"Who Is This?"
Lent/Easter 2020 • Sermon • Submitted
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Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 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,
on 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 on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 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 entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
We’re looking at one of the most familiar events in the gospels, Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Remember part of the context for this passage, and really for this whole series, is what we find back in Matthew 20 verses 17 through 19, “Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, ‘We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!’ That was likely on their minds, but before that could happen, this happens.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, one of my least favorite things to do is to ask someone, “Who are you?” Even to get a phone call or text or some other request from a random number or person, and have to ask them who they are. The phrase, “Who dis?” might come to mind for some of you young people. I know this really shouldn’t be that big of a big deal, but it just feels awkward to me. As a pastor and someone who wasn’t born and raised here, more people tend to know who I am whether or not we’ve met before. If someone strikes up a conversation with me, I can usually carry on fine without knowing their name, but at some point, I’d like to know. Names are important to who we are. It’s something personal, and it usually makes it easier for me to remember them.
So, what I usually do, and some of you can probably think of a time when I’ve done this, is bring a third person in. I’ll ask someone I know, “Do you know who that person is?” Sometimes they don’t know either, but often it gets a name and more. I can go from knowing nothing about a person to having the name and some background—who they’re related to, where they’re from, what they do for work, something else about them or their family. With that information, it feels easier to introduce myself or to be introduced. I feel like there’s already a connection or that I know where they’re coming from.
As Matthew, the author of this passage, tells us about this event, he isn’t just providing a timeline. He’s helping us, his readers, his audience, understand who Jesus is. This is a relatively short passage, and yet we get a variety of different perspectives. There’s the prophecy from the book of Zechariah about the Daughter of Zion’s king. Matthew tells us about these crowds laying down branches on the road and shouting words from a psalm. He wraps up this event by sharing how Jerusalem was stirred up and people were asking, “‘Who is this?’”
At the center of all this, at the heart of these 11 verses, is of course Jesus, Jesus the King, the Savior, and the Prophet. If you’re a believer or if you’ve been around Christianity for a while, perhaps you’re familiar with the term, “the threefold office.” We’ve touched on this before through the Heidelberg Catechism Question and Answer 31, but it’s worth revisiting. Throughout the Old Testament, God gave his people leaders—most of whom fit into the category of either a prophet, a priest, or a king. Those people led different parts, different areas of their lives. The prophets spoke messages from God. The priests carried out the rituals of sacrifice, atonement, and worship. The kings led the nation. All of them were supposed to guide the Israelites in a godly way. Something true about all of them was they were limited. Some God used despite blatant and arrogant sinning. Others, the limitation was mainly that they were called only to a specific task.
What God was revealing, though, is that humanity needs, particularly his people need, One who holds all these offices. We need One who is the perfect Prophet, the perfect Priest, and the perfect King. We need a leader who brings God’s truth to us, who intercedes and completely atones for us, and who reigns in righteousness over us. All of this is found only in Jesus.
What does it look like for Jesus to be the King? Throughout his ministry Jesus taught about his kingdom. It’s not an earthly kingdom with certain boundaries; no, there are almost 50 references just in the gospel of Matthew alone to the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God. Jesus is the one who reigns there. Some people understood that rightly and believed it, others, like the Sanhedrin, badgered Jesus about being, “the king of the Jews.” We heard last time how the soldiers used that title to mock him. Pilate put it on a sign for the cross. Yet others used it sincerely—way back in Matthew chapter 2, around Jesus’ birth, the Magi were looking for “‘…the one who has been born king of the Jews.’”
In his humanity, Jesus doesn’t seem to fit that office very well. He wasn’t born or raised in a palace. He wasn’t carted everywhere in some plush carriage or chariot. He didn’t ask people to kiss his feet or a ring. He didn’t look like or dress like a king. On this day, Jesus rode a donkey. Kings rode stallions—majestic, strong horses. That donkey was no Clydesdale or Friesian or Kentucky Derby thoroughbred. Kings demand power; they tend to be proud, even violent—yet Jesus appeared “gentle.” Some of the other ways that word can be translated are mild, humble, friendly, pleasant. Jesus’ kingly ways clash with the power-hungry ruler that people expect. It must be noted, Jesus’ rule is not currently on this earth; while he is sovereign over this world, he’s not restricted to the ways of ruling in this world
We’ll come back to Jesus as King in a little bit. For now, let’s turn to Jesus the Savior, his priestly office. Verse 9, we hear the joyful shouts of the crowd, “‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ‘Hosanna in the highest!’” Such a different cry from what Jesus would hear later in the week, the repeated shouts to “‘Crucify him!’” This day, though, as I mentioned in the children’s message, this was praise exalting Jesus.
But their shouts seem to go a bit further as Matthew’s recording connects into the language of Psalm 118. We don’t know for sure how these people understood what they were saying. We don’t know if it was a generic song or if God planted faith allowing them to grasp the true magnitude of who Jesus was. But that doesn’t change the truth of this all. Psalm 118 verses 25 through 27, most of this was in our call to worship, “O Lord, save us;” that’s where the hosanna comes from, “O Lord, grant us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you. The Lord is God, and he has made his light shine upon us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar.” When the Jews thought about salvation, they were primarily looking for a Messiah to save them from other empires. Their ideas of salvation were closely related to the king in battle, bringing their freedom and power, a political savior.
