So it’s Palm Sunday. As we do every year,
we commemorate the triumphant entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem. Jesus
riding on a donkey to the cheering of the crowds. The crowds shouting “Hosanna! Blessed
is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
It was not just a coincidence that Jesus was riding on a
donkey. As you heard, he specifically told the disciples to get it for
him. He told them where it would be and what to say if someone questioned
them about it. Some people think Jesus had arranged this with the
donkey’s owner ahead of time, others think it was simply Jesus using his divine
power. Either way, though, Jesus specifically fixed things so that he
would enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey.
That was not a coincidence. It was to fulfill an Old
Testament prophecy. In Zechariah Chapter Nine, Verse Nine, we read, “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.”
When Jesus arranged things this way, he
knew exactly what he was doing. Everyone in Jerusalem, and especially the
Jewish leaders, knew it, too. Jesus was
entering Jerusalem in a way that was specifically designed to claim the title
of king.
And on that day, the common people
appeared to be quite willing to give Jesus that title. You heard how they
spread their cloaks on the road in front of him. You heard how they spread the palm branches
in front of him, too. You heard how they were shouting his praises as he
rode past. We sometimes focus on how
some of this same crowd would betray Jesus later in the week, and we’ll talk
about that in our Holy Week services. But there’s no reason to think
that, at this moment, the crowds were not entirely sincere. They truly believed that Jesus had come to
save them. After all, that’s what the
word “Hosanna” means. It means “save”.
The people knew they needed to be saved.
They had been waiting for someone to save them. They’d had others
they thought might be the one to save them. Sometimes it looked like it
was going to happen, but it did not. Now, they hoped Jesus would be the
one. They wanted Jesus to be the one.
They convinced themselves that Jesus would be the one. And so, when Jesus came in riding on a
donkey, making a claim to be the one, they were overjoyed. They thought
their dream had come true. And it had. But then again, it hadn’t.
Have you ever had a time when you really
wanted something? You worked for it, you hoped for it, you prayed for
it. You did everything you could to make
that thing you wanted come true. And then it did! And you were overjoyed!
But then--we’ll, you were not quite as
overjoyed any more. This thing you thought you wanted was not quite what
you thought it would be. In fact, it was a lot different than you thought
it would be. You felt disappointed.
You felt let down. You felt like
you’d been fooled. You’d wanted this
thing for so long, but now that you had it, it was not anything like the thing
you thought you wanted.
That’s how the crowd felt, as the week
went on. The Savior turned out to not be what they thought he would be.
The Savior turned out to not be what they wanted him to be. They’d waited for the Savior for so long and
now, when he came, he turned out to be not anything like what the Savior they’d
been waiting for.
It’s sad, really. You see, they
thought the Savior was going to be an earthly king. They thought the
Savior was going to be a mighty warrior.
They thought the Savior was going to defeat the Roman government, give
Israel independence, and restore Israel to its former glory. That was the
Savior the crowd thought they were getting.
That was the Savior they thought they were cheering for.
It was not Jesus’ fault. Jesus
explained many times how things were going to go. He said repeatedly that
he would be killed. But the crowd did
not want to hear it. Even his closest friends, the twelve disciples, did
not want to hear it. They were trying to
make Jesus into who they wanted him to be. And when he turned out not to
be what they wanted him to be, they felt disappointed. They felt let down. They felt like they’d been fooled. And
some of them turned on Jesus because of that.
But I cannot be too hard on the people in
the crowd. Because I’ve had times when I’ve done the same thing. I’ve tried to make Jesus who I wanted him to
be. And I don’t like it when it turns out that he’s not. Maybe you’ve done the same thing.
And it’s not because we’re trying to be
selfish or anything like that. The crowd was not trying to be selfish
when they wanted Jesus to be an earthly king. They thought that was what
he was supposed to be. They thought that
was what was right. They thought Jesus being the earthly king, the mighty
warrior, was what was the best thing. In other words, they thought that
what they wanted was, in fact, what God wanted.
And they could not understand what had gone wrong when it did not work
out that way.
I think that’s what we fall into a lot of
the time. We think we know what’s right.
We think we know what’s best. We think that what we want is, in
fact, what God wants. And when it turns
out that it’s not, well, we cannot understand what’s gone wrong.
The thing is that God has plans and
purposes that we know nothing about. And when we become convinced that we
do know them, a lot of times we head down the wrong path. Not
intentionally. We do it because we
convince ourselves that what we want is what God wants, and that’s not how it
works.
One of the greatest verses in the Bible is
Proverbs Chapter Three, Verse Five: “Trust in the Lord with all your
heart and lean not on your own understanding.”
That’s what the crowd was missing. They were trusting in their own
understanding rather than trusting in the Lord.
That happens to us, too. With the
best of intentions, sometimes, we trust in our own understanding rather than
trusting in the Lord. And just like the crowd on that first Palm Sunday,
when it turns out that our own understanding is wrong, we’re confused. We don’t know what happened.
God had a plan for salvation. But it
was not the plan the crowd wanted. It was not the plan the crowd
expected. Because of that, some of them
turned away from God. But there were some who continued to trust God’s plan even though they did not understand it.
They stayed faithful. And they saw God’s plan for salvation come
true. It did not come the way they
expected it. But it came the way God
wanted it to--through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And eventually, people realized that God’s plan was so much better than
their plan that there was no comparison.
God has a plan for this church. It’s
not always the plan I want. It may not
always be the plan you want, either. But God still has a plan. And we need to trust God. We need to keep trusting God even though we
don’t understand. We need to stay faithful. If we do, we’ll see God’s plan for this
church come true. It may not come the
way we expect it. But it will come the way God wants it to. And eventually, we’ll realize that God’s plan
is so much better than our plan that there’s no comparison.
God has a plan for you, too. And God
has a plan for me. It’s not always the
plan I want. It may not always be the plan you want, either. But God still has a plan. And we need
to trust God. We need to keep trusting
God even though we don’t understand. We need to stay faithful. If we do, we’ll see God’s plan for our lives
come true. It may not come the way we
expect it. But it will come the way God wants it to. And eventually, again, you and I will realize
that God’s plan is so much better than our plan that there’s no comparison.
The people in the crowd cheering Jesus
thought they knew what was supposed to happen. But God had a different
idea. When the people trusted their own
understanding, rather than trusting God’s plan, they missed out. Let’s
not miss out. Let’s trust God’s plan,
even when it’s different from our understanding. If we do, we’re going to see some amazing
things, both for the church and for our own lives.
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