Psalm Sunday (Jamie Haith)

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Transcript

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Welcome to SGTM Talks. We hope you find this encouraging and inspiring.

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It's great to be together. It's Palm Sunday. Holy week begins here. Jesus arrives in Jerusalem, and this is what we read about his arrival. When Jesus entered the entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred. Matthew 21, verse 10. I'll read the whole scripture in just a second. The whole city was stirred. What was it about Jesus that caused such a stir? Surely it was because he'd been increasing in popularity in the weeks and months before this scene. The world was, the word on the street was that Jesus was coming to town. Everyone wanted to see this new prophet who reportedly performed incredible miracles. But there's also this rumour abroad, perhaps he's more than a prophet. Could he be the Messiah? Could he be the chosen one? Could he be the one appointed by God to release the people of Israel from the oppression of the Roman Empire? Whether you believed it or not, ignoring him was clearly not an option. The whole city was stirred. The Greek word for stir, sayo, is the same word from which we get seismic. In other words, Jesus caused an earthquake. And that's what we've seen, that's what we see when we look at the ministry of Jesus. When, if you like, you walk with Jesus through the Gospels. The presence of Jesus provoked a reaction wherever he went. Let's read the event in its fullness. Matthew 21, reading from verse 1. I'm also going to include verses 12 to 17, which isn't in the lectionary reading for this, but you'll see why I've included it. As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethfridge on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away. This took place to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet. Quote, Say to daughter Zion, See your king comes to you gentle, and riding on a donkey, and on a colt the foal of a donkey. The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest heaven. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, Who is this? The crowds answered, This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee. Then reading from verse 12, Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. It is written, he said to them, My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers. The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did, and the children shouting in the temple courts, Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant. Do you hear what these children are saying? They asked him. Yes, replied Jesus. Have you never read from the lips of children and infants, Lord, have called forth your praise? And he left them and went to the city of Bethany, where he spent the night. Jesus, we pray today that you would speak to each of us. As we prayed earlier, Lord, before the service, would it be that we would sort of, as it were, fling open the gates of our hearts and that you would enter in today? And Lord, we pray that each of us would leave here more like you from what we hear, what we learn. But most of all by your spirit working in our hearts and minds. In your name we pray. Amen. I find Jesus such a wonderful, compelling character. What struck me again this week is there's an extraordinary balance to the life of Jesus. And here we see again, we see this perfect balance of head, heart, and hands. That's my sermon title for today: Head, Heart and Hands. As we look to the week ahead with work, time off work, Easter preparation. What can we learn about the balance in Jesus' life and how can we practically live that out? Firstly, Jesus enters with the scriptures in his head. From the earliest point in Jesus' ministry, we see his absolute dependence on the scriptures as his benchmark and standard. The man Jesus lived a life immersed in the scriptures. His humility as a man has come from a full appreciation of the awesomeness of the Creator. He knows his identity rooted in the Father, nurtured by the Spirit and the Word. The scriptures bring an affirmation to him of how loved he is, how precious he is, how called he is, how special he is. The scriptures show Jesus how he has this great purpose to fulfill. A purpose that would fulfill scriptural prophecies written hundreds of years before his birth. Jesus fulfills those scriptures. Zechariah 9, gentle king will come on a donkey. Malachi 3, the Lord will come to his temple to purify its worship. Zechariah 14, the promised day where there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the Lord of hosts. Jesus saw the scriptures as fundamental, crucial, better off going without food than this, he says, every word that comes from the mouth of God. And Jesus knew that and opened the scriptures up as a constant supply of spiritual food and authority in his life. They were fundamental to his life. It's the same for you and me. Every time we open the Bible, we're hearing from God Himself. Holy Scripture is right there waiting to speak to us. Every time I stop and pick up a Bible and read, whatever my frame of mind I'm in, however