I invite you to turn this morning to Matthew, Matthew chapter 21, as we continue to make our way through the gospel of Matthew, and this morning we come to the familiar triumphal entry of Jesus Christ. And so that is found on page 981. We will be reading together the first 11 verses this morning. Let's give our attention to the Lord's wonderful word to us.
"Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, "The Lord needs them," and he will send them at once. This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet saying, Say to the daughter of Zion, "Behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden." The disciples went and did just as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up saying, Who is this? And the crowd said, This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.
And there will end today the reading of God's word.
Well, I want to begin with a question that we, and I left you with last week, and the question is, do you see Jesus? That is a very important question to looking at this particular text this morning, this well-known text. And what we have studied in the last chapters of Matthew is that the followers of Christ have been following him with no understanding of what he came to do. It's it's really a remarkable study in discipleship yes indeed and of course the need for the Holy Spirit who will make all these things very clear to them. But it teaches us something very important about a challenge that we have in our walk with Jesus. Jesus christ that because of this, people, at least the disciples here, don't understand what becoming a follower of Christ is intended to be.
That crucial statement made by our Lord in the last section just sort of glares as we come to the triumphal entry: "The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many." there that last little line fulfilling exactly what Isaiah 53 captures at the end of that glorious chapter on the work of the Messiah so many years previous. And then he said, "If any of you want to be great in the kingdom, let him become your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you let him be your slave."
We've been looking at first and last and last and first. We've been looking at all this language, and and and these things continue to come up. I thought that we were sort of through the thread there last week, and then it dawned on me: this is the sort of capstone to it all that we're studying today! Because they have not understood that this was the very purpose in Christ's coming it was to serve them and all peoples. They did not understand what their course in this life would look like and what it meant to be a follower of Christ.
And the great problem, then, is simply still that they can't see Jesus. And in the midst of Jesus giving the final prediction of his death, he said he said something obviously to press them on this point, in making this prediction to help them. He said that the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priest to the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and to crucify him, and on the third day he will rise again. There the whole path was set out and explained for them.
And you might ask the question at this point: why were they even following him? Did they understand this? Did they understand the mission?
It's really good because Matthew, as we get to Matthew 28, will help us to understand the great mission of the church and what the purpose of that mission is. And really, we see that explained the whole way throughout Matthew. Matthew's helping us with this. Jesus' purpose and what he had come to do. And what a question for us: what do we think Christianity is?
Have you ever stopped and asked these sort of important questions along the way? Why am I following? And what am I really involved with? And what do I think the, since Jesus gave so much attention to it, what do I think the cost is of this, right? Jesus talked a lot about that constantly. "Count the cost of what it means to be a follower of me."
Well, what does that look like? And what is that cost? And why am I following? And why am I involved in this? These are important questions to ask.
And I trust you see that if you don't understand Jesus and if you don't see Jesus, you really won't understand and see what Christianity is all about. And that's important for the church today as it ever has been.
And so Jesus has been teaching them about greatness, jesus has been teaching them about greatness which really captured from John: is to lay down one's life for one's friends. That's the heart of humility. That's the heart of sacrificial love. But the whole way through they've been fighting him on this.
Lord, we have uh remember Peter in the previous chapter? Lord, that the rich young ruler walking away um because he wouldn't leave all and follow. Lord, we have left all and followed you. What do we get? It's just a shocking question in the midst of this maybe not something that we can pass over so easily. But I think it's a shocking question.
And the section that we ended with last time ended with two blind men who, from the you might say cheap seats, are just asking for mercy, right? They're just They're in the cheap seats they're on the side of the road. They have no glory. They can't even see. And the request of Jesus is not "What do we get?" We just want to see you. We just want to see you! That is so important for Christianity!
It might i challenge you to make that a great request of Jesus. Since all the scriptures are about him, that you would see him from the scriptures because it's not an easy thing to see him. And so we need his help.
