April 16, 2011

The Lamb of God Is Chosen!

Palm Sunday, 4/17/11
Matthew 21:1-11


The Lamb of God Is Chosen!
I. To be our King
II. To be our sacrifice


We call this week Holy Week, and for good reason. It’s the most solemn, most meaningful week in the Christian year. It’s the week that we walk with our Savior into Jerusalem on Sunday, up to the upper room on Thursday where he instituted the Lord’s Supper, and then out to the Garden of Gethsemane. We follow him through several courtrooms and palaces, and with the heaviest of feet we walk the path to Calvary and watch his crucifixion, death and burial on Good Friday. And of course we do so knowing that on the first day of the next week we’ll rejoice over his resurrection.

If we were Jewish, we’d be observing this week under another name—the week of Passover. And while the Passover didn’t officially begin until Thursday of this week, the preparation began on Sunday, the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem, the day we call Palm Sunday. On this day, the 10th day of the month of Nisan, each Jewish family was to choose a year-old male lamb. The Lord directed Moses to tell the Israelites in preparation for the very first Passover in Egypt, “Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community must slaughter them at twilight” (Ex. 12:3, 6).

It was no accident that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey on the 10th of Nisan. Here was the Lamb who had been chosen by God coming to fulfill his work as the world’s Savior from sin. That’s what this ride was all about. That’s what we celebrate this Palm Sunday. The Lamb of God is chosen! Let’s see what for as we ponder this familiar Palm Sunday event.

Part I.

Lately, authority figures around the world have been taking a lot of heat and experiencing open rebellion. First it was Egypt and now it’s Libya. And while you wouldn’t call the current and former leaders of these countries “king,” in essence, that’s what they were and are. There’s only a façade of democracy. One man calls all the shots, and when that happens, authority gets abused and people are rightly suspicious. They don’t trust their leader or leaders at all.

There’s only one man who can be trusted with absolute almighty power and authority, and that’s your Palm Sunday Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Matthew’s account begins with his description of our Savior’s authority. With the knowledge of all things, even future events, and with power over all things, Jesus instructs two of his disciples, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” It wasn’t a flashy display of his authority and relatively few people witnessed it, but it was his divine authority nonetheless.

And in riding into Jerusalem, Jesus the King was bringing his kingdom to a world full of sinners. The crowds before and after Jesus could sense it. Their hopes regarding Jesus were at an all-time high. Just a short time ago he had raised Lazarus from the dead and the area was buzzing with excitement over Jesus. Would he now reveal himself as the Messiah and establish his kingdom here in Jerusalem and drive out the Romans? You see, while they had expectations about the coming kingdom of Jesus, those expectations were almost completely wrong.

But without a doubt, the Lamb of God entered Jerusalem to serve us as our King. He rides in on a donkey. Kings rode on horses, not beasts of burden. But the choice of a donkey was absolutely correct for this King. Zechariah had foretold it centuries earlier and Jesus fulfilled it. What’s more, the choice of a donkey was in keeping with his humility. He came to serve us, not to be served. That’s the role of the Lamb of God who is our King.

And that’s exactly what the sign nailed to the cross above his head would read. Five days later Pilate would make sure all knew that he was “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” Exactly why he wrote those words we’re not sure. But truer words were never written.

Six hours later, he bows his head and gives up his spirit. The King is dead. How could they have treated him this way? But what a death it is! It’s exactly according to God’s saving plan. The Son of God, the eternal King of all, dies and he does so for all. The death of the King fulfills God’s plan of salvation. It satisfies the justice of God. It pays for the sins of the whole world.

That plan’s final stage began when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the day that the Jews were choosing their lambs for Passover. And on that day the Lamb of God is chosen, chosen to be our King.

As I mentioned, kings with absolute power and authority often abuse them. But not this King! He comes to serve his subjects in the most difficult and yet the highest way possible—by giving his life as the payment for their sins. How easy it is for us today to praise and thank him and to offer him our willingness to be his subjects.

But that willingness is shallow and fleeting. Before this day ends, in more ways than we realize, we’ll push our King aside. We’ll let sinful anger and impatience, selfishness and laziness, materialism and discontent, worry and lust, suspicion and antagonism get the better of us. And those are just the sins on the inside! We’ll reveal them on the outside by the things we say and do. And they all reveal that, too often, we’re not too fond of Jesus as our King. We’ll think and feel and say and do as we please when we want to.

Jesus knows it. And yet he didn’t turn back from the cross. He embraced it, knowing that he needed to die for us to be our King. The Lamb of God is chosen, chosen to be our King.

Part II.

Through Moses, the Lord instructed his people to choose their lambs for that first Passover in Egypt on Sunday of the Passover week and then take care of them until Thursday when death would strike the Egyptians. In doing so, the Jews had a memorable object lesson. Here was the lamb that was chosen and set aside so that four days later it could be slaughtered and its blood painted on the doorframe of the house so that the angel of death would pass over that house.

About 1,500 years later, on Palm Sunday, the Jews chose their lambs for their Passover celebration that year. That same day Jesus entered Jerusalem as the Lamb of God who had been chosen to be slaughtered for the sins of the world. That death would come five days later.

It was hard to imagine on Palm Sunday that his death was so immanent. Listen to the joyful shouts of the people, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” The word “Hosanna” means “save” and the Jews used it in a messianic sense as evidenced by the fact that they referred to Jesus as the Son of David. After waiting centuries for the Messiah to arrive, they were overjoyed to see Jesus entering Jerusalem. They proclaimed him to be the promised Messiah.

But five days later their voices fell silent. Why? What went wrong? He didn’t do what they expected him to do. He showed during the next five days that he had no intention of setting up an earthly kingdom in Jerusalem. He made it clear that he was more interested in opposing the false teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees than he was in opposing the Romans. In fact, he completely surrendered himself to his enemies and to the Romans.

And thus the praises on Palm Sunday were replaced by curses, blasphemy and blood-thirsty shouts of “Crucify him! Crucify him!” They wanted nothing to do with him. They considered him to be a joke, an imposter and a liar. They despised him so much that they wouldn’t be silent until he was dead. And to their hearts’ delight, they watched as the Romans soldiers nailed him to the cross.

But all along this was God’s plan for saving the world full of sinners. Again, Jesus was and is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The Jews had sacrificed countless lambs and other animals in religious ceremonies which were intended to make them recall their sins and the truth that their sins must be paid for. And the person who paid for them was none other than the Son of God himself, the Lamb of God. His death on the cross was the payment for the sins of the world.

He makes the payment, and spares his children from death. At the first Passover, the lamb was slaughtered and its blood spared the Children of Israel from death. They left Egypt that night in freedom. Jesus, the Lamb of God, sheds his blood on Calvary’s cross and his children are spared from death—eternal death in hell. They go free—free to serve him in love and thanks to him.

The Lamb of God is chosen, chosen to be our sacrifice.

Keep that truth centered in your heart and mind this Holy Week. Don’t get so wrapped up in how you will celebrate Easter that you pay little attention to the sacrifice that the Lamb of God made for you. There’s no point in celebrating Easter without recalling the death of Jesus for your sins. And there’s no point in observing the death of Jesus without the certainty of his resurrection. Realize how necessary his death and resurrection are because of our sins. And then rejoice today that Jesus is the Lamb of God chosen to be your Savior, your King, your sacrifice for sin. Amen.