The King Who Sees, Weeps, and Reigns.

So glad you all are here on this beautiful Palm Sunday. We are going to be reading today out of Luke chapter 19. If you have your Bibles, you can follow along. If not, it'll be on the screen.

Luke chapter 19, starting in verse 28, titled The Triumphal Entry, says this: After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead going up to Jerusalem. As he approached Bethpage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples saying to them, Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there. There no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here.

If anyone asks you why are you untying it, tell him the Lord needs it. Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he told them as they were untying the colt, the owners asked them, why are you untying this colt? They replied, the Lord needs it. They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, teacher, rebuke your disciples. I tell you, Jesus replied, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.

Verse 41 says, as he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, if you even had only known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another because you did not recognize the time of God's coming.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word. God, I thank you for the gift that we get to come, that we get to gather, that as we read your word, we are hearing from your heart, that you're speaking to us through your Holy Spirit. God, I just pray right now that as we take these next few moments to invite your presence into this place that you would come, that you would speak through this text, that you would speak through these words. God, I know that you care so deeply for each and every one of us here and you long to see us live in deeper surrender to you and deeper relationship with you. God, we welcome your presence. We take a moment to release and I invite you to tell the Lord you're listening and release any worries, any anxieties, any stress, anything that's on your mind. Say, God, I set this aside and I welcome your voice to come and speak. God, we welcome your Holy Spirit to come and to speak to us. Would you have your way. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

A king who sees

This is Palm Sunday. This is the day that marks the beginning of Holy Week. A day when the people were waving the palm branches. I had the thought like on Friday to get palm branches. I don't know where to get them. So sorry, we don't have palm branches. If we did, they'd be fake and plastic. And then I was like, I don't want to store those all year. But maybe next year I'll get another bad pastor badge because I'll learn where you buy palm branches.

The people are shouting, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. I don't know what your church background is today, but I grew up in the church and I have memories of the palm branches and you just think it's this royal triumphal entry and you think it's this great celebration. But there's so much more that's happening here and so much more that it's probably good they didn't teach in Sunday school because that would have been a lot to understand.

Jesus was riding into the city and he was riding into this system. It was both this coronation of him becoming king, but it was also this confrontation of him coming to confront political oppression and economic exploitation. He was confronting the people that were using religion to legitimize this injustice that was happening all over the place. He was coming in a different way than people expected him. Jesus was riding into the city, yes, on a donkey, announcing that he was the king that was coming.

What is this world I want to talk about today. What is the city. What's happening. Where was Jesus riding in. First of all, there was a lot of political oppression that was happening at this time. Rome was ruling, and Rome was known to rule with an iron fist. There was an emperor that was in charge, but in places like Judea, there was local kings and governors that would have been put in place to manage the different people. These rulers, they weren't chosen by the people. They were appointed by Rome, by the Roman Empire. Their job was to keep order, to collect taxes, and to make sure that nobody else was going to resist them. There was going to be no uprisings. Nobody's going to come around and proclaim that they are king. But now here comes Jesus riding in on this donkey.

This was a time of economic exploitation. Rome's systems were literally designed to keep the rich rich and the poor poor in every single way. All of the different laws and the rulers and the things that were happening, some of the small things, you can look into this and it goes on and on. The poor people were taxed so high that they could barely survive. Sometimes it would be up to 50% of their harvest or their crops when agriculture was the main source of income that they would have to pay back to Rome.

And then the final thing that we see here is that there was a lot of religion that was used to legitimize the unjust systems as well. The leaders at the time in Rome, they would have been considered like these divine rulers, these divine kings, these divine leaders. Whether or not they themselves had truly a relationship with the Lord, if you were a king at that time, if you were a ruler, it would have been like, I follow you as if I was following the Lord. I'm going to submit to this leadership. Religion wasn't separate from politics, but instead it was used to justify it. It was known then that you had to submit to this leadership. If you didn't submit to the kings, essentially you would be killed yourself. There was this high level of fear then of the government and the systems that were in place.