And this is where we are today. Here's the great question of the text: you might say if we keep it in context from the two blind did you notice the last little phrase of chapter 20? was "And they followed him." They see and they follow.
What did they get to see? Right? What did they get to see? They were blessed to see Jesus! Well, today we have that path carved out for us in what we call the triumphal entry. It's a glorious text! And here Christ demonstrates and it culminates in all this teaching on greatness that we've been studying all these lines that have been given to us. All the look at what is true greatness: becoming a little child, entering as a little child, the last shall be first and the first last, becoming a slave, becoming a servant. All culminates right here!
And what a glorious text it is! Christ here demonstrates for us this morning true humility and what it means to give one's life as a ransom for many.
You know the text well. I always find these are challenging texts to preach because I feel like everyone has read them so often. And, of course, every Palm Sunday we have a few texts to pick from and we hear this text. And how easy it is to miss it in context when we do that. That's why I'm really grateful to have a fresh look at it as we've been working through the book.
After moving from Jericho, as we studied last week, we read that they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives. Bethany here is located on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. It's a 2,900-foot hill facing Jerusalem. You come down the eastern slope, you enter the Kidron Valley, and Jesus is moving toward Jerusalem after making this journey.
The scene before us, as much attention is given to the triumphal entry, It is interesting its ending. It always seemed to me so anticlimactic. Mark, I think it says he enters in and he looks around and it just says "It's late, so he went home." What is that?
The whole thing comes to us like a parable, if you will, of his work to show us jesus to capture in a moment who he is and what he's come to do. Everything the Old Testament looked for in the celebration of the arrival of the Messiah and the bringing in of his kingdom comes together in this little moment that's captured with in such brevity and succinctness to help us see him.
Notice carefully how, by the inspiration of the Spirit, Matthew now gives great attention to a few things that we could easily miss just reading this without the context that we've had. And the first thing that you'll notice here is: "Then Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, go into the village opposite of you, and immediately you'll find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, "The Lord has need of them," and immediately he will send them
What do you do with that? um The last emphasis is remarkable. All they had to do was walk up and say to this man maybe he knew Jesus, we're not given that that the lord needs them and the impression that Matthew wants us to leave us with immediately in the text is this is the Lord asking for these donkeys. This is the Lord asking. The one who is all powerful over all the creation that was made, that he holds by his command, everything in his control and in his power. We are to be struck with that power. We are to be struck with that sovereignty. This is the King making a request, and immediately they are given.
Matthew wants us to understand who this is. Matthew doesn't want us to miss this: to see that this is the Lord. The Lord of glory. The Lord, The one through whom everything was made. the one who owns the cattle on a thousand hills that we read of in the Psalms. This is the Lord.
Now, what struck me as I was reading this if you didn't catch it was Jesus sent two of them. We're not told who. Who are the last two mentioned? was James and john at least we know from who the mother. was And that, I think, when she came and asked him for something when she did, really drives how Matthew has set this up. She asked something of Jesus. Do you remember what she asked? That her two sons would sit I want to talk about seats for a minute. You all love seats. Some of you won't budge out of your seat. We got to talk about that! If someone came in and took your seat, you might even be bothered.
Let's talk seats for a minute. "I want my sons to sit one on your right hand and the other on the left in glory." And then we met two guys who were sitting in the chief seats, all right? Two, two, two. Matthew wants us to link it all together. He's prompted us to link it all together. Jesus has linked it all together.
All the disciples had been in a huge fight over position, hadn't they? They were lording it over each other. The fight had broken out over the seats. And because no one understood what service in the kingdom and about what a true servant is in the kingdom what that is about it broke out in the fight because these two had positioned them over the others. They have the best seats in the kingdom!
