Sermon Tone Analysis
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Good Morning
This Sunday in the Church is referred to as Palm Sunday.
It marks the beginning of Holy Week – the seven days before we celebrate Resurrection Sunday.
If we were to go back 2000 years and place ourselves on the road to Jerusalem we would probably be swept away by the excitement of what happened that day.
We would be among of group of Jews making their way to the city to celebrate the feasts of Passover and unleaven bread.
Jesus and his disciples are traveling on foot.
They had come from Bethany where Lazarus, Martha & Mary lived.
Also in that town was a man named Simon whom Jesus had healed of leprosy.
Simon threw a party to honor Jesus.
Mary & Martha were helping to serve dinner.
It was at this party that Mary washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, and anointed him with a cast of expensive perfume.
You know the story, Judas got all uppity and blasted her for the extravagance.
Now, in order to get the full picture, we’ll need to bounce around in the Gospels.
They all tell the same story, but because each of the Gospels was written to a different audience, one writer may include a detail that another might not.
For instance, we know that
Ø Matthew was written for the Jews, primarily to show that Jesus is Messiah.
So Matthew often quotes the Old Testament.
Ø Mark was written to persecuted Christians in Rome, it wouldn’t be important for them to know what the Old Testament said.
Mark wanted them to be able to identify their suffering with what Jesus suffered.
Ø Luke was a doctor who traveled with Paul, he had an analytical minds and recorded the gospel much like a historian.
He was writing to gentiles and wouldn’t include quotes from the Old Testament either.
Ø Now John was also a Jew, and like Matthew, he was there when this all happened.
But he wrote his gospel late in life and recorded his experiences as an old man looking back on life.
His gospel is filled with emotion and reflection.
Turn to Matthew 21:1-5
1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 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.
It was a practice in that day to keep a colt that hadn’t been ridden with its mother.
The mother would have been domesticated, you could lead her easily, but the colt was another matter.
But if you brought mama along, you could lead her and the colt would follow.
That’s why Jesus said bring them both.
3 If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”
One of those little facts that John records that Matthew doesn’t is that a whole lot of people knew that Jesus was coming, in fact many had traveled with him.
So it is not unreasonable for us to assume that the disciples may have thought the people in Bethphage would know who Jesus was and would be happy to do him this service.
The next 2 verses would only be important to Jews and that’s why Matthew includes them.
4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
5 “Say to the Daughter of Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”
How does Matthew address his audience?
Daughter of Zion, the children of God.
Verse 5 is actually a paraphrase of Zechariah 9:9 (turn there real quick).
9 Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
In ancient cultures when a king rode a horse, it symbolized war.
When he rode a donkey, it symbolized peace.
Now flip over to Mark and we’ll pick up the story in 11:4.
4 They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway.
As they untied it, 5 some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?”
Remember Mark wrote to persecuted Christians, they could identify with someone confiscating their property.
6 They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go.
7 When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it.
8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields.
Why would they do that?
Spreading your garments on the street was an ancient act of reverence reserved for high royalty.
Remember he came riding a donkey and we learned in Zachariah that Israel’s Kings come riding on a donkey.
So they were paving the way so to speak for their king to enter Jerusalem.
Side note: Scholars tell us these are palm branches – from where we get “Palm Sunday”.
(picture)
Now flip over to Luke 19 and remember I told you earlier Luke was a detail man,
37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
The rest of the gospel writers say,
“and those who went before him cried out.”
Go back to Matthew 21:9
9 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!”
The Hebrew word is “Hosanna”, translated literally is “O save!” or “Save now!” we might say, “save us!”
Son of David is a Messianic name.
Were they acknowledging Jesus as Messiah?
You will remember that Jerusalem was crowded at this time with pilgrims who had come for Passover during the observances they would have recited a prayer called the Hallel, which includes verses from Psalms 113-118.
Take a quick trip over to Psalm 118:25-26
25 O Lord, save us; O Lord, grant us success.
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
From the house of the Lord we bless you.
Look familiar?
Pay attention to this next verse and store the answer for a minute.
10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” 11 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Go back to Luke 19:39 and we’ll add another detail to the story.
While the crowds are yelling Hosanna,
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
Were they trying to shush up the crowd because they were coming into the city with its Roman guards?
Or were they just afraid of being identified with Jesus’ followers by the Sanhedrin?
John also adds a detail at this point.
You don’t need to go there now, John 12:19 says,
19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere.
Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
Shows us where the hearts of the Pharisees are.
Moving on, only Luke records the next event.
Luke 19:41-44
41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.
Remember I asked you to store an answer earlier?
Matthew 21:
10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” 11 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Notice they didn’t say, “this is our king”, they said “it’s the prophet”.
No wonder he wept.
Jesus knew the superficiality of their hearts.
They wanted Messiah to come, they got swept up in the excitement, but really didn’t believe Jesus was the one.
This make me think of how often Christians get hold of one of the promises of God, or a word from a prophet and want to believe it, but give up or worse settle for something less than God’s best.
Parents you know how this feels, we want your children to make good choices.
We don’t want to see them suffer.
We want to fix things for them, if they would only let us.
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