The ruler at the time, one of them, Herod the Great, was appointed by Rome to be king of the Jews. A couple of things that are really interesting about Herod. I know a few of you here today have been on some of the trips that we used to lead to Israel, where we've seen some of Herod's palaces and we've seen the way that Herod would live. Herod lived this very lavish life. He was appointed king of the Jews, but it's interesting because he was not born Jewish, but he became Jewish and then they appointed him to be king of the Jews. But essentially, he wasn't there to do anything other than to make sure that the people were following and staying in order with what Rome wanted.

He was known not for being a king that honored God, but instead known for his brutal rule. He was known for causing pain. He was known for being super political and all of these different things. Why is this important for us to think about on Palm Sunday, when a lot of times it's just like this beautiful celebration of Jesus entering the city. It's because this here is the world that Jesus rode into.

Jesus was riding into a city that was ruled by fear, wealth, and manipulation. A city that kept power by removing anybody that was in opposition to them. He is walking into a city that was using religious speech and language to justify unjust things and using their faith to do that. Jesus is coming in and he is showing us not only a different way, but the true, holy, righteous way that he desires to rule and to reign. So many significant things are happening right here in this place, but this is the world that we see Jesus riding into.

Before we get into this, I want to talk about a few things. If you look in your Bibles in Luke chapter 18, there's many times that people are referring to Jesus as all sorts of things. Rome was ruling with an iron fist. Rome was coming against anybody that had opposition who would claim to be a leader or a king. Right there, there's a story about Jesus healing a blind beggar and the beggar receiving sight.

It says this in Luke 18:35. As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard the crowd going by, he asked them what was happening. They told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. He called out. He used the words, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

Those who led the way rebuked him and told him, be quiet. But he shouted all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. It says this in verse 40. Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, what do you want me to do for you.

Lord, I want to see. Receive your sight. Your faith has healed you.

Luke 18:40-42

Immediately, he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God.

By the time Jesus gets to asking them for the donkey, Jesus knows what he's walking into. This is no accident. Jesus is strategic in saying, okay, the time is coming where I'm here and I'm going to enter in as king and I'm ready for you to proclaim my lordship, knowing that as he does this, the word is going to spread. People are going to come after him. This is a very political move that Jesus is making here, where he's saying, here, we're coming. We are coming to claim our rightful throne.

I want to talk about the donkey here for a second. In this world where there's this oppression and there's this exploitation and all of these things are happening, Jesus is not coming in in the typical way that kings would come in. When kings wanted war at this time they'd come in on a horse, on a powerful horse. Now, I think maybe one time I was on a horse in my life, but I have been on a donkey. Has anyone else rode a donkey.

Just me. Wow. Look at that. Oh, we got a couple. Look at this.

If you know anything about being on a donkey and I'm short, okay, my legs almost touch the ground when I'm on the donkey. You don't feel powerful when you're riding on a donkey. Like nothing about it feels like oh I'm all high and mighty. You actually really low and it's kind of awkward and you just waddling along trying to hold your feet up the whole time. I almost pulled up a picture of me on the donkey but it was just like too much.

A donkey was not this powerful thing. If anything, it was a sign of humility and that's what people knew it as. Kings would come riding in when they wanted war on a horse and kings, when they wanted peace, they would come riding in on a donkey. They would be low. They would be close to the ground. It wasn't anything mighty, but this is how Jesus chose to walk or to ride into the city.

The people shouted, Hosanna. They go and they lay their cloaks down. Last week, we talked a little bit about the outer garments and the cloaks. We're talking about at this time this would have been significant for many things. There's another place in the Old Testament that people laid down their cloaks for a king and as a sign of submission and a sign of honor and respect. But it's also this sign of surrender because we're talking about not a culture and not a people that had an entire closet full of clothing, not even a suitcase, not even a bag.

