Well, I want to ask you, right here, right now: what kind of Jesus do you long for? You may think of that as a strange question, and I want to do this reverently, but I want to give you some examples. Maybe if you were honest, what you actually want is the Prozac Jesus; you just want Jesus to make you feel a little bit better about your life, to calm your emotions, to numb you a little bit so life is easier. Maybe, if you are honest, you sort of want the Target or Macy's Jesus; just be the place where I can go to get all the things that I have determined that I need for my life.
The Vacation Planner Jesus
Or maybe you would long for the district attorney Jesus who would go after all those people who have made your life hard. Or maybe what you actually want is the vacation planner Jesus; take me to a life that's easy and comfortable and predictable. I am persuaded that there are moments for all of us that we would rather have a Messiah of our own making than the One Who is. We would rather have a Messiah who would do our will than His own. We would rather have a Messiah who would seek and deliver the purposes of our kingdom rather than have zeal for His own.
We find ourselves in one of the most well-known, remarkable moments in Mark. You know well of the Triumphal Entry of Christ, but I want us to be careful with this passage. It is very tempting to read into this moment and into the words of the crowd of this moment, our understanding of Jesus. And it's very, very important that we ask the question: who were these people, and what actually were they seeking? Let me step back and suggest that there are probably four groups that were around this moment.
First is the crowd. If you've read the Gospels, if you've followed with me through Mark, you know that the excitement of this crowd was not actually the Messiah Savior Jesus. Often when Jesus would preach those, teach those hard things, the crowd would begin to melt away. This crowd was excited about this Miracle Worker, this Meal Provider, and they celebrated Him, and they brought the masses to Him so, somehow, some way, He would provide those miracles for them. It's a good possibility that they weren't excited about the true Jesus that Mark is so specifically and so powerfully confronting us with in this moment.
This is a passage that you cannot be neutral about. There were the Pharisees, and the Pharisees wanted a Jesus who would not in any way disturb their legalistic external religion; that they would be able to retain their power in the religious life of Palestine. And they were hanging around the edges, looking for a moment when they could trip Him up and get Him. On the fringes were the Zealots, and the Zealots wanted a Jesus who would overthrow Rome and establish a physical, earthly kingdom. A fourth group was the disciples that we know well.
They wanted a Jesus who would endorse their visions of grandeur, that would make them Dukes and Princes in His Kingdom. They seemed to have little interest in the true mission of Jesus. In fact, in moments where Jesus was laying out the significant suffering that He was facing, they would immediately change the subject and say, "What about us? What about our position in the Kingdom?" Let's be honest this evening: we are not always excited about who Jesus actually is, and we can reduce Him down to something that He is ever unwilling to be.
Mark, in this passage, spends more time than the other accounts talking about the securing of Christ's mode of transportation into Jerusalem; very interesting specific details, and you may ask yourself, "Why all of these details?" Well, there are a couple of things here. First of all, you see very clearly that Mark is very zealous to point to us the utter specificity of the fulfillment of this prophecy that Christ is fulfilling in this moment, and that it's real time, real place, real animal at a certain place.
This is the real deal; this is the One who was being prophesied up. But there's something else. Perhaps Mark is helping us to see a rather interesting and important irony; that these disciples, who had such visions of grandeur, who didn't think as they heard the message of redemption of Christ being crowned as King; who thought more about their own selves being crowned, are now called by Christ to be - well, I'll say it - donkey fetchers. There's a bit of irony in that, that Jesus says, "No, No, No!
This is not what I'm calling you to. I'm not calling you to that kind of grandeur. I'm calling you to obey My purposes; and if My purpose is for you, you go get an animal that I will ride into Jerusalem, then that's what you'll do." How humbling is that? You know the scene well, and what happens next is they deliver that colt to Christ; He mounts it and begins His journey, and the crowd spreads their cloaks on the ground and branches in front of Him, and they sing that great song of the Psalms, "Hosanna!
Do Not Read Your Understanding Into Theirs
Blessed is he who comes in the name Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David. Hosanna in the highest!" Now this is where I think it's very, very important for us not to read our understanding of this moment into the words of this crowd. What are they doing? They are singing a very familiar hymn; it was one of the Hallel Psalms; these Psalms would typically be sung as people were moving up to Jerusalem for worship, typically sung during the Passover and the Feast of the Tabernacle. This is a very traditional liturgy, and it makes sense that this crowd would've sung this as this now very well-known Prophet Miracle Worker was coming toward Jerusalem.
It's very clear from this passage that these people are speaking better than they knew. They didn't actually know that this was The King that would sit on the throne of David and that His Kingdom would not be of this earth, that His Kingdom would be a rule in the hearts of men, and that He would be the Savior King, who by His death, would provide redemption. This crowd did not have that level of theological understanding. They were literally part of the fulfillment of a prophecy; they were positioned by the sovereign plan of God; God, in His sovereignty, puts words in their mouth so that Jesus would fulfill the prophecy and His identity would be seen.
It's an amazing moment. You have to look at this passage from these two levels--the level of what God is doing at this moment, and the level of the understanding of people who were in the scene. What is God doing? He's specifically fulfilling His prophecy in the Person of His Son. And in doing that, demonstrating that He's the God of the ages; that He rules the world in such a way that He can control all the situations, and all the circumstances, and all the relationships, and all the people in the moment, so exactly what is to happen, will happen.
