Jesus rides to His death

Jesus enters Jerusalem
Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin, Paris, 1842
As we come upon Holy Week once again in the church year, we praise Jesus as the King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:61).
On Sunday Jesus rides a donkey down from the Mount of Olives. He did this so that on Friday He could carry His cross up to Mt. Calvary.
The image of Jesus entering Jerusalem, created by Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin, may at first glance appear stationary and without expression of emotion by the Palm Sunday worshipers. However, at the same time, this painting is also dominated by Jesus in his regality and majesty.
It is a simple painting that contains much depth … much like the events of that first Palm Sunday.
In the beginning of the week, Jesus is praised as a king with palm branches in the air and robes thrown on the ground. On Friday the soldiers mock Jesus as a king with a purple robe, a crown of thorns and a sign above His cross that reads, “The king of the Jews.”
On Sunday Jesus rides past the walls of Jerusalem carried on a donkey. On Friday Jesus’ corpse is on Golgotha’s hill, being carried by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, so He may be buried in a borrowed tomb.
This was the greatest miracle of all time! The King dies for His subjects. The Shepherd lays down His life for sheep who love to wander. The Creator allows His creatures to crucify Him.
“See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zecheriah 9:9). There is both a simplicity and a depth to the entrance of Jesus on Palm Sunday.
If Jesus came in the fullness of His glory with His voice like thunder and His eyes like fire, we would surely run from Him in fear. When Isaiah saw the Lord’s glory, He came undone (Isaiah 6). When Jesus stilled the stormy sea, the disciples were terrified (Matthew 8). When He ordered the fish to jump into their nets, the disciples demanded that He depart from them (Luke 5). So Jesus humbled Himself and became a servant (Philippians 2:8).
Jesus humbled Himself and came as a servant so that we would not fear Him, but trust in Him. He did not enter Jerusalem on a gleaming white steed to rule over us, rather He came gentle and riding a donkey because He was being obedient to Another.
Jesus rides into Jerusalem. He is riding on in majesty. At the same time, He is riding to a criminal’s death. A death that will make centurions and governors shake, but a death that will take a criminal to paradise.
Jesus enters Jerusalem as King. The people putting their cloaks on the ground and waving palm branches in the air recognize this. Even as a King, Jesus still enters with humility and gentleness.
The next time Jesus comes, it will not be with humilty and gentleness. “Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him” (Revelation 1:7).
On Palm Sunday, the people praise Christ with palm branches. One day, we will gather with the saints in heaven to wave palm branches in victory around the throne of Christ (Revelation 7:9). There will be no gentleness or humility … only glory and victory. For Christ reigns now and forevermore as our King of kings and Lord of lords.
For this Sunday we witness Jesus riding to His death. We also see Him riding to His victory over death.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Justified in Jesus

Image
Matthew 27:27–31 27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole cohort of soldiers around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. 29 They twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand, knelt in front of him, and mocked him by saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 They spit on him, took the staff, and hit him repeatedly on his head. 31 After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. 1) Jesus on cross picture. We are still in the five hundredth anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation. With the Reformation, the Lord of the Church allowed His truth to be retold through the writings of Martin Luther. But, God also used artists to visually portray this gospel to the minds of His people. If we wanted to “picture” the Reformation in our mind’s eye, there is no better “picture” than The Weimar Altarpiece . In thi
Read more

Water into blood and water into wine

Image
Here are some thoughts that didn’t make it into Sunday’s sermon. The Old Testament lesson for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany is the account of Moses turning the water of the Nile River into blood. The first of the ten plagues God used to get the Israelites out of Egypt. Exodus 7:14-24 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. 16 Then say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert. But until now you have not listened. 17 This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. 18 The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not
Read more

Jesus has prepared a place for you - A funeral sermon for Jim Hermann

Image
John 14:1-4 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.  2  My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  4  You know the way to the place where I am going.” “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” Did you catch the difference between what I read just now and what I read in the Gospel lesson? The Gospel lesson was from the NIV. The second verse I read was from the King James Version. If you’re older than 50, that’s the version of the Bible that you heard in church and learned in catechism class. But, even if you’re older younger than 50, you know about the mansions. “The mansions of heaven” is a term Christians use pretty often. Preachers say it, poets write it, people
Read more