It was probably more common that they would have one cloak, that they would have one type of garment and that was it. For them to take their cloaks and say, we're going to lay it down. It was not only submitting and acknowledging like this is a king. We know what we're supposed to do here, but it's also this surrender. It is an act of surrender that is taking place here. It's both surrender and submission with these cloaks.

What I love is that Jesus is riding into the city, not just on a donkey, which is humble and peaceful, but also on a borrowed donkey. Can you imagine being the owner of that donkey. Someone opens the door and it's like, what are you doing. Why are you taking this donkey. The Lord needs the donkey. There's this surrender here. I always think about it this way. Can you imagine if you're just sitting in your car and somebody just opens the door and it's like, get out, give me the keys. You're like, why. And they're like, the Lord, the Lord needs it.

I'm probably not going to surrender my car, if I'm being completely honest today. It might take a little more convincing. But that's what's happening. What I also love is, as far as I know, unless there's some extra sources I haven't read, we don't actually know if Jesus returned the donkey. I'm assuming somehow, that's what scripture says. I just want to assume he's a man of his word, he returned it. But we don't know. For all this guy knows, he's like, will I see the donkey again. Maybe, maybe not. But he gave it. He surrendered.

There's so much significance here as well. This was to fulfill the prophecy and the people would have known. This was in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah. They were saying he's going to come. He's going to come. He's going to come riding in on a donkey. Jesus is coming to this city of oppression, exploitation. Essentially, it was like this religious theater where everybody's just throwing God's name into all of these things to get what they want. He comes riding in on a borrowed donkey. People lay their cloaks down. They're waving their palm branches.

What happens next. I want to go back to verse 41 of Luke chapter 19. It says, as he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it. He wept and said, if even you had only known on this day, what would bring you peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another because you did not recognize the time of God's coming.

Here's what I love about this moment. We see Jesus pause and he looks around this city and he weeps. What I want us to notice here is that this was not an unfamiliar place to Jesus. Jesus knew this city. He knew these people. He's pausing to weep over the people that he spent time with in a place that he knows well and he's saying they've missed it. I'm right here coming and they don't see it.

What kind of king is Jesus. A king who sees. Jesus comes riding into this city and he pauses to weep because he sees what's happening. He sees the pain. He sees the brokenness. He sees their hurts. He sees the way that they just don't see him. He's weeping over this saying, if even you had only known on this day, what would bring you peace. Jesus, he sees us. He sees everything that we're walking through. Oftentimes I think that he's still weeping, saying, would you just look to me. Will you see me right here. Because I'm coming.

What does it look like for us to be people that see Jesus. Why often do we not see Jesus. I think there's a lot of reasons. As I was praying over this text, I feel like sometimes even in my own life, in the moments where I'm like, God, I just don't see you. God, I don't feel you. It's moments when I'm experiencing hurt, when I'm experiencing pain, when I'm experiencing hard situations and rejection, or when my mind is being tormented by fear and anxiety and worry. When I have questions and when I have doubts, I can get so caught up in all of this that I completely miss where Jesus is at.

I think some of it comes because we don't know, and we talk about this a lot here, but we don't know how to make space for both of those things to exist at the same time. To recognize that although there's still pain, that I can still experience the presence of God right in our midst. I think some of that comes even today as we still live in a world where we can just throw religious language around anything. Sometimes when we experience pain and we experience brokenness, we just have these cliches that we can be like, but God gives peace. So be at peace or like choose joy. How do I do that when there's this pain and there's this brokenness. What does that look like.

I love that we have so many examples of what that looks like for us to still approach God in that way. One of the things that we talk also a lot about is reading Psalms and praying Psalms. Today's date is the 13th. So the Psalm of the day would be Psalms 13. There's times when I read it and today I was just reading it and praying it. I was like, oh, this is such a fitting Psalm for Palm Sunday. And then it hit me. I was like, whoa, does this relate to what we're walking through.

