Who is this? … and why is He weeping?

Welcome to OnMission.

Today we're watching as a Man on a donkey approaches Jerusalem. He's surrounded by a singing crowd, and the city is in turmoil - the question on every tongue that day is the question many have asked across the ages: who is this? As He approaches He's weeping. But why is He weeping? These are the questions OnMission is exploring today.

But first, as we turn to God’s Word, let’s begin in prayer:

Today dear God, have mercy on us. We want to know You and Your beloved Son, Jesus.

By Your steadfast Love and grace; blot out our transgressions according to Your abundant mercy.

Wash us thoroughly from our iniquity, and cleanse us from our sin! (Psalm 51)

Show us the sin in us. Reveal the motivations and desires that blind us to who You are; to Your Way, Your Truth and true Life in You.

You have shown us Your Will and Your Way in Your Word.

Let us be Your People, seeking You and receiving You as our God and turning from our many idols.

May only Your Truth be spoken and heard.

Give us eyes that see, we want to see Jesus.

In the mighty Name of Jesus, we pray. Amen

Our Bible readings today are found in the Gospels inspired in Luke, chapter 19 verses 28-48 and Matthew chapter 19 verses 12-17:

 Jesus went on toward Jerusalem, walking ahead of his disciples.

As he came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives, he sent two disciples ahead. “Go into that village over there,” he told them. “As you enter it, you will see a young donkey tied there that no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks, ‘Why are you untying that colt?’ just say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”

So they went and found the colt, just as Jesus had said. And sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners asked them, “Why are you untying that colt?”

And the disciples simply replied, “The Lord needs it.” So they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride on.

As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him. When he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.

“Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the LORD!

Peace in heaven, and glory in highest heaven!”

But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!”

He replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!”

But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not recognize it when God visited you.”

Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!”

The blind and the lame came to him in the Temple, and he healed them.

The leading priests and the teachers of religious law saw these wonderful miracles and heard even the children in the Temple shouting, “Praise God for the Son of David.”

But the leaders were indignant. They asked Jesus, “Do you hear what these children are saying?”

“Yes,” Jesus replied. “Haven’t you ever read the Scriptures? For they say, ‘You have taught children and infants to give you praise.’” Then he returned to Bethany, where he stayed overnight.

After that, he taught daily in the Temple, but the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the other leaders of the people began planning how to kill him.

Now here's today's reflection entitled, Who is this? …and why is He weeping?

Come, today let us imagine standing here together on the walls of Jerusalem.

Passover is approaching - the time when all Israel remembers God’s mercy as He redeemed their ancestors from bondage and death.

Look, the Temple, the holiest of all holy places is right there. This is the place chosen by God to dwell, to tabernacle as the ancient scrolls say among His people.[1]

Today let’s stand on the East wall near the golden gate, the one called the “Gate of Mercy” where one day, Israel’s Messiah will enter the city and deliver God’s people from this oppression; at least that’s what the Rabbis say will happen - but who knows when?

For many long years, Israel has suffered under the tyranny of Rome - before that, it was the Greeks, Persians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. But someday, someday the Messiah will come and He will redeem His people from this bondage.  It will be a new Exodus, and he will enter Jerusalem by this very gate.

He will come up from the valley below and take his appointed place as the king and redeemer of Israel - the saviour of his people – that day will be just as Zachariah predicted:

Celebrate, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you; he is righteous and victorious, humble and mounted on a donkey,
… he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea.[2]

See how crowded the road is. Jews from all over Israel are making their pilgrimage in obedience to the Mosaic Law.

“Hear the Law of Israel, three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place He will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, of Weeks, and of Tabernacles.”[3]

Next Sabbath the Passover Lamb will be sacrificed and the Passover meal will be eaten. We will remember how the blood of the lamb marked God’s people and so saved them as death claimed those who doubted and defied God.

Then the Festival of Unleavened Bread begins. We remember our need of God’s Grace because of how persistent sin is in us.

Listen. As the road turns and ascends the hill toward this holy place, do you hear them? The people sing the psalms of ascent:

Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD, there is steadfast Love, and with Him is plentiful redemption.

And He will redeem Israel from all iniquities.[4]

Now look out across the Kidron Valley, there’s the Mount of Olives and below it, the road down to Bethany and then off to distant Jericho.

It’s the road that one day, someday the Messiah will travel.

Now, what’s happening there? Look at that crowd. Who is that? They’re surrounding a man on a donkey.

Wow, they’re waving palm leaves and laying their coats down before Him; the signs of victory and submission given only to a conquering king. The Romans won’t like that. Who is this?

Look now, the walls are crowded - the city is in turmoil. Who is this?

What is that mob singing?

“Blessed is the King who comes in the Name of the Lord! Peace in Heaven and glory in the highest!”[5]

“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna, save us now oh LORD Most High!”[6]

“Save us now, oh Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Save us now, Hosanna oh Most High!”[7]

Hear the victory songs of Israel![8]

“All the nations surrounded me, but in the Name of the Lord, I cut them down… Shouts of joy and victory … The Lord’s right hand is lifted high; the Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!… The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvellous in our eyes. The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad. Hosanna, Lord save us! Lord, grant us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”[9]

The one on the donkey is close now. Who is this? The crowd is growing. Some Pharisees are talking to Him. Oh, that doesn’t look good. They’ve turned away and wow they’re mad.[10]

But look at Him - the crowds celebrate and sing, yet He weeps. Does He weep as He approaches the city gates?[11]

Now He’s through the Gate. He’s at the Temple.

The money changers and sacrifice sellers are scattering.[12] Lambs, bulls and pigeons are everywhere – He’s driving them out. People are fighting over the spilled coins. It’s chaos.

