Welcoming the Unexpected King.

Happy Palm Sunday. I saw on our way in that I think another church that meets here in the mornings left us some palm branches. If you guys would like to take one on your way out, they're there. I'm sorry we didn't wave them during Hosanna today, but they're there.

Today is known in Scripture as the triumphal entry when Jesus is entering into the city of Jerusalem. We're going to go through this story in the Gospel by looking at it verse by verse. But I want to start by talking a little bit about what was happening here.

Jesus was going into the city to celebrate Passover. There would have been so many people around. That's why we read of the streets being filled with people going up to the temple to Jerusalem. This was part of their practice, part of their worship. It's always important for us when we're looking at Scripture to recognize what's happening there in their context, in their culture, what were their rhythms. This was something they would do. They would celebrate Passover.

Passover was one of the most widely celebrated Jewish holidays. There were several different feasts throughout the years, but Passover is one of the three pilgrimage festivals. People would come and make their pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to the temple. It takes place in spring, as it still does. I guess you can call this spring in Wisconsin.

But where does this come from? One place we read about Passover is in Exodus chapter 12. It talks about the night of the first Passover ever. The Israelites were trying to be freed from the Egyptians. Moses was working with Pharaoh, but Pharaoh was not setting them free. God sent all these plagues. It was the 10th plague. On one night, God told the Israelites to sacrifice a spotless lamb and mark their doors with the blood of the lamb. When the Lord passed through the nation, he passed over the households that showed the blood. In a very real way, for the Israelites, it was the blood of the lamb that saved them from the 10th plague. They were still celebrating this. They were celebrating that the Israelites were freed from the Egyptians.

Let's start by reading Luke chapter 19, verse 28:

After telling this story, Jesus went on to Jerusalem, walking ahead of his disciples. As he came to the towns of Bethpage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead. And he says this to them, "Go into the village over there. As you enter it, you will see a donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks, 'Why are you untying that colt?' just say, 'The Lord needs it.'" So they went and found the colt, just as Jesus had said. And sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" And the disciples simply replied, "The Lord needs it." So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on.

Luke 19:28-35

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you that even all these years later, whether this is a story we've heard a hundred times or it's the first time we're hearing it today, you have something you want to speak to us. I thank you that your word is alive and it is active. As we celebrate and get ready to celebrate Passover and celebrate your death and resurrection, Lord, we can be reminded of the way you entered into the city, the way you entered into people's lives, and that you are still continuing to enter into our lives and draw us closer to you. We pray that you would do that through your word in these next few moments in your son Jesus' name. Amen.

Welcome the king you didn't expect

Our "so what" for today is that we need to welcome Jesus as the king that he is, not the king we expected or the king that we want him to be. And then our "now what" for today is to make way and follow the way of Jesus. I'm going to break that down in a few ways: making way through untying our life, welcoming the unexpected so that we can usher in the kingdom of heaven.

I want to start by looking at some of the details in this story. The first thing I want to point out is the donkey. God is in the details. God uses these mundane things in our lives to make way for Jesus. A donkey was common, but this was a fulfillment of a prophecy in Zechariah that we'll read later. God uses this donkey as a fulfillment. This was also a sign to the people because they would have known the prophecies of Jesus. They knew he was going to come riding in on a donkey. This was fulfilling the prophecy. It was assigned to the people to let them know who Jesus was.

But think about what actually happened. A man has a donkey and people just look over and see strangers behind the wheel and they just say, "The Lord needs it." If I just saw strangers untying my car, I'd probably call the police first and say, "Get out of my car." But this man, when they tell him "The Lord needs it," he surrenders.

What was happening here is that this man had to surrender in that moment to what the Lord was doing, not quite knowing the outcome or the result of what his obedience was going to lead to. Jesus entered the city riding on the generosity of everyday people. Nameless people. People that we never hear about. But it was because of the generosity of this man giving up his donkey, because of the obedience of the disciples, that Jesus comes riding in to fulfill the prophecy, to be the sign that he is the Messiah.

Question for you today: What are you holding on to? What are you holding on to that God wants to use? And why are you holding on to it?

I think there are a couple things that come to mind for why we hold tight to the things we have in our lives. The first is sometimes we're holding on to the things we have because we're scared that if we let it go, there's not more where that came from. We're holding tight to things, maybe it's relationships, maybe it's possessions. We're holding onto these things so tight because we're afraid that if we let this go, what if there's not more where that came from? That's a scarcity mentality.