I want to read this for you today in Psalms 13. This is what is considered a Psalm of lament. It says:

How long, oh Lord, will you forget me forever. How long will you hide your face from me. How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart. How long will my enemy triumph over me. Look on me and answer, O Lord, my God. Give light to my eyes or I will sleep in death. My enemy will say I have overcome him and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in your unfailing love. My heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord for he has been good to me.

Psalm 13

Two-thirds of the psalms are full of these laments. A lament is a different type of prayer and psalm and conversation with God. Essentially the framework is, even when I've done more teachings on lament, I often use this exact psalm to kind of show what does it look like for us to lament. If you look at this, it starts with these questions and this honest conversation where the psalmist is saying, how long are you going to forget me. Like, God, why are you hiding your face. It's this cry of like, God, where are you. Completely honest. It's considered almost like this complaint. Sometimes we're like, can I talk to God like that. Can I complain. Can I be that honest. The Bible is full of people that are that honest.

Then he's saying like, God, will you look on me. Will you answer me. Then it turns. But I trust in your unfailing love. My heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord for he has been good to me. This psalm ends with this cry of saying, God, I trust you. I trust you.

This is what a psalm of lament is all about. It's about us having these moments where we are completely honest with God, where we don't hold anything back from how we're feeling. We say, God, this is where I'm at. I'm longing for you. We present our questions, our complaints, and we end with saying, but God, I still trust you.

On Palm Sunday, I couldn't help but think of what the people were walking through. Jesus is riding in on this donkey, Jesus, the son of David, the king that they have been waiting for, that they have been longing for. Here they are still under the oppression of the Romans, still stuck in this economic exploitation, these unjust things that are happening to them. They see Jesus coming and they're singing Hosanna to the God who saves before he died on the cross and paid the price for their sins. Before they fully experienced that salvation, they were saying it and shouting it and singing it anyways. This is an invitation for us to live into the kingdom.

The good news for us today in this moment of time that we live in is that we recognize that Jesus, when he's coming into that city, we know what's happening next. He's going all the way to the cross. He's going to take on our sin and our shame and our brokenness. He's going to pay the ultimate price. Three days later when everyone else is like, that's it, like he's not the king. He's not coming back. He comes back. Sorry if I just spoiled that for you, but he comes back from the grave on resurrection Sunday. We celebrate that. He's saying, this is a prophetic act of, look, I'm coming back. Now there's a new life for you too. You can now die to the old and you too can be raised to walk with me in this new life.

But on this side of eternity, we are still now in this moment where it's the now and the not yet. Jesus came to save. So we can say, Hosanna to the King of David, the one who saves. We can still acknowledge and pause and weep over the brokenness that still exists. We can acknowledge our pain. We can even tell God about it. We can even kneel down and weep and say, God, like this hurts. This is hard. Where are you. Will you give me eyes to see you. Will you bring the light back in. And we can sing, Hosanna. He's coming to save us once and for all. There is hope coming.

We can sing and we can join with those who sang on Palm Sunday. God, we trust you and we're going to proclaim your goodness over and over again. Jesus is still inviting us today to say, will you see me. Will you choose to look to me in the midst of your pain and in the midst of your brokenness.

A king who cares

The next thing I want to talk about is how Jesus is a King who cares. He cares so deeply. I have in my notes King who cares and flips tables. So if you keep reading in Luke chapter 19, I want to talk a little bit about what happens right before the triumphal entry and where is Jesus headed right after this. If you continue in Luke chapter 19, I'm going to read this:

Then he entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling. It is written, he said to them, my house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers. Every day he was teaching at the temple, but the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find any way to do it because all the people hung on his words.

Luke 19:45-47

There's a lot that is happening here. Where is Jesus. He's in the temple, and it says here that he is in the temple area, the temple gates. There was a lot of different types of places within the temple. So at this point, there would be the holy of holies. This would be where the high priest once a year would go in and would encounter the presence of God. Then there would be this inner sanctuary within the temple. That's where it would be for the priests. The high priest could go into the holy of holies and the next level would be like the priest could come into the inner sanctuary. And then there would be the court for the Jewish men. Then there would be a court for the Jewish women. And then there would be this outer court for like the Gentiles, for the others.

