He Knew and He Still Rode In

Palm Sunday represents Jesus's deliberate confrontation in Jerusalem, not merely a triumphal entry. As He approached the city, Jesus wept, foreseeing its future destruction. Despite knowing the fatal consequences awaiting Him, He proceeded with divine purpose and determination. This profound act of courage serves as a model for Christians today, calling them to mirror Christ's resolve, stand up to injustice, and live sacrificially for God's kingdom.

Transcript

All right. Well, friends, if you have your Bibles, I'm going to invite you to open to the Book of Luke, chapter 19, verses 28 through 48. Many of you received palms when you came in this morning. Some of you, I see, don't quite have them. That's okay.

You can pick them up off the ground on your way out. Take them home with you. That is a gift. Just kidding. Alright, so today we're reading about the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.

This is a day that we call Palm Sunday. And we're going to read this story again together today. Here's what the word of the Lord is for us from the book of Luke, chapter 19. After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. As he approached Bethphage and Bethany, at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples saying to them.

Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, why are you untying it? Say, the Lord needs it. Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them.

As they were untying the colt, its owner asked them, why are you untying the colt? They replied, the Lord needs it. They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it as he went along. People spread their coats on the road. When he came near the place where the road goes down to the Mount of Olives.

The whole crowd of disciples began cheerfully, sorry, joyfully, to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, teacher, rebuke your disciples. I tell you, he replied, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out. As he approached Jerusalem, he saw the city.

He wept over it. And he said, if you even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace. But now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls.

They will not leave one stone on another. Because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you. When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. It is written, he said to them, my house will be a house of prayer, but you've made it a den of robbers. Every day.

He was teaching at the temple, but the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find any way to do it because all the people hung on his words.

So today we stand on the edge of the holiest week in the Christian calendar. And today we kind of begin with a parade, a really strange parade, right? There's no confetti, there's no fireworks, there's no balloons. It's a man riding on a donkey into a city that would soon turn its cheers into jeers of hate and anger. Palm Sunday is the beginning of what Christians have for over 200,000.

Sorry, 2000 years called holy Week. And today, I want to take you back to that dusty road in Jerusalem, because if we rush into Easter, we're going to miss some of the miracle of what Jesus chose to do that week. To be clear, Jesus didn't ride into a celebration. He rode into a confrontation. He didn't just enter the city.

He entered the storm that he knew was coming. So we just read about Jesus ride in Jerusalem, and there's this moment that we get to see. Jesus begins weeping over Jerusalem. In verses 41 and 42, it says this. As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it.

And he said, if you even you had only known on this day what would bring you peace. But now it's hidden for your eyes. And if we're not careful, we skip right over that, right? And we might think that Jesus is crying over his future. He knows that he's going to die, and he's crying because he's afraid of what's going to happen.

But that's not the way the Gospel records it.

Friends. Jerusalem is a city that Jesus has been to a number of times. And depending on how you read the Gospels, I read some. I did some research this week, and there's a conversation that Jesus either went one time in the book of Matthew, or he went three times or possibly up to seven different times in his life. All the Gospels record it a little bit differently.

But if we remember, Jesus begins his journey in the temple, right? He was left in Jerusalem when his parents went home without him, as, you know, parents tend to do sometimes, right? So Jesus has been to Jerusalem before, but this time it's different. This time, Jesus senses something incredibly different, and he begins to weep.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem not because he was riding into what you know was going to be the end of his life. Jesus wept over Jerusalem because he knew what would happen to them, what was going to happen to the people inside that city. The city of Jerusalem that Jesus was riding into would have been at this time, gorgeous. The Jewish temple was there, shining in the sun, and it was, you know, rising high above the homes of the people below it. The streets would have been alive with the sound of shopkeepers and markets, the voices of people negotiating prices, and people within the city offering blessings to other folks as they passed by.

