More Than a Parade | Matthew 21:1-17 | Palm Sunday

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem, the city was stirred with a nationalistic hope for a new government. However, Jesus didn't head for the Roman fortress; He went to the Temple. In this Palm Sunday message, we examine the "upside-down" nature of Christ's Kingdom—where a donkey is the royal transport and a cross is the royal throne.

To help you sit with these truths throughout the week, we have prepared a five-day devotional guide to accompany this study. You can find those daily readings and reflections here: More Than a Parade Devotions.

Let the Holy Spirit do an "inspection" in your life this week as we prepare for the reality of Good Friday and the victory of Easter.

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Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon from First Reformed Church in Edgerton, Minnesota. Each week we dig into God's Word trusting that the Holy Spirit will continue the good work of sanctification in us. You would never purchase a home solely on external appearance. Of course, curb appeal, gives an important first impression and factors into a purchase decision, but we know it can't be the only element in a decision. You make your way inside, and while space and layout of the home are primarily what you are eyeing, you are also actively looking for issues, things like cracks in the ceilings or walls. You are checking for signs of wear or rot that would devalue your purchase. And you also come to visit the home expecting that it has had or will have a full and proper inspection by a professional. You want to be sure that the foundation is sound and that the walls don't harbor termites or some other rot that would destroy the home. You trust an inspector to dig deep and to root out any potential problems.

Well, this morning we arrive at Matthew's account of the triumphal entry. And we heard of not only the majestic response that met Him, but we continued further on into the story and we read of the cleansing of the temple. And during the course of His ministry, Jesus had been inspecting. And He had observed the rot within the religious system. And after His triumphal entry, He makes His way to the temple and He flushes out those that were abusing the temple for personal gain. And so as we come to the passage and we come to verse 1 of Matthew 21, we're reminded of the nature of the ministry of Jesus. He and His disciples draw near to Jerusalem, it says. And often we forget that Jesus and His disciples were rarely in Jerusalem. You know, they really only would have been in Jerusalem for the feasts. Primarily, the ministry of Jesus was away from the center of political and religious power. He taught on hillsides, and He taught by lakes in remote regions. And people came out to listen to him teach, and people came to be healed. So this entry into Jerusalem is on their way to observe Passover, and it's substantial. But they would have done this before. But the way Matthew tells the story here, we get the idea that this is going to be different from previous observations that they've done. Matthew informs us of some pre-work that Jesus assigns to His disciples in verses 2 and 3.

He has them go. He has them find a donkey and a colt. Now, we're pretty used to this story, so we tend to miss the significance of this. What we're supposed to see and understand here is the humility with which Jesus is entering the city. I know I've mentioned this in the past, but I never really caught the significance of this until I was outside the city of Hawassa in Ethiopia. I had never really paid attention to donkeys before, but there were so many donkeys there I couldn't miss what they're like. They are tiny. They're insignificant. You don't really ride them. They are beasts of burden. You would think that the Messiah, the true King, He is coming into the city, He would be doing this seated on an impressive steed while accompanied by an unbelievable entourage of royalty and servants. Instead, we find Jesus on a donkey. With fishermen and a tax collector.

Not what you'd expect. But we see Matthew tell us that this humble servant King is what we should expect because this is the story that has been foretold. And we see this in verses 4 and 5. He tells us that this was spoken of by the prophets. In looking at this, we need to make sure we take hold of the significance of this event because messianic prophetic words aren't about a king coming into town to visit a long-lost family member. And it isn't even about, "Hey, the Messiah is coming into town to observe the Passover." A prophetic word about the Messiah coming to Jerusalem implies an enthronement. So let's stop and think this through a little here. Jesus is very clear in the Gospels. His kingdom is not of this world. Jesus is also clear that He is going to suffer. That's the plan. And it isn't something that Jesus concocted around campfires late at night on the hills of Nazareth. By it being a prophetic word, we see that it's a plan ordained by Almighty God. And Scripture tells us it was ordained before the foundation of the world. And I bring this up because it is so easy for us to come to the story of the triumphal entry and frame it from a worldly perspective. Jesus rides into the city on Sunday. And by Friday, he's executed for a failed attempt to overthrow the Roman government and make himself king. But the riding in on a donkey pulls us back to the biblical story. It pulls us back to the plan of God.

