Triumph From Another Perspective

COVID-19  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  23:30
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Over the past several weeks we’ve been hearing terms like “unprecedented”, “once in a life-time”, “corona virus”, and “pandemic”, and these words have become tiresome and lost much of their initial impact. A similar thing can happen when we read Scripture. Especially when we’re dealing with a familiar passage, the story is so familiar the richness becomes lost. We can miss so much of what God is saying because it’s so familiar our minds wander, we don’t stop to listen as intently.
This is probably especially true as you listen to these messages online. So, if I may, I’m going to ask you to stop whatever else you might be doing as you’re listening to this message and simply listen. Get in a quiet place, get comfortable, and tune in to God’s Word. You can hit pause if you need a few minutes to get yourself situated, close a door, or move to another room.
Good, I hope you’re settled and ready to hear from God’s Word. Let’s ask God to open to us His understanding of our passage today:
Holy, Creator God, we have gathered as your body across many cities in this region, and perhaps around the world to hear from you.
Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that as the Scriptures are read and your Word is proclaimed,
we may hear with joy
what you say to us today. Amen.
Our text on this day, Palm Sunday centers around the Triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Listen to these words.
Luke 19:28–42 ESV
28 And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 When he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’ ” 32 So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. 33 And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” 35 And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” 41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke.
Glory to you, O Lord.
This is a very familiar story. Just touching some of the highlights:
Jesus is on his journey to Jerusalem; as he and his disciples are about to reach the crest before they begin their descent into the city, Jesus has two of his disciples go get a colt that had never been ridden;
they throw their coats on it and put him up on it;
then they begin throwing their coats on the ground in front of the donkey;
the disciples being to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen.
Pharisees get miffed (what else is new), they tell Jesus to rebuke his disciples
Jesus responds to the Pharisees, “if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
Jesus weeps over Jerusalem.
Jesus proclaims a prophecy over Jerusalem.
Whenever we read Scripture one of the ways of experiencing its richness is to put yourself there in the story. What do you see, what do you hear, what do you smell, what do you taste, and what do you feel.
Here you would see the many pilgrims making their way to Jerusalem for the Passover; you’d hear the different dialects, and the sounds of various beasts of burden and those going to market. You might smell the spices being carried and the sweat of both pack animal and traveler, perhaps you taste the dust being kicked up from the roadway, and feel the heat of the day as well as jossling one gets when making their way through a crowd.
That’s what a traveler might experience. For the disciples there was a sense of fear. When Jesus announced he must go to Jerusalem they had reminded him the Jews wanted to stone him. It was Thomas who proclaimed, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
John 11:16 ESV
16 So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Yes, there was fear, but they also had been students of this Rabbi during the past three years, and no doubt understood (at least in part) some of the prophecies about the Messiah. And now they seem to be coming true. The joy begins to well up within them, and they begin to sing, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
For the disciples the overwhelming emotion seems to be of praise to God.
What about Jesus? He seems so in control, directing the disciples where they could find the colt he would ride on. Getting up on the colt. Responding to the Pharisees rebuke, and then he draws near to the city and sees it. What is Jesus reaction?
Luke 19:41 ESV
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it,
Another translation reads,
“as He came near, having caught sight of the city, He burst into tears, weeping audibly over it,...”
The sense of the word “wept” is an audible crying, some even suggest sobbing over the city. Why?
Luke 19:42–44 ESV
saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
They missed their visitation. They missed the fact that Jesus, the Messiah is here. Though some have responded, the majority of the people of Israel, God’s chosen people, have not. They missed it.
And yet...
and yet...

One More Perspective to consider

There is still one perspective that we have yet to consider.
Clearly, we can see the disciples perspective, the crowds reaction in the moment is celebratory, the Pharisees are irritated as usual, Jesus is heartbroken - and we know that he is also very aware of what he will face in Jerusalem. Who are we leaving out?
God the Father.
We can get so focused on the Passion narrative that we can totally forget the invisible character that is so much a part of everything that is going on. In the one sense moving it forward, in another watching it unfold.

