WHAT REALLY HAPPENED ON THAT FIRST PALM SUNDAY?
SERIES: JESUS, SAVIOR OF THE LOST
by Ron Ritchie
On May 22, a Friday afternoon, my wife Anne Marie, Carl Gallivan, and I
drove from Strasbourg, France across the Rhine river into Germany and then
north through Heidelberg and on for another fifty miles, then east to the
small mountain village of Reicheishelm, Germany. Here we were to meet our
German host, a young Lutheran pastor named Wolfgang Breithaupt, and a group
of Ukrainian engineers at a Christian retreat center. Ray Cookingham was
to arrive later that evening from Frankfurt.
Shortly after our arrival Wolfgang came to our lodging to meet all of us.
I had been introduced to Wolfgang last year by mail through a German friend
of his who visited PBC. I had asked Wolfgang to pray about having our two
staffs minister together somewhere in the Eastern Bloc countries. Wolfgang
had been ministering faithfully among his own people under communist rule
until the Berlin wall came down, and this opened some doors of ministry
with the Ukrainian people. As a result of those relationships, he was able
to put together a three-week conference between eastern and western businessmen
and businesswomen so that they could share marketing ideas as the Ukrainians
rebuilt their nation. Wolfgang remembered my request, and we made arrangements
through Carl on one of his European business trips so that our team could
join up with Wolfgang's team on the second weekend of the conference. Wolfgang
told us that fourteen nuclear engineers who were part of the middle management
of a Ukrainian nuclear power plant had showed up to interface with the west
for the first time in their lives.
As we got acquainted with these people, we recognized the following: (1)
Politically, they had been held captive for some seventy years by humanist
philosophy. These nuclear engineers and their families had even been physically
held captive within the borders of a "secret city" until two years
ago because of their work at the nuclear power plant. (2) Religiously, they
lived in an atheistic nation that had rejected God and his Son Jesus Christ,
and they were being held captive by a church that had all the ritual but
that rejected the power of our risen Lord and Savior. (3) Socially, most
of them were being held captive by the flesh with its memories of the horrors
that took place between the Germans and the Ukrainians during World War
II; families on both sides of that conflict were still feeling the effects
emotionally. Finally, of course, they endured the captivity of the world,
the flesh and the devil.
I mention these events because the experience that our team had in Germany
of trying to present the Lord Jesus Christ and his gospel of peace to the
Ukrainians in a small way had many of the problems and pressures that our
Lord faced when he rode into Jerusalem that first Palm Sunday. As we turn
to Luke 19:28-44, we will find our Lord preparing himself to ride into Jerusalem
on that first Palm Sunday as the Prince of Peace in order to establish peace
with God and offer his people the possibility of experiencing that peace
as they placed their faith in him as their Messiah-King. And in that setting
the following was true: (1) Politically, the Jewish people had been held
captive by the Roman Empire for decades. (2) Religiously, the spiritual
leadership had wrongly used the Law of Moses to keep the people captive.
(3) Socially, the nation was being held captive by its hatred of the Romans,
Samaritans, Gentiles, and even each other, as well as by its self-righteousness.
As we study Luke 19:28-44 we want to ask, "What really happened on
that first Palm Sunday?" and then to see the redeeming value these
events have in our lives today, regardless of our political, religious,
or social backgrounds.
Let's look first at the time of preparation in verses 28-34:
And after He had said these things, He was going on ahead, ascending
to Jerusalem.
And it came about that when He approached Bethphage and Bethany, near the
mount that is called Olivet, He sent two of the disciples, saying, "Go
into the village opposite you, in which as you enter you will find a colt
tied, on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it, and bring it here. And
if anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' thus shall you speak, 'The
Lord has need of it.'" And those who were sent went away and found
it just as He had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners
said to them, "Why are you untying the colt?" And they said, "The
Lord has need of it."