What? Look at the blind and the crippled who gather to beg at the Temple. They are walking, running and dancing. Who is this? How is this possible?[13]

Hear Him now. He is answering the chief priests and scribes.

Out of the mouths of babes and children?[14] That’s Psalm 8. The rabbis say it teaches that God declares His glory and speaks His Truth through the mouths of babes confronting His foes and to stilling His enemies who are wise in their own eyes.

He’s calling the priests enemies of God!

God’s strength, the praises of His people will rise from infants when it is absent elsewhere.

Is He claiming to be God because children in this mob praise Him?

Who is this?

…

Who is this? It was the question that gripped the crowd that day in Jerusalem and it is the question that demands our response today.

Who is this? If He truly is who we say He is, then what does that mean for those who believe?

Yes, I made up that story from the walls of Jerusalem. Consider it a Palm Sunday drama – but consider also the implications of Jesus riding into the city on a donkey colt.

Here is Jesus. Weeping. Cleansing. Healing. Speaking Truth.

Yet Israel does not recognize Him - they ask “who is this?”[15]

I have heard many Palm Sunday sermons and have seen paintings, plays, and movies portraying a triumphant often defiant Jesus reclaiming His capital and cleansing His Father’s House.

The Jesus of popular imagination is victorious; basking in glory; reveling in the praises of this moment as if somehow Jesus, God the Son was oblivious to the week that lay ahead; totally blind to our sin; completely unaware of the idolatry infesting each human heart as if this Jesus who so often rebuked His disciples for their earthly ambition and evaded crowds trying to crown Him king had now somehow changed His mind.

But then we ask, why is He weeping?[16]

Jerusalem, “had you known on this day the things that make for peace! But today they are hidden from your eyes.”

Jesus clearly knows what lies ahead.

He knows the choices yet to be made.

He knows the conspiracies, betrayals and denials yet to unfold.

He knows the lies yet to be told.

So much evil will be done in the name of peace, in the name of Israel, in the name of the poor, and even in the name of God.

He knows people will claim they had no choice - what else could they do?

Self-interest and self-preservation will rise and condemn Jesus - the selfless self-giving God the Son.

Jesus weeps.

He knows all the ways we refuse Him and choose the path that leads to death – the path that leads to rebellion, not peace.

It’s too easy today for us to ask how they could not know Him, how they could not understand. How they who searched the Scriptures missed Him when He walked among them.

It’s too easy to ask how crowds singing Hosanna in one moment would shout “crucify Him” and shed His blood on the streets of Jerusalem mere days later.

It is as Jesus said, it’s too easy to see their faults and failings and miss our own.[17]

We live our lives and make our choices with the benefit of hindsight. We know what happened that momentous week, yet still somehow the evidence all around us begs the question - who is this? Do we know Him?

Yes, we ask how could the religious leaders and the faithful in Israel choose the status quo over that radical expression of God’s Love taught and lived by Jesus?

But then, in the face of their choices, we must examine our own.

What has happened to prayer in our workplaces, public gatherings and schools?

What happened to the hours of prayer in our day? Matins, mid-day, evensong and compline?

Where have the biblical truths gone from our school curricula?

Where is the Gospel found among the laws of our country?

Do our courts even acknowledge the things that offend God and respect His Law?

Where are the needs of others put ahead of our self-interest and self-preservation?

Do we sacrifice ourselves and our interests and stand united in Love in the face of evil?

Do we Love God’s beloved people suffering the genocides, hunger, persecution, thirst, and illness that rage in the world all around us? Or, do our economic ambitions and personal desires trump all as we stand idly by?

Do we know on this day the things that make for peace?

Today, as we watch Jesus we are confronted with the question, how has following Jesus become a private choice irrelevant to and hidden from public space?

How has Christian Truth become wrong?

How has Jesus become just another god among a pantheon of our secular, humanist and pluralist idols?

How has Jesus become just another religious myth, or just another holy man proclaiming inner peace, social tolerance, cosmic harmony, human reconciliation, peace and goodwill toward all people?

Are we repentant or merely pragmatic and expedient? …

… So yes today we will often ask, how could Israel not see and not understand. How could they not know Jesus as He walked among them?

We ask, how Israel, could navigate their survival by sacrificing their God? Yet we do it every day.

Let us search the Scriptures and examine our choices as keenly as we examine theirs.

See how the Gospel, the window through which we see their history, becomes a mirror that reflects the condition of our soul.

Come now, stand with me now on a bridge over a road leading to you, your family, your home, your community and your capital city.

As Jesus comes into view, who is this you see?

Is He weeping?

God is here among us, but the question of this day called Palm Sunday is, today do we recognize this time of our visitation.

Let us pray:

Create in us a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within us – we want to know You.

Cast us not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from us – we want to be with You.

Restore to us the joy of Your salvation, and uphold us with a willing free spirit – we want to Love You and You alone. (see Psalm 51)

Open our eyes, our ears and hearts to You.

We pray in the Name of Jesus and in the power of God the Holy Spirit.

Amen

[1] Exodus 29:42-46

[2] Zechariah 9:9-10

[3] Deuteronomy 16:16

[4] Psalm 130

[5] Luke 19:38

[6] Mark 11:9-10

[7] Matthew 21:9 cf. Psalm 130:7-8

[8] Psalm 118:26

[9] Psalm 118

[10] Luke 19:39-40

[11] Luke 19:41-44

[12] Matthew 21:10-17; Luke 19:45-48

[13] Matthew 21:14

[14] Matthew 21:15-16

[15] Matthew 21:10

[16] Luke 19:41

[17] Matthew 7:1-5 cf. Luke 6:41-42 and Romans 2:1