Palm Sunday: God Approaches in Humility

So today is Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Good Friday and Easter.

On Palm Sunday, historically, there in Jerusalem where Jesus is entering, the Jewish people from all over Israel would have gathered to celebrate the Passover festival.

So the city would have been packed with Jewish families coming to pick the lamb that they would sacrifice the following Friday, there to uphold the law, to make their sacrifices to be forgiven and to be loved by God.

Now, if you were standing on the Mount of Olives, here's a picture of the Mount of Olives.

There's the Mount of Olives there in Jerusalem today.

And so this is actually, you're kind of standing on almost the Temple Mount of Jerusalem, looking at the Mount of Olives.

That's the Kedron Valley there in the middle.

So that's looking at the Mount of Olives.

But now if we were on the Mount of Olives and we turned back around, we would be looking toward Jerusalem, and we have a picture of that.

There that is.

And so there's the Temple Mount, and there's the eastern wall of the Temple Mount.

There in the eastern wall, there's an eastern gate.

And here's a picture of the eastern gate.

Now that eastern gate was built in the 16th century.

It was bricked up there in the medieval times.

So long after Jesus.

But in 1969, archaeologists found the original gate that Jesus would have walked through underneath this gate that had been demolished and built on top of.

And so Jesus entered there.

He came from Bethany, most likely going over the Mount of Olives, which we saw that picture of, over the Kedron Valley, which we saw that picture of, and into the city through the eastern gate.

The Jewish people called this gate the gate of mercy.

Because in Jewish tradition, this was the gate used on the Day of Atonement for God's atonement for his people.

And you can nerd out all your inner nerd, can go to Leviticus 16, and you can read about that.

But the point is this is that we have today, when we read this passage in Matthew 21, we have the God of mercy entering this city through the mercy gate to give us mercy, to show mercy to us.

So, Matthew 21, let's jump in at verse 4.

This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them.

They brought the donkey and the colt and put them their colts, put on them their cloaks, forgive me, and he sat on them.

So the story says that Jesus then got on and rode into this city, and crowds lined as Jesus was entering.

Now, last week I went and I drove up to Blue Ridge to went and went fishing with a friend.

And I drove into the city of Blue Ridge, and nobody cared.

Nobody, there was not a budge, not even a look.

And I even stopped, I stopped at a little general store, I went in, nobody cared.

Nobody even turned their head.

I bought a cookie.

You would have thought I was bothering the cashier to make this purchase.

Nobody, I cannot stress how much nobody cared that I was there.

Right?

That's what happens when you and I go somewhere.

Nobody cares.

We just go wherever we want, it's not a big deal, no big deal.

Now, Jesus entering Jerusalem is much more like Justin Bieber driving up to Blue Ridge last week and buying a cookie in the general store.

I mean, the word about Justin Bieber buying that oatmeal raisin cookie, admittedly, it was the odd time to buy cookie.

It was 8 30 a.m.

But still, that news of Justin Bieber buying that cookie would have been all over, right?

Yeah.

So that's what this is.

Jesus' reputation at this point, he was being more and more well known.

He was a teaching rabbi.

He was performing miracles.

He was saying extravagant things.

And now he's coming into Jerusalem during Passover.

All these people are there.

And not only that, this is a time when uprisings would occur in the people.

So the crowds are everywhere.

They're gathering.

And so just before he enters, that's when Jesus sends two disciples to go get this donkey for him.

And Jesus entered on a donkey, which is a symbol.

It's a symbol.

He's not on a war horse.

He's not on a symbol of power.

It's a symbol of humility.

Point number one is this God approaches you in humility.

God approaches you in humility.

If you want to know what his regard to you, how he approaches you, how he pursues you, he's doing that with a humble heart.

In the Augustiniurch Museum in Germany, there's a very old wooden sculpture entitled Christ on a Donkey.

Here's this sculpture.

It was a sculpture made back in the 1300s, and it was made to be pulled on a cart in a Palm Sunday procession.

So it was made in a worshipful environment, this sculpture, Christ on a donkey.

If we look at Jesus' face in the sculpture, this sculpture, this wooden sculpture is this long, slender face.

And it's a symbol.

It's a symbol that Jesus has knowledge.

He has knowledge that a cross stands between him and victory.

Priest and author Henry Nowen, he spent an afternoon praying while gathering, while gazing on this piece of art.

And he he wrote this while gazing on this long, slender, sort of grieving face of Jesus.

He wrote, I look and look and look, and I know that he sees the depths of my heart.

I do not have to be afraid.

I mean, how amazing is that?

That God's approach toward you, the way that he wants relationship to work, is in such humility on his side that he could know the depths of your heart.

I mean, I don't want you to know the depths of my heart.