Now when Luke presented his book to Theophilus he divided the life and ministry
of Jesus Christ into five sections: (1) Our Lord's birth and maturity 1:1-2:52,
(2) our Lord's preparation for ministry in 3:1-4:13, (3) our Lord's Galilean
ministry in 4:14-9:50, (4) our Lord's Judean and Perean ministry in 9:51-19:27,
and finally (5) our Lord's passion and triumph in 19:28-24:53, which we
are beginning today. The theme of Luke's gospel, which rises to a crescendo
in this chapter, is given to us in the words of Jesus to Zaccheus, the repentant
tax collector of Jericho, just before Jesus went up to Jerusalem to become
the final sacrificial lamb of God who would be slain at Passover to cover
the sins of humanity: "Today salvation has come to this house...for
the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." As
a result of that statement, the crowd "...supposed that the kingdom
of God was going to appear immediately." (Luke 19:9-11.) So there was
tension in the air-Messiah was coming! The faithful were excited, but the
Pharisees were very nervous as they sought a way to arrest him (see John
11:57).
Jesus and his disciples arrived at Bethany, just two miles east of Jerusalem,
six days before Passover, which would have been a Sabbath. According to
my harmony of the gospels, after sunset he was invited to the home of Simon
the leper, where he met with the risen Lazarus and was served a meal by
his sisters. After supper Mary anointed his feet with expensive burial oil,
although she did not realize all that God would accomplish in the life and
death of his Son during his final Passover feast. At the same time many
of his disciples from Galilee were arriving in Jerusalem a week early in
order to prepare for the Passover feast.
The next day, a Sunday, as our Lord began to walk toward Jerusalem he sent
two of his disciples into the next village, where they would find a donkey
colt that no one had ever ridden. They were to untie it and bring it to
the Lord. If they were questioned, they were to say, "The Lord has
need of it; and immediately he will send it back here." (See Mark 11:3.)
So the owners, who may have been disciples of Jesus, gave them permission
to take the colt based on some previous arrangement.
The colt was an important symbol of our Lord's overall plan to officially
present himself to the nation not only as the Messiah-King, but also as
their prophetically promised Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). He would also
fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, as we will see in a moment. But keep
in mind that while Jesus was preparing to present himself to the nation
as the long-awaited King of Israel and Savior of mankind, the chief priests
were preparing to take counsel to seize and kill him (John 12:13).
The Scriptures are full of stories about how God took the time to prepare
the hearts of people to hear the truth about himself and his Son. Paul wrote
to the Galatians, "But when the fulness of the time came, God sent
forth His Son...." (Galatians 4:4.) Here our God was using the Jewish
symbols of a Passover feast, a sacrificial lamb, and an unbroken colt to
help them understand that he was presenting his Son to the nation and the
world. The spiritual leadership of Israel wouldn't accept him as the King
of Israel or the King of kings, but eventually they would accept him as
the Passover Lamb.
When I think back over all the planning that went on behind the scenes for
our trip to Germany, I am overwhelmed. There were so many phone calls, faxes,
plane tickets, rental cars, maps, hotels, meals, money exchanges, Bibles,
and gifts that had to be in place before any of us even arrived. Then many
prayers from this body, the German Lutheran Church, and the retreat staff
took place so that over a four-day period our team of four could merge with
the German team of five and the retreat staff. God was bringing people together,
weaving a tapestry, and we didn't know what it was going to look like, but
it was all so that fourteen Ukrainian nuclear engineers would have an opportunity
to see, feel, and hear about the love of God and his Son Jesus Christ. This
trip was a beautiful reminder that there is great godly preparation for
the redemption of each one of us.
What really happened on that first Palm Sunday? God's preparation of the
hearts of the nation of Israel to receive their Messiah-Redeemer and King,
which took place over centuries, culminated on this day.
Next we see the disciples welcome their King in Luke 19:35-38:
And they brought it to Jesus, and they threw their garments
on the colt, and put Jesus on it. And as He was going, they were spreading
their garments in the road. And as He was now approaching, near the descent
of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise
God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen,
saying,
"Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord;
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"
Remember, the little village of Bethany was just two miles east of Jerusalem,
which was filled with disciples who had come early for the Passover feast.
Having settled in, they heard that Jesus was staying with Mary, Martha,
and the resurrected Lazarus. So many made the short journey up to Bethany.
It was this crowd of believers that was available to follow Jesus as he
rode on a colt into Jerusalem. So once the colt arrived the disciples "...threw
their garments on the colt, and put Jesus on it." And as our Lord was
placed on the colt, the prophecy of Zechariah, written some five hundred
years earlier, was about to be fulfilled to the letter when Jesus presented
himself to the nation as the Prince of Peace with the offer of spiritual
salvation. Zechariah 9:9:
"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
He is just and endowed with salvation,
Humble, and mounted on a donkey,
Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey."
