SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, my name is Jack. The Old Testament reading is found in Zechariah 9, 9 through 10. Rejoice greatly, daughter Zion. Sing aloud, daughter Jerusalem. Look, your king will come to you. He is righteous and virtuous victorious. He is humble and riding on a donkey. A cult, the offspring of a donkey. He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem. The bow used in battle will be cut off. He will speak in peace to the nations. His rule will stretch from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. The word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

And there was a great crowd that no one could remember. They were from every nation, every people, and language. They were standing before the throne and before the land. They wore white robes and held homebranges in their hands. They cried out with a loud voice. The word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

If you are able, please stand for the gospel reading found in Matthew 21, 1 through 4. When they approached Jerusalem and came to Beth Page on the Mount of Olives, Jesus gave two disciples a task. He said to them, Go into the village over there. As soon as you enter, you will find a donkey tied up and a colt with it. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that their master needs them. Now this happened to fulfill what the prophet said, the gospel of the Lord.

SPEAKER_03 2:08

Would you please remain standing with me as we prayed this morning? But uh before we pray, there was uh I one some of my favorite things about Palm Sunday is when we try to do a moment of silence in a room full of children. Um it's always just amazing. But as we were doing it and thinking about these moments in our lives where we we try to get quiet and there's lots of noise happening around us. And sometimes that's just the nature of trying to find kind of a moment to center ourselves on Jesus. Uh it is in the midst of all of our life. Life doesn't just like slow down and stop. Uh, but we look for ways to incorporate Jesus' presence in every moment of our day. But there was also a moment as we were sitting there, I was thinking um about sometimes our lives can be marked by a kind of eerie silence. Uh, the silence that maybe is synonymous with Holy Saturday, um, that we'll be celebrating later on this week, a kind of silence that's deafening, that's dark, that's lonely, um, that can feel like, where's God in the middle of this? Why isn't he answering my prayers? Why isn't he doing this? Why isn't he doing that? And um and my hope and prayer today is that if we're experiencing that kind of silence, that the hilarity of children will sort of break through in the same way that the hilarity of Easter breaks through, um, Good Friday and Holy Saturday, uh, that somehow the Spirit maybe today will meet you in a way of bringing joy into the midst of whatever you're going through. So, Jesus, would you do that for us today? Um, would you break through whatever silence we feel like we're experiencing in our life with you? And would you speak to us uh even through your word today, through one another, through the songs, through children, through the sacraments? Uh, we'd long to be in your presence and to hear your voice and to experience the joy that you have for us. And so would you open up our ears to hear, our minds to understand, and most importantly, our hearts to receive the gifts that you have for us today in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, Amen. I'm choking on my breath this morning, but you may be seated. Uh, good morning, saints. Good morning to those whose lives are being transformed by Jesus. My name is Jason. I'm one of the pastors here. Uh, if you're new or newer, thanks again for visiting with us. If you're watching online or watching the recording later, thank you for tuning in. A couple of just uh quick things to start. First of all, uh happy birthday. Uh, this is 14 years ago, Palm Sunday, that our congregation launched. Uh, we are 14 years old today. Uh, right before kind of Easter, we gathered for Palm Sunday. I was not here that day. Some of you, though, were here, and I've gotten a chance to see photos and hear stories of uh that moment of launching a congregation in the downtown part of our city to be in the city for the sake of the city, uh, to join Jesus in the restoration of all things by being the faithful presence in the very heart of the city that we love. Uh, so thank you for continuing all the ways that you do to join Jesus in that and being committed to this mission to see uh the downtown part of our city flourish, and then the rest of our city and our world flourish uh as well. And also happy Palm Sunday. This is the one day a year that we all dress up as um pastors from Orange County. Um and then the rest of the year, you know, we go back to wearing black and going from there, you know, more Colorado style. Um as a kid, I grew up growing to going to three parades every year. Uh there were two sort of small parades in my hometown, uh, one for homecoming, like a parade that led to the pepperelli that led to the big game, kind of a big festival in our little town in Iowa. Didn't help us. My senior year, we lost 40 to zero. Uh that homecoming game made the dance a little bit of a, you know, downer uh that night afterwards. Uh my my little town also had a town parade called uh doozy days, not doozy like