That would not be good.

I don't want to know the depths of your heart, right?

That's why it's down in my heart.

That's why it's down in your heart.

It's for nobody else to know.

It would not be good for any of us to know all that information.

And that God could know all of that, and that he could still love you, that we could be fully known and fully loved.

Now, this is because of Christ's love and humility.

Because all of our sin is taken upon him, and his righteousness is given to us, so he can fully know us and he can fully love us.

It's possible even this week.

I mean, this week, we had some good weather this week.

I mean, spring's out, dogwoods are blooming.

I mean, Tuesday, I think Tuesday was an amazing day.

It was beautiful out.

I mean, I stopped, got a racetrack treat.

You got Dave Matthews being playing.

I mean, that's just my life.

I mean, it's good.

And then the phone can ring.

Right?

I don't know if that happened this week.

It could happen last week, it might happen next week.

And then the phone rings.

Like, everything's so good.

It's springtime.

It's live.

Let's yes, wonderful.

And then the phone rings, or you get the email.

Or you do that thing and you thought you wouldn't do it again.

You say that thing, and you wish you could bring it back, and you can't.

They said the thing and it threw you off for like two days.

I mean, all that can happen.

All of a sudden, disappointment, the disappointment that you haven't told anybody about, can come into your life.

See, I'm just saying, there's a lot to be afraid of.

There's a lot to be afraid of.

I mean, what if you don't get the relationship you're hoping for?

What if you don't get the security you wanted?

What if you don't get the financial thing you want?

What if you don't get peace?

What if you don't get comfort?

What if you don't get respect?

What if the thing that you are really afraid of actually happens?

He knows all of you.

He knows his fears, he knows his anxieties, he knows the mistakes.

And he loves you.

He knows the depths of our hearts, and we don't have to be afraid.

That's amazing.

And Jesus can do this because Christ's love for us is one of humility and sacrifice.

And when he comes into Jerusalem, he knows exactly where he's going.

He is headed toward the cross to take our sin upon himself and give us his righteousness.

That's an incredible gift that we live in.

I love the scene in C.S.

Lewis's Narnia book, The Magician's Nephew.

Diggory and Polly, two characters, are hopping around different worlds.

Eventually they end up in Narnia.

When they end up in Narnia, creation is blooming.

Creation is coming into being.

And it's coming out of the sweetest song that they've ever heard.

And here's what Lewis writes They made you feel excited until you saw the singer himself.

And then you forgot everything else.

It was a lion.

Huge, shaggy, and bright.

It stood facing the rising sun.

Its mouth was wide open in song, and it was about 300 yards away.

Like you kind of you know about how far away a lion is, right?

Yeah, that's just good.

300's good.

Like, I don't want too close here.

A couple chapters later, Diggory, he gets up the courage to ask something of the lion.

He's scared to death to voice this huge impossibility in his life to this lion because he's like, he doesn't know if he can bargain with this lion.

Is this a creature you bargain with?

Here's what it's written.

But please, please, won't you, this is Digree talking, won't you, can't you give me something that will cure mother?

Up till then he had been looking at the lion's great feet and the huge claws on them.

Now in his despair, he looked at his face.

What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life, for the tawny face was bent down near his own, and wonder of wonders, great shining tears stood in the lion's eyes.

They were such big, bright tears compared to Diggory's own, that for a moment he felt as if the lion must really be sorrier about his mother than he was himself.

What a beautiful image.

I mean, so many of us are waiting on something.

Maybe we're afraid to ask of something, and we don't have to be.

There's no vending machine here, that's for sure.

But we're waiting on something, we're waiting for an answer, waiting for a breakthrough, waiting for something.

What an amazing image that this all-powerful God has such compassion for us, not that he's going to fix everything in our lives, but he says, I'm with you, I'm compassionate with you in a broken world.

That he's for us and with us, that he could know the depths of my heart, and I don't have to be afraid.

Matthew quoted the prophet Zechariah here in Matthew 21 and says, Your king is coming.

Your king is coming.

Can you imagine?

Right?

The boss is coming?

Right?

You put the phone away.

Right?

Put the phone away, straighten the desk, act busy.

Years ago, while I was in seminary, I worked in the business world, and my boss lived in Florida.

Okay, so I was working in Tucker, Georgia.

My boss lived in Florida.

I later married my boss's daughter, by the way, another sermon, how to get that done.

My friend Kyle worked in the marketing department.

My friend Brett was the office manager.

And the three of us were in the conference room one day, you know, right at the meat of the day.

You know, right?

There's a meat of the day in the work world.

You should, you know, like 1045.

Like 1045 is not a time slot.

It's not 3:30.

You know what I'm saying?

Like 1045 is a time slot where you're getting stuff done.