This is where Jesus is coming in. This is where Jesus is entering this temple area. When he enters, he begins driving out those who were selling and says, my house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.

What is happening here. The temple had become a place where the wealthy people essentially were selling access to God. They essentially were like, if you want to pray, they are charging people to do that with the things that they are saying. The poor here is being extorted. They're taking the sacred things of God and they're monetizing it. They're using it for their benefit. Jesus is not having this. This is not what he wants.

I love, again, how Jesus doesn't just stop to weep. He pauses to weep. And then he keeps walking towards what we know is the cross. He keeps walking towards the cross. Every single thing that we read leading up to his crucifixion is a part of that.

The money changers there, they were selling the different animals that could be used for sacrifices that were needed for worship at that time for them to pay the price for their sins. This is why we refer to Jesus as like the perfect lamb who was slain because back in the Old Testament, when you broke the covenant with God, you would have to then go to the altars and make an animal sacrifice. The people are exploiting the poor. They're selling things to the Gentiles at higher prices. Jesus is coming again in the midst of his coronation to confront a systemic issue that's happening here. He's going and he's confronting the injustice. He's challenging the religious leaders who were using God's name to justify the way that they were excluding people from praying and encountering God.

Jesus, what I love here is he's not attacking the temple itself, but he's attacking the way that people have corrupted the system. He didn't come in and he's not attacking prayer. He's not saying like, stop praying. But he's attacking and he's saying, why are you not letting all people come and pray. I wonder as we read this in what ways are we still doing this. In what ways are we invited to build these bridges for people to encounter the presence of God and have relationship with Jesus but instead we get caught in these religious cycles and instead of bridges we have built these barriers that are keeping people out.

That's what's happening here in this moment. They got so caught up in the religious systems and in their religious ways that they're no longer building bridges for everybody to come and to pray and encounter God. But instead, it's these barriers that are being built up.

The point of what Jesus is saying here is not, I want to destroy, right, the temple, but he's like, I want to destroy the corruption within and show you the right way to worship. That's a place where everyone has access to God. My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. He's quoting Isaiah 56:7. But you have made it a den of robbers, a den where the powerful hide while robbing the poor. It's Jeremiah 7:11.

Jesus, in this moment, he sees the injustice that other people were ignoring. So many people walked past those tables and they just saw it as convenience. They were walking past it. But Jesus stopped. He saw. He wept. He cared about the oppression that was taking place. When other people just looked at it and they're like there's righteous order, he looks at it. He's like, no this is exclusion. Like you've missed it. You don't. You've lost the point.

He enters this court and you can almost feel like the grief and the anger. And this is often where people are like, well, Jesus got angry. And it's like, yes. But what did he get angry about. People being excluded from encountering his presence, from praying, from worshiping, from knowing him. He's risking his life. He's starting to enter in on that walk, that journey to the cross where he knows like, as I do this, as I overturn these tables, people are watching me. I'm going to cause some chaos here. He's recognizing this, again, is a very political thing that he's doing, flipping these tables and driving them out. This was one of the final straws for him.

But what I love is as we go back to this, we see that his heart, he's showing us again and again. His heart is for the outsiders, for those who are overlooked, for those who are pushed aside, and that his passion here is not for more power, but for people. He doesn't have to seek that power or that validation because he knows. He's like, I am the son of God. I'm fully human. I'm fully divine. He's not looking for more power and authority. Instead he's walking in it and he's using his power and he's using his authority for people.

Think about this. He has this moment where the people are finally acknowledging his kingship and they're waving and they're like, Hosanna, like bless you, praise you. Instead of just coming in all high and mighty, what does he do. He weeps. He shows his vulnerability. I don't love when I cry in front of people, mainly because I'm an ugly crier. But there's a lot of reasons that then all of a sudden you're like, oh, I just feel like I exposed myself. Like you just saw me. You really saw me.