We're not living as co-heirs with Christ in our God-given identities when we follow Jesus as our new creation. We're living with this mentality that we just have to take what we get because we never know when there's going to be more. But Jesus promises that he is the well that will never run dry. He is our provider. He is our sustainer. He is the giver of good things. There is more where that came from.

The next is that sometimes we don't give what's in our hands or we don't let go of things because we don't really know if it's worthy of giving to the Lord. We think, well, it's just a little bit. I don't have as much as that person to give. I think sometimes it can be money. I think sometimes it can be talents. It can be your time. Jesus shows us over and over in the Gospels that with God, little becomes much. The best thing we can do is lay down what we have and watch him multiply it and use it in ways we could have never imagined.

I believe that today, in the same way that Jesus entered Jerusalem on the generosity of everyday people giving their all, he will do it again right here today in this city, Madison, Wisconsin. He is going to be riding in and entering this city on the generosity of you and me and everybody in this room. People that we might not always feel like what we have to offer is enough for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. But he's saying, you give me your all because it's not about the amount of what you have to give, but are you willing to give it all to him? He really just wants us to lay it all down.

It says in verse 36:

As he rode along, the crowd spread out their garments on the road ahead of him. When they reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen. Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven. But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, "Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that." And he replied, "If they keep quiet, the stones along the road will burst into cheers."

Luke 19:36-40

Embracing the unexpected

The next thing I want to talk about is what does it look like for us to embrace the unexpected. Who do you expect Jesus to be? And where do those expectations come from?

I see a few things that happen here. They laid down their coats for Jesus to come and ride in on. In Matthew 21, verse 9, another account in the Gospels of the triumphal entry, it says:

They said, "Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest heaven."

Matthew 21:9

Based on what they were saying and the actions they were doing, they were making a lot of assumptions about the type of king Jesus was going to be. They heard Jesus is coming as king, but rather than looking and asking who God said the king was going to be, they started to put Jesus through the lens of what they had seen in every other king before Jesus.

In 2 Kings 9:11, it's talking about King Jehu:

Then they took off their garments and put it under him for him to walk on.

2 Kings 9:13

When Jehu was king, the people around him put their cloaks down for him to walk on. Jehu was a king who led to lots of destruction. So when they were laying down their coats for Jesus, they were doing that based on what they had seen other people do for kings. Yes, they were supporting his anointing, but they were doing it in just the way they expected. It shows they were expecting him to be the same kind of powerful ruler that Jehu was.

In Psalms 118, David writes:

Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous. The Lord's right hand has done mighty things. The Lord's right hand is lifted high. The Lord's right hand has done mighty things. I will not die, but live and will proclaim what the Lord has done. The Lord has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Open for me the gates of the righteous and I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord, through which the righteous may enter. I will give thanks, for you have answered me. You have become my salvation. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes. The Lord has done it this very day. Let us rejoice and be glad. Lord, save us. Lord, grant us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Psalm 118:15-26

I want to pay attention here. Psalm 118 is about shouts of joy and victory. But it says, "Lord, save us. Lord, grant us success." When David was king, there was this cry from the Israelites of saying, okay, we want to be the ones in power. At the end, we're going to praise you, but here's God, what we want. Save us from our oppressors. Save us from those who are trying to rule over us. Grant us success.

That was the cry of their heart. So when they see Jesus coming and they're saying, "Son of David," we can look and know they probably had that same assumption: the son of David is coming. Hosanna. Yes. Come save us like you did then. Give us that same power. Grant us success. They had all these assumptions about the type of King Jesus was going to be.

In the same way today. Who do you expect Jesus to be when you hear "savior"? When you hear "king"? If we're honest, how much of that is rooted in saving us, in granting us success, in meeting the needs of our own agenda? In what ways have you longed for Jesus to come and serve your own agenda or use the name of Jesus to serve your purposes rather than surrendering your all to Jesus to serve his kingdom?

How many times we pray things and we're saying, like, "Jesus, come and give me [fill in the blank]." Jesus, come and give me that job or bring that relationship to restoration or bring the housing prices down. These are all fine things to pray. But what does it look like for us to say, "Jesus, we set aside our expectations. We lay down everything that we know a king can be, and we trust that you're continuing to show up in unexpected ways and you're continuing to show us what it looks like for your kingdom to come"?

So then our prayers become, "Jesus, let your kingdom come. Jesus, set the captives free. Jesus, help all orphans find a home. Help me submit to your rule and reign." So much of the corruption we see around the world is because we're not all submitting and we're not all living under the kingdom's rule and reign. Instead of us praying sometimes these prayers rooted in selfish ambitions, what does it look like for us to say, "God, in what ways am I not submitting to your rule and reign? Will you help me to do that? Will you help me not to be ruled by selfishness or guided by greed?"