I feel about myself, about life, there's that gentle recognition I'm now hearing words from God Himself. What about this week? Monday to Thursday, Holy Week. Until we meet again, if you can come on Good Friday. Let me encourage you to read the last chapters of each of the four Gospels. Matthew Monday, Mark Tuesday, Luke Wednesday, and John on Thursday. Just read the last couple of chapters of each of those. And let Holy Week, Jesus, walking through this week, speak to you. And ask, not just reading about Jesus, but Lord, what kind of person would you like me to be? What would sort of person, what sort of character do you want me to display? And also, Lord, what would you have me do? What would you have me do that's above and beyond where I'm at at the moment, what I'm doing at the moment? Because that's what we see in Jesus, is perfect balance of being and doing. We say, how can I nurture the same attitude as Jesus? How can I keep alive that understanding of God's love for others that at times seems so alien? And one reason that Jesus was able to have such a servant attitude is that he was immersed in the scriptures. Listen to this from Zechariah 9. Jesus quotes it Rejoice greatly, daughter Zion, shout, daughter Jerusalem, see your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey. This is written hundreds of years before Jesus does this. See your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey. On a colt, the foal of a donkey. Jesus lived and breathed God's word. Prophecies like this had given him a clear understanding of his person and his purpose. The scriptures were fundamental to both his attitude and his actions, the being and the doing. Who he was, his place in the world, and also what he was called to and how he should live it out. So Jesus enters into Jerusalem. We have to see this with the scriptures in mind, with the scriptures in his head. And that then that has an impact on how he lives with his heart and his hands, his attitude and his actions. Let's look at the attitude side of things. First of all, Jesus enters with humility in his heart. Jesus enters with humility in his heart. It's quite a disarming scene, isn't it? What is Jesus up to? Normally he comes across just simply going about his ministry, performing wonderful miracles, and then telling those that have been affected by the miracle, I love it when he does this, not to breathe a word. That's been going on so much in his ministry. You know the sort of thing, Mark 7, Jesus heals a man who's both deaf and mute. Imagine that. You are deaf and you are mute. Then Jesus tells you not to tell anyone. I find this one of the funniest scriptures. Just how hard is that? You're deaf and you're mute. And Jesus comes up to you and heals you. You're a miraculously healed in that moment. Your life has changed. You can hear, you can speak, you can hear Jesus speaking, and the first thing he says to you is, don't tell anyone. It's like, oh, for Pete's sake. Jesus did that throughout the Gospels. So why the sudden shift now? Why is Jesus suddenly keen to go for the big entrance and really show off? Is that what he's doing? Enough of this, that's it. Enough of this humility thing. I'm the Messiah, okay? So, you know, I'm going for a triumphal entry now. Actually, rather than being a scene of great pomp and ceremony, it's it's actually really quite a homegrown scene, quite simple. As far as visual announcements and celebrations of power and mice are concerned, it's really quite pitiful. You say, why is that? I have to think that Jesus meant it to be that way. It would have been very normal for Jesus just to have walked into Jerusalem. He'd walked everywhere else the previous three years. This is the only time we see him use another form of transport. The fact that it's clearly premeditated shows us that there's a deeper significance. You could take this a number of ways. You could say, well, it's a pre-arranged donkey pickup. Uh it's a it's an assumption about a typical village scene, it's prophetic insight. Has he been to the village? Have they passed by and seen it and he tells them to go back? We don't know. But what's clear is that it's been carefully planned. It's not that Jesus, after three years, has suddenly got sick and tired of walking everywhere. That's it, I'm done with this walking thing. I'm on my fourth pair of sandals this year. Go and grab a donkey. That's not that's not what's going on here. Neither is it Jesus is suddenly deciding that he deserves a lot better. He's he's a big enough name now to warrant some decent transport. But a donkey was all they could find. He sends his disciples off to the local offices of the chariot hire company, Ben Hertz. I love that joke. Uh no, sir, we're we're we're fresh out of uh executive class chariots and we have no mid-size either. Sorry. Uh it's a very busy season. We do have a donkey, though. It's not like this is just happening. Surely a donkey would have been a great disappointment to most of the crowd. They're all expecting the Messiah to arrive, a great king who would kick some Roman backside and free the people. Their history had been leading up to this very point. Their expectation is that God would act