You're really, and we're in the conference room, and Brett and Kyle had on headgear and boxing gloves.

I don't remember where these came from, why they were in our office at all, but our boss lived in Florida.

So we're in the conference room, headgear, boxing gloves.

I'm officiating this fight between the two of them.

They have like one round, we're like at a break point between two rounds.

And sure enough, the king is coming.

And he walks right in the conference room.

He lives in Florida.

We thought we had a buffer, you know, like eight hours.

And he walks in and we freeze.

There's no hiding.

Me, Evander, Mike Tyson, the headgears on.

There's nothing to do here.

We just we stand there, we freeze, right?

Like a little afraid.

What's he gonna say?

I'm sort of bracing myself for like the verbal lashing about work ethic, time management, integrity, right?

Like some really like true things here in this situation.

And he looks at us, I'm sure he's thinking, I hired these people, full of potential, and this is what I have in my business.

And then he just started laughing.

And he just said, get back to work.

That was it.

Just laughed and put us back to work.

See, when I thought I would be met with condemnation, when I when I deserve to be met with condemnation, uh, there's just compassion.

And you know what's amazing?

And this is why the gospel works.

And when I mean works, it doesn't fix you, it doesn't undo a broken world.

I mean it gives you a rest and helps you grow.

It's because compassion, when you deserve condemnation, does something in you.

Right?

That compassion toward me created more loyalty to my boss.

I mean, I I even married his daughter.

I mean, that's how loyal this moment was.

I was just like, I'm all in.

Like, I'm really all in here.

He's not just my authority, but he's also compassionate toward me.

That's powerful.

Powerful to receive compassion when you don't always have your act together.

And Jesus is coming into a city that doesn't understand why he's coming.

They will reject him, they will crucify him, and he's still coming to save them.

Verse 8, Matthew 21.

Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.

And when he had entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirring up, saying, Who is this?

And the crowd said, This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.

Point number two is this our salvation is not in better circumstances.

And I kind of I just time out.

I don't like this point.

Okay?

Like the first half of that point, I'm already like, don't like it.

Don't really want to hear it.

But um, it's true.

Our salvation is not in better circumstances.

Our salvation is in a savior and healer for our hearts.

So Jesus is on this donkey, and the people, they're they're actually laying palms down.

That's why we have called Palm Sunday.

They're laying palms down on the street.

They're singing from the book of Psalms, Hosanna to the son of David.

Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna the highest, is straight from the Psalms.

Here's what's going on here.

Many of these people thought Jesus was coming to create earthly power to save them from Rome, their political power over them.

Probably 200,000 people, Jewish pilgrims there in the city for Passover.

Many were in debt.

They were overtaxed.

They had had it with Rome.

And so they're seeing this leader come in at a time where there would be uprisings, and they're saying, yes, come on, let's do this.

Let's rise up.

And so they're laying down those palms, which are nationalistic symbols.

They're saying, save us from Rome.

Free us.

Save us because we're weak, but they think that the saving that they need is a national saving, a political saving.

And Jesus is about something much more profound than that.

Jesus is about our hearts.

So no matter where you live or what system you live under, that it's the heart.

The core of who they were.

Now, here's why I don't like this point about circumstances, because I love circumstances.

Tomorrow I'm gonna get in my car with my family.

We're gonna drive to St.

Simon's for a few days for spring break.

I'm gonna sit on the beach.

I'm at the age of parenting where I get to read a book on the beach.

Some of you don't even know I'm talking about.

I'll explain it.

Let me.

What you do is you get a chair and get a book and then you read it.

You don't even care where your kids are.

It's an amazing thing.

Remember when you used to read books.

So here's how parenting works.

You used to read books on the beach, and then you don't for 10 years, and then you read a magazine because you can look up and down and up and down.

And then you graduate to where I'm at, and you just read a book.

It's amazing.

I'm gonna do it.

I'm gonna do that with a fun little drink, some sort of drink.

I'm already planning this out.

I'm gonna go sit in a hot tub.

I'm gonna look at the ocean.

I'm gonna walk on the beach.

I'm gonna eat some shrimp.

I'm gonna try to eat shrimp multiple times.

I am gonna try, I'm I'm trying in a few days to pretend like everything in my life is perfect, right?

Like I love a good circumstance.

I love dreamy circumstances.

The sad thing is, which we're all discovering, is we can only incrementally at best improve our lives with circumstances.

I'll admit, we can.

We can improve our lives with some circumstances.

I want you to improve your life with circumstances.

Like I think you should organize your pantry this afternoon.

That would be a great idea.

It could really help.

You should get a workout plan, fund your 401k.

These are all things we should do.

But we have to remember what we keep learning always is that circumstances have a limit.