Religious leaders would have been discussing the scriptures in the city courts and kind of around the corners of different homes. And you wouldn't be able to hear the sounds of clanging silver and gold pieces being exchanged for goods. You probably would have heard the voices of Roman soldiers shouting, trying to keep the peace. The city was alive and it had potential. But the problem was the people in the city, they didn't really pay attention to what Jesus had to say.

We know that in the year 70, the entire city of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. But the city's destruction can't be only blamed on the Romans. Due to the clashes in Caesarea, in About the year 66 CE, there was an outbreak of the first Jewish Roman war. Did you know that that was a thing, the Jewish Roman war? Well, this was kind of the beginning of the first of the Jewish Roman war saga.

At that time, there was some division in Jerusalem, and the Romans sent an entire garrison of about a few thousand soldiers to quell this rise of this Jewish revolt that was beginning to take place. They didn't want Roman rule anymore. They wanted the city to be theirs. And not only did they send this few thousand soldiers, they also sent a newly appointed Roman prefect. Prefect.

And this Roman prefect wanted to get access to the Jewish temple treasury to support building projects. He was trying to steal money from the Jewish temple in order to line his pockets. But the good news is the Romans, as they sent these soldiers, weren't able to make any headway. And that Roman prefect was kicked out of town. The Jews expelled the Roman soldiers and their newly appointed territorial governor, and the Jewish people briefly began ruling their own area for the first time in about 700 years.

And this would have been interesting, right? If you've ever changed hands of leadership at a company, does it ever get thrown into turmoil? Right, yeah. Okay, Adrian, Vehemently, yes. The same is true every time.

Like, think about America. Most of the time, we never have any issues when presidents change, we've had a couple. But most of the time, things like that kind of transition without issue. But most countries are in America, and a lot of times there are government upheavals and overthrows and all kinds of craziness. Well, the same happened here in Jerusalem.

As the Romans were kicked out, the Jews began to figure out how to control their own people, how to run things, what the balance was going to be like between religiosity in the new Jewish state and the secular idea in the new Jewish state. Now, Jerusalem was not just only for Jews. There were tons of people that made Jerusalem this beautiful kind of point of interest where people came to trade their goods and sell their things. It was a huge dot on the map in the Eastern Roman Empire. And so the Jews began to fight with each other about how that government was going to be run.

And eventually it broke down into arguments between religious zealots, between the Idumeans and the more moderate Roman sympathizers, all trying to figure out how they were going to make Rome less impactful and how the Jews were going to control their own destiny. As a result, because of their arguments, their government eventually collapsed. And the Romans came into Jerusalem in 70 and they destroyed almost every everything in the city, all the homes, the temple, everything, except for three major structures. And these were three towers in Herod's palace. And it served kind of as a monument to this once formidable city.

Tens of thousands of Jews were killed and the entire city laid desolate for decades. As Jesus was riding up to Jerusalem just a few decades before all this was going to happen, Jesus wept because of what was going to happen in that city. Jesus wept because the people of Jerusalem, in comparison in the entire world, didn't recognize the peace that he came to bring. Jesus knew the violence of humanity. He saw the injustices being done every single day.

He saw the spiritual blindness of the people inside of Jerusalem walls. And he knew that their hard hearts would not be changed, even though he was there to show them God's plan for them. Despite all of this, knowing the future of this city, Jesus still chose to ride in. And we know that Jesus was acutely aware that his message would eventually lead to his own death. But that didn't stop him from trying to tell the world about God's desire for all people to love one another and to take care of one another.

And despite knowing that final outcome, Jesus was still willing to bear the burden of pain and rejection from his own people. And he marched into the city anyway.

I'm sure that Jesus knew that all of this was going to be a part of his story. Probably from the beginning of his childhood. If you're anything like me, I remember sitting Alyssa down when she was little, and she used to love dad. Tell me the stories about how you prayed for me. Tell me the stories about how I came into the world.

