Almighty Deity Dons Earthly Humility!

Palm Sunday, 3/28/10
Luke 19:28-40


Almighty Deity Dons Earthly Humility!
I. To ride to his death
II. And receives the praises of sinners


Local authorities know that they cannot prevent citizens from gathering together in large numbers in support of a particular issue. The Constitution guarantees that right. But crowd control is an issue every time. That’s because the authorities know firsthand that mobs often turn ugly. Might makes right. The energy and passion in a crowd of like-minded people are contagious. And in the blink of an eye, what began as a peaceful gathering turns into a lawless mob.

During his ministry on earth Jesus often was at the center of a crowd. At times that got ugly. The people gathered in the synagogue at Nazareth were so upset with him they attempted to throw him off a cliff to his death. The angry Jewish mob in Pilate’s courtyard on Good Friday demanded his blood.

But there were times when the crowd was peaceful and respectful, even God-pleasing. And we have one of those instances before us this morning in the account of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The Bible states that a crowd had been following behind Jesus as he made his way from the town of Bethany into the capital city of Jerusalem. But it also states that a crowd came out of Jerusalem to meet him. Two crowds of Jewish Passover pilgrims converged to meet the day’s most controversial figure. The common people loved him. The powerful people hated him. It was a situation that was ripe for violence.

But none occurred. Jesus wouldn’t let it. This was the way he had planned things right down to the praises by the people, for, as he states at the end of our text, if the people didn’t praise him, the stones would.

And it’s all due to the fact that the One riding into Jerusalem that Sunday was none other than the almighty God. And yet he enters Jerusalem in humility. Almighty deity dons earthly humility. That’s what occurred on this first Palm Sunday. Join me in seeing why that’s so important for us today.

Part I.

What would be your reaction if, instead of a cross decorating the front wall of our sanctuary, we secured to the wall an electric chair or a gurney from an execution chamber? I think you’d be incensed. For one, Jesus didn’t die in an electric chair or by lethal injection on a gurney. He died on a cross. What’s more, those items are repulsive, especially since they have been used to actually execute people. Parents of small children would be rightly concerned about the psychological impact of such items on their children.

Can you see where I’m going with this? The cross was the choice Roman method of execution. Death by electric chair or lethal injection is comfortable compared to the torture that the cross inflicted on its victims. And yet we hang replicas of Jesus’ cross in our churches and in our homes. We were them as jewelry around our necks. In a way, we’ve stripped the cross of its horror.

I mention this because as dear as his cross is to us, Jesus should have been repulsed by it. Even though I’m not an expert in ancient methods of execution, I have never heard an account of anyone embracing the torture of a cross. I have never heard of anyone willingly going to the cross. I can only imagine that most people condemned to die on a cross resisted it with every ounce of energy they had left, to no avail. But not Jesus.

What’s more, Jesus was innocent. I’m certain the Romans executed more than one innocent person on a cross. Even in our own day, the possibility exists that an innocent person gets executed. But Jesus had done nothing wrong. Not a single sin. There was absolutely no justifiable reason for Jesus to suffer even for a moment, let alone suffer execution on a cross.

Yet he rides into Jerusalem knowing full well that he’s headed for that cross. He stated that fact plainly to his disciples weeks earlier. And now, as the crowd presses around him, he’s in complete control. That’s the only conclusion you can draw from the fact that Jesus tells his disciples in advance about the existence of the donkey, the objections by its owners, and the response his disciples are to give. Everything happens just as Jesus said it would. He’s in complete control. His enemies are present and they despise him, but they can’t touch him now. Five days from now—yes; but not now. He’s in complete control.

And yet he makes no show of almighty power. Instead, he chooses to ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, a common pack animal, a beast of burden. He could have had 10,000 angels singing in the heavens, but he chooses to ride in on a donkey. He could have snapped his fingers and had Pilate himself and Pilate’s personal guards escort him into town on Pilate’s personal horse. But he enters town on a borrowed donkey using borrowed garments as a saddle. In some respects it seems so wrong. Almighty deity dons earthly humility to ride to his death.