D-O-O-Z-E, like, oh, this is unique and exciting. It was just any other small town parade. Um, but it named after the Doosenberg brothers, uh, who were early automotive people in the U.S. were like, really? I didn't know. Um, but our town celebrated them because they lived in our town for like two weeks uh with a bike shop. And so we needed something to celebrate, and that's all we could find. Um, but really the granddaddy of all the parades, at least for North Iowa, uh, was on the 4th of July, the sort of North Iowa community, North Central Iowa would gather in Clear Lake uh for a big parade. Wasn't quite the Rose Bowl or Macy's uh parade. So there were business floats um and fire departments showing off their fire trucks. Uh, every high school marching band for counties around uh would walk. But my favorite moments in all of those parades every year as a kid uh were a group of men on motorcycles called the Shriners. And anybody we had some people see the Shriners. So this is like a group of guys, typically older, wearing these really unique uniforms, usually a white shirt, tie, shorts, suspenders, and a fez, uh, riding around on white Harleys and just doing all these choreographed formations at what seemed to be very high speed. Uh, I'm sure it was like five miles an hour. Uh, but they were, you know, like weaving in and out. You're like, they're going to hit one another. And then they wouldn't, they would somehow make it through the parade each time. And I was like, oh, they did it again. So as a kid, I just always look forward to when are the shriners coming? Well, fast forward several years, Sarah and I moved to another small town uh in Wilmore, Kentucky, Kentucky. You know, we got a couple Wilmorons uh here. Um, that was our nickname for Wilmore. Um, and so we learned our first year there that they also have a Fourth of July parade. And it was like, we have to go. Like, there's no way we can miss the Fourth of July parade uh in Wilmore, Kentucky. Well, in about halfway through the parade, everything was going just as you expected, you know, marching band and all of the things. And then at about halfway through the parade, this group of guys comes up and they're wearing shorts and white shirts and ties and suspenders, but they're pushing lawnmowers down the street and doing all this choreographed weaving in and out, switching their lawnmowers around. And I was like, oh my word, where are we at this point in time? Their skills were largely unimpressive. Um, but it was hilarious, and it was clear like this is the anti-Shriners. Uh, this is a group that I feel like I could be a part of someday. Like I have high hopes to be a part of the lawnmower brigade uh in Wilmore, Kentucky at some point in my life. Uh but this is Palm Sunday. It's the final Sunday in Lent, the final Sunday of our 40-day preparation uh leading up to Easter. Uh, we have a full week of ways to kind of mark um this time together, to be formed in community together. Uh, I want to just highlight a few of those before we open the text today. Uh, one, Pastor Stephen will be leading uh a full holy week fast, variety of different ways that you can fast this week. But if you've been fasting or abstaining kind of through this time, often during holy week, we'll fast or abstain from things in a greater way to center our hearts on Jesus. We're gonna continue our morning, noon, and evening prayer online on Wednesday. For the first time, we're gonna have uh a Monday Thursday service that will be online. The link is on our website. Then on Good Friday, so coming up this Friday, we're gonna have two services, 5:30 and 7:30. But due to a D11 scheduling error, we will not be here. Uh so on Good Friday, we're gonna be at the Pinery on the Hill. So as you walk outside today, you look up, you see a big, beautiful building. As you look at Pikes Peak, that's where we're gonna be meeting uh at 5:30 and 7:30 on Friday. And then we'll be here next Sunday to celebrate Easter together, two services, 9 and 11. So not a 9:30 service, 9 and 11. Uh, Easter Sunday is the most attended Sunday of the year. So I want to encourage you in two ways this morning. First, I want to just encourage you to prayerfully consider inviting someone to attend with you. Inviting someone, maybe a coworker, a colleague, a roommate, someone in your dorm or at your school, uh, someone in your neighborhood, just encourage them. Hey, would you come to church with me on Easter Sunday? And then if you're able, if you're a part of one of our teams, if you're able to serve that Sunday as well, to worship one service and serve one service, that will help us to extend hospitality to all those who come and join us on that Sunday. If you have a Bible, turn with me to Matthew chapter 21. And as you do so, just a bit of history. Uh, we're setting here in the land of Israel, and the land of Israel, of course, has been contested for millennia. The fighting that we hear about on the news is not new. In fact, for most of the story of God's people in the Old and New Testament, the land was contested. It was often controlled or ruled by other nations. It was the Babylonians, and then it was the Persians, and then it was the Greeks, and then it was the Ptolemies, and then it was the Seleucids. And so for year after year, decade after decade, century after century, the people of God lived under the oppressive rule of foreign pagans, those who did not worship their God. But