And so we would sit and we would talk about how mom and I prepared for her and how we had planned for her. And we talked about names for her and what these names meant and how we had prayed off and on for this perfect little baby. And we got everything we wanted. Right? Like, if you tell your children about their stories, it's a great way to keep their memory alive always.

Right? And I'm sure if Mary and Joseph were anything like Nicole and I are, they were telling Jesus the stories. But they had, like, this long book. They could go back to Isaiah and say, oh, let me tell you about your planned birth, Jesus. It wasn't just things that I had planned.

Oh, no, it wasn't a conversation that Joseph and I had. God chose us for you. Like, how incredible would that have been? And I'm sure that Mary and Joseph shared this history with Jesus. And so he knew the whole time growing up that God had a very special plan for him.

And Jesus would have soaked up these stories and these scriptures that foretold his arrival. I bet he also probably would have lived in the shadow of fear over knowing what some of these scriptures meant. Could you imagine being read parts of Isaiah as part of prophecies in your own life? For instance, Isaiah 53, 2, 7, that says this. He grew up before them like a tender shoot, like a root out of dry ground.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him. Nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain, like one from whom people hide their faces. He was despised, and he was held with low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering.

Yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him. And by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.

And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. Could you Imagine that being spoken over your life. Not interested. Thank you. Jesus would have known what his call meant.

He would have known that his call eventually was going to lead to the life of service that he lived and eventually would show the entire world that he would be crucified at the hands of his own people. But he was unwilling to be stopped from finishing the work that he was called to do. And on this Palm Sunday, we have an opportunity to stop and reflect on all those stories and those scriptures coming to fruition in Jesus's final entry into the city of Jerusalem. Jesus was not coming to tell the people of God's desire for grace over retribution or for love over animosity. Jesus was riding into his final days here.

Could you imagine the fear you or I would have as we approach the city that we knew we were going to die in on the week that we knew we were going to die? And despite these fears, Jesus didn't turn around. He wrote on John 12:27 through 28a says this now my soul is troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour.

No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.

Those are brave words.

Jesus knew that the message that he was preaching was going to end with his death. His message for the poor, the vulnerable, the destitute, those with no hope. In the message of Jesus, they were, for the very first time, shown love. They were shown that God cared for them deeply. Despite their station in life, they mattered.

These people needed hope. And Jesus was the only one willing to bring that hope. The message of Christ. Hope is the same message that we still need to hear today. It's a message that people aren't hearing anymore.

And because the people in Jerusalem needed to hear this message, and because we still need to hear this message, Jesus rode on.

I want you guys for a second to imagine a firefighter standing outside of a burning building. The flames are leaping wildly. The smoke chokes out the air. It's hard to breathe. And the building groans under the threat of collapse.

Everyone else backs away. But in this moment, the firefighter steps forward. She knows the risks. Her life may be on the line, but she also knows there are lives inside that only she is equipped and and trained to save. And so she enters not in the ignorance of the danger that she faces, but fully aware of it, choosing the fire for the sake of the people that she can rescue.

On Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem just like that firefighter. He didn't ride in with blind optimism or unaware of the peril that awaited him. He knew the betrayal, the suffering. He knew the cross was ahead, but he also knew that humanity needed saving, and he was the only one that could do it. And so, with love and with courage, he embraced the danger, riding straight into the heart of it, not despite it, but because of it.

Jesus's journey into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday wasn't just a moment of triumph. It was a profound act of resolve. Before the glory of the tomb, there was an unwavering determination of a heart ready to embrace a cross. And Jesus embodied that determination fully, showing us the way to live with purpose, the way that we can live a Lenten lifestyle.

Lent has never been just a countdown to Easter candy. Lent has always been a call to cruciform courage. If Jesus prepared for the cross, we have to prepare for the calling of Jesus to lift up our own crosses and follow him too. Our preparation as followers of Jesus is to mirror Christ's resolve. All throughout Lent, we've heard again and again some of the most powerful scriptures in all of the gospel story.