This is the Lord Almighty! And no one will get in the way of His plan; no one can stop His hand; no one can say to Him, "What have you done?" And He can march history to a moment this specific; He is the Lord! Now if that, this evening, doesn't excite and encourage you, I'm a preacher in trouble. What a beautiful picture that is! And the people in the scene other than Jesus, none of them fully understand what God is doing. Listen, it doesn't make any difference; His plan marches on. It's not thwarted by our confusion; it's not thwarted by our misunderstanding.
What a beautiful thing! This is the Lord. And it's very clear that the crowd had less than the understanding that we think. If this crowd really understood the full range of what this moment was about and what it was signifying, they probably wouldn't have forsaken Christ before He got to Jerusalem. The picture is very clear; by the time Jesus gets to Jerusalem, He's there alone with His disciples. You would ask: what happened to the celebratory crowd? If this is the King, you're going to march with Him into Jerusalem.
This is the moment of moments--they are gone! They are gone! John, in John 12, verse 16, you can look there later, clearly tells us that the disciples didn't understand this moment. John says that it wasn't until after Christ's glorification that the disciples looked back and thought, "Oh my goodness! That's what it was about!" How amazing. And yet you could argue that there are few more important moments than this one. This is the fulfillment of all those prophecies; this is David's King that will establish that throne forever; this is the One who can provide salvation.
And it's very clear that that prophecy in Zechariah 9 is being carefully fulfilled. His entry - see your King comes; the animal riding on a colt; the reception of the people; rejoice daughter of Jerusalem - they are all there in Zechariah. They're all specifically fulfilled in this moment. And Mark is confronting us, confronting his later readers with the inescapable conclusion: this is King Christ the Savior! You cannot call Him just a prophet; you cannot say, 'He's just a miracle worker.' You can't reduce Him down to the 'Jesus of your making'-- that's profane and blasphemous to do.
We must honor Him as nothing less than the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Hosanna! Save us! And any time, in your mind, in your thoughts, and in your desires, you reduce Him to something less, you do damage to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in your own life. He will not be the servant of your desires; He will be your King. He will not be your personal therapist; He will be your Savior. And He will not establish a temporary kingdom that gets replaced again and again with yours; His Kingdom is forever.
Some Takeaways
This is your Savior. "Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of Lord. Blessed, the coming Kingdom of our Father, David. Hosanna in the highest." God at work! Now, I want to talk about some takeaways from this amazing moment, this two-level picture of the magnificence of God's purpose: His zeal to fulfill His mission, and the lack of understanding of the people in that moment. Here's the first one - this will probably hurt your feelings - but we just don't know as much as we think we know. These are people who clearly had some understanding of the Scriptures.
They are singing the Scriptures. There were theologians in the crowd, and they just got it wrong. And I think it's easy for us to live in a state of "theological-always-right-ism" where we're so smug; and because we're smug, we quit studying the way that we should; we quit seeking the help of the Spirit of God as we should; we quit praying for the Scriptures to be illumined to us in the way that we should because we think we know. Perhaps in eternity, we will look back at pieces of what we believed and think, "Oh my!
We got that so wrong." That leads to a second thing: how great is our need for the Word of God? We need the clarity of the Word of God. The way of God around us may confuse us; maybe some of you, right now, are in a state of confusion; you just can't figure out what it is that God is doing. Your security will never be in you figuring it out; your security is in the clear Word of God; you can stand on the Word of God; you can be sure of the Word of God. And as together as a community, we help one another properly interpret the Word of God; there's safety in that.
Well, I've hinted at the third thing: you must understand that your rest is not in your understanding but in the zeal of your Redeemer to accomplish all that He has purposed and all that He has promised. Listen, rest and security, for us, is not in knowing; rest and security, for us, is in a Person, the King, the Savior. Fourth thing: God's plan marches on even when you are unaware or confused. God's great redemptive plan is not limited by our confusion, not limited by our lostness, not limited by our ignorance and understanding.
Because you don't know what God is doing, it doesn't mean that God doesn't know what God is doing; we get it wrong. And I can rest that God knows exactly what He's doing; that He has this kind of power; that He can orchestrate this kind of moment for His own glory and His own purpose. I can rest in that even when I'm confused. Fifth thing, oh this is important: there is a greater Kingdom than your own and a greater King than you, and He will not surrender His throne to you. Maybe for many of us, we want greater control over our world than we will ever have, and we need to rest in this greater King.
The final thing is where we began: perhaps all of us are, at times, more excited by the Jesus of our own making than we are of the true Messiah, Sovereign, Savior King. I would ask you again; be honest this evening: what kind of Jesus do you long for? Do you long for the Jesus that Mark is inescapably putting before us? He is the fulfillment of all the Law and the Prophets. He is the King who will reign forever. He is Savior and Lord. He is your hope. And we must forsake our desire to remake the Messiah and find rest and hope in the Son of David, the King of David, the King of kings, the Messiah, the Savior, Jesus Christ.
Let's pray: Lord, we thank you for the zeal of Your redemptive plan. Thank you for Your sovereignty that You can rule the world with this kind of clarity and specificity so that Your plan would march on. Thank you for Jesus who was willing to be that suffering Savior King. Lord, forgive us for having often a greater allegiance to our kingdom than we do to Yours; for our desire to remake You into something less than what You are; for the times when we panic when we don't need to panic because You are not confused; for moments when we doubt Your goodness and Your grace.
By grace, by that grace that was purchased on that cruel cross, may we worship You, Hosanna! Son of David, King of kings, Amen.