in 167 BC, there was a revolt that happened, a revolt led by the Maccabean family. The Maccabees' nickname is the Hammer, is what their name means. So the Hammer family led a revolt, and the Jews recaptured and rededicated the temple. This is after the emperor had desecrated it with the worship of other gods. 25 years later, in 141 BC, they finally gained independence. After nearly 450 years of enemy occupation, if you will, the people of God finally sort of took back their land. And here's a record of this event. It comes from the book called 1 Maccabees. It was written in the time period between the Old Testament and New Testament. It's included in the Apocrypha, if you're familiar with that sort of collection of books. And it says this in 1 Maccabees 13. So on the 23rd day of the second month, in the 121st year, that's a reference to the Seleucidaria era, the Jews entered the citadel, the sort of last sort of fortress, and they entered with shouts of praise, and the waving of palm branches, and the playing of harps and cymbals and lyres and the singing of hymns and canticles, because a great enemy of Israel had been crushed. Here, 141, after 25 years of sort of wrestling for independence, after 450 years of being under enemy control, they finally took back the land and they had a victory parade. And there was a marching band with symbols and people singing hymns and canticles, and there were likely horses, the sort of white harleys of the ancient Near East that the shriners would ride around on. And they were waving palm branches, not just because they were just looking for something to wave, but the palm branch become a symbol of national identity and independence. Similar to the way that if you go to a Fourth of July parade today, you'll see people waving the flag. It represents independence and the establishment of a nation. The palm branch was so significant that they printed it on their coins. This period of time that of independence is known as the Hasmonean dynasty, and only lasted about 80 years. 80 years of independence, and then General Pompeii came in and conquered Jerusalem in 63 BC for the Romans. We fast forward about a hundred years to the time of Jesus, and Israel's still occupied territory. The people of God are gathering once again for the Passover festival. One of these great pilgrimage festivals where they all sort of make their way back to Jerusalem. This time they're coming to celebrate a feast that marks their deliverance out of Egypt, marks the time that they were set free from the OG oppressor. This is one of those major festivals that are coming to celebrate freedom and deliverance. Most scholars estimate that the city's population would swell to four to six times its normal size during this time. That someday, sometime, Jesus or that a king would come and set them free. This is, of course, a recipe for an uprising. Rome would then respond by sending in reinforcements. Governor Pontius Pilate would come up from Caesarea with his cavalry and sort of set up camp within the city. Some scholars have theorized that Pilate would enter the city from the west, likely riding on a horse, that Harley, that symbol of power, a sign of force that became synonymous with Roman peace. The Pax Romana, we're going to keep the status quo with us in charge. And so you have the Roman military coming in, you've got large crowds streaming into the city to celebrate God's deliverance in the past, hoping that he'll do it again. Someday they hope to be free from Rome. The God will raise up a new hammer and lead the next liberation movement. And so from the west, there's a Roman parade marching in to keep the peace, to keep the status quo. And on the other side of the city on the east, there's another parade happening, this time with Jesus, engaging in what scholars have referred to as political street theater. Matthew 21 says this. And so when they approached Jerusalem and came to Beth Page on the Mount of Olives, Jesus asked two of his disciples, he gave them a task, and he said to them, Go into the village over there. And as soon as you enter, you'll find a donkey tied up with a colt with it. Untie them and bring them to me. And if anyone says anything to you, just say that the master needs them. And he sent them off right away. And now this happened to fulfill what the prophet had said. Say to daughter Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the donkey's offspring. For those of you who are familiar with the scriptures, the donkey and colt have long been associated with Judah and the royal family. They're mentioned in Jacob's Blessing of Judah in Genesis chapter 49. The Bible oftentimes depicts kings riding in on donkeys. But donkeys in the ancient Near East, particularly for the people of God, are associated with peace rather than with war, which is kind of easy to imagine if you've ever seen a donkey before. These are among the least intimidating and most ridiculous animals that were ever created. There's a reason we use their name as a pejorative sometimes. Some of you got that. They're a valuable service animal. They are the push lawn mowers of the ancient worlds, if you will. He's going to cut off the war horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations. And his domin his dominion shall reign from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. So there's this expectation there's going to be this humble king who would come and put