Jesus rides on a humble donkey. It is clear that the plan here isn't a bloody coup, or He would have brought an army in tow while riding on a war horse or maybe in a chariot. Instead, we find Jesus on a beast of burden that once He sits on it, likely barely even elevates His head above the crowds. But this is the plan. He is coming to Jerusalem to be enthroned. But his throne is not a seat of political power, and he isn't coming to take religious power in the temple either. His throne is a Roman cross where he will suffer greater humility than that of riding on a donkey. He will be beaten. He will be bruised. He will be exposed to the world as he slowly suffocates to death like a criminal. Blood will be shed, but it isn't the blood of his enemies so that he can overthrow the government. It is his own blood, and it is shed to bear the wrath of God on behalf of the enemies of God. That is what is happening here, and this whole story is upside down. Side down from human expectation. And it began with His humble birth in a stable. It continued through His ministry. And it starts to come to its fullness here as He enters the city on a donkey.

But before He gets to the cross and the fulfillment, we see that the people expect an earthly king. It's clear in verses 7 and 8. That this is their expectation. The crowd puts their cloaks on the road. They cut branches to put on the road as well. And you don't do that for just anyone. You do that for someone you believe to be royalty or someone that you see as a conquering hero. In fact, as I remind you of every year on Palm Sunday, The palm branch is not just some random or arbitrary decision of what they are going to put on the path. In the history of Israel, a conquering hero returned, and what happened? The people greeted them with palm branches. So, this is a historical callback here. And it's transferred to Jesus as He comes into the city. The palm branch is a symbol of national identity for them. And it's also a symbol of independence. It shows the desire of the people to be rescued from Roman occupation. And we see this hope in the words of verse 9 here.

"Hosanna!" to the Son of David. Hosanna means, "Save us now." It's not just a praise word. It is a plea. They are crying out for rescue. And notice that they also call Him the Son of David. It would have been plenty easy for the word to spread around the crowd—in fact, it does later in the text—that this guy's name is Jesus. They could have very easily spread the cloaks, spread the branches, and said, "Hosanna to Jesus!" But they say, "Son of David" on purpose. "Son of David" means they expect Him to be King. The Davidic covenant promised a son of David would always be on the throne. So this title here shows they believe Him to have the right of the kingship of Israel. And they also quote a Messianic psalm when they say, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." The expectations of the people are expectations of human power. They are expectations of human authority. The people are amped up.

And the energy spreads throughout the whole city as we see in verses 10 and 11. And we have to remember what this means. This is more than just the regular inhabitants of Jerusalem. It is the time of the Passover. The number of people in Jerusalem is substantially increased. And notice this buzz as it spreads. People are asking who this Jesus is. And the word on the street is that He is the prophet from Nazareth. It isn't hard at all to imagine what this scene would be like, to picture this buzz in our imaginations. You know what people would have been saying? This is Jesus. Someone told me that he fed 5,000 people with some bread and some fish. Oh yeah? Well, I heard he cast demons into some pigs and they ran into the water and drowned themselves. Oh yeah? I hear he raised the dead. I was there. You can imagine how this would have spread. And so the city is not only stirred up, it is stirred up with the hope of a fulfillment of prophecy, something they desire greatly. These people would have heard these prophetic predictions their entire lives. They would have sang the Messianic psalms in hope of the Messiah coming. And now all of this is coming to fruition while they are in Jerusalem. Some of these Messianic psalms, the people coming from all around the empire would have been singing as they were coming down the hills into Jerusalem. There is Messianic expectation here.

That you and I cannot even begin to fathom. You know how excited we get when you think your favorite sports team is going to win a championship after a long drought. You know how that makes you feel. You know how there's a buzz in the air when the Vikings are pretty good going into January. That feeling is nothing compared to what these folks would have been feeling deep within them. It wasn't just a feeling of hope that somebody would be king. This was a nationalistic thing. This was a religious thing. They felt this very deeply. But this is where we need to stop and remind ourselves the earthly desires that were fueling this stirring in Jerusalem. They weren't excited because Jesus was going to suffer and die as an atoning sacrifice for their rebellion against God. That wasn't why they were excited that day. They wanted the Roman powers thrown down. They wanted them driven out. But Jesus doesn't go to the seat of Roman power and kick them out. Instead, we continued on with the story.

We see that He makes His way to the temple. And there in v. 12-13, we see that He drives out those who are using the temple as a means of gain. He is cleansing the temple. He says that it was intended that the temple would be a house of prayer, but it has become a custom to take advantage of people. So, with the numerous exiles that we read about in the Old Testament, the Hebrew people had been dispersed throughout the known world. And so the feasts were a time where the faithful would come to Jerusalem from all over the empire. This meant that Those travelers needed to exchange their currency for the local currency, and they also needed to purchase animals for the sacrifices. And so, an enterprise had formed around this necessity. Well, and eventually, it became the new custom that people would be exploited right there in the courts of the temple. And so Jesus kicks them out.