What we read here in Scripture, what we see in the way they worship and welcome Jesus into the city, is that they wanted a king who would increase their power. They wanted a king who would meet their needs, grant them success, make them comfortable, save them from their oppressors. Does this sound familiar? Do we welcome Jesus for who he is or who we want him to be?

Jesus, he is the king who then goes and weeps over the city of Jerusalem. He invites us to weep with him. He did save people who were being oppressed. He goes and flips tables over. He invites us to usher in his kingdom of justice and righteousness in the same way he did.

Jesus defeated death so that all can come close to him. He invites us today to come closer, to welcome him for all that he is, not just who we expect him to be or who we want him to be.

Some ways we can check if we're welcoming Jesus as king: when we make decisions, is it based on what you want and what you need? Are your decisions based on being comfortable, satisfied, happy? Or are your decisions based on making Jesus known, being more loving, being more generous, being an advocate for justice, submitting fully in obedience to him?

Jesus weeps over the city

In verse 41, we read a continuation of what happens when Jesus enters the city. He says, "If you knew the way to peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes. Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. They will crush you into the ground and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place because you did not recognize it when God visited you."

The people did not understand the way to peace because Jesus was coming in a way that wasn't going to overthrow the Roman power and empire like they wanted. He was going to bring power to all people and all nations. Jesus in this moment is weeping over the city. His heart is breaking because people missed his presence right in their midst. He was coming in a way they couldn't see because it didn't look like the way the world expected or how other rulers ruled.

Jesus did not hide or shy away from his emotions. We see this even later in Holy Week when he's in the garden, crying and weeping with his disciples. He has this moment where he's in pain and weeping. It shows us we need to pay attention to our emotions. What are our emotions trying to tell us? Are they helping us see, feel, and experience Jesus?

I've talked to so many people in the past couple of weeks about how we begin to comprehend what we see going on in the news and around the world. It should break our hearts. It should make us weep when we see that people are still being oppressed, abused, taken advantage of today. Wars still exist. It should break our heart. The good news is that we can take it to Jesus and we can know that it breaks his heart too because he came to bring peace, not destruction. Yet people still think destruction is the way to that peace. But Jesus, through his death and resurrection, made way for peace. But it takes us now following him as the way.

While the crowds around him were cheering, Jesus pauses and sheds tears. Do we notice Jesus in the midst of the crowds? Do we see things through his eyes? Or do we just avoid anything that makes us uncomfortable? Anything that causes our hearts to grieve because the pain is just too hard? So we just shut it down and continue to create the comfortable lives saying, "Give me success, God"?

Or are we willing to weep over people that are far from Jesus? Are we willing to weep over people that are still living in brokenness and darkness?

I wonder if the people noticed his tears that day. The things that broke his heart. What they thought was pleasing to Jesus was actually crushing him. I wonder how often we do the same. We get caught up in the things we know, saying, "Well, this is what I've known worship to look like in one place, so I'm just going to keep doing this," rather than saying, "Jesus, where are you? Where are you weeping? What's breaking your heart? Where are you calling me to follow you in a new, unexpected way?"

One of our practices as a church is the practice of examine, taking time to pray the examine at the end of our days. This is a time for us to pause and say, "God, what did I feel today? What did I experience? Where were you? What were you doing? Is there any way I need to repent and turn to you?"

If we're not careful, we can get so caught up in the busyness of life. We can get so caught up in doing things we think are good. Even other people are going to say, "That's good. This is good." But if it's not with Jesus, we're missing it. If it's not where he's at, we're missing it.

So many people miss Jesus riding into the city and he was right there. So many people missed what broke his heart because they were caught up in what they were doing and not paying attention to watch him weep.

I have three brothers and my youngest brother, there's quite a big age gap between us. He's in his young twenties now, and he's starting to bring up all the memories that I wish he did not remember about his life. Recently, we were sitting around the table at a family gathering and he said, "Abbie, do you remember that one time?" And I'm like, "Oh, you remember that. Great."

I'm like, nobody ever talks to him about my life because he knows things I wish nobody knew. But he was telling this story recently. He said, "Do you remember when you almost drowned me?" I was like, "What? What are you talking about?"