If you see me cry, Jesus cries in front of these people. He's weeping. And then he goes in and he uses his power to flip tables for people to show that his heart is that all people have access to him. Jesus cares deeply about how power is used, especially in his name. When in a moment where people were using the name of the Lord and that power and that religion to do a lot of awful things, he's saying, no, this is what we're going to do with power. This is how we're going to use it.

Now, as I talk about this, I want to share this in a way that challenges us as people that are here today. Because when I think about this, there's a lot of probably things that are coming around in your head and your mind where maybe you're like, oh yes, I know where corruption exists in this world, right. Like we could all open up our browsers, we could throw on the news and we can be like corruption, corruption, corruption, bad, bad, bad. Like I'm sure there's a million examples of exploitation of oppression that we can think of.

But I want us to look inward to say, where have we. Where have we let corruption in. Where have we followed the ruling and the leadership of anybody else other than Jesus. Where have we lost sight of the kingdom. Because I think it's much easier for us to just say like, let's pray for the government. Let's pray for the church because the church keeps messing up. It's a lot harder for us to say, I am a person. If I'm following Jesus, then I'm a part of the body of Christ. Therefore, I'm the church. I have a responsibility to live into the ways of the kingdom.

I have so many different moments that I can think of where I've had those moments. Even as I say this, I feel a little guilty. Where it's like, it's hard sometimes. Like when people ask me out in public, they're like, what do you do. And I wish I could be proud. Like, I'm a pastor. But there's a lot of moments where it's like, I'm nervous to tell people because I recognize like, even that word can represent today, like pain to people. It can represent a lot of different things. They can have a lot of assumptions about who I am, about what I believe. Sometimes it's a little weird where you're like, but I want you to know, like, and I almost want to say like, not like the other. I'm like, but what am I saying. If I say not like the other pastors, what does that mean.

This summer when I was in Greece, I got stopped in the corner, was talking to some people and they're like, oh, you're American. I was like, yeah, I'm American. First question was an election season, not Trump or Obama, but it was Jordan and LeBron. That was their first question to me. I was like, well, easy, Jordan. But then we moved on and they're like, they're like, oh, and your politics over there. And I was like, yeah, our politics over there. You're kind of like, oh, yeah, those Americans. But you're like, well, I'm also, you know, an American.

A couple of years ago, I was in Oxford with one of my favorite theologians. I was with a group of pastors, and somebody raised their hand. He's one of my all-time favorite theologians. He's still in Oxford. Someone's like, hey, so what do you think. And I'm sitting right here. So what are your views on women in church leadership. I'm like, boy, here we go again. This is happening.

His response was so funny. He's like, you Americans, your questions about women in leadership and this and that and blah, blah, blah. He's like, you're just a bunch of angsty teenagers over there in the States. You'll grow up soon. But you start to see like different people because the church has existed a long time there. Some of the things like we're struggling with, they're like been there, done that. You'll figure it out too.

I find like those moments where you're almost like, oh, like, do I want to acknowledge I'm a part of the church. Because then people might think I'm like this or like that or whatever. But the reality is like, I am submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I am a part of the body of Christ. That means I'm a part of the church. That means I have responsibility. Right now I live in America. I'm a United States citizen. So that means I have responsibility. I can't just say like, oh, like those people. I am those people. That's hard for us to acknowledge.

But I think the more that we as followers of Jesus can acknowledge that and say, but ultimately our authority comes over the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That is our first identity as children of the Lord Most High. When we say yes to following Jesus, we now put to death all other identities, everything else, and we're raised to walk in this new way of living that now reflects his kingdom. That's saying, okay, so when we have power, how are we going to use it. When we start to have all of this come our way, what are we going to do with it.

My challenge and invitation for us today is when we hear these words and we think about the corrupt system that existed, we wouldn't just go to looking at like the big corrupt systems that exist in our world today. But we would start really small to say first of all, who am I letting rule my life. Is it King Jesus. When I get power, how do I use that. Is it to give people more access to Jesus. How do we start to not just look from afar and say those people, but how do we try to live like Jesus did where he's able to walk into the city humbly riding in on this donkey.