in a similar way as the Exodus from Egypt. An obvious deliverance by the all-powerful Yahweh. They've got used to the pomp and the pageantry of Rome. Surely the Messiah would make that look like nothing. But then he arrives on a donkey. A donkey is not the mode of transport chosen by the seriously cool. Donkeys are trouble. You only have to watch Shrek to know that's true. Um, a friend of mine, his name's uh Jeremy Crossley, I don't know if you might know him, he's a wonderful vicar. And uh he was leading a church called St. Margaret's, and he told of when he was first curate, and he wanted to uh back in uh another church uh and he wanted to bring this scene to life. Year one, as the sort of the bright young curate, he booked a donkey only to find out that unfortunately it died the day before Palm Sunday. So suffice it to say they didn't use that donkey. Year two books another donkey, he's not to be put off, so he gets the donkey, he leads it in, and the children of the church around the parish leads it around the parish, all the children of the church, everyone's joyful, they got as far as far as the church porch. You know, when the you know, the basically just outside here, and the donkey decided to stop right there, did not move, leaving everyone having to squeeze past this smelly old donkey to get into the church. Year three was Jeremy put off, was he heck? The final year of his curacy, he gets the donkey and he parades it around the parish, he gets it into church, he gives his sermon, all went well, he finished and asked the worship band to start, and he went to lead the donkey out of the church, and of course, it would not budge. So he gave it what he calls an encouraging whack with his Bible on its rear end, and and it decided to, and I quote, go to the loo in a rather major way. Donkeys are not cool, notwithstanding the symbolism. Uh, you know, the donkey is is not globally considered a symbol of pride and and and triumph, and that's why Jesus chose it. That's why Jesus chose it. Worldly political kings do not ride donkeys. Jesus refused the reins of the grandest chariots because he refused to reign over the sort of kingdom the people would have for him. He wasn't about political power, he wasn't about supremacy economically, he wasn't about military overthrow. Jesus came to establish a very different kingdom, one that people would find very hard to understand. They wanted the sort of, you know, the Mel Gibson brave heart hero, tens of thousands of pilgrims in Jerusalem, the timing was perfect to start the successful uprising. They cried, Hosanna, literally, it means save us. And their prayers were answered, though not in any way they would have expected. And if they were surprised by this as an act of triumphant procession, then they certainly wouldn't be ready for the eternal saving victory coming out of the seeming defeat of the crucifixion. So why does Jesus choose to enter the city this way? Because this was the moment of messianic revelation, arguably, and it comes wrapped in humility. It's beautiful. All of Jesus' life had been geared to giving the Father glory. His desire was to teach through his actions, not just his words. His desire was to teach us that true greatness is not to be found in all the fame, in all the wealth, in all the power that the world can muster. We're so surrounded by it, aren't we? Jesus teaches that true greatness is found in a life of humility before God and man. His whole life has been about this, from the rejection of Satan's temptation in the desert to in his teaching to the Beatitudes, his equipping and release of the God of the disciples to feed the 5,000, the washing of their feet. His whole life had been geared towards giving away power and refusing the glory for himself. His whole life had been lived that way. It was authentic in the moment, but it was also preparation. This extraordinary act of humility was further preparation for him to, as we will see on Friday, be able to be silent before his accusers, be able to stand trial before unjust men, be able to hang on a cross for a world that rejected him. And what does Jesus, our leader, want from us? He calls us to similarly confound the norm and to live with humility. As we enter into every new day, as we enter into every new situation, every class, every meeting, Jesus calls us to enter into that with humility in our heart. Picture yourself, if you will, riding a silly old donkey into that business meeting. Choosing the humble position, the position that most honors God and most honors others. Choosing to see the most irritating person in your office or class or meeting from God's perspective. That he loves them just as much as he loves you. They are utterly adored. They're so annoying, but they're utterly adored by God. That's what marks us out different as followers of Christ. We recognize that God loves each and every person equally and uniquely. When we live with humility like that. Jesus enters into Jerusalem with the scriptures in his head, he enters in with humility in his heart, and he enters in with the power in his hands. Jesus brings change. Jesus brings transformation. Jesus, first of all, Jesus has turned upside down, or