GOSPEL FOR PALM SUNDAY

Luke 19.28-40 (NRSV)

Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

²⁸ After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. ²⁹ When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, ³⁰saying, ‘Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹If anyone asks you, “Why are you untying it?” just say this: “The Lord needs it.” ’ ³²So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. ³³As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, ‘Why are you untying the colt?’ ³⁴They said, ‘The Lord needs it.’ ³⁵Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. ³⁶As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. ³⁷As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen,³⁸saying,‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!’  ³⁹Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’ ⁴⁰He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’

I have chosen to reflect on the Psalm Sunday Gospel instead of the Passion readings which are also suggested for this day, because of time and space. (The Passion is a wonderful exercise to read in itself, and when we used to celebrate Easter in Scotland, it was often a joy and privilege to be asked to read this important lesson.)

When reading the incident where the disciples collected the donkey in verses 28-35, modern people feel comfortable with the idea that Jesus had made prior arrangements about the donkey with friends in Bethpage, who on hearing the correct password, would release the animal to his disciples. The tenor of Luke's writing suggests rather that this was evidence that Jesus was all knowing. Whatever view we chose is not important. What is of significance is the fact that Jesus was fulfilling the prophecy of Zachariah 9:9-10:

Rejoice, rejoice, people of Zion! Shout for joy, you people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you! He comes triumphant and victorious, but humble and riding on a donkey - on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Verse 38 records how the disciples, plus a number of other supporters were happy and praised God because of all the miracles they had seen. Verse 39 describes the disciples as heralding in the new messianic era by shouting: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory to God.” Here Luke has taken the words of Psalm 118:26 and inserted the word ‘King’ ‘… so as to leave no doubt that the crowd believed themselves to be taking part in the coronation procession of the Messiah' (Caird).

This prophecy originally referred to ‘peace on earth’. Luke now makes it refer to ‘Peace in heaven ...' Through Jesus, God had achieved victory over Satan and the forces of evil (see Luke 10:17) and now all that remained was for the reality of this peace in heaven to become real for people on earth. In this, Luke is explaining a point that was of crucial significance for the people of Christ's day and remains eternally true. The people of Jerusalem wanted to see the Messiah claim His kingdom ‘… and their delighted delirium arose from the fact that they saw him as doing this ...'(Morris) But the people were mistaken and did not fully understand. Luke reminds us that peace only becomes real for people on earth when they are at peace with God in heaven. The fact remains that there will be no real peace on earth until people make peace with God and this is only possible through accepting Jesus Christ as one's personal saviour. The only way a person can love, accept and live at peace with others is when they can love, accept and live at peace with themselves. Individual peace begins with God. Paul explains in Romans 5:1: “By faith we have been made acceptable to God. And now, because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace with God.”

When we realise that we are loved and accepted by God, even though we do not deserve God's kindness - we learn to love and accept ourselves because God loves and accepts us - and we learn to love and accept others because they too are precious. Christ died to redeem all those who are willing to accept his free gift of salvation. Remember John 3:16: “God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life.”

In verses 39-40 the Pharisees tried to make Jesus stop the crowd from declaring his praises. The commentator in the Life Application Bible explains:

“[The Pharisees] didn't want someone challenging their power and authority, and they didn't want a revolt that would bring the Roman army down upon them, so they asked Jesus to keep his people quiet.” Jesus responds in verse 40 by echoing the words of the prophet Habbakuk 2:11: "If they keep quiet, these stones will start shouting."

Miller writes:

“He was saying in effect: The Messiah is here, and somebody must herald his coming. It could not be that there would take place a momentous event toward which the entire Old Testament, even the entire history of mankind, had been moving, without some recognition of its happening. Should men not herald it, the very stones would cry out. The secret of Jesus' Messiahship, which heretofore he had kept to himself and had not permitted either demons or disciples to proclaim (4:35, 41; 9:21,36), must be revealed before his death. The issue is clear. Israel must either accept or reject her Messiah.”

Jesus knew what lay before him, so did Luke and so do we. From Jesus’ point of view it is appropriate because he is about to something momentous – he is coming to bring God’s salvation to the world (as Wright explains) ‘… through his own Passover action on the Cross …’

As we journey with Jesus this Palm Sunday are we ready to celebrate – like the crowd – only as long as Jesus seems to be doing what we want? Wright concludes:

“Are we ready not only to spread our cloaks on the road in front of him, to do the showy flamboyant thing, but also now to follow him into trouble, controversy, trial and death?’

Easy in theory – difficult in practice – especially when one has a family to consider!

Something indeed worth pondering …

Jesus deliberately planned his entry to Jerusalem; he made it a royal procession of such a kind in order to beg the question: “Is this Israel’s Messiah?” He is proclaimed king but will eventually only be given a mock coronation. Matthew in his Gospel seems to suggest that this is a deliberate dramatization by Jesus of Zecharaiah 9.9; in Luke the crowd shouts out Peace in heaven, glory to God in the highest heaven reminding us of what the angels had sung at his birth. Tinsley writes:

“Jesus is so intensely aware what is really happening that he suggests men would have to be more insensitive that stone not to have some idea of what is taking place.”

This whole episode strikes me as so strikingly unlike the general tenor of our Lord’s life (as J C Ryle points out). Generally Jesus withdrew from the public glare wanting not to draw any attention to himself at all. What has changed? Ryle suggests that this is because Jesus was at the crisis point of his ministry: he knew that his time had come to bring his ministry to fruition, his time as the greatest Prophet was almost finished. It was therefore important for people to take note that something significant was happening. Jesus was about to offer himself up as the ultimate sacrifice and so (as Ryle puts it) “… This great thing was not to be done in a corner …”

Whatever people might think of the atonement, they can never deny that Jesus died – it was a public event in the glare of publicity: his entry into Jerusalem, he was seen and heard in the city, brought before the High Priests and Pilate and condemned. He was publicly nailed to a cross.

Just as Jesus entered Jerusalem amidst cries of joy, there will be joy when Jesus returns, but this time without any pain and disappointment. Paul captures the sentiment of the second coming in Philippians 2.11: “Before Him, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” But we know this already, because we have already experienced the deepest joy when Jesus entered our lives when we came to faith.