Keep in mind that the Jews were continually hoping that Messiah would come
to Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, but down through the years the focus
of that hope moved more and more toward the restoration of Israel and its
glory rather than their need of a savior. What the disciples had in mind
was that the one who was able to raise Lazarus from the dead could defeat
the Romans. Thus as they went through the motions of bowing their knees
under the heavy hand of Rome, their hearts were filled with the picture
of a warrior king on a great white horse, followed by a large army that
would overthrow the hated Roman Empire, in somewhat the same spirit as that
of King David some one thousand years earlier when he destroyed the Philistines.
They kept watering down what the Messiah would be like. So you can imagine
the confusion on the part of some Jews when they saw that their possible
Messiah was riding into Jerusalem on a donkey colt. For the Jews understood
the symbolic nature of this act. They saw this donkey as a lowly but noble
beast, knowing that if a king wanted to approach a city in peace he would
ride up to the gates on a young donkey instead of on a war horse. At this
time Jesus Christ was preparing for the first time during his ministry to
be declared the King of Israel, the long-awaited Messiah, the Son of David,
and he was going to enter Jerusalem, the city of peace, not as a warrior
messiah who would physically conquer the Roman army, but as the prophetic
Prince of Peace who would seek to conquer the spiritual hearts of the people.
As our Lord began his two-mile journey from Bethany toward Jerusalem, the
crowds began to grow. The Jews of Bethany coming down the hill were merging
with the Galilean believers who were coming out of Jerusalem to visit Jesus
in Bethany and witness the miracle of the resurrected Lazarus (see John
12:17-18). This latter crowd took the branches of palm trees and went out
to meet him, and as they approached the Mount of Olives, which overlooked
the "Golden Gate" that opened the way to the steps of the Temple,
"the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully,"
singing a Passover song taken from the messianic Psalm 118:26. They skipped
over verses 22-25, in which we find the words:
The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief corner stone.
This is the LORD's doing,
It is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day which the LORD has made;
Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
O LORD, do save, we beseech Thee...
But they picked out verse 26 as they sang:
Hosanna to the Son of David [see Matthew 21:9];
Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord;
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.
Clearly the crowds were proclaiming the hope of the restoration of the kingdom
of David at this time, implying deliverance from the yoke of Rome and Israel's
re-establishment as a great and independent nation. As the people saw it,
God was at peace with the human race, particularly with Israel, and in turn
they shouted with joy to God for his grace toward them. Yet during all this
religious activity and excitement, they were missing the whole point of
our Lord's humble entrance into Jerusalem. He was coming to offer personal
salvation, which in turn would indeed have brought blessings to Israel as
a nation so that Israel would once again be a light of truth to the other
nations of the world. Societies are changed when the hearts of the people
are changed and filled with the righteousness of God through his Son Jesus
Christ.
Crucified for our sins, buried, and then raised from the dead and declared
Lord of lords by our heavenly Father, Jesus is still willing to offer to
anyone living under any corrupt political, social, or religious system the
gift of salvation whenever they are willing to call out to him in faith.
I saw a beautiful example of this on our trip to Germany. As soon as we
all arrived at the German retreat center, Wolfgang told us that the Ukrainians
who had been at the retreat center for some two weeks were still suffering
some culture shock but were very eager to meet us, hoping that western business
practices and ideas would somehow save their country. Finally that evening
we all met and had a good time being introduced to each other. The next
day Ray, Carl, and others shared some good ideas about western business
philosophies, but at the same time they kept reminding the Ukrainians of
their personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Ray told them, "I work
for Hewlett-Packard, but I want you to know that Jesus is my Lord, and that
really flavors how I do business, which means I seek to do it with the integrity
of Christ." Carl Gallivan and others said the same thing. You could
see the Ukrainians struggling with the spiritual concepts that were coming
out in our conversations, especially when we came to the question-and-answer
times.
One of the men who was really listening was our German translator. When
we first arrived he stepped out of the crowd immediately, walked up to me,
and said, "I know you by your every word. I was the man who translated
your letters to Wolfgang from English to German. My name is Christoph, and
I am going to be your Russian translator, but you need to know that I am
fifty-two years old and you are the first American I have ever met."
