3/28/21 Luke 19:28-40 “Let’s Celebrate!”

26 Mar 3/28/21 Luke 19:28-40 “Let’s Celebrate!”

3/28/21    Luke 19:28-40        “Let’s Celebrate!”

Do you remember when you were a kid when it was just before Christmas and you got really excited about all the presents and food that you were about to have?  This is kind of how I feel about Easter only there will not be any presents.  I get all excited about Easter and what better way to start than to have a celebration on Palm Sunday.  I love it when the children come in with all the palm leaves.  They are waving them and maybe poking each other a little bit.  They are having a good time.  This is a parade and we all have fun at parades.  When we lived in West Fargo, they had a parade every Sept.  The kids had a lot of fun and we did too.  There was one thing that amazed me about that parade.  It never rained during the parade when we were there.  I always thought that God loved parades and that is why there was no rain.  We did have a couple times when it rained before and after the parade but not during it.  It didn’t rain on our parade!  Today we are going to look at how Luke described the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem.  I would like to see if we can figure out why this is such a happy time for us.

I would like to begin with an old fictitious story about a minister who went to the hospital to visit one of his parishioners who was very sick.  He found the man hooked up to many different tubes, wires and monitors.  Being a very exuberant and passionate pastor, he decided that he would try to exhort the man to good cheer.  So, he began and soon the man was waving his arms.  The more he waved his arms the more excited the pastor got and the more he exhorted the man with enthusiasm.  Soon the pastor thought that he had said enough.  He ended with a long prayer.  When he opened his eyes again, he found that the patient had written a note to him on a piece of paper.  He handed him the note and turned his head and died.  The pastor was thinking that he had gotten there in just the nick of time and then he read the note.  It said, “You are standing on my oxygen hose.”  Sometimes people get excited about one thing and we are excited about something else.  The crowd that lined the road cheering and waving their arms during the triumphal entry of Jesus would soon be cheering for his execution.  They changed in just a few short days.

As we begin today, we find that Jesus is sending two disciples ahead to get a donkey from the town.  The first people we meet here are the owners of the colt.  We really don’t know very much about these people.  There has been much speculation about them.  Some say that Jesus knew about this in advance and had already talked to the owners about borrowing the colt.  Others say that during the Passover, it was common that people would loan their donkeys to the travelers.  However, I would rather view the owners as believers or at least they knew the voice of God.  It is not very hard for me to believe that God had already told them that someone was coming for the colt.

The reason that I think this is because of the conversation.  The two disciples just go up to this place and start to untie the colt.  I think that this is enough to get just about anyone on edge a little.  If you came into my yard and got into my car and started it up, I would ask you, “What are you doing?”  It is no different here when the owners might ask, “Why are you untying the colt?”  I think that they were caught red handed.

I want you to think for a moment if you were part of this scenario.  First of all, would you have the guts to do something like this if God told you to do it?  Or would you have some reservations or maybe refuse to do it at all?  And when you get caught by the owners, would you try to explain yourself in worldly terms?  You might say that you were sent here and there was supposed to be a donkey here for you to take.  These would be logical things to say to me if you were about to take my car.  But notice what the disciples said, “The Lord needs it.”  That is all they said and that is exactly what Jesus had instructed them to say.  And this is all that the owners needed to hear.  It seems to me that these owners were some believers who knew that God was speaking to them.  They were being obedient.  Far too often we have trouble when we try to insert our own thoughts and feelings when we are just to obey God.  Think about this a little as you go about your life and things don’t always turn out good.  Maybe you are not following God.

So, they bring the colt to Jesus and they put their cloaks on it and then Jesus gets on.  Jesus is coming to Jerusalem in great humility.  There would have been an estimated 1-3 million people there for the Passover.  Many of these people knew about Jesus and all the things that He could do.  Word of his miracles had spread throughout the area.  He was very popular.  This is one of the reasons why the Pharisees had to have his trial so early in the morning before the people were awake.  But Jesus chooses to enter the city on a donkey when He could have had a limousine.

And Jesus had his reasons for this.  First of all, He was fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9 by riding in on the colt of a donkey.  I have touched on this before that this colt had never been ridden.  I would be the first one to confess that I really don’t know much about riding donkeys or horses.  You folks probably know far more than I ever will about these things.  But I think that it would be safe to say that God had His hand in on this.  That colt would never allow itself to be ridden like this under normal circumstances or any circumstances.  This was basically a wild donkey.  I think the term is the donkey had never been broken.  But I also think that the colt gets it.  He is like the donkey in the story of Balaam.  There we had a donkey that could actually speak.  This colt somehow knows that Jesus is God and he is going to be on his best behavior with the Son of God on his back.

I love stories like this where the animal gets the picture or understands but we often don’t.  I am sure that there may be someone here today saying that it is impossible for a donkey to know this and it is impossible for one to speak as he did in the Old Testament story.  If you start out with the premises of science, then you will reach this conclusion.  It is the conclusion of most of this country today.  However, I dare you to start in the Bible.  If we start out with the premise of God is who He says He is, then we will not have to have any more premises about anything.  If God is all knowing, all powerful, and can do anything, then these donkeys will listen and do what He tells them to do.