He has this story that for him is a core memory. I honestly have no memory of it. But apparently we were at a wave pool at a water park by our house. We'd go often. He was a lot shorter than me. He said, "Yeah, you were holding my hand and you kept stepping further and further into the waves. Every time the water, I couldn't get air, so I'm literally drowning. I kept looking over and you're just like laughing like, 'Whoa, let's go, keep going further.'" Finally, the lifeguard had to blow the whistle and stop the waves.

I was like, "No, I just thought it was time to take a break." I still was so unaware. He tells this story, "Oh yeah, I had to talk to my therapist about that one." I'm like, "I'm so sorry. I had no idea."

But those are the types of things where sometimes we get so caught up in the moments that we can't hear anything other than what we're experiencing. We're not paying attention to the people around us and what's happening. That's what was taking place in this moment. They're out there having the time of their lives. Like, we're getting ready for Passover. We think this is the Messiah, the King. We're going to wave our branches, do what we know for kings. And Jesus is weeping, going, "You missed it. You're crushing me right now. This isn't it."

How many times do we miss Jesus right there in our midst? They miss that God was ushering in a new kind of kingdom with a new kind of King.

The cleansing of the temple

Our "now what" today is that we have to make way and follow Jesus as the way, the truth, the life. Because the reality is that the King is here. The King is coming. The King is inviting us to partner with him in seeing his kingdom come. Jesus came, he died, he paid the price for our sins, he was raised back to life. He said, "I'm coming again." We're in that tension of the now and the not yet. But we have to pay attention to what's happening in this passage because it's so easy for us to get caught back here.

Jesus did not want their shouts of joy. What he wanted was justice. He didn't want their offerings. He wanted their repentance. He didn't want them to keep shouting Hosanna. He's like, "Will you give me your heart and all of it, fully surrendered to me?" Today he still wants the same from us. He wants his kingdom to rule and to reign. He wants us to be fully surrendered to his will and his way.

When Jesus is weeping, he's saying, "They didn't understand the way to peace." But what they were longing for, they were actually looking for in Jesus, but just didn't know it. They were looking for this king to come. Jesus is saying, "I'm right here. I am the way to peace. Do you see it? I'm the one that you long for."

Jesus wants wars to end and slaves to be free and hungry to be fed and orphans to have homes. He wants oppression lifted and disease and sickness to be gone. Jesus wants all the things we want. The same things that keep us up at night. The same things we're weeping over. Jesus is weeping over and wants to end. He's saying, "I'm coming to do just that. The thing you're looking for in all these other places, I'm the one that you're really longing for. But it's going to come in a way you're not going to expect."

He came riding in on a donkey, a donkey that some random guy in the crowd gave up. His disciples went and kind of borrowed it. A donkey that looked like nothing to the people around him. But that small thing made way for the King of Kings to enter into the city. The King didn't come like people expected, and his kingdom won't either.

So are we then willing to untie the things that are in our hands? Are we willing to embrace him and welcome him in the unexpected ways? Not the way we want, but the way that if we're honest, we need? Because he is the way to peace.

Zechariah 9:8-9 is the prophecy that Jesus fulfilled on this day:

"Never again will an oppressor overrun my people, for now I am keeping watch. Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion. Shout, Daughter Jerusalem. See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

Zechariah 9:8-9

Jesus fulfilled this prophecy when he came riding in an unexpected way. And the story continues. It goes from riding in on the donkey to Jesus weeping over the city to then we read in Mark 11, verses 15 through 18:

"On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, 'Is it not written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. But you have made this a den of robbers.' The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching."

Mark 11:15-18

Jesus enters the city. He's weeping over Jerusalem. The people are still having the time of their lives. And then he goes into the temple courts and starts flipping tables. A lot of times we talk about this passage like Jesus didn't want the exchanging of money in the temple courts. But that was pretty normal. Jesus would have been visiting the temples often. Not only was it normal to have selling and exchanging of things in the temple courts, but it was needed.

What would happen for Passover and these feasts is that people from all nations would come. They'd make their pilgrimage and go up to the temple courts. They would need to make offerings. There would have to be an exchange of money because they had different types of coins and currencies. They would also want to buy different things.

But what Jesus is pointing out here is he's saying, "My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you've made it a den of robbers." It wasn't that there was money being exchanged or things being sold, but that there were people taxing and oppressing people by taxing them unfairly and unjustly. Jesus is saying, "You're stealing from people in order to continue to build your own kingdom and your own empire here."

Then he's saying, "My house is a house of prayer for all nations." He's showing us again who he is. He's the type of king where he's saying, "No, I'm not just going to come and rule and reign, but I'm going to say you're co-heirs with me in this. You're going to share in my sufferings and you're going to share in my glory. It's not just going to be a certain people group that gets to experience life with me to the fullest, but all nations, every tribe, every tongue."