Like when it comes to the heart, whether your sock drawer is organized or not, it's not gonna, it's not gonna do anything for your heart.

You still have to deal with self-worth, guilt, shame, acceptance, forgiveness, righteousness, control, loneliness, identity, brokenness, suffering, disappointment, death.

Circumstances can't save us.

They can incrementally improve our lives, but they can't save us.

They can't love us.

Two questions for our hearts to contemplate, asking the Holy Spirit to help us contemplate.

The compassionate Father, in what ways do I overly rely on circumstances for my worth, joy, peace, or security?

So another way to ask the same question is that, Lord, where am I giving too much power to circumstances?

I'm just giving too much power to them.

And in that way I'm actually a slave to them.

Second question.

Compassionate Father, what freedom might I know as I rest deeper in your provision of love, forgiveness, and acceptance of me.

We are free in Jesus, and yet we are still discovering how free we can be.

Point number three.

God is strong and chooses to be weak.

That's what we see here.

He's on a donkey, he's headed toward the cross.

God is strong and chooses to be weak, so you can be weak as you are, which makes you strong.

Paul writes about this, 2 Corinthians 12, 9 through 11.

But he said to me, this is the Lord speaking to Paul, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

It's in our weakness that we can know strength, because in our weakness we finally admit that we're not perfect.

We need help.

Verse 10 For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.

For when I am weak, then I am strong.

See, we can finally admit the thing that we've been avoiding, and we try to avoid, and we build all sorts of unhealthy things in our lives in this avoidance, and that is that we're not that strong.

And we're not perfect.

And we don't avoid it anymore.

And the grace of God, we don't have to avoid that.

That's the good news that Jesus shows up in our weakness, taking it on our sin.

Put upon the cross as righteousness given to us.

So while we are still weak and sinful, we were made new in his strength so that we might be made new in him and we might be strong.

So in our weakness as we are, we are found and we can become strong through his strength.

Now after Jesus enters the city, he entered the temple, he goes and we get that scene where he turns the tables of the merchants, right?

Because they're making money off of faith, and he just makes them so furious, he turns those tables.

Then the next morning he returns again there to the temple.

He starts teaching parables.

All the religious people are asking him questions, teaching all these parables.

And right before, right before he leaves the temple, he teaches this short parable.

It's one of my favorite parables.

Very short, it's kind of odd, weird little parable.

And it's about God as a mother hen.

Here's how it goes.

And it begins with, which I think what's going on here as Jesus comes into Jerusalem, he has this sadness that there's these people, the very people he's trying to love, and they're rejecting them.

Which is what we do.

We do it with our rebellion, our escapism, we do it with our religious merit and our performance, rather than just saying, like, I'm empty-handed, I actually do need you.

So he has the sadness.

Listen to it, Matthew 23, 37.

Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem.

Right?

There's that sadness.

Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.

How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings?

And you were not willing.

See, your house is left to you desolate.

For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

So Jesus is both grieving that these people are rejecting his kingship and his love for them, and yet he's saying that his heart is to gather them.

Like my heart's to gather you and welcome you and accept you and provide for you, like a mother hen.

That's what he's saying.

So Jesus is saying here in this parable, the same thing that we see in Palm Sunday.

Jesus on a donkey, riding into Jerusalem, headed to the cross, that Jesus' love is strong.

It is strong for you, and it is humble for you.

It is pursuing and is providing.

This holy week begins with Hosanna.

It moves towards, think about Thursday night, Monday, Thursday.

Jesus washes his disciples' feet, teaches us what it means to be a disciple, that we would be the kinds of people that wash feet.

But we have to begin with the receiving from him.

It goes to crucify him on Friday.

It is finished.

All of our sin, all your sin put upon the cross as righteous given to us.

And next Sunday, one week from today, we get to come together and we get to celebrate that death is not the final word.

Despair is not the final word, disappointment, brokenness, hurt, sin, guilt, shame, not the final word in our lives or in this world.

And we get to say next week, He is risen.

Let's pray together.

God, we come before you and we thank you that you approach us, not in power to squash us, zap us, condemn us, but you approach us in a humility.

From a love that is strong and pure and holy and just and takes on all the ways we are broken and sacrifices and gives to us the full stature, the status of being your holy righteous children, not by our work, but by your work.

Father, forgive us for the ways that we don't understand who you are for us.

Forgive us for the ways that we reject you in our rebellion or reject you in our religion.

And help us to live as people to receive from you.

May we receive the welcome, the acceptance, the sacrifice.

That we do not have to continue to make the sacrifices, but we receive the final sacrifice.

Jesus Christ for us while we are sinners.

Thank you that you are the God of mercy entering through the mercy gate.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.