Here Comes the King

Today we celebrate Jesus entry into Jerusalem – his triumphal entry as we call it. And it was an entry with huge crowds of people shouting in excitement. Like any great crowd, some of them knew exactly the reason for their excitement, and many others were there merely to see what the hubbub was about. People love a parade.

Jerusalem was no stranger to parades and official processions. The Romans had been doing this for years. The Roman procession would form outside the city, where the general and his troops would mass. As they rode through the city gates the trumpeters would blast their horns. Floats representing their captured cities and military conquests would follow. Then would come wagons and wagons of plunder followed by seventy white oxen, the victims to be sacrificed on this occasion. Then the general, bedecked in purple toga and golden crown, would step forth to the city temple and offer sacrifice to Jupiter, Juno, or Minerva. And the Jews would pretend to care, pretend to praise as inwardly they resented and despised their heathen masters.

So here comes this man from Galilee called Jesus. Some called him a prophet - high praise indeed for someone riding in on a donkey. There was no band of trumpets blowing, no purple robes of royalty. There were no floats commemorating past triumphs, no wagons of booty.

But there was excitement and it was real. It was sincere. The Jews of Jerusalem were flocking in droves to the city gates.

“The whole city was abuzz with the question, ‘Who is this?””

Those who thought they knew shouted out praise “Hosanna, hosanna to the Son of David!”

We only know this word because it was shouted on this day a couple thousand years ago. There is really no exact rendering of the word in English. The closest we can come would be, “Lord, save us!”

But more accurately, it is a feeling more than a meaning. St. Augustine says it is an emotional cry. “Oh, what a great thing!” Oh can mean many things in our language. But in this case oh can only express the feeling of one who is amazed.

Here’s how the Hebrew might sound in our vernacular - AAAAAAHHHHHH, or. . .

WHOOOOOO-HOOOOO

The Jews were amazed because many of them believed they were witnessing royalty, and royalty of a kind their people had waited a thousand years for.



Are we amazed today? What are our expectations of this man from Galilee? Do we respond with hearfelt praise, an emotional cry, or are we just part of the crowd that came out of curiosity, that wants to wait and see before they commit?

We live in a culture that increasingly ups the ante for power and riches and spectacle. The homes many of us live in today would literally have been “fit for a king” in years gone by. To our grandparent’s generation, our homes are mansions. We count on upward mobility as our birthright. That’s what makes a recent report so alarming – that our kids today may be the first generation in this country who have a lower standard of living than their parents. It is a shocking announcement because it goes against what we’ve come to believe we deserve. Upward mobility is our birthright.

After all,we are the generation that found a way to pay money for water. Imagine one day French executives are sitting around a boardroom table and brainstorming how to break in big-time to the American market. What do we have that we could make the Americans want to have? Voila! exclaims a junior executive, “Water!”

The others think he has gone mad. “What? America doesn’t have water?”

“Yes, they have water,” he explains, “But they don’t have French water!” And so Perrier bottled water was born. And we buy bottled water, not, as it has been shown, because its more pure, but because it makes us feel like the trajectory of our lives is pointing up.

In the way a compass always points north, the instinctual human needle always points up. But even if we could count on our lives to always improve in this world, it begs the question – so what? What if we gain the world? What does the world really deliver? Bottled water?


Listen to what the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 2:

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus; who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. . .”

With our commitment to upward mobility we must be graspers and clutchers, constantly insisting on me and mine. But Jesus, fully God, divine partner, decides to voluntarily relax his grip on the divine privileges. With all the heavenly angels declaring, “Worthy is the Lamb. The whole world is full of his glory!” Jesus says, “I give this up. I’ll take a demotion if in so doing I can please the Father and serve the people whom I love.”

So down the ladder he goes. Watch him go.

Followers of Jesus understand this. The only direction in this world for us is . . .Down.

I was reminded the other day of the story in Acts when Peter and John are coming into Jerusalem to go to the Temple to pray and at the gate called Beautiful there is a man who begged. He was lame from birth and he had people carry him every day to the gate so that he could beg money from the people going to the Temple to give. The beggar sees Peter and John and asks them for money.

They say, money, we don’t have any money. What about us made you think we have money! We don’t have money. But what we do have we will give you. “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk.”

And the man rose, and he didn’t walk, he jumped for joy and danced for all to see.

Christians are downwardly mobile, just like their king. And just like their king, they believe that God will provide what is needed.

Do you know why we have that piece of land out back there now? Because a couple men from our church were either really smart, really bold, really faithful, or just didn’t know any better - I can’t decide which. But, in a nutshell, they went to Mr. Campbell and basically said, “Give us that ground. The Lord has need of it.”

And to his immense credit, Mr. Campbell said you’re right. The Lord does have need of it for his purposes in this community.

Christians are crazy enough to believe that “The Lord has need of it” is really the only credentials and currency we need in this world.

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem, he came not to raise an army or raise taxes. He came out of pity and love. He came to rule minds and win hearts.

And make no mistake, not just branches and cloaks, but hearts were laid on that Jerusalem road for that King on a donkey.

What will your response be to the coming King? What will you do when the command comes in your life – the Lord has need of it?