Jesus The - Messiah

All right, today we're finishing a short little

series called Jesus the, Jesus the. We started

with Jesus the good shepherd, and then Pastor

Jen last week preached a sermon, Jesus the sharp

-tongued and soft -hearted. It reminded me of

something that Dr. King wrote. He said, the greatness

of our God lies in the fact that he is both tough

-minded and tender -hearted. God expresses his

tough -mindedness in his justice and his tender

-heartedness in his love and grace. Moments marked

with difficult words are important, but they

have lasting effect when they are motivated by

a tender heart. This week, I was thinking about

how there's a lot of words in Christianity or

in religion in general that maybe we're not all

familiar. And so I thought I would just do a

little pop quiz, not really a quiz, but you tell

me if you know what this word means. Feel free

to shout it out. Eschatology. Yeah, yeah. End

times, it's the study of last things. So the

creed actually covers, there's a whole clause

in the creed that we just said that talks about

the return of Christ and what happens in last

things. This one's a little harder. What about

the hypostatic union? The hypostatic union. All

right, so maybe you've heard of incarnational.

Jesus was incarnational. That is describing the

event of God and man coming together, that God

was born into Jesus. Jesus is incarnationally

God present with human. Hypostatic union is the

fancy word for describing the how of the what.

The what is incarnational. The how is the hypostatic

union. How about the septuagint? The Septuagint.

It is the first part of the Bible. The first

part of the Bible is usually called the Torah

or the Pentateuch. But the Greek translation

from 70 Jewish scholars 250 years before the

birth of Christ was called the Septuagint. Septuagint

meaning 70. LXX. So you might hear it called

the 70. You might hear it called the Septuagint.

And it's named that because of the number of

scholars that were part of translating the Old

Testament into a Greek Old Testament. Okay, so

here's a more common one, a little easier one.

We call Jesus, Jesus Christ, but what does Christ

mean? According to the Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary,

the word Christ entered the English from the

Latin through the Greek Christos. So it's not

far off. Greek is Christos, okay? The other day,

my dad was telling my kids a joke. Where's my

dad? He's telling my kids a joke. He goes, did

I ever tell you guys I know every language? He's

telling Wallace and Adley, I can speak every

language except for Greek, but I can speak every

language. Just trust me. And they go, they're

all French. Ah, that's Greek to me. Give me another

one. Hey, so if you're ever like, Greg, you need

better jokes. This is where I get it. It's not

my fault. It's in my genetic code. Now, outside

of the Bible and religious writings, Christos,

the Greek word for Christ, is an adjective that

means rubbed on or used as an ancient, as an

ointment or salve. So we could say Jesus the

rubbed on. That doesn't sound right. Or it could

be Jesus the salve. That's a bit closer because

maybe Jesus is a healer. So maybe Jesus the salve.

But this brings me back to the Septuagint. See,

the Septuagint is the Greek translation of the

Hebrew scriptures. And in the Septuagint, Christos

is only ever used another way. So outside the

scriptures, it's used one way. Inside the scriptures,

it's only ever used one way. to describe an anointed

person. So do you see rubbed on, salve? It's

just the closest word they had in Greek for what

was happening in the Hebrew. The original Hebrew

word meant anointed or anointed one. And that

Hebrew word was, anybody? Messiah. So today we're

talking about Jesus, the anointed one, Jesus,

the Messiah. So let's open up our scriptures,

okay? Grab a Bible. There's blue Bibles on the

table. There's Bibles out in the lobby. If you

don't have one, take one home. It is not stealing.

We gave you permission. If you don't have a Bible,

you can download one from any of the digital

app stores. We're going to be in Luke. Luke chapter

Luke 19 · chapter mention

19. Luke is in what's called the New Testament

or the Second Testament. It goes Matthew, Mark,

Luke, John, Acts. If you see any of those books,

you're in the right neighborhood. We're going

to be in Luke chapter 19. We have a tradition

Luke 19 · chapter mention

around here of giving the scriptures our full

attention when they're read in the context of

a sermon. You can do that in whatever way makes

the most sense for you that you'll give the scriptures

your attention. But if you would also like, if

you would like to stand with me as you were able,

you're welcome to do that with me now. I'm going

to be Luke 19, starting in verse 28. It goes

like this. After Jesus had said this, he went

on ahead going up to Jerusalem. As he approached

Bethpage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount

of Olives, He sent two of his disciples saying

to them, go to the village ahead of you. And

as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there,

which no one has ever ridden on. Untie it and

bring it here. If anyone asks you, why are you

untying it? Say, the Lord needs it. Verse 32,

those who were sent ahead went out and found

it just as he had told them. As they were untying

the colt, the owners asked them, why are you

untying the colt? They replied, the Lord needs

it. They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks

on the colt, and put Jesus on it. As he went

along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

When he came near the place where the road goes

down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of

disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud

voices for all the miracles they had seen, saying,

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of

the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.

Let us pray. God of every tribe, every tongue,

every color, every nation, every version of human

being, we thank you for the scriptures that they

have persisted throughout the millennia, that

we still have them to consider, to learn from.