rather the right way up, the long-held concept of what Messiah should look like. He scandalized a huge group of people by reworking their whole concept of who God is and how he works. And then we go see him going to the heart of the city and breaking into the very structures of community, of commerce, of organized religion, and he brings change. Some of it is welcome and comfortable, and some of it is not so welcome and is difficult to understand and receive. He steps into the court of Gentiles where these transactions took place and he vents the full force of his righteous anger. These merchants are cashing in on the religious devotion of far-travelled pilgrims. Pilgrims who've travelled many miles to be in Jerusalem for Passover. Pilgrims who will not have been able to carry doves with them to sacrifice, and so they're forced to buy them from the temple merchants who will be charging high prices. We've heard a lot even this week about price gouging. It was around 2,000 years ago. Temple taxes need to be paid also, and the temple, of course, has its own currency and a special rate of exchange. Jesus steps into this and makes an open declaration that it is simply not acceptable. And this injustice is totally out of place in God's house. When you continue to read, certainly through Matthew, you see Jesus is back in the same temple throughout the week. And presumably the same trading is still going on without him demonstrating against it again. Perhaps he feels he made his point, but it's not just against the commercial dishonesty and the blatant inequality that Jesus has demonstrated. He's reacting against the way the whole sacrificial system, divinely inspired and holy originally, has just become a commodity. He's come to initiate a better way. He's come to wipe the slate clean. He's come to Jerusalem for the very purpose of making a once and for all sacrifice on the cross. As he cleanses the temple. So he points to a time soon when God's grace will break in and make the letter of the law, man's best religious efforts, void forever. Freeing us. He upsets the status quo, he reaches into the very heart of misdirected religion, into the very heart of injustice, into the very heart of selfishness, and pulls the focus off the accepted norm and back onto Almighty God. And my experience is that he very often does the same with our hearts. This is not gentle Jesus, meek and mild. This is the Savior who brings an earthquake in the deepest parts, seismic upset in our innermost being. And that can be difficult to take. And so that's why I wanted to continue to this the scripture from not just the humility of entering into, but actually see, wow, but look at his actions as well. When he went into the temple, he goes straight to the heart of us and he seeks out those things which bring displeasure to the Father. The places where we are not acting with complete integrity, the ways in which we have become dependent on our own sufficiency rather than on his grace. The ease with which we let our own faith become a self serving comfort zone rather than a world serving commitment. To sacrifice. If you like, with one hand he brings healing, but another hand he brings holiness. Verse 14: the blind and the lame came to him at the temple and he healed them. And when we've become blind, Jesus enables us to see the true value of our lives and our attitudes as we recognize who we are in God. We can see where we're going. We can see clearly what the needs are. When we have become lame, he causes us to get up and walk. Jesus renews our confidence in who we are. He renews our confidence regarding what our life is about. He gives us fresh mobility to move around and make a difference. Jesus helps us to see where we're going and he gives us the means to get there. And with like him the scripture in our heads, humility in our heart, and power in our hands. So this week, let me encourage you as we now come to our intercessions, as we come to the table for communion, as we step into this most precious of weeks, as we think about Jesus' journey to the cross, allow him to enter in. Allow him to enter in and bring that seismic change within you. Allow him to flip over some tables in you, as it were, that we would be more like him. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred. When Jesus enters your life, everything changes. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord. Jesus, this week we give you more than ever free reign to enter into our hearts and our minds. That we would be a people that know and love the scriptures, that we would be a people who are humble of heart. And that we are a people who are willing to not just have you change us, but desire to be agents of change in this world. Come, Holy Spirit. Allow the Holy Spirit now to just gently mark out anything that perhaps you could journey with Jesus on this week, through this Holy Week, through Passion Tide, that you could actually say, Lord, I really want to talk to you about this. I want you to change this in me. Might be an attitude, it might be an area of service that you feel drawn to. Thank you for your presence, Lord, here today.

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