Not long ago, in Turkey, a fifty-year old guy named, Beyhan Mutlu, went out drinking with some of his buddies. Time passed, and Beyhan’s wife started getting worried when he didn’t come home. She tried his cellphone—no answer. Now she was really getting worried. She called some of Beyhan’s drinking buddies. They said that when they were on the way home, he peeled off and went into a nearby forest. So this poor woman called the police, and they started gathering volunteers from wherever they could find them to go and search the forest that night. As the crowd of volunteers headed for the forest, it swelled with more volunteers, including random people out for a walk in the forest.[1]Where was Beyhan? They hoped nothing horrible had happened to him. I sometimes feel like the search for Jesus is a little like that in my life: I’m going along and everything seems to be going well, but then I realize I’m missing someone—God, Jesus—and so I start a search. When was the last time God was in my life? What were we doing? If I can, I go back to that place and time in my mind to try to reconnect. The curious thing about our passage for today is that the people of Jerusalem have foundJesus and they hail Him as the Son of David—a King, the Messiah! But what exactly did that mean to them and to Jesus? Our passage for today offers three, tantalizing clues.
First, Jesus rode on a donkey. Have you ever seen a good-sized person ride on a donkey? It’s looks a little silly, a little bit like an adult riding a tricycle. Donkeys have short legs, so they have a quick step that bounces you up and down really fast. In Roman times, Jesus had plenty of options for getting to Jerusalem. He could have identified with the people of the wilderness and trade, and ridden on a camel. He could have picked a horse—the Roman conquerors rode fiery steeds. And of course, Jesus walked everywhere with His disciples for example. So why a donkey…and why now? Turns out, when King David was coming into Jerusalem, he rode a donkey. For one thing, they didn’t have camels in the area in David’s day. For another thing, donkeys have much surer feet in the rocky and mountainous areas of Palestine than a horse might. For a third thing, riding a donkey is humbling, and David understood God was the true King, and thought of himself as just a servant. So David, the great King, the man after God’s own heart, rode a donkey into Jerusalem, and so every king in the line of David rode into Jerusalem on a donkey too. And everyone in the crowd knew this, so you can imagine the energy growing—Is Jesus going to finally make the announcement? Is He finally going to claim the throne?
Second, they put down cloaks and waved branches they also put down in front of Jesus for him to ride over. Now that’s a weird thing, isn’t it? Well maybe. How many of you have ever asked a celebrity for an autograph? Have you ever saved the ticket stub or program from a concert? Why do you think people do that?
[Take responses from the congregation.]
Exactly! The cloaks and palms on the ground in front of Jesus, in addition to looking really cool, were actually a way to remember the day. People wouldn’t wash those cloaks—they would show them to their friends, to their children and grandchildren. We can maybe imagine people in the future saying, “You see that hoofprint right there? That’s the hoofprint from King Jesus’ donkey the day He rode into Jerusalem. I was right there and saw it all.” Same for the palm branches. So we know people thought this was just the beginning of something really amazing. King Jesus was headed for great things!
Third, Jesus weeps. As we read all the stories of Jesus in the Bible, only twice does Jesus cry. The first time is when He sees the grief of His good friends, Martha and Mary when their brother—and maybe Jesus’ best friend—is dead. I love that Jesus is moved by their grief. Surrounded by adoring crowds, riding into Jerusalem in great procession, hailed as king, it seems odd for Jesus to pause to cry over this gleaming city. Jesus’ words are startling: “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44They 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.” It’s true—the city and its people are looking for a King, but Jesus is not the kind of King they were expecting. The same crowd who shouted, “Hosanna!” on Palm Sunday shouts, “Crucify Him!” on Good Friday. Fast forward to AD 66, Jerusalem and its people would find two more Messiahs who fit the bill. Unlike Jesus, they would meet the crowds expectations, ride into Jerusalem, and start a rebellion against the Romans. With 60,000 men, the Romans would brutally crush that rebellion so impressively that their army’s general would go on to become Emperor Vespasian. By AD 70, the Roman army had indeed encircled Jerusalem, built a ramp to help breach the walls, then burned Jerusalem (the Holy City) and its Temple (God’s Dwelling Place on Earth) to the ground. Jesus said it was “because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you,” but really they didn’t recognize what kind of King they truly needed, who could bring them true peace. Adam Hamilton, in his book, The Way: Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus, writes, “Jesus knew that as the crowds rejected him, they would be rejecting his way. They would reject his call to love their enemies, to pray for those who persecuted [them], and to do good to those who did wrong.”[2]Jesus weeps because the people of Jerusalem would rather have their version of a King and destruction, than God’s version of a King and peace.
Well, the search party continued searching for Beyhan. Where could he be? Was he alright? The night was dark, and someone called out Beyhan Mutlu’s name. One of the new volunteers asked, “Who are we looking for anyway?” They told the new volunteer, and he said, “I am here.” Turns out, Beyhan Mutlu had seen the searchers looking for someone, and had joined the search party to look for himself! In a curious way, looking for Jesus is like that. We try to connect with Jesus, to understand Him better. Like the people of Jerusalem, perhaps we are looking for a king, someone who will tell us what to do, not take any nonsense, and makeus and the world a better place. We are not prepared for a king who rides into our lives so humbly on a donkey, who was given a crown of thorns, and who’s throne is a cross.[3]In a surprising twist, Jesus joins our search for Him. Still, He searches with us, and then there comes a moment in our darkness when we call out His name, wanting Jesus just as He is, and He will say, “I am here.” Jesus has been with us all along, and we have just realized it. Jesus will not knock down the doors of our life to get in, but he will ride in humbly on a donkey. Jesus will receive the praise of fans, walking on their cloaks, leaving mementoes of His presence, but really, Jesus is hoping for followers, people less interested in having peace of their own, than becoming peacemakers. Martin Luther King Jr once said, “You can bomb our homes and threaten our children and hurt us, but we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. And we will love you. We will love you until that day comes when finally we win you over. When we do, we’ll have a double victory, for you will be changed and our world will be changed.”[4]Jesus loved like that, and when Jesus is truly King of our hearts, He shows us how to love like that. That is the way of true peace. Of course, the brilliant irony of Palm Sunday is that people hailed Jesus as King—and He was—if only they could have known, if only they could have seen, if only they had recognized Who was there. In our search for Jesus, perhaps we are like them, if only we could have known He has the peace we long for, if only we might have seen how He was willing to work in our lives, if only we could realize He is right here now.
[1]True story! From www.tip-hero.com, 4-9-22.
[2]Hamilton, The Way: Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus(2012), p. 164.
[3]Ibid,p. 157
[4]From a sermon delivered by Martin Luther King Jr, Christmas 1957, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, AL. Quoted in Hamilton, op.cit, p. 164.