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Preached in Markham Baptist Church, March 16, 2008
 

During our last series entitled Living the Fruitful Life we discovered that Christianity is about a dynamic, close relationship with Jesus Christ. And we were encouraged to draw close to Jesus and let Him be our all.  This morning I will attempt to lift Jesus up for us to see.  I hope that through our study we will come to a great understanding of who Jesus is and what He is all about. 

Our text is Mark 11:1-11.  As I studied this text I couldn’t help but ask, why didn’t Jesus use the back door?  Why didn’t Jesus go into Jerusalem the back way?  What’s all this about with a parade and the shouting, and the people waving branches and all the hoop-la?  Why didn’t Jesus quietly sneak into Jerusalem? 

We understand that it is the Passover feast and Jesus had to be there.  It is one of three feasts that all Jewish males are commanded to attend according to the Old Testament.  It was a requirement that Jesus be there – and who wouldn’t want to be there? It was a great celebration with family and friends – you can imagine people greeting one another – “Nahum, how are you?  I haven’t seen you in an age?  How is the wife and kids?”  “O look there’s Tabitha – Tabitha you are looking great- how’s your mother?”  “Me, I’m fine, meet at the temple after service and we’ll talk.” 

A wonderful reunion – scholars estimate that the population of Jerusalem at the time was around 50,000.  But during Passover the population swelled to 100,000 – almost 120,000.  It was a great reunion, and a huge celebration.  It’s called the Passover feast!  Sure they had to be there, but it was a great time, with lots of good food. 

But why the parade?  Why didn’t Jesus use the back door?

Think of it – we know and the disciples knew that the Pharisees were out to kill Jesus.  According to the gospel of John the Pharisees began plotting how they might put Jesus to death after He raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:53).  The chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew the whereabouts of Jesus during the Passover they were to report it so that they might arrest Jesus (John 11:57).  He was a wanted man.

Now if you were about to be unfairly arrested by the York Regional Police would you ride down main street on a float during the Santa Claus Parade?  People waving candy canes at you?  “Hey there he is!”  Probably not. 

But Jesus essentially does this very thing.  He enters Jerusalem – according to verse one of our text from the Mount of Olives.  Here is the Mount of Olives looking at it from the city of Jerusalem.  It’s not that far from Jerusalem – there’s a little valley that separates the city from the Mount of Olives, called the Kidron Valley. It’s a nice, short morning walk.  The Mount of Olives itself is a beautiful garden to this day that gives a spectacular view of the city of Jerusalem. Jesus approaches Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. It’s not exactly a hidden route – to this day there is only one road to travel from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem  which takes you through the Kidron Valley.  As you can see, the city of Jerusalem is surrounded by a large protecting wall, and every so often there would be a gate. Jesus probably entered through the gate that we call St. Stephen’s Gate, also called the Lion’s Gate because of the lions that in relief above the gate.  It’s also called the Sheep’s Gate.  We think this is the gate that He used because it is an eastern gate, which makes sense and it allows for easy access to the temple.

What I want you to see is that all of this is out in the open.  Jesus is not sneaking about. He does not hide His presence from the Pharisees.  He’s not coming in through the back door. 

Why?  The other thing that strikes me about this event is that it seems so “unJesus-like”.  I mean, during most of His ministry Jesus did not hang out in the happening spots of culture.  He spent most of His time in Galilee – the equivalent of North Bay, Ontario – a nice place but not the first place you think of when you want to influence public opinion.  Jesus didn’t seek out the places of prominence. 

Nor did He seek large crowds.  As you read the gospels you get the sense that He is wanting to get away from the large crowds. He has compassion on them to be sure, but it seems like He’s always getting in a boat to escape the crowds.  

Nor did Jesus do things to draw attention to Himself.  He didn’t go looking for people – they came to Him.  He didn’t go looking for chances to heal – they came to Him. 

But this whole parade thing seems so opposite to all that.  The crowds, the waving of the branches, the shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”   It all seems so unlike Jesus.  So obviously Jesus must have something to teach us here.  There’s something to learn here. 