As the people are starting to worship him and submit to him and surrender to him, he pauses and he has this ability where he's weeping. He's not ignoring the pain. He's not ignoring the brokenness. He's not ignoring the unjust systems, right. So how do we too not look but we take time where we allow ourselves to pause and to see the brokenness that exists. We're saying, God, give me your heart for it. Where we take time to weep over it. We're not ignoring the pain. We're not ignoring the oppression. We're grieving it. We're praying in that same way that the psalmist does, where we're saying like, Lord, like, where are you. God, right now in our world, in our country, in the things that we see on the news around the world, like, where are you. Come, intervene.

And then following Jesus into being people that, yeah, we're going to use our power to flip tables and we're going to use our power to do all of that. But at the end of the day, we keep coming back to a place of saying we do it for King Jesus. We trust that even if we don't see everything be repaired, every broken thing be repaired right here in this moment, we continue to praise because we know that someday we will. That's the reality that we get to live in. We get to decide every single day, will we be people where we continue to build these barriers that keep people far away from Jesus. Or will we tear those down and instead turn them into bridges so that people have access to Jesus.

Jesus is a king who isn't afraid to show his weakness and his vulnerability and to weep over the broken things, but then keep walking towards the cross. We still have that invitation today to, yes, to weep over the brokenness in this world and then keep walking towards a cross where we are dying to our flesh. We are dying to any other desires other than to live for the kingdom of Jesus and see all people lived, healed, and whole.

That's what I love about Jesus is, when we talk about like the gospel and he came to like proclaim good news, like the good news was like, yes, I love you. I'm here to show you what love looks like. This is what we're seeing. Jesus isn't just like, yes, I love all of these people. I'm going to weep over them. But now he's like, and I'm going to make sure they have access to me. I'm going to make sure that there's no more economic exploitation that's happening here. I'm going to make sure that these people are no longer living in bondage and are oppressed. He's saying, for you, I want you to know that I love you and I'm showing you what this looks like for you to live life in the kingdom.

I'm going to invite the worship team to come as we get ready to close. Jesus is coming in as a king who sees, a king who cares, a king who's not afraid to weep and still keep walking towards the cross.

Closing invitation

I really just sense today that for us on this Palm Sunday, there is an invitation that starts with us. We have an invitation to continue to live into this kingdom reality of being people that build bridges for people to encounter Jesus. But it starts with us continuing to tear down every barrier that we have led in, that we have built. There are two things that I kind of want to talk about today, these questions that I want to invite you to process.

The first is, who is king. Then I want us to think about and ask ourselves, like, what right now are we currently caught in or following or letting rule us.

A king is a ruler. A king is a person of authority, someone that you submit to, right. We have a basic understanding of a king. As a pastor, one of the questions that I often get asked is people will sit down and they might have like one specific verse or one thing that they're walking through and they'll be like, okay, so Abbie, is this a sin. I always get that question. People want to know, like, is this a sin. What is sin. All this stuff. I'm like, well, first you have to define sin. In order to define sin, the first thing I was like, before we even get there, my first question is typically, well, who is king.

Like who is Lord of your life. Because if you don't know who's ruling your life, then it doesn't really matter if you're living according to their standards if you're not even following them. Because if Jesus is Lord, if Jesus is King, that means we are fully submitting and surrendering everything to him. At that point, then it's like, well, whatever Jesus asked of you, you'll be willing to do. You'll no longer be asking like, how far is too far to walk away from God. But instead, you'll be saying like, what does it look like for me to live more into who God has created me to be. The question shifts.

It's not me saying like it's ever bad to question is something a sin or not. Like that's not bad. But I think the more important question that we always, always, always have to go back to is who is king. Who is Lord of our lives. Who are we letting rule and reign over us. So many people missed Jesus as he was riding in because they were caught up in other things.