So what a moment! Jesus sends two who were the two we're not told. If you ask me, I think it's James and John. I think they're the likely candidates. But it really doesn't matter because the whole group got caught up in this thing. I wonder if the two who went assuming it is James and john we're starting to ask questions: "What? Why am Why are we going to do this?" Right? No questions. What purpose are we going? And then it must have dawned on them when they looked at the donkey: is that Jesus's seat? Is that his seat?
How in the world does the pastor communicate the humility of Christ here and do it justice?
What had just happened? The fight over the seats and positioned had driven the entire previous section of this narrative, and they had no idea of the meaning for which he came. Why were they following? And I pressed back on us: why are we following?
The Jews believed when the Messiah came that he would be a political and military power house who would defeat Israel's enemies the romans restore jewish sovereignty in the land of israel re-establish the davidic kingdom listen to the law of kings that was later written, but it captures what had always been embedded in their thought: "The messianic king will restore the kingdom of David to its former glory, build the temple, gather the exiles, enforce the Torah, wage God's wars, and through success through success hold that thought." What did we sing? I'll just give it to you now. Psalm 118: "Success, prosperity, Lord. Through success he will be recognized as the Messiah. If he fails or is killed, he's not the true one."
Imagine! That's all in your thinking. And by the way, that thinking is deeply embedded among American Christians right now for our nation, as if we're Israel. If you can't see it, you're missing it. It's deeply embedded in us and we don't even realize it.
Imagine if you're sent on a mission and you think the restoration of Israel has come through power and authority in that kind of way, and you're led to a donkey. That animal throughout Israel's history symbolized humility. They all knew it! And Matthew wants to make a huge moment of this is to say: "This took place to fulfill the scriptures."
Now keep in mind, nobody understands this at this point. "This took place to fulfill the scriptures by the prophet saying, say to the daughter of Zion: Behold, your king is coming to you This is right out of Zechariah 9 9 How many years previous was this written? Under the inspiration of the Spirit, "Behold, your king is coming humble, mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden." Zacharias so many years previous had captured this by one great word to describe the coming of the King: humble. It has a range of meanings that I think all work together to describe the whole work of the Messiah: poor, afflicted, oppressed, weak. It's meant for us to be read in shock against our expectations.
Imagine reading this for the first time! You've read it all your life, but imagine reading this for the first time how hard it would be for us.
When in the Sermon on the Mount, what was the very character quality that Jesus held high? "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the kingdom."
The imagery of a king writing entering his capital was always that of power, was always that of pride, was always that of arrival in splendor and in glory on, of course, a horse, a war horse if you will. But but the seat that Jesus chose the seat that is captured here against all this background of of the fighting of the disciples for their own positions and own seats is that of an animal that is used to carry heavy burdens and heavy loads.
This animal that he chose captures the greatest symbol. And we can trace this out in Israel's history of humility. And I trust you see why this is important.
Do you realize how important this scene is, beloved, for us? We can't imagine this. But imagine you're a noble and you're a sovereign and you have all power and authority and you know you are truly great. None of us, even in a lesser status than that, would ever do this. None of us would ever do this. to take that seat to ride to your throne.
Do you see Jesus? There's the question I'm pressing: do you see Jesus? What kind of a king is this?
I don't want to just study the peripherals here. I want to ask about his character. Do you see his character?
Jesus just said, "Kings and lords lord it over, rule over people. They exercise that authority in dominance. They exercise that authority to force submission. They exercised that authority in such a way as to lord it over people."
In the whole history of the Christian church, you think of when the offices came of elder and deacon, and then shortly after, the whole trajectory was a movement away of monarchical bishops, and then papal supremacy of one figure who would be given all the glory. "Where the Pope is, there is the church," they said. None of that, none of what's happened fits exactly what Jesus is describing here. That's why reformation was always necessary.
"Not so among you. You, my leaders, must become servants."
Who is saying this? He's the Lord of glory! Can you imagine?
Now, oh Father, think of this prayer: "Glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed." I don't know how to describe that. But I know who's saying it. This is the eternal Son of God through whom everything was made. And this is the King of Psalm 2.