God’s Perspective

Jesus cried over Jerusalem, no doubt His Father God did as well.
Jesus knew what he would be put to death in Jerusalem - the Father knew he was sacrificing the His Son that was as much a part of Him as any son can be of a father - together they made up 2/3 of the trinity.
Jesus is going to Jerusalem to be offered as a sacrifice for the very people who would put him to death. The scene brings back visions of Abraham and Isaac travelling to the mountain God directed them. Isaac asks, “My father! Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
Genesis 22:8 ESV
Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
Abraham knew he was going to the mountain to sacrifice his son. Isaac didn’t know he was the intended sacrifice.
God is providing the sacrifice, and Jesus is well aware he is the intended sacrifice.
Abraham was sent to the land of Moriah to offer his sacrifice. 2 Chronicles 3:1 tells us Solomon constructed the temple on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.
God is now sending his son up the hill to Jerusalem as the sacrifice.
Abraham took Isaac out of obedience.
Jesus goes out of obedience and...
Yes, there is something else that drives him -
What would cause God to do such a drastic thing for the people whom throughout the Old Testament Tested him and caused him to endure their hard hearts and disobedient ways?
One thing, and its something that I think we’ve trivialized to the point that it seems trite to even bring it up, but it’s not trite. No. It’s profound.
What caused our Creator God to make such a drastic sacrifice for those people, for you and for me is one thing, and one thing only...

LOVE

As Jesus looks down on Jerusalem, he weeps. And he speaks to their reality of being lost - of having lost their way. But, he does not condemn them...
John 3:17 ESV
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Instead he speaks the truth over them and continues to move towards Jerusalem, knowing he will ofer his life for these very people. Most of us know the verse of God’s love, John 3;16
John 3:16 ESV
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
As we’re living in the midst of this pandemic, no doubt many are recognizing that one day they will die. Many are perhaps considering that for the first time. We will die. The Bible says,
Hebrews 9:27–28 NIV
Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Sacrifice

There’s a story I heard years ago about a happily married man who with his wife had struggled for years to have children. Finally, God had blessed them with a wonderful baby boy who was the delight of his father’s eyes. This man was a draw bridge operator by trade, this is decades ago, before such things were all automated. He worked a very busy railroad line where thousands of commuters everyday would commute in and out of the city by train. There was also a busy waterway, so most of the time the bridge was kept open until an oncoming train would signal the operator to lower the span and the speeding train would rush on its way, the passengers oblivious to his crucial work as they read their newspapers and books, or talked with their fellow commuters.
The proud father would take his boy down to the bridge to watch the boats and barges go up and down the waterway, and see the mammoth span be lowered into place for the trains to rush by, and then raised again - the giant gears and cables straining under it’s massive weight.
The boy grew as all boys do, and one particularly warm day with the door of the control house open, he had ventured out to explore some of the area. Proud papa kept one eye on him, and one eye on his paper as he waited for the next train signal to let him know he needed to lower the bridge. Time passed and he heard the sounding of the afternoon train approaching his bridge. As he was about to lower the span he noticed his pride and joy was playing where the bridge span would rest on its base. If he lowered the bridge his innocent son would die. If he didn’t lower the bridge hundreds of passengers would die.
The train continued to rush toward the bridge, there would be no possible way to stop in time. The bridge operator lowered the bridge. As the train rushed by, the man violently sobbed in the control house, the passengers continued on their commute home oblivious to the sacrifice he had just made for them.
Lent is a season of sacrifice. We give up this or that for Lent, we take on new disciplines to grow in our faith. We do such things as acts of discipline, but also to express our love for God. The reality is, it was God who made the first sacrifice after the original sin
Genesis 3:21 ESV
And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
Those skins had to have come from animals God had just pronounced good only verses before. Then God made arrangements that animal sacrifices could take away their sin, and finally God gave the ultimate sacrifice of his son - much like parents sending their children off to war, or families sending their loved ones off as first responders - the sacrifice is given.
God’s sacrifice, Jesus laying down his own life for us, is given freely out of the abundant love God has for us even when we might still be living in sin.
Romans 5:8 ESV
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
God’s perspective is often overlooked in our reading of the Triumphal entry. Still, I would hope this week as we journey through Holy Week that you would take the time to listen for God’s heart in the midst of it all. The Scriptures constantly remind us of God’s steadfast love - through nothing we’ve done to deserve it (cause then it’s not love) but simply because God loves us and all we need to do is receive it.
Let me close with this prayer from Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus:
Ephesians 3:14–21 ESV
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
May God bless you, and I hope you’ll reach out to us and join us for our Virtual Coffee Hour. Have a great week.
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