I pray that today as we look at them, that whatever

you had to teach us would stick, that it would

make our faith stronger as we become more like

your son, Jesus. Amen. You can all have a seat.

Thanks, everyone. All right, so this is happening

in the first century in Jerusalem, around the

year probably 30 to 35. And by this point in

history, to be the quote -unquote anointed one,

it did not require a literal touching of oil

to someone's head, okay? The anointed one, the

Messiah. the Christ. By this point, it was a

title. It was a position. It was something that

people were hoping that someone would come along

and fill in the name of God, sent by God to be

this person. It wasn't like in the Old Testament

where the king had to be anointed by the prophet.

This was a moment in time where the actions that

you did became the signs to the people around

you that you might be the Messiah. And so the

anointing didn't have to be literal, but they

were actions and events that could signal that

you were the anointed one. Things that would

make people think, hey, that guy might be the

Messiah that we've been waiting for. And entering

into Jerusalem in this way is one of those things.

Now, we are in 2026. Almost none of us grew up

in Jewish households. None of us grew up in the

first century. So when we read this, there's

things that are lost on us without looking deeper

into it. When we read this, we don't see some

of the meaning that was meant to be seen by the

people that were reading it the first time. But

500 years before this thing happened, a prophet

by the name of Zechariah said this. that there

will be a day when the Lord would appear at the

Mount of Olives. Later you can look it up in

Zechariah 14 .4. And they had come to believe

that this was one of the signs that a Messiah

would have, a sign that salvation was coming

for them from their oppressors. Jesus knew this.

He knew. That all the healings and miracles and

teaching that he had done, all of these things

had people looking to him as though he might

be a Messiah. And now what is happening, knowing

the prophecies that have been told, he is intentionally

fulfilling these words about their freedom. He's

doing things to reinforce the idea that he is

the anointed one. Then he sends his disciples

to go get a donkey. A colt is the foal of a donkey

that has never been ridden before. And this is

one of my favorite verses in all of scripture.

This and in the book of Acts where Philip baptizes

the Ethiopian eunuch because it says he's just

teletransported. And I think it's awesome that

there's teletransportation in the Bible. But

this is like a close second because Jesus says,

hey, I need you to go steal a donkey for me.

And okay, I get it. Yes, he says, all right,

if someone finds you taking that donkey, will

you please say it's for the Lord? But what would

have happened if no one was there to see the

donkey being taken? Then they come home and their

donkey's just gone, right? So it's one of my

favorite Bible jokes that Jesus will ride your

stolen donkey. And for the sticklers, okay, I

did write a more biblically accurate version

of this joke because you are correct. This is

more of a borrowing a donkey situation. So If

you borrow a burrow, Jesus will ride that borrowed

burrow. Again, you can blame the guy in the back

corner. All right, but why a donkey? And why

was it important that this donkey entered the

city in this way? Again, let's go back to Zechariah.

Zechariah 9, verse 9 says this. Rejoice greatly,

Zechariah 9:9

daughter of 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. Again, Jesus knows exactly what

they're expecting. He knows these scriptures.

He knows them by heart. He knows that they're

looking at him as though he is a Messiah, and

he knows the things they will expect a Messiah

to do. They want. A Messiah figure, an anointed

one to appear and enter the city of Jerusalem

from the Mount of Olives riding on a donkey.

A king that's bringing victory to their people.

And then it says that they're spreading their

cloaks on the road, that they're rolling out

the red carpet is essentially what's happening

there. Think about it like this. When your favorite

team wins their championship, When your hockey

team wins the Stanley Cup, when your football

team wins the Super Bowl, when the Cubs and only

the Cubs win the World Series, what happens?

What happens that next week? Yeah, there's a

parade. There's a celebration. Where? In their

city. And what do people do? They line the streets.

They make signs. They wave their flags. If they

could, they would take their jerseys off and

say, no, your feet shouldn't even touch the ground.

The mayor gives them this key to the city. The

people are celebrating saying our city is your

city because you have brought great prides to

us. You have won. This is what they're doing.

They're saying, you are our king. You are bringing

victory. Let us roll out the red carpet for you.

Your feet should not touch the ground. Even the

feet of your donkey should not touch the ground.

That is how highly we think of you. It's a hero's

homecoming. It's what's come to be called the

triumphal entry. Verse 8, they say, blessed is

the king. who comes in the name of the Lord,

peace in heaven, glory in the highest. Jesus

is checking off all the boxes. Mount of Olives,

check. Riding a donkey, check. Triumphal entry,

check. Condition after condition for a Messiah,

the anointed one for a new king. What could possibly

go wrong? Well, Jesus knows exactly what's going

to go wrong because he knew exactly where this

was going. He knew that only days later that

some of these same people would cry for him to

be crucified, that he would be handed over and

betrayed, not by a Pharisee, not by a random

follower, but by one of his own 12 disciples.