"Ask of me. I'll give you the nations for your inheritance, right? As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."
Now therefore, O kings, be wise! Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.
Have you ever thought how that happened? How such power was brought in? How such greatness was shown?
You know he has the ability to strike us all down? You know how he has the ability to crush us rightly so under the just weight of breaking his law, under the wrath of God as the ultimate despot who holds absolute power?
Do you know what this scene is? Do you know who he is? This is your King choosing this seat for you.
I prayed about this sermon because I thought, "I've preached the triumphal entry how many times in my life, and I don't know if this is going to be very powerful." Shame on me! This is your King choosing this seat for you.
Your King, the one who holds everything in his hand, chose to humble himself to death for you. Your King, who had a million angels at his disposal, And when he was tempted, could have called them, remember? Didn't do it. Holds the power of all worlds. Clothes himself in utter humility. How do I communicate it? How do I?
Philippians 2: "He made himself nothing, taking the form of a slave, and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross."
Oh! But we think Christianity is about just a little help for our day, right? We think Christianity is about help for the tough days ahead. That we need encouragement. We certainly do. But it was because of the wrath of God and the judgment the just judgment of God that people would suffer forever without a Savior that he came and willingly laid down his life.
Do you know what Jesus is doing as he's writing? Do you think he was smiling? Do you know what emotion was on his face? Luke tells us.
And when he drew near on the donkey and saw the city, he wept. He wept over it, saying, "Would that you, even you, had known that on this day the things that make for peace." True peace.
He's weeping over his city because they don't know what makes for peace.
Isn't this the burden today? Do people know what makes for peace? And why peace is needed?
See, all throughout the ministry of the disciples, there seemed to be no understanding of the real predicament people are in in this life. If he hadn't taken this seat and rode all the way to judgment, we all would have to face the severe and eternal judgment of God.
How is God understood today? "Well, my God's just a loving God. My God is a God of love." I hear it all the time. He is indeed love. But it's as if that love is completely void of his justice. So most people have no real conception of what the gospel is all about.
You have a need for the gospel. I have a need for the gospel. And that gospel is the answer to the problem of God's righteous justice because of sin.
When the mother of James and John had come just before this and asked that her two sons might sit, one on the right hand and the other on the left in the kingdom, she had no thought about the way that that even would happen. And that's just where Jesus took her.
After it caused the fight among the disciples and they're arguing about greatness, remember what he said? "Woman, you don't know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?"
The judgment of God is an awful thing. No pastor loves to talk about it, but anyone who dies in their sins when they take their last breath, they enter into eternity with no mediator, no covering, no shelter, and the consequences are eternal.
I was talking to a man yesterday and he says, "I just don't understand why God would ever strike down anyone. God is a God of love." And I said, "We don't have a gospel if we don't understand the justice of God."
This is what people don't understand about God: sin has merited eternal judgment. But who's worried about it? Who's thinking about it? How much worse when his followers don't understand this?
And here is your King, saying something really wonderful today and showing it to you. "I took it for you. I will undergo it."
His whole path of greatness is captured right here. The King came in total humility, lowering himself and putting himself under the law and under the judgment of God for you, and nothing would stop him. Nothing would hold him back. He would go to this for you.
So the seat he chose was the seat that you and I deserved. And here he sits. And where he is writing is right to his impending judgment.
Now I ask the question: do you see what not seeing Jesus looks like?
We refuse to identify with such humility. When there's no understanding of the path for you and there's no understanding of the sacrifice for you, you see why it would tie to a ministry that doesn't make this the priority, and then it corresponds in following.
And that's where we're challenged as to what Jesus was challenging the disciples with: what is the typical attitude in the kingdom of God toward being in his church and in his kingdom?
And it has everything to do with us. "I don't like this, and I don't get the tension I deserve, and I'm not welcomed, and I like worship to be this, and I want to be recognized for who I am, and I can't believe these people don't acknowledge me, and I don't like these people."