We later found out that he had been the main translator for the Communist
party in East Germany and had been greatly restricted in travel because
he knew too much. The following day Christoph decided to attend an unscheduled
worship service the Americans put on for the Ukrainians and Germans. Here
sat a man who had lived some fifty years under communism, holding a Bible
and listening to a teaching from Romans 10:9-10. After the service he came
up to me and Wolfgang, his friend and a pastor who did not know where he
was spiritually, and said, "You are the first people I am willing to
tell about my faith in Jesus. I became a Christian in a hospital bed on
August 13, 1980, and now because of what you taught in this service you
may tell all of America that I am a Christian."
What really happened on that first Palm Sunday? Jesus prepared to enter
the city on a lowly but noble donkey as the prophetic Prince of Peace and
King-Messiah, and some accepted him as their spiritual King, but now we
will see that the Pharisees rejected their King. Let's read on in Luke 19:39-40:
And some of the Pharisees in the multitude said to Him, "Teacher,
rebuke Your disciples." And He answered and said, "I tell you,
if these become silent, the stones will cry out!"
He was saying, "Don't you understand? This is the moment that God my
Father has been preparing since the foundation of the world for you to have
your Messiah. I am officially here. And if I stop my disciples from singing
Psalm 118, then you're going to hear a literal rock concert!"
Many of the Pharisees who were blinded by a religious system that promoted
power, fear, jealousy, and greed had been plotting to seize the Lord without
arousing the crowds. Some of them watching the parade pass by and hearing
the many disciples singing praises to God, cried out to Jesus as he rode
by them, "Teacher [not Lord], rebuke your disciples." This was
the moment when the leadership rejected Jesus as their Messiah. They were
saying, "These people are calling you 'King of Israel' when we all
know that there is only one king, and that is Caesar." The corrupt
spiritual leaders knew that if Pilate heard about this demonstration, which
had all the markings of a political revolt, and everyone believed in Jesus,
then the Romans would come and take away both their temple and their nation
(John 11:48). But Jesus replied, "I tell you, if these become silent,
the stones will cry out!" Jesus approved the people's seeking to proclaim
him their Messiah and King, although he knew that most of them wanted him
to conquer their enemies and rule their land rather than their hearts.
There is religious ritual and there is spiritual reality, and the two will
never mix. To become a follower of mere religious ritual will result in
spiritual death. To become a believer in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior
will result in spiritual life.
I saw this dichotomy as well on our trip. During the unscheduled worship
service I mentioned a moment ago, the leader of the Ukrainian group was
listening to me teach about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. For some reason
he suddenly felt compelled to share with the Germans, Americans, and his
fellow Russians the whole Easter ritual of the Russian Orthodox Church.
He eventually stood up and showed us how he kissed the ground and then the
altar of the church, and so forth. This went on for about ten minutes. Then
he proudly sat down, but there was death in his eyes. I thanked him and
continued to show from the Scriptures that God is not pleased with any ritual
that does not come out of the heart of a true believer in Jesus Christ.
I pointed to two girls from the serving staff who had come in and said,
"See these two people? They have recently accepted Jesus Christ into
their hearts, and he is ruling their lives, and they are being led by the
Spirit of God, not by ritual. If you go all through that ritual and do it
right, if the Holy Spirit is within you and Christ is reigning in your life,
it comes out of a true heart. But to have ritual without Christ as Lord
and Messiah is death."
What really happened on that first Palm Sunday? Jesus prepared to enter
Jerusalem, and the disciples welcomed him as their long-awaited King and
Messiah, but the Pharisees were greatly shaken by the political and personal
upheaval this demonstration could cause for them. Finally, we see that as
the Messiah-King and Prophet looked over the crowds, it caused him to weep
over Jerusalem. Look at Luke 19:41-44:
And when He approached, He saw the city and wept over it, saying,
"If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for
peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days shall
come upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank before you, and surround
you, and hem you in on every side, and will level you to the ground and
your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon
another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation."
As our Lord approached the city gates in the midst of the crowds of singing
disciples and onlookers, his heart was broken because he saw the heart of
the majority of the people that he came to love, and already they had rejected
him and all the blessings he was to bring. So now it was time for judgment.