Do you know the game charades?  Of course you do.  It has been said that if you are hosting a party at which the people refuse to go home, ask them if they want to play charades and they will be out of your house within a minute.  The game was popular at one time, but no longer.  The rules are simple, one player is given a word or a phrase which she must act out for her teammates in set period of time.  She is not allowed to speak but must communicate the word through her actions.

The ancient prophets used to do something similar, although to them it was no game.  When words had no effect on people, when people refused to take in and to understand the spoken message the prophets resorted to some dramatic action, which put their message into a picture.  And I believe this is what Jesus is doing for us in this event we call Palm Sunday. He’s not sneaking through the back door because He wants to teach us something. 

This is a living parable.  It’s a parable without words. 

Well what does He have to teach us about Himself? 

For the first lesson, we turn to the gospel of Luke. In the gospel of Luke we read that the Pharisees say to Jesus in the midst of the parade, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.”

And Jesus says, “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:39-40)

And the lesson here is that Jesus Christ must be praised.  “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” It’s not that Jesus needs to be praised, or that His ego is some how damaged and He needs people to say how wonderful He is – that if not, He gets all grumpy.

It’s not that – it’s just that He is so great, He is so wonderful that He must be praised!  He is deserving of praise.  It’s like driving along the highway and seeing a deer in a nearby bush and you can’t keep it to yourself, you have to turn to everyone else in the car and say “Look, there’s a deer!” The deer doesn’t need you to point him out to everyone in the car, but he’s such a unique and beautiful creature that you can’t help wanting everyone else in the car to see it. 

So with Jesus Christ.  

Do you get the sense that if we are quiet – if we don’t praise Jesus Christ – the earth will step in and do the job for us?  Jesus is so deserving of our praise that if we keep quiet, an inanimate object will all of a sudden get a voice and will sing praises that we were meant to sing.

Do you almost get the feeling that the earth is hoping that we won’t sing the praises of Jesus because then they will get the chance to praise Jesus?  Isaiah 44:23 almost reads like it was written for this occasion – it reads, “Sing for joy, O heavens, for the Lord has done this; shout aloud, O earth beneath.  Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees for the Lord has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory in Israel.”

And you can almost hear the earth respond, “We wish we could – if we only had lips that could form the words, and tongues to articulate our praises and voices to proclaim our adoration of the king of Kings – we would!”

We can’t keep quiet.  Jesus doesn’t go through the back door – but He parades through the gates of Jerusalem because He is deserving of praise.   Now let’s look at the individual parts. 

Jesus rides into Jerusalem in such a way that the very action would tell us a great deal about who He is. At the time, of course it wasn’t understood.  The apostle John tells us in his account of Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem that, “At first the disciples did not understand all this.  Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him.”  (John 12:16)

But we have this wonderful gift of hindsight and we are able to see, “OOOh, that’s why Jesus didn’t sneak into Jerusalem the back way.” 

We see Jesus at verse 2 giving His disciples specific orders to go get a young donkey, a colt that is tied up at the entrance to a nearby village.  They are to untie it and bring it to Jesus. 

We don’t know how Jesus knew that there was a colt there. Some suggest that He arranged this all beforehand with the owner of the colt – that they had a secret password.  The owner was to say, “Why are doing this?” and the disciples were to respond, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.”  Could have been.

But I don’t need theories like this to pull Jesus down for me – my own limited, little thinking does that.  What I need to understand is that Jesus is God in the flesh. What I need is to lift Jesus up. 

What I need is a full picture of who Jesus is.  He is the one who healed leprosy with a touch, blindness with a word.  Why couldn’t He just have known that there was a colt there? He is God in the flesh. He told Peter to go fishing and to take the first fish he caught, open its mouth and there would have a four-drachma coin in its mouth (Matthew 17:27)  in order to pay the temple tax. 

Another time He leaves the disciple Nathanael speechless. Philip comes to Nathanael and says, We have found the one who Moses wrote about in the Law and the prophets wrote about and Nathanael says, “Pffft.” 

“Come and see for yourself,” says Philip.

And as he approaches, Jesus says, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.” 

And Nathanael says, “How do you know me?” 

And Jesus says, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” 

And Nathanael says, “What? What?  How did you? How could that be?”  And he declares, “Teacher you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel.”

Jesus doesn’t need a secret code with the owner of the colt.  He knew it was there. 