So he's looking at these people and saying, "Stop oppressing them. Stop taxing them. Stop doing this to them. Stop stealing from them." He knows it wasn't okay, the rich taxing the poor.

Jesus would have been one of those people from one of the poor places that the people in the temple courts would have been oppressing. It says in John 1:46, there's literally the statement, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" That's where Jesus came from. He came from Nazareth. So he was from one of those places where people would say, "No good comes from there." If he was going to the temple courts, he would have been taxed and charged more than was just and fair.

So what we're learning about Jesus here is he's saying it's going to be a house of prayer, this temple for all nations, all people. We also see when he's cleansing the temple, the cleansing of the temple at that time would have been something set aside for the priest to do. In coming up in this triumphal entry and flipping the tables, not only is he showing us the kind of King and ruler he is, standing in the way for the poor, standing in the gap and flipping tables of oppression, but he's cleansing in a way to show us, "I'm the new priest. I'm coming in and I'm cleansing the temple now."

And then that prophetic word of saying it's going to be a house of prayer for all nations, meaning he's saying, "I want to talk to you all the time. I want to be in relationship with you. I want you to worship me."

This is the triumphal entry that took place. It's so much more than just the palm branches. It's so much more than the laying down of the cloaks and shouting Hosanna. It's about fully submitting to welcoming Jesus as the King we never expected him to be.

This is the triumph he's saying: there's no longer oppression. I'm coming in with a different type of force to lift up those that have been put down. He's setting free the captives, not locking any more people away to serve his agenda. And so as we read all of this and as we remember the events that took place, I want to encourage you today that if you find yourself feeling like life sometimes can be a little hopeless, feeling like maybe it's just not supposed to be this hard, overwhelmed with the things you see on TV and everything in between, know that you're not alone today.

Jesus wept over the corruption that he saw. He wept over people missing him, missing that he was in their midst. If you feel angered by some of the things you read on the news, the way that people are still being taken advantage of, killed, abused, and everything in between, know that Jesus cared about that too. He flipped tables over these things to show that all people are welcome in his kingdom.

So then what can we do in response to this? What is our invitation to welcome him as the King he was, not the king we expected? I think it's to welcome him and follow him as the way, the truth, as the life, as the just, as the merciful, as the compassionate, full of grace God that he was. The God that had eyes for the least of these. The God that longed for relationship with you so deeply, so intentionally. And so we too have an invitation to reflect today and say, "What's in my hands that I need to untie? What am I holding on to?"

Where are the idols in your life today? That word "idol" can sound so daunting, like, "Well, I don't have idols in my life. What does that mean?" I recently heard it talked about like this: the things that we try to control most in our life are usually the things we're crowning king. A sign of an idol for us are usually the things we're trying to control most in our lives. What are you trying to control most right now in your life?

What's the thing that's keeping you up? The things you're like, "If I don't get this, if I don't have this, I don't know if I'm going to be able to keep going"? What are those things? It might be a sign of an idol. It might be a sign of something else you're crowning king. What are you trying to control or what have you placed expectations on in your life to fulfill you, to free you, to give you purpose, to give you peace? What do you need to untie today, knowing that the presence of God is right here in our midst?

In the same way that man surrendered the donkey and said, "Lord, have it," not knowing if he was ever going to get it back, if it ever would come, but he said, "It's yours." Make way for Jesus by untying the things in our lives, letting go of those idols, and embracing Jesus for who he is. Because we have an invitation today to welcome him and to help usher his presence into this city, to help other people know that this is not the end, but that there is eternal peace coming, eternal joy coming, eternal love, eternal glory. There is a day where all pain will cease to exist. That's what we're welcoming in. That's the good news of Jesus.

And so would you stand with me today? We're going to close just in this time of worship, singing this song, just in a posture of saying, "God, we are choosing to surrender to your will and to your way."

Would you just take a minute and would you just close your eyes. If you're comfortable, would you just stretch your arms out in a posture of surrender? We just pray right now: Holy Spirit, would you just show us the things in our lives that we have been trying to control, the things we have been crowning king? Would you help us to untie and surrender it to you?

God, would you help us to welcome you in as who you are, who you came to be? Trust that you are the way to the peace, the joy, the hope that we are looking for. Everything we long for is found in you. But it takes us getting out of the way and saying we surrender and we welcome you as the King of Kings, as the Lord of Lords. We ask this, God, in your name.