The things that make for peace were hidden from their eyes because of unbelief.
What did Jesus mean by "in this day?" Some five hundred years
earlier an angel had appeared to the prophet Daniel and told him of certain
dramatic events to be marked off on God's timetable that would affect Israel
directly as well as the surrounding nations indirectly. They would all occur
in what is now known as the seventy weeks as recorded in Daniel 9:24-27.
The seventy weeks would begin with the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem
under the decree of the Persian King Artaxerxes in 445 BC. Over the next
sixty-nine weeks, Jerusalem would be restored and rebuilt until the Messiah
the Prince would come but would be cut off. In Daniel's great prophecy of
the seventy weeks, God had revealed the specific time in which Messiah would
be presented to the nation Israel. Although the nation was unmindful of
the divine timetable, Christ was obviously conscious that this day in which
he made his entry into Jerusalem was the specific day foretold by Daniel
in which he was to present himself to Israel as their Messiah-King, their
Prince of Peace. Everything was right on schedule-to the day! (Concerning
the exact day of Christ's entrance into the city of Jerusalem see "The
Words and Works of Jesus Christ," J. Dwight Pentecost, pages 374-376).
What are the things that make for peace? Here was sitting on this colt the
Prince of Peace, and he was offering eternal spiritual peace: reconciliation
between God and man (Romans 5) and reconciliation among men.
Jesus, the prophet of Deuteronomy 18, foretold the fall of Jerusalem. Because
the nation rejected the blessing of God through Christ, they would have
to experience the judgment of God. "For the days shall come upon you
when your enemies will [1] throw up a bank before you, and [2] surround
you, and [3] hem you in on every side, and [4] will level you to the ground
and [5] your children within you, and [6] they will not leave in you one
stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation."
All this would come true some thirty-seven years later under the Roman General
Titus in seventy AD. And the prophecy has a double fulfillment: It will
happen to Jerusalem again during the tribulation under the Antichrist (Matthew
24:16-18; Revelation 12:13-17).
David Gooding, in his commentary According to Luke, wrote:
The Lord's message was not salvation from the Romans but from
personal sin, resulting in holiness and spiritual fruitfulness. He was the
only one "having salvation." Long experience had shown that the
walls of Jerusalem by themselves without the protection of God's presence
were insufficient to keep her enemies at bay. If now she rejected her God-sent
King and Savior, her walls would become the prison in which her ruthless
enemies would confine and then slaughter her and her children.
Jesus was saying that all this was going to happen to them because they
did not recognize the time of their visitation. By that he meant the season
when God in his grace visited them in his Son. "There was the true
light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the
world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But
as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of
God, even to those who believe in His name...." (John 1:9-12.)
That is often what happens with us. We do not know the time when God is
suddenly in our midst. When he is in our midst he wants to bring blessings
to our lives, but our flesh wants to resist him and his offer of salvation,
resulting in spiritual death. As we presented the gospel of Jesus Christ
to the Ukrainians, some of them did not realize they were receiving a visit
from God. They were blinded by the ritual and by all the captivities they
had been in. But the Spirit of God can change hearts, and I don't think
the story is over yet!
What really happened on that first Palm Sunday? (1) Jesus the incarnate
Son of God prepared to offer himself to Israel as their long-awaited Prince
of Peace (Isaiah 9:6; Zechariah 9:9) and their King-Messiah (Psalm 118:26).
He came to offer them not only himself but also the gift of salvation, to
set up his kingdom of righteousness in their hearts. (2) Many responded
to his offer, but (3) most of the nation rejected the Prince of Peace and
his invitation of redemption, so (4) he wept over their future physical,
emotional, and spiritual destruction. Because of their rejection Jesus had
to finish out the week as the final Passover Lamb who willingly died for
the sins of the world.
But because of his death on the cross, his resurrection, and his Ascension
into the presence of his Father where he now reigns as King of kings and
Lord of lords, we see the greatest redeeming value of the events of that
first Palm Sunday: Regardless of the political, religious, or social circumstances
of our lives, the Prince of Peace is still inviting everyone to place their
faith in him and be reconciled to God in order to enjoy the full peace of
God!
Catalog No. 4270
Luke 19:28-44
55th Message
Ron Ritchie
June 7, 1992
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