Jesus’ Triumphant Entry
04-05-2020
Matthew 21:1-11
21:1 As Jesus and the disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to
the town of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of them on ahead. 2 “Go into the village over there,” He said.
“As soon as you enter it, you will see a donkey tied there, with its colt
beside it. Untie them and bring them to Me. 3 If anyone asks what you are doing, just say, ‘The
Lord needs them,’ and he will immediately let you take them.”
4 This took place to fulfill the prophecy that said,
5 “Tell the people of Jerusalem,
‘Look,
your King is coming to you.
He is humble, riding on a donkey—
riding on
a donkey’s colt.’”
6 The two disciples did as Jesus commanded. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt to Him
and threw their garments over the colt, and He sat on it.
8 Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of Him,
and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 Jesus was in the center of the procession,
and the people all around him were shouting,
“Praise God for the Son of David!
Blessings
on the One who comes in the name of the Lord!
Praise
God in highest heaven!”
10 The entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar as He entered.
“Who is this?” they asked.
11 And the crowds replied, “It’s Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth
in Galilee.”
Today is
called: Palm
Sunday.
And it is
Also called: The Sunday of the Passion!?
You know - I
Never Thought I would Ever Be Saying This
However – It Is
True
It was so much simpler during the olden days,
·
The days
of my youth,
·
In the Days When today was just called: Palm Sunday.
·
Back then – It was easy for me to understand.
We had a straightforward story from the Bible
·
About Jesus’ Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem,
o
And it was because of all the
o
Children shouting "Hosanna,
Hosanna-In-the-Highest!”
o
It made
a perfect time for baptisms
·
We could all sing "EASTER" Songs
o
And there is NO QUESTION
§ Of what that day Was All About.
But now
·
Since we do - almost nothing - for Passion Week
o
And
we seem to run away from Good-Friday,
·
We have Today - the Sunday before
Easter as
o
It has become - The Sunday of the Passion!
No longer does
it Only contain the Lesson of Describing Jesus’ entry into
Jerusalem, But now, it has to cover
7 whole chapters in the Book Matthew.
Of course, we
still have the Victories Entry narrative,
·
But now, it comes Just the Beginning of the Message
o
Rather than BEING the Message.
By putting all
of this,
(the most recorded week of Jesus of-all-time)
·
By Putting it all together into
one message,
·
It seems as if we are just RUNNING through:
o
Jesus’ Glorious
Entry into Jerusalem
o
Through All of the times of Jesus preaching in the Temple
o
Through His Last Supper
o
Through Jesus’ time
§ In the Garden,
§ His Betrayal,
§ His Trial,
§ His Suffering,
§ And of Christ being placed upon the cross.
§ His Death
§ And His Burial
We now have all
of this - History –
·
Being pushed into one Passion Narrative Sunday Message.
But this Is Wrong!
This season is too Great
·
To simply ‘pack-it-all-together-into-just-One-Message!
The PASSION
OF CHRIST
·
IS
TOO GREAT to run through it all in such a hurry.
This is the
reason ‘WHY’ –
·
The ‘WHY’ We need to be in
o
God’s
Word and Prayer
Each and Every Day!
A personal message from Pastor Dan:
I am not sure of
the “HOW” I can complete this, but I am going to post a message each day during
this Passion Week.
So, I invite
you to return and spend some time with me during this Special Week. We will be In
God’s Word – Discovering What He wants to say.
“Passion”
Isn’t that such a Strange Word!
Tell me.
·
Is “PASSION” something that
you would Actually Expect
o
To Find ‘the church’ Embracing?
I guess, for
those of us who have been around for a little while,
·
We should by now,
o
Expect the words which we grew up
on
§ To take on a new meaning within our today’s world.
Within our ‘Culture
of Today’,
o
Doesn’t the Word PASSION bring to mind
§ The weekday - soap operas
§ And of the covers of the magazines
· Which just seem to line
o
Our checkout counters?
I believe the
World has truly totally forgotten
·
The True Meaning of the Word: Passion
o
Which Really Means "to suffer"
Webster’s 1828
Dictionary explains The word ‘Passion’ this way:
1. “The impression or effect of an external agent
upon a body; that which is Suffered or Received.”
2. Suffering; emphatically,
the Last Suffering of the Savior.”
3. The feeling of the mind, or the sensible effect of impression; Excitement, Fear, Hope, Joy, Grief, Love, Hatred.
Did you notice,
· The
word “Lust”
o
Was never mentioned
within that definition?
Just like many things of the days which are Now, Long Gone,
· The meaning of Passion, Used to be Crystal Clear.
·
It used to mean Love in its purest of form!
o Rather than the feeling of lust within its loosest forms.
·
It used to mean a Strong and Intense Feeling!
o Rather than a short-flighty-feeling
§ Which last for just a
moment and then it is gone.
·
It used to mean of a Giver of Love
o
Who
Is Willing
§ To Suffer and even Die for His Beloved.
·
Rather than just a moment of weakness
·
Which always leaves us
o With shame and guilt.
This is the Reason of the “WHY”:
· This
is the ‘Sunday’
o
Which we Begin to Celebrate ‘The Passion’.
The Passion
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
·
In all Truth
o
It Is the Suffering
Love of God.
We are called
to spend our entire lives
·
Within the thoughts of Christ’s Passion.
o
But especially, we are called to spend
this entire week,
§ Telling of the Stories
· Over again and again and again.