We've heard about how we are called to live differently from the rest of the world. And when we live like Jesus, we are doing what Christ asks when he tells us to take up our crosses and follow. We know now that Jesus expects of us and we are called to live like Jesus so we can bring about God's kingdom here and now. I think the church has really missed an opportunity. I don't know if you guys are anything like me, but when I was young I got the message from my pastor that all I had to do was say a simple prayer and my eternity was was guaranteed forever.

And that was all I was concerned with as a kid. And if you heard that the gospel of Jesus is clear. We are not about the Christian church so that we can have fire insurance. Our faith is supposed to be something that is active and alive in the world that we live in today.

Some of the best news that Jesus came to share is that we don't have to wait until we get to heaven to be a part of God's kingdom. But the call is that we make God's kingdom relevant and real here and now. I think part of Jesus purpose was to make the earth a representation of God's kingdom at work now. And for some people, I mean for a lot of us in here, I think that's really hard to understand, but it was even hard for understand or for some of Jesus closest friends to understand, right?

In the Book of Matthew, chapter 16, verses 21 through 25, Jesus is trying to explain it. And in verse 21 it says this. From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders and the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Never, Lord, he said, this shall never happen to you.

Jesus turned to Peter and said, get behind me, Satan. You are not or you are a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns. Then Jesus, after reprimanding poor Peter, turns to disciples and he says, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it.

But whoever loses their life for me will find it. Peter was one of Jesus closest friends, right? He walked around with Jesus for at least three years doing all the ministry beside Jesus. He saw the miracles of Jesus. He saw lives being transformed.

He saw hope being given to people who before were destitute and had nothing.

And one of Jesus closest friends didn't fully understand that part of Jesus message involved standing up to the face of injustice at the hands of the empire. As he went into Jerusalem to tell both the political leaders and the religious leaders that God had different and better plans for what life could look like, Peter tells Jesus, surely Jesus, there's got to be another way. Can't we just write him a strongly worded letter? And Jesus says that it has to be done in order to fulfill his work. And I just man in this moment where Jesus says, hey Peter, get behind me, Satan.

Like, wow, right? But Jesus again is using this prophetic hyperbole about the importance of his mission. Nothing can stand in my way. I have to go to Jerusalem. We have to tell the world about God's love.

If the world is to replicate Jesus and bring God's kingdom into reality. We have to live like Jesus did, loving our neighbors as well as our enemies. And we have to be humble. We have to take up our own crosses and follow Jesus everywhere. That Jesus led.

And this isn't metaphorical, this is a lifestyle that leads to sacrifice, service and a prayerful obedience to God. As a matter of fact, the apostle Paul calls us to have the same mind as Christ in the way that we live our lives. In Philippians 2:1 11 it says this. Therefore, if any of you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort in his love, if any common Sharing in the spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and one of mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, rather in humility.

Value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of the others in your relationships with one another. Have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who, being very in very nature, God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, and at that name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue. Acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

And we have to have the same resolve in our mindset that Jesus did. And we cannot have that mindset if we're not prepared. So how do we prepare for a life like Jesus? Well, the good news is we've got some advice from the Book of Joel. We heard this at the beginning of the Lenten season.

It's a great way to remind us that as we come to the end of the Lenten season, we should have been preparing for for what God is actively doing. Not just through the week or the time that leads up to Easter, but through all of creation. God has been working to redeem us. In Joel 2:12 through 13, it says this even now, declares the Lord, Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments.

Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. And he relents from sending calamity.

That's the best way to prepare. We turn to God, not an American vision of what God is. Not some pastor or televangelist understanding of what God is. Turn to the Scripture so we can hear and see who God is in the person of Jesus.

It's kind of like this. Think about a time in your life where, you know, you had to have really important and difficult conversation. Maybe it was to end the relationship. Maybe it was to encourage somebody to go seek mental help. Maybe it was to teach people or to help people understand the way that they treat other people needs to be adjusted.