Yet God’s salvation is of a much different kind. His salvation is about sin, sacrifice, redemption, reconciliation. Its primary location is not the battlefield, but an altar. When God sent Jesus as the perfect Savior or priest, he sent him to the cross to die once and for all on our behalf. We’ll be looking at that again in our Thursday evening service, but let it be clear here, there is no other salvation that can be sought out. There is no other person or place to run for victory than the person of Jesus Christ and the cross of Calvary.
Finally, on this point, Jesus is the Prophet. Specifically, in verse 11, the crowds told people this was Jesus “the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” By this point, Jesus had gained popularity. People had heard about him. If they never saw him, they might not recognize him, but they knew about him. He was the one who spoke “with authority.” He drew deeper understanding from the law of Moses. He had gone around preaching and teaching and healing.
But the fact that Jesus is the Prophet doesn’t just take into account that he did and was well-known for these things. Jesus as the perfect Prophet alludes to Jesus’ knowledge of the Truth. He knows all that is good and right and holy and just. He was filled able to give the Holy Spirit, who testifies to that Truth. Because he is perfect and without sin, he can be fully trusted. When he offers a rebuke on something, there’s no need to wonder whether or not he means it. When he warns and cautions, we are to heed. When he speaks of reason for celebration, we can be joyful. Again, he knew he was going to die, and yet he also knew and shared that he would rise again!
This is what Scripture, particularly in the gospels, tells us about Jesus. It’s important that we know these characteristics, these roles of Jesus because he is not a generic God. Jesus doesn’t just die on the cross; he doesn’t just save people, end of story. No, this is what he showed in his time on earth and what continues from all of eternity before and in all of eternity following.
Understanding who Jesus is also allows us to worship him more genuinely. For that purpose of worship, we turn to our second point, and we ask what is the King offering? So far, we’ve focused primarily on how Matthew’s gospel tells us Jesus, the Messiah, is the King and he’s a different kind of king than people likely expect. What is he going to do, though?
Matthew tells us to look back to Zechariah 9, Jesus is fulfilling that. Zechariah 9 tells us about this king that will come riding on a donkey or a colt—Jesus is fulfilling that, but there’s also a lot more. Here’s what we find about the Messiah’s kingship in Zechariah 9 verses 8 through 12, “But I will defend my house against marauding forces. Never again will an oppressor overrun my people, for now I am keeping watch. Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey…He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners…I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.”
Jesus’ kingship, while gentle, also has some of the more traditional markings of a king—strength, dominion, wealth. What sets Jesus apart, however, when it comes to how he reigns is that he exercises those things righteously, and he rules for the benefit of his people. He’s our Defender and the one who brings about salvation. He has authority over all things. He reigns for peace, and he acts to restore his people. We know that his protection is sure—that no one can overrun God’s people. We know that he desires an end to violence and the on-going affliction of pain. We know the whole earth is his; there is not a place or people who can restrict him, if he desires to work.
This is how God has shown himself and his work in his Word for us. These are his everlasting promises. Amid all the turmoil in our world right now, we can know that Jesus reigns and continues to have a plan. When we’re struggling to find hope amid the loss of freedom, the inability to go and do whatever we want or if we’re struggling with sickness or the loss of loved ones, we’re reminded that King Jesus holds eternal restoration for all who are found in him. Jesus may have entered Jerusalem in a lowly way, but he is not powerless. He is the king of everything!
Brothers and sisters, let us worship this King! The reason why we ought not to live in hopeless fear or anxiety is that he is on the throne. Even though we may be frustrated or confused, he has still done and has yet to do plenty for us. He knows what causes sickness, he knows who it will infect, he knows the number of our days. And his plan goes beyond any of our days. Our worship shouldn’t only come in response to what he has done for us that we comprehend, but what he’s promised to have done and will continue to do.
That brings us to a closing question: What would it take for the gospel to stir up a city today? What would it take to make people stop and ask, “What’s going on? Who is this that’s come? I don’t know much about this but maybe I should.” Politicians, on both sides of the aisle, can draw large crowds that sometimes cause major parts of cities to shut down or require extra security and things grind to a halt. When professional athletes or celebrities walk out in public, they can be hounded by paparazzi and people wanting autographs. When there’s an emergency, we pull over for lights and sirens; we may or may not know what’s going on, but we want those responders to get there as soon as possible. When there’s a funeral procession, sometimes people will stop their cars and wait for it to pass as a sign of respect.
Right now, life feel like it’s a standstill for a lot of people. We’re stuck in our homes or limited in what we can do. What can we be doing now and what can we do when things return to “normal” for the gospel, for preaching, for Jesus to cause a stir in our towns and cities today? The briefest answer might be that we need the Holy Spirit to move, and that’s true. We ought to pray for the Holy Spirit to be at work, to draw the minds, the hearts, the lives of people around us to the good news of Jesus Christ. Some people might give the answer that we need some super-charismatic pastor or evangelist to come through. While that might work, ongoing to discipleship is needed to bring lasting change.
With that in mind, while there were crowds in Jerusalem, isn’t the more important piece to “stirring up a city,” to having revival in and out of the church, having people that will tell other people of Jesus? We can keep at 6 feet apart and under 10 people in an area and still share our lives and about Jesus. We don’t have to literally brush shoulders to show someone we love them. We can talk with people on the phone and through text or Facebook or email and remind them of the hope that those who turn to the Lord can have.
The Christian life begins with knowing who Jesus is, knowing with eyes of faith. It continues with the worship of him, exalting him for his promises. It grows by telling others what we’ve learned, what is true, what we find as most precious. Let us always be ready to give an answer for the hope that we have. Amen.