The disciples do what Jesus asks and it plays out just as Jesus says it would – they bring the colt to Jesus, they place their cloaks over it and He sits on it and rides it into Jerusalem. 

Now Matthew in his gospel account of this says, “This took place to fulfill what was spoke through the prophet.  Say to the Daughter of Zion, see your king come to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Matthew 21:5)

Very clearly, Jesus does not go through the back door because He wants to make it plain that He is the one promised by God.  He is indeed the one Moses wrote about in the Law and the prophets spoke of.  He is the promised one of God. 

As He rides along – verse 8 of our text – “the people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields.”  Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!  Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David.”

An old Scottish preacher by the name of John Gossip has a wonderful sermon entitled, “The gospel according to Christ’s enemies.”  In that sermon he points out those times when people around Christ – his enemies mostly - said things to Jesus that were meant to be derisive and hurting and harmful and sarcastic, but all the while they were speaking the truth. 

Pilate for instance had a sign put on Jesus’ cross that read, “This is the king of the Jews.”  It was meant to be a cutting remark – but ironically it is the truth.  Another time, people sneered at Jesus saying, “He’s a friend of tax collectors and sinners.”  It was meant to be cutting remark, but ironically it is a joyful truth.

Here in our text, the people – while they are not Christ’s enemies – say things and do things that mean one thing to them, but on a whole other plane mean something more and different. 

For instance they wave the palm branch which is symbol for Israel – it is a symbol of nationalistic pride.  The parade is fitting for a king. This is the welcome a victorious king would receive.  These kind of triumphal entries were common in the ancient days.  The conquering hero or king would return to his city bringing the spoils of his battles trailing behind him – this kind of parade is fit for a king. 

And then the word “Hosanna”, meaning “Save us now”  was used in the Old Testament to greet great kings ( 2 Samuel 14:4; 2 Kings 6:26).

Do you see how on one level this is a political gathering?  It’s a democratic convention proclaiming the hopes of a people in a king who would conquer their enemies and bring freedom to the nation of Israel. 

And looking back we say “OOOh, it’s more than that.  Yes, here is the great King – but He won’t just rule over Israel, He will rule over the whole universe.”  Yes, this is the King who will conquer our enemies – but not our enemies as we imagine them, but our real enemies of sin and death. 

Yes, this is the King who will set us free – but not from those things we imagine keep us bound – but that which truly enslaves us – selfishness, Satan and everything that keeps us from God.

Yes Jesus is a King – but not one who rides a great white steed far removed and far above the people. No, He rides a colt, a donkey, a beast of burden.  He comes in meekness and humility. 

Here is one I can approach, here is one that I need not fear because of His great power, here is one who is distant and remote from His people but comes to identify with my situation, my sins, your sins, to take my shame, your shame and be our Saviour. 

Do you see why Jesus doesn’t go through the back door, why He doesn’t sneak into Jerusalem?  He has something to teach us,  a living parable. He is one who deserves to be praised.  He is the one promised from God.  He is the One promised from God who is the King, victorious, able to set His people free, humble and approachable by every one.

But there is another lesson to discover in this living parable – Jesus didn’t sneak in the back way because this is a foretaste of what is to come. 

Do you know that a lot of what we experience here is but a foretaste of what we will experience in heaven? For instance the Lord’s supper – where we remember Christ’s broken body and spilt blood – a powerful meal where we commune with Jesus Christ and one another in a very real and meaningful way – is but a foretaste of the heavenly banquet we will participate in with Jesus Christ? 

I could give you other examples, but suffice it to say that now we know in part what we will know fully even as we are fully known. 

My friends, this triumphal parade is but a foretaste of what will occur when Jesus comes again.  He will come again and it will be a great parade of pageantry and power and majesty. He will come again riding a great white steed and He will proclaimed as King – He will be seen as victorious.  He will come again and once again He will be deserving of praise.

No one will ask the question, Why didn’t He come the back way?  Why didn’t He come quietly and softly? Because we will recognize the fact that He is deserving of first place, of adoration of praise as the conquering King. 

And we all will witness His majesty, for every knee will bow in heaven and earth and under the earth and every tongue will confess Jesus Christ is Lord.

And surely we will sing, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David; Hosanna in the highest!”

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - March  2008