And why? Why? The answer to that is because they

wanted him to be the Messiah that they wanted

him to be. Let me explain that. Their idea of

a Messiah was not a peaceful person. Yes, he

would bring peace, but he would bring that peace

at the end of a sword. They believed that that

Messiah would overthrow the oppressors that had

overthrown them. He was betrayed into the hands

of the empire to force his hand into defeating

the enemies that they had. See, he is a good

shepherd, and he has sharp words, but they didn't

want him to have a tender heart. They wanted

him to be a good shepherd with sharp words and

a sharper sword. The biblical scholar William

Barclay and a number of others say that Judas

betrayed Jesus to force the Messiah's hand, because

if he's really a king, if he's really the anointed

one, then he's supposed to fight, not fall. He's

supposed to be aggressive, not passive. He's

supposed to hold a sword, not turn the other

cheek. And so Judas betrays Jesus to force him

to rise up, to fight, to defeat the empire. Because

what? kind of Messiah, when handed over to his

enemies, would allow himself to be killed. Especially

when so many would fight for him. Crowds laying

down their coats. In all the other Gospels, Matthew

and Mark and John, it describes them waving branches,

and John specifically, palm branches. They're

celebrating this guy as a new king. Why wouldn't

they rise up and fight with him? Let's force

his hand. Why would they not fight for their

new king? But Jesus had more in mind than saving

his own life. Jesus could have been an earthly

power. He could have been a kind of king. Colossians

2 .15 tells us, instead, Jesus disarmed the powers

and authorities with his death on the cross.

See, we believe that Jesus defeats empire by

rejecting earthly war and violence. One of, if

not our biggest problem, is that that is just

not what we want. As humans, what we often really

want is war. We want our enemies to be defeated.

We're at war in Iran right now. They're in my

car. I thought about bringing them in. I was

in junior high school when we went to the Gulf

War. Desert Storm, anyone remember that? We love

war so much that they created two lines of trading

cards that were all of the machinery of war,

the tanks and the missiles, the scud, the bunker

busters, the most valuable, Storm and Norman

Schwarzkopf. They're worthless now because they

printed so many of them. But I have the whole

set in my car because I thought, I just want

to rip these things up. Because this is how much

we love war and how much we want to teach our

children to love war. That we create trading

cards of generals. We trade trading cards of

tanks and bombs and guns. of marksmen, of ammunition.

And then we tell kids that it's fun to buy them

and owe them. We completely dehumanize anyone

that dies because of them by trivializing it

into a piece of paper that you trade with a friend.

When Jesus is trading his life so that we can

let... go of the violence, that we can let go

of our need and incessant desire to be at war.

Closer to home, we're regularly at war with each

other. We war with our neighbors. We war with

our political opponents. There are Christian

pastors right now, it's been in the news this

last week and a half, That are literally saying,

I'm not taking what they've said out of context.

They are literally saying that it is okay to

pray for the death of a political opponent that

you believe is, for the sake of conversation,

liberal, but believes these evil things. Fill

in the blank for what those evil things are.

There are Christians, people... that say they

follow Jesus, that are hoping in their heart

of hearts for our president to die. They wake

up in the morning and they ask their friends,

is he dead? These things are anti -Christ. They

are anti -the anointing. These things. are against

the Messiah. They are the opposite of Jesus.

Because when Jesus could have risen up and fought

the empire, he let his life be taken. When he

could have told his friends, grab more swords.

He says, if you live by the sword, you will die

by the sword. We find ourselves here over and

over and over again because just like the ones

that are laying down their cloaks, often we see

what we're looking for. We see the Jesus that

we want to see. If we want to see a Jesus that

hits people with their staff, we can find a passage

that looks like that. If we want to find a Jesus

that never says anything about negative outcomes,

we can find a Jesus. We can pick and choose.

If we want to find a Jesus that condemns you,

you can find that Jesus. They found the Jesus

they were looking for. They found the Messiah.

They saw the things and they said, Okay, he did

all the things, so he has to be the version of

this Messiah that we want him to be. But Jesus

would rather die than be that kind of Messiah.

If Jesus is to be the Messiah, not only of the

first century Jews, but to the whole world, to

us today, to everyone that you know. We have

to ask ourselves, are we only looking for the

Jesus that confirms what we already believe about

him? Do we try and force his hand to be the kind

of Messiah that we want him to be? Do we need

him to ride a donkey? Do we need him to ride

an elephant? Do we need him to wear red or blue?

Because if that's what we need, then we are rejecting

the Jesus that carries a cross. And instead,

he's calling us to do what he has already done.

To lay down our palms. To lay all of our weapons

down. To lay down cloaks. To lay down hate. And

to take up our cross. Lay down our expectations

of what kind of Messiah that we think Jesus has

to be. And let him be the kind of Messiah that

he actually is. Amen? Let's pray. Jesus, thank

you for all of your teachings. Help us to continually

find out who you are. Thank you for this week,

Holy Week, where we remember that people praised

you as a king. But then when they turned, that

you gave your life instead of waging war. Because

you gave your life, you defeated sin. And you

rose to new life, giving us life everlasting.

Show us how to live that. Amen.