Whatever these hard conversations Are. I know that all of us have had these conversations, right? Yep. Yes. Somebody just.

Okay, so everybody at one point has had one. Good. Okay, one. But in these conversations, you don't show up and just say, I'll just. I'll come up with something in the moment.

You ever done that before? Okay, that's. I hope it worked out for you. But you have to. As you're preparing for these conversations, sometimes you rehearse these conversations in your head and your stomach begins to churn.

Every single time you start thinking about having to have this conversation. Maybe it's confronting a loved one confessing a mistake. Maybe it's asking for forgiveness. Whatever it is, it's hard. And you don't want to go into these conversations blind.

You come up with rebuttals and possible scenarios. If they say this, I'm going to counter with that. Right. We have a whole debate in our minds because we want to be prepared to respond correctly.

You're prepared in this moment not because it's easy, but because this conversation matters.

When something matters to us, it makes a difference in how well prepared for it we are. Right. It's very different when I get up one morning and say, oh, I've got to go to Oklahoma City for a meeting, than it is if I'm planning a family vacation out of the country. Right. Different levels of preparedness.

This is Lent, and Holy Week prepares us for the work that happens on the cross and through the resurrection. We are preparing to enter a conversation with God about our pain, about our past, and about our purpose. And like Jesus, we don't go in blind, we go in bold. And when we go in like Jesus, we don't come out the same, because we know that the cross isn't the end of the story. It's our door to hope.

But let's not forget that hope isn't a detour around suffering. It's a highway that runs straight through it. I know that all of us by now, especially if we're adults, we know that suffering is a part of life. But it's even so, it's more so a part of the Christian life. If we truly live like Jesus, life is not going to be easy.

But the good news is that suffering changes us for the better. In the book of Romans, Paul writes this in Romans, chapter 3, verses 1 through 5. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the Hope of the glory of God.

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, Perseverance, character and character. Hope and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. If we stand firm in our faith, even in the moments when life is hard, when we feel pain and hardship, our lives are going to be transformed into something better. We've all seen rescue divers before, right? Those brave folks who fly out in the helicopters.

Usually there's like some weird, awful, terrible storm that's happening or a ship has capsized. But often these people who are trained to show up in the right moment at the right catastrophe, and only they are the ones who get called out. These are often the people who are in the Coast Guard or are specially trained for how to respond to deep and turbulent waters. Imagine a rescue diver who jumps into dangerous water to pull somebody out. It's not easy, right?

I can't imagine how exhausting it is. If it was easy, I mean, we could go do it, right? But these people are built different. These divers know that the person at the surface is worth it. The only reason they're willing to get in the chopper, the only reason they're willing to suit up, is because they believe in the value of life.

And when they both come up gasping for air, it's in that moment a moment of relief, a moment of triumph or new life. It's as though resurrection has happened. Hope in that moment for these people are reborn.

Friends, Jesus jumped in. He rode in for you and for me. And now he invites us to be risen with Him. So this is the week. This is the beginning.

So don't miss this invitation this week. Don't settle for palms when the cross is calling. The ride in Jerusalem wasn't just a moment. It was a movement that Jesus is still calling all of us to be a part of. And that movement is still riding in church.

Jesus didn't get caught in a trap as he was riding into Jerusalem. He chose to write in. He saw it all coming. Betrayal, pain, humiliation, the weight of the world, sin on his shoulder. He knew the kind of death he was going to suffer, and he rode on anyway.

And Jesus did this not to bask in glory, but to bring to us new grace. And now, friends, it's our turn to ride on with purpose, with sacrifice, and with hope into this week. So here's the challenge for us on this Easter week. May each of us recognize the call on our lives. And no matter what the expected outcome may be, let's ride on fearlessly this week above all other weeks.

May each of us prepare our hearts not just for Easter, but for whatever road lies ahead. Let's prepare for the work of God this week, not with fear, but with fierce grace. Let's pray.