an end to war and establish a universal kingdom. And so the donkey here is not just a matter of convenience, like that was the only animal available to Jesus, but it's a symbol of peace. It's a prophetic declaration. The donkey is the animal that you want when you're not at war and you can farm your fields. This is the animal that goes to for that symbol, and it's a symbol that certainly stood in stark contrast to Pilate's horse. This was an anti-Roman kind of symbol, but it was not anti-Roman the way that the crowds thought it would be. Not the way that they wanted it. But Jesus comes riding into town, and a large crowd gathered together and they start throwing their clothes on the road. And then others cut down palm branches off of the trees, and they spread those on the road. And the crowds in front of him, behind him, they shouted, Hosanna, save us, rescue us, to the son of David, i.e., the rightful heir to the throne. Blessing on the one who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest, save us, O High One. And when Jesus entered into Jerusalem, the whole city was shook up. Who is this? They asked. And the crowds answered, This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth and Galilee. See, for the crowds at this time, they see Jesus coming in and they've heard about Jesus. They know of Jesus. They know of his reputation. They know what's happening at the festival. They have all these expectations building up. And immediately what they do is they start to expect that this is like what happened in the past. For the crowds, they want this to be hammer time. And so they reached for that symbol. They reached for the palm branch. The donkey doesn't seem to deter them. They seem to have missed that sign because what they want is they want Jesus to be anti-Roman in the way that Rome is anti-them. That's what they want. That's what their expectation is, is they want another Maccabean family on the throne. They want Jesus to be the long-awaited one who will crush and remove the great enemy. So there's all of this excitement, all of this joy, all this celebration, all of this cheering, all of this triumphal sort of parade. And then in just a few days, everything will shift. In just a few days, the crowds that shout at Hosanna, save us, will shout, crucify him. Kill him. And the disciples who followed him will betray him, deny him, and abandon him. How does Pope? Opinion change that quickly. There are, of course, a number of factors at play, but I think there's one thread that ties them all together, and it's this Jesus doesn't meet anyone's expectations. He doesn't meet their expectations. It's different for each group and each party and each, you know, sort of group in that time and each person, but in general, for most of them, Jesus is a disappointment. He is not the king that they thought. He's not the king that they wanted. For some, Jesus was too argumentative, too contrary, and too offensive. He didn't agree with them on everything. In fact, at times he agreed with them, and at other times he took their enemies' side. He criticized their point of view, criticized their way of life, and he didn't fit neatly into any group. So he kind of just made everybody upset. For some, Jesus was too weak. He was too powerless. He clearly showed that by getting arrested by Rome, those he was coming to throw off, he just ends up being another one that they're punishing. So he clearly doesn't have what it takes to lead. He doesn't have what it takes to do what needs to be done. For others, Jesus was too strict. His words were too hard. They couldn't stomach them. They couldn't bear them. For others, his teachings were too lax. They were too lenient. He didn't do what they wanted him to do. He didn't think the Sabbath the way that they thought of it. He ate with sinners and tax collectors. He just wasn't pure or holy enough. And for others, his teaching was just too much to bear. For some, he was too wasteful with resources. It's really interesting to me that in the scriptures, Judas's betrayal in each of the gospels that it's recorded in is immediately preceded by the woman who anointed Jesus' feet with the expensive perfume. This upsets all of the apostles or all of the disciples. But it seems to be the straw that broke the back for Judas. He's like, I just can't take this anymore. And so he went and sold Jesus out for 30 pieces of silver, the same cost to compensate for a slave. My guess is, though, that for each and every one of us, Jesus has also not met our expectations in some way. If he hasn't done that yet, it probably will happen at some point. That at some point in our journey of faith, we're going to walk through disillusionment. It's either already happened or you're in it now or it might come someday, but we oftentimes have these moments where Jesus is too something for us. If you were to say that today, like, what is Jesus to what for you? Maybe today it feels like Jesus is too quiet. Why doesn't he just speak? Or Jesus is too slow. Why doesn't he just do something about this situation? Or he's too hidden. Why doesn't he just make himself known? Why doesn't he clear away all doubt and disbelief and potential for that? For some, maybe Jesus is too passive. Like he could have stopped this, he could have prevented this, he could have done something and he didn't. He just seems to be kicked back on his throne in some way. Brothers, maybe Jesus just feels