In other words, if you start out with donkeys that can’t speak or understand, then the question is why.  The answer would be that they are not built that way so it physically cannot happen.  The question is why.  Again, we go back to genetics and all of that stuff and we come to the same question, why.  We can do this all the way back to ‘how were the original donkeys made.’  This can go all the way back to ‘how did the world begin.’  Again, we come to the story about the super smart scientist and God having a contest.  The scientist thought that he was smarter than God and could now build a human without God, so they had a contest.  The scientist went to gather dirt to make his human and God stopped him and said, “Get your own dirt.”  Science cannot answer these questions without you having a lot of faith in science.  But if you start out with God making the first dirt, then it all falls neatly into place and the only faith you need is faith in God.  It is quite simple but we are getting so smart that we have to try to make it quite complicated.

So, this donkey knew what he was doing as he fulfilled the prophecy.  Jesus also did this to show that He was coming in peace.  If a king rode into the city on a great horse, then he was showing that he had conquered something or someone.  However, if he rode in on a donkey, he was showing that he was coming in peace.  Jesus is coming to them in peace.  This is a peace that no one could understand.  We don’t understand it today.  It is a peace that defies logic.

So, we have Jesus coming to Jerusalem in humility.  But He is also coming to Jerusalem in victory.  This parade is a victory parade.  The people have lined the streets.  They are shouting out praises.  They are laying down palm branches before Him.  They are laying down their cloaks to be walked upon.  They are honoring a king.  I want you to think about laying down their cloaks for a minute.  These people were mostly from out of town.  They didn’t have suitcases.  Chances are they only had the clothes they were wearing with them.  When they lay down their cloaks, they have to make sure that they get them back.  There are a million or so people there so there could have been a lot of confusion.  And also think of how these clothes would have been soiled by people and animals walking on them.  Just this small act could have been an act of great sacrifice.  But this is a victory celebration for a king so this is what they are doing.

When we read this today, we often times think that this is anything but a victory celebration for Jesus.  Right before this is the shortest verse in the Bible in John 11:35 which says, “Jesus wept.”  He knows that the people who are celebrating are doing this for all the wrong reasons.  He knows what He must face in the coming week.  I used to always show The Passion of the Christ to the confirmation class.  The horrors that Jesus went through on Good Friday were almost unbelievable.  The really sad part of this is that this type of torture is happening today in many parts of the world.  Jesus knows all of these things and still this is a celebration.

It is the disciples here who are leading the way with the cheering.  They are shouting out for all to hear, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!  Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”  The disciples are praising Jesus as God as they enter Jerusalem.  I would guess that the crowd picks up on this as they have already laid down their palm branches and cloaks.  This is an exciting moment.  Everyone is getting into the spirit and this is turning into a joyful celebration.

Everyone that is except the Pharisees.  I don’t know what we would ever do without the Pharisees!  These guys would be the downfall of any party.  They are a wet blanket.  Can’t you just hear them telling Jesus, “Hey, settle your disciples down a little.  Let’s not get carried away here.  This is just getting out of hand.”  If we think about it, these guys have been real downers for the whole of Jesus’ ministry.  They are real naysayers.  Every time something happens, they are there to point fingers of doubt.

The trouble is that today we still have them.  They are telling you and me that we cannot teach that certain behaviors are really sins because this might offend someone.  Dr. Suess is offensive!  They are telling us that we have 15 genders.  They tell us that the only way to grow a church is through more praise music.  They tell us that we can’t believe certain parts of the Bible because science cannot prove them yet.  These people can make our lives miserable and they do.  My question is “Whatever happened to the idea that Jesus Christ is God and that He can do anything?”  My goodness, we are not dealing with a textbook here.  We are praising and honoring our God who is almighty!  He is everything!

And Jesus tells us this in verse 40 when He tells the Pharisees, “I tell you if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”  The stones will cry out!  How in the world can this happen?  Just a moment ago we said the same thing about donkeys.  If we start with science we have to keep asking why and we work our way back to a non-explained beginning.  But if we start with God, then we know that stones can talk and donkeys can talk and anything in the world can talk if God desires it.

Jesus shows us that He wants us to celebrate His finally making it to Jerusalem.  If He didn’t want us to celebrate, He wouldn’t have said anything about the stones shouting for joy if the disciples couldn’t.  Jesus knows what is going to happen and He wants us to celebrate anyway.  These things that happen during Holy Week must happen.  He must go to the cross and He must die.  All these things must happen so that we can live 2000 years later.  As sad as this week will be, these events must happen. Today will just be a warm up for the celebration that we can have next Sunday.

Don’t be afraid to let joy fill your heart today.  We all have things going on in our lives that help us to be very busy.  We all have problems that sometimes seem insurmountable.  Some of us may have financial problems, family problems, marital problems or health problems.  No matter what problems you have or will have, Jesus went to the cross with your name on his lips.  If you don’t know Jesus yet, then confess your sins to him.  Give Him all your problems.  Then ask Him to live in your heart.  This is why Jesus wanted those people to celebrate on that Palm Sunday so many years ago.  He did all those things so long ago so that you will live.  If you know Jesus on a personal basis like this, then you will live on with Him for eternity.

That is what this celebration is all about.  We can still get excited today because we will always have a tomorrow no matter what happens.  I have studied this for many years and I cannot understand this tremendous love He has for us.  But the beauty of all this is that I don’t have to understand it, only accept it.  When I think of all that He has done for me, I want to shout out, “Jesus, I love you!”  Let’s join together and celebrate this wonderful life we have in Jesus.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.