he's he's writing the ship, He's writing the like, it's not

an upside down Kingdom. He's a you all y'all are upside

down and what Jesus does here is write everything.

So you know, I think that I would caution the listener and

even myself because I get this like well, what good is this

small like sure, I can go and serve somebody today and I'm

like you have no idea what God is going to do with that little

act of service in his right side up Kingdom.

Like you have no clue and I just want to So one thing and I'm not

sure where we're at on time but we close to be wrapping up.

So 2 weeks ago when I did preach for 52 minutes.

Not that this had anything to do with it, but I've been feeling

this like nudge of the Holy Spirit to do like a halfway

altar call. A Presbyterian.

So that doesn't that doesn't hardly exists.

Yeah. So didn't invite people up to

the front, which would be like the typical traditional sort of

fit whatever. All right, we invite everybody

to the front, but did at the end of praying after the sermon,

invite people who wanted to to receive Jesus, follow Jesus,

accept Jesus to be Lord and Savior for the first time.

Raise your hands. And so I think we have three

people raise their hands very first time with three people

raise their hands were preaching on the prodigal son.

So like identifying with that older brother being, hey, like

my life, I realized something massive needs to change to three

more. So six people make decisions for

Jesus. Yeah.

And in my head, in my head. So my coach, my ministry coach,

he said in in a meeting, he's like, you know, I'm challenging

you to do it. And he's like, if nobody raises

their hand, just know I'm cheering you on.

Like I'm cheering. Like just hear my voice in the

back of your head, I'm cheering you on.

And all week I'm like, wow, it gets it's we've not done this in

my time here. Not in my time.

It, it's not, it's not typically I'm using air quotes here done

in Presbyterian churches, though.

Like we're like the least Presbyterian of the Presbyterian

churches, but still like it's, it's, it felt to me like such a

small thing. I'm like, oh, surely if somebody

wanted to make this commitment, wouldn't they come up and talk

to me after? Like it felt like such a small

thing. And so like, I'm, I'm wrestling

it out as I'm preaching. The plan was to do it and you

knew, like the band knew. But yeah, like the plan was, I'm

still wrestling this thing out as I'm like, it's just small.

Like it felt small. Like what good is it going to

be? Really?

Like what? And and so I got to that to that

prayer and I'm like, no, you know what?

I'm this is something that I like.

I'm sure. I'm certain God has convicted me

to do so We're in it. We're doing it and it's gonna be

clumsy and I'm gonna fumble my way through it.

And I go six. Yeah, people who boldly say I'm

in. Yeah, I go like I so you not.

I don't think anybody would have.

Maybe one person saw this. Like I got down and I went to

straight to the back of the sanctuary and like I wept.

Like I was just, I was crying and I was like, it's like that

never happens after preaching, but like I because just like I

was so stirred up, like in some sense, like I was so.

So God was at work. God showed.

Up. It was fantastic.

And like, I'm so I love what God is doing.

And it just was such a reminder. So to me, it was a reminder to

me that these things that feel like we've convinced ourselves

feel small are not small in the big picture of the Kingdom.

And so Jesus, he shows up on the donkey, he's in Jerusalem.

He's going to do a whole lot of, you know, different things as

authority is going to be questioned.

He's gonna curse some fig trees in Matthew.

Like if you're reading through, I think maybe that would be like

the lingering challenge I would offer any listener is, you know,

we started Matthew 21. And something that you could do

and that I'm going to do between now and Easter is just read from

Matthew 21 through to 27. And that gets us through to the

Friday and to Jesus's death. He's gonna tell some more

parables. Some of them will, you know, I'm

sure sound familiar? But in 26, Jesus will be

arrested and then in in 27, he's gonna be put on trial.

So read all the way through and just remember that like a lot of

these things, like the way Jesus tells parables, he's like, man,

the Kingdom looks small, but you have no idea how it's going to

explode. And what you think you know,

should be the, the, the, the correct operating system of the

world is not. And so he's going to, he's going

to walk us toward his death and then his resurrection by telling

these parables like the Kingdom of God is like, it's like he's

going to feel small and it's going to look tiny.

And you have no idea what it, what God is going to do with it.

So do something, pick something that you can do this week to

serve others and you have no idea what God is going to do

with it. Yeah, I think that's enough of

me talking once you take us home.

You know this has been great and hopefully I was worried we're

gonna little rusty because it's been a while, but hey here we

are made it to the end. I hopefully there's some great

stuff for you to chew on as we head into Holy Week.

And yeah, take some take some moments this week to just be

still and to read some of these passages.

Just take it in. Don't let this week go by

without just spending time with God, serving others, just being

present and seeing what God does.

So that's our prayer for you all and for ourselves as well as we

as we go into this week. And so we hope to see you next

time. And we hope to see you if you're

watching this in real time, we hope to see you this weekend,

Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Have a great week.