But that’s exactly the way we want it. As ironic and backwards as it sounds, that’s exactly the way we need it. We don’t need a Savior who overpowers his enemies with outward displays of almighty power. We need the almighty God to come to earth as a man and humble himself, to take our place under God’s holy law and obey that law for us, to suffer the punishment that we deserve for our sins. And that’s exactly what the almighty God was doing when he donned earthly humility. He used that deity not to avoid the cross but to embrace it for us. And that’s what turns a symbol of torture and execution into a symbol of the greatest love anyone has ever shown us. He took our place on that cross. He died our death. Almighty deity dons earthly humility to ride to his death.

Part II.

One of the difficulties we face in life is putting our nose to the grindstone every day but never receiving any recognition for our hard work. We do our best to carry out our responsibilities faithfully and we wonder if anyone notices. It’s even worse when we do our job and others take credit for it. On the other hand, how wonderful it is when we finally receive the praise we rightly deserve.

Palm Sunday was one of those wonderful days in the life of Jesus. This event was the culmination of nearly three years of his public ministry. Shortly after his baptism, Jesus took up the work of publicly proclaiming that he was the Savior whom God had promised to send through his people, the Jews. Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. Along with his preaching, Jesus also performed miracles, each of which was a testimony that Jesus was who he said he was—the Son of God.

But so often his words and his miracles weren’t received as he intended. He miraculously feeds more than 5,000 and the people want to make him their bread King but refuse to believe he is their Savior. He heals a man on the Sabbath and his enemies denounce him as one who breaks the Sabbath prohibition against doing work. He drives demons out of people and the people think he has obtained this power from Satan. His own disciples often wondered when he was going to establish his earthly kingdom and bestow them with positions of power and glory in it. Time and again Jesus was misunderstood and maligned.

But not on this day. On this Palm Sunday he received the praise due him. Our text says, “The whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen.” They recognized not only the miracles but the One who had performed them. And they did so with praise that was clearly messianic. The shouted, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” They recognized Christ as the promised son of David, the King who was to come. They recognized that by his work as their Savior, there was now peace in heaven between sinners and the holy God. Finally Christ was receiving the praise that was due him!

But it was short-lived. Five days later the crowds of the Jews wanted nothing to do with him. Five days later the crowds of Jews were shouting, “Away with him. Crucify him! Crucify him!” Why the dramatic change? Why the demonic reversal? First, the crowds were persuaded by their religious and political leaders. In other words, the powerful people turned up the heat on the ones they ruled. What’s more, the people were disappointed with Jesus. He didn’t enter Jerusalem amid this wave of popularity and set himself up as their king. He didn’t raise a finger against the Romans. He didn’t perform all sorts of miracles to impress the mobs of people. Worst of all, he subjected himself to the Romans. Instead of knocking Pilate off his governor’s chair, he submitted to him. In fact, he let himself be beaten bloody by the Romans. That wasn’t the kind of Savior they were looking for.

Any yet on this day, almighty deity dons earthly humility and receives the praises of sinners.

As we celebrate Palm Sunday today, we proclaim and sing the same praises to Jesus as the first Palm Sunday crowd did. We processed with palm branches just as the crowd did so long ago. We praise him now. But before you know it, the praise from our lips dies down. We go back to the daily grind of our lives and forget the almighty Savior and his power in our lives. He places a golden opportunity for us to praise him before others, and we say nothing and the silence is deafening. Even worse, we misuse his name, thoughtlessly tossing around God’s name or using it to curse instead of bless.

But that’s why he entered Jerusalem. To die as the punishment for our sins. To redeem us and to make us his people. To wash us clean by his blood and to place his love in our hearts and his praise on our lips. That’s a spiritual journey we need to take every day and we have the greatest of opportunities to do that this week. Walk with your Savior this Thursday to the upper room where he instituted his Holy Supper for you. Walk with him to Calvary’s cross this Friday. And then stand at the empty tomb next Sunday and sing his praises because the almighty deity dons earthly humility. Amen.