With All of
its Truth and Honor!
With All of its
Horror and Despair!
Of its Glory and Triumph!
And Of its Victory and Conquest!
We need to do
this so that
· We can remind ourselves of it’s meanings.
And IF we do this in God’s Name
·
I
Truly Believe – That He also reminds us
o
Of who
we are and where we come from.
We are God's people.
·
We are called into ‘BEING’
o
Through Christ’s Loving Act of His Self-Giving.
We are at the
Very Beginning of this week
·
The Week of Us Giving Ourselves over
again to
o
The God Who Will Never - Let Us Go.
This is why
some of us
·
Will make
vows of commitment to God
o
For the very first time in our Lives
·
All the While - the rest of us –
o We will renew those Same Vows to God
§ Which we had made so long ago.
We do this in
a way – of – us - “BEING” of Christ’s
We are Bringing those Vows up to date
·
And letting
God once again,
§ Claim us afresh as His people.
It is so
fitting for this year.
· As we Begin to Know God in a New Way
o
A Very
Private and Very Personal Way.
This Passion Week,
· This Week Gives Us the Opportunity
o To Tell
these stories
§ Over and Over and
Over Again
· But - In
a New Way.
THIS
YEAR –
God is touching All of Us in a
New and Different Way!
You See ->
God
works ALL EVIL to His Glory
·
Through this COVID-19 epidemic,
o
As
of the taping of this message,
o
The worldwide death-count has now
§ Surpassed the 113,700 people.
o
With over 7,700 of those deaths
within the U.S.
§ And within the US,
· We now have over 287,000 who are sick.
Our Heart
goes out to all who have lost someone.
And to those who are sick and grieving
And to those who are besides themselves with panic.
BUT
We have an Old Truth here, Reminding us That it is within Our ‘Religion’
o That is is Within Our Own Beliefs –
It has always been in God’s Truth
o
That we are dealing with
§ The human issues of Life and Death.
Let me assure
all….
God
- Is - In - Control!
SEE –
We were Never
Designed to merely Follow the
v Guidelines of a Great Teacher,
v Nor of the Vision of a Moral Dreamer.
NO!!!
We are Called
to Actually Participate
in the Very LIFE and DEATH
·
Of the
One
Who knows of the Sorrow of Betrayal,
·
Of the
One
Who knows of the Pain of Rejection,
·
And of the
One
Who knows of the Anguish of Denial.
Through the
Scriptures – we see a Man,
v Yes, He is God as well but He is also a Man.
Ø A Man who is hated.
Ø A Man who is even mocked by the thieves who
share His death punishment.
Ø A Man who is so defeated, that He is now
totally alone.
Ø A Man whose only account that we have of His
final Words within today's Gospel is simply,
“Eli,
Eli, lema sabachthani?”
"My
God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?"
Ø A Man who actually felt God turning away from
Him.
Jesus
has felt something which we will
NEVER Feel.
The Feeling of God Turning Away from us.
See –
·
This was
when God,
o
For the
very first time,
§ And the very last time,
· It was God turning away.
What brought
upon Jesus’ anguish was when
·
God
turned away from Jesus.
o
Theologians say this sense of rejection by God
§ Was because Jesus took upon Himself
· All of the sins of the world.
This may very
well be the Truth.
·
I am not for sure.
o
We can't prove it.
§ We are not Jesus.
But the thing
is,
We All Can Act Upon it.
· Especially Right Now!
o We All know what it means to be alone!
§ BUT – We Have Never Been That ALONE
Before!
Think About It!
We All know
what it feels like to be rejected!
· But – We Have Never Been that REJECTED!
Are You Starting to Understand
It?
Are You Starting to Feel
It?
So,
in Christ’s Grief -- WE feel Our Own Grief.
In His
Death -- We see Our Own Death approaching.
But somehow,
· And I don't know how,
o
Our
grief is lighter
§ Because We have offered Ourselves
· To Him on the cross.
o
Our
own Death is not as important
§ Because somehow, We have died with
Him.
In Our Baptism,
·
We have died
o And
We have been Raised
§ With and
In Him.
That is what
this week is all about.
This
is the Week of the Passion.
I pray that as we walk with Christ
·
Through His Passion,
o
That we may indeed emerge from
this week
§ As BEING more Passionate
disciples.
My Hope is that Our participation in this ‘Divine Drama,’
·
That it may make us more Passionate
about
o
What
is going on in the human lives of today.
Having
died with Christ,
·
We are now FREE to be Passionate
about the world
o
Which He
had lived in
§ And which He had Died to Save.
I Pray that
we are Passionate about the Denials
·
And of the
TRUTH which we participate in.
o
And by doing so, we encourage
others to do the same.
I Pray that
we will want to be Passionate
·
About the differences between
o
What we $pend
on our hobbies
·
And what we give to the children’s education.
I Pray that
we will want to be Passionate
·
About the differences between
o
What we $pend
on our desserts
·
And what we give to feeding the hungry across the world.
I Pray for a Nation awakening to the Truth
of the Trinity God.
·
And of our need for Him.
·
And for Our Nation to Return to
Him.
I pray for a World awakening to the
Truth of the Trinity God.
·
And of our need for Him.
By
our own, we know we cannot.
But
by the Cross
and with the
Passion of Jesus Christ
–
· We are set FREE
o To be In God
and In His Compassion.
Amen.