too demanding or too restrictive. It's like, why would he say these things about this, that, or the other thing? That just I can't get on board with Jesus' teachings about that. Or for some of you, it's just maybe he's too cryptic. Why is he always telling stories? Why does he just give us, you know, 10 things that we have to do every single day and just make it really clear? For some might feel like Jesus is too distant. Maybe for you, Jesus is clearly too trusting of people. Too trusting of Christians to carry his name and to carry it well, too trusting of church leaders, too trusting of whatever it might be. What is that for you? Is he Jesus is too what? And so then the question becomes when Jesus fails to meet our expectations, is what do we do? What do we do when God doesn't meet our expectations? What do we do when God doesn't fit neatly into our boxes? What do we do when God doesn't do the thing that we asked him to do in the way that we asked him to do it, the time that we wanted him to do it in? This is perhaps the greatest test of our faith. If it's not the greatest one, it's at least one of them. Pete uh Schizero in his emotionally healthy discipleship material says unmet expectations are a matter of life and death. Unmet expectations are a matter of life and death because they have the power to tear apart our relationships, particularly our relationships with one another as well as our relationship with God. So here we are on Palm Sunday, and the people of God are gathered together for the Passover feast, and they're waiting for another deliverance from Egypt, and they've heard about Jesus, and Jesus comes riding into Jerusalem, and they reach for the palm branch and they start to wave it because the people are looking for a king who will crush and remove a great enemy from Israel. This is what they were expecting, this is what they were wanting, and they thought it would be done like it had been done before, that had been done with military might. They wanted God to save them. They were shouting, Hosanna, but it turns out they wanted God to save them in a particular way. Their cry was true. But Jesus didn't do it the way that they wanted him to. And so suddenly they turned to crucifixion. See, behold, he reveals to us a God who becomes king not by crushing and removing a great enemy from Israel, but by letting himself be crushed on a cross. By being tortured and mocked and humiliated and executed like a common criminal. A God who wept and bled and died and was buried. And yet that wasn't the end of this story. Because three days later he raised from the dead in order to do what really needed to be done, is that he allowed himself to be crushed in order to crush and eventually remove the great enemies of everyone Satan, sin, evil, and death, and to remove them from all of creation. But it wasn't the way that anyone expected. He did it differently. And so the crowds turned on him and the disciples walked away, but eventually the disciples came back, and we have to ask the question, why? And I think it's because the disciples allowed God to reshape their expectations. What they came to believe and to trust is that Jesus is so much better than what they could have possibly thought or imagined, and that the way that God wanted to save them was actually better than what they had imagined, that although their expectations had been disappointed, God had something actually much greater for them. And the question that comes to us then today is can we, like the disciples then, can we as disciples now trust that that's true? Can we trust God when our expectations are not met? See, the core of our faith is not trusting, is not about trusting that God will meet all of our expectations of Him in this world. The core of our faith is expecting and trusting that God will exceed all of our expectations of Him in the world to come. The core of our faith is about what happens on the other side of resurrection. To the core of our faith is that in the end, he will prove himself to be just too much for us, too good, too beautiful, too true, too brilliant, too loving, too gracious, too merciful, too just, too wonderful for us to ever fully think about or comprehend or understand or imagine. So the great invitation of Holy Week is to trust that God will exceed all of our expectations and that he will show himself to be more than worthy of all of our trust. To trust that we can cry out to him, Hosanna, and trust the way and the when and the how he is going to save us, because we trust in who he is more than our expectations and imaginations of him. Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, for as it was in the beginning, is now and never shall be, worlds without end. Amen. As the worship team and uh communion servers come forward today, would just take a moment right now and want to invite us to sit in a moment of silence. And whatever stirred up inside of you today as we were thinking about Palm Sunday and the expectations that we have of God. Would you take a moment and would you just turn that into prayer? And maybe just be honest and say, Jesus, I have been angry, frustrated, disappointed, confused because you have been too much this for me right now. But what I'm asking today is that you would increase my faith, increased my trust, and help me believe that in the end you will prove yourself to be so much better than I could have ever imagined. In Jesus' name. Amen.