I'm going to invite you to stand today. As I keep going back to this, the common things that I see is that there was probably more. If you don't fall exactly into one of these categories, that's okay. But I see kind of two highlighted groups of people. There's like one group that was there that they were so caught up in their brokenness. They were so caught up in being oppressed that they almost lost touch in the reality that Jesus could actually come and heal them. Maybe Jesus was still coming, but they were so caught up in the brokenness that they could not see Jesus coming.

And then I think there's another group there that they got so caught up in religion. They got so caught up in relying in their own rituals and their worship and their rules that all of a sudden they didn't even realize that they were no longer living the way that Jesus would want them, that God would want them at that time. They're excluding people. They're oppressing people in the name of God.

I want to invite you to just take a moment and to just posture yourself in a place to just hear from God. Whether that's closing your eyes, oftentimes it's just standing with my hands out in front of me in a posture of surrender and just saying, God, like, would you speak to me.

I want to just invite you to take a moment. First, like, I just want to remind us today that like God does see, that God sees the pain that we're walking through, that God sees the pain around this world. He sees the broken things and that he too is weeping. If you're here today, maybe you just need that reminder, like the things that are keeping me up at night, like God cares about that. I feel like for some of us, we just need that permission to be like, we can talk to God about the things that are broken. Like we don't have to hide that.

If you're here today and maybe you feel like, yeah, I've just been so caught up in the brokenness. Like, would you just invite the Lord to come and just show you where he's at right now. Would you choose to look to Jesus as king, even in the midst of the brokenness. If you're here today and maybe you're like, yeah, I first have to kind of ask that question, like, is Jesus king. Am I ready to submit to his lordship, declare him as Lord of my life.

I feel like for some of us, maybe that's the reflection today is saying like, God, like, yeah, who am I following. Is it my anxious thoughts. Is it my worries. Like, what is ruling. And in the same way that like the people, they lay down their cloaks as both submission and surrender. Like maybe there's things today that God is saying, like, would you lay that down. Would you lay down. Next time those anxious thoughts creep in, would you just say, Lord, I'm submitting them to you. Next time that we're tempted to be ruled by anything and rely on our own strength, like, Lord, I submit that to you.

God, I just pray right now. Would you come in, would your Holy Spirit continue every single day to convict us of the ways that we can get caught in religious systems. God, would you help us to not be people that get so caught up in our rituals and our routines that we miss you and we end up excluding people. If there's any ways, God, that we are not using our power to build bridges, would you show us. Would you help us to lay that down.

I want us to end today with singing this song, Hosanna, again. I think for some of us, it is like singing it because we've seen and we've felt God move. We've seen God heal us from things and we felt the brokenness come and, you know, be restored. But I think for some of us, we're maybe right in that middle where we're like, I'm still weeping over the broken. Maybe I'm not singing right now because I feel it, but I'm singing because I know that Jesus is coming, that the cross is coming, that his death and resurrection have power to save for all of eternity.

I just want to pray. Then I want us to sing this and declare and bless the Lord today, not because we feel like everything is right, but because God is righteous and holy and worthy, and we trust that he's coming to restore all that is broken.

God, we thank you. We thank you for sending your son Jesus to die and pay the price for our sins. We thank you that Jesus came back to life and that we live in this moment of time that we can sing knowing that you have saved us, that you have redeemed us, that you have restored us.

Even in moments where we look around our world and there's still brokenness, I thank you that you've invited us as your followers, as your children, to continue to restore what's been broken, to heal all that the hurt and the pain. Would your Holy Spirit empower us. Would you give us the faith to keep singing Hosanna, trusting and believing and knowing that Jesus you are coming back again and there will be a day where you once and for all restore everything that is broken and that we will dwell in your house forever. All people. No one excluded. We will dwell in your house forever.

We sing today, God, both out of thanksgiving and gratitude and also prophetically believing the truth of these words. God, we just honor you. Would you receive this offering today.