What in the world? What are we involved in?
"He who would be great, let him become your servant."
And here we see Jesus stripping away all of our selfishness when we see him and we see his glory.
Did you notice what happens? "They brought the donkey and they laid the clothes on the colt, which he chose to ride on, and set their clothes on him." And we could make it just a moment of comfortability, but I think something much more is going on here.
Do you remember in the Old Testament? There's a great exchange happening here. Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel, and the angel said to those who were standing before him, "Take off his filthy clothes." Then he said to Joshua, "See, I've taken away your sin, and I've put fine garments on you."
Filthy garments are cast on him. And the imagery is powerful. Not only did he lower himself to take this seat, but he took our filthy garments. Everything about this showcased the incredible sacrifice of God for us.
Even Josephus, who records at this moment that 256,000 lambs are being brought into Jerusalem to be slaughtered for the Passover Here is the Passover Lamb!
And why did he do it? Because he loved you. Why did he do it? Because he loved you! He chose you. And he wasn't going to let one of his sheep perish.
And Matthew wants us to think upon in closing here that nobody even understood it, but that the scriptures were fulfilled. Maybe the blind men saw it.
Verse 8: "A very great multitude spread their clothes on the road, cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes went before him, and those that followed him cried out, saying, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
You go back to Psalm 118. "We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. God is the Lord, and he has given us light. Ready? Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. There he is. Open to me the gates of righteousness, and I'll go through. And I will praise the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord, through which the righteous shall enter. I will praise you, for you've answered me, and you become my salvation."
"The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing and it's marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, I pray, O Lord. O Lord, I pray, send us prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."
Remember the Jewish expectation? Prosperity wouldn't come through death. the nations that will be ruled by this King will come through his death! And the scriptures are being fulfilled as they're crying out for Jesus to save them.
Did you hear that? They don't even understand it! These are the ones, as often said at this time, that will immediately be singing, "Crucify him, crucify him."
His act open to us the gates of heaven! You can walk away from this? How can we not walk away from this without saying to him, "What a Savior! What a God who's come to us like this!"
This is the seat he chose for us. This is the seat that he went through for us.
And I hope we've seen in Jesus the triumphal entry is the ultimate depiction of true greatness Not as we would have it, but greatness as the suffering servant walked that path alone for us and gave his life as a ransom for our sins.
When we see him, when we see his love for us, we are on the right path to knowing what it means: that the first must be the slave of all.
The call, then, is for us to walk in response and thanksgiving for such a gift in the same humility.
Hosanna! Save now, oh Lord. And you see, now, one of the blessings that we have is to sing such a song with understanding. So we're going to sing this in a minute. We're going to go back to verse 5 of this, and we're going to sing through the rest of the psalm, "Hosanna, save now," with understanding.
And when you sing with faith, when you sing with understanding, when you see Jesus and the sacrifice made for you, the Lord wants you to know something today, beloved. He wants you to live in the joy of something today. He wants you to know in all of your burdens and all the struggles and all the sin, he will not fail to give his children any good thing that he has promised. And that is full and complete salvation through his work for you.
So how do you end a sermon like this? How about this: "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for showing us your Son, the gift that you've given. Give us faith to see him, to celebrate him, to understand him, to bow in awe of a King who would love us like this. Forgive us for our selfishness. Would this inspire us to begin to think about what it means that the first shall become servants and slaves of all? Grant us the mind of Christ, that in making himself nothing, gave himself for his brethren. Thank you for saving us. Thank you for the true prosperity of our salvation. Thank you for the true success of the kingdom of God through the death of the Messiah, and that indeed today he is risen and the nations are being given to him. Indeed, may all kiss the sun lest they perish in the way before he returns on the great white horse of judgment. Thank you for showing us our Savior in humility. Let us respond in the same and in true faith. In Jesus' name, amen.