And in doing so, He shows that His purpose is not in cleansing Jerusalem of the Romans, but that He will be changing the whole religious understanding of how humanity is made right with God. In fact, we are just 3 chapters chapters from Matthew 24 where Jesus tells His disciples that this temple won't be standing much longer. Jesus tells them that the temple will come down within a generation, and it did. And in verse 14, we also see that this message that Jesus gives is shown to have authority. Things about the temple are going to change drastically. And now He speaks here with authority. And He shows that authority by healing the blind and healing the lame in the temple. He is not just some random guy making predictions about the destruction of the temple. By healing, He shows His authority from God. He shows that His words mean something, that He is the One who ultimately knows what this is all about. And so as we move to verses 15 and 16, we find that the chief priests and the scribes don't see things this way. Big surprise. Those guys are really not happy with Jesus throughout the Gospels, right? This shouldn't come as a surprise. And they show us here, Matthew shows us here that the children have been captured by the chants of the crowds. And so they are repeating this song, this messianic plea for deliverance: "Hosanna!"

And so the chief priests and the scribes, they ask Jesus, "Do you hear what they're saying?" And they must expect Him to stop the children, or maybe they're trying to get Jesus to see how far people are taking things, all this stuff that He's doing. Maybe they are trying to show Him how out of hand this is getting. But instead of stopping the children or engaging the religious leaders with a discussion of His messianic authority, He acknowledges the words of the children and then He does something very substantial. He connects all of this to Psalm 8 and we see what He quotes here from verse 2 of Psalm 8. And I'm guessing that this must have sent the priests and the scribes into the stratosphere. I'm guessing they were so unbelievably upset, we wouldn't be able to measure it. Because Jesus does not only not stop the children, He implies that this psalm of praise applies to this situation. This psalm is talking about praise to God. And so he is functionally claiming to be God here. That this praise directed towards him is the same as the praise talked about in Psalm 8. He is claiming to be God. And we know that He is worthy of praise. But those servants of the temple, For them, it would have been utter blasphemy. And the religious leaders are upset. The people are expecting an overthrow of the Romans, and that isn't coming. And now the scribes and the priests are angry too. And in a few days, both parties are going to call for his crucifixion.

But that plotting is not contrary to the plan of God. It is the plan of God. The true King will be enthroned, but he is enthroned on a cross for the sins of his people. And as we journey from here today to Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter, it is essential that that divine plan is our focus. Because Jesus came to earth, and upon His inspection, He witnessed the rot of sinful humanity. While He deserved the praise and adoration of a king, He knew it was fleeting. He had the authority to cleanse the temple, but He knew the religious leaders would reject that authority and they would allow the rot to return. But even if someone were to come along and restore the nation of Israel, if someone were to come and get the corruption out of the temple, the greatest problem would still have remained. Our greatest problems are not political. Our greatest problems are not corruption within the temple. If someone came and sorted those things out, humanity would still be mired in sin and unbelief. Humanity would still be in subjection to the curse. But because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in His death, The wrath of God for our rebellion against God is satisfied, and in his resurrection, death is defeated once and for all. That is what we really need. We need the humble King on the donkey.

And this week, I want to challenge you to let Jesus and the Holy Spirit Do some inspection in you. Where is sin causing rot? What have the termites of your sin slowly been nibbling away? Hear the Word and trust in the Spirit to do a good work in you. And let the story of the Gospel that we look forward to through the course of this week work in you. Let it remind you of the freedom that you have in Christ. The work of Jesus brought victory over our deepest problem of sin and death. And Jesus is faithful to work holiness in His people. Let Him ride into your life this week. And may we humbly submit to Him. That our lives might be lived in glorious praise to our true King. Amen. Let us pray. Great and merciful God, we thank You for what Your Word shows us, that while Jesus was worthy of all honor, glory, and praise, He came into the city humbly, not to be enthroned on a throne of gold and jewels, but instead to receive a throne of a cross and a crown of thorns. We pray that as we head into this week, we would be mindful of that truth, and in humility we would examine ourselves, that we might be moved to holiness and trusting in the work of your Holy Spirit in us. It is in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen. Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon. For more information about First Reformed Church, head to our Facebook page or website, edgertonfrc.org.

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