A Reformation Palm Sunday

Mark 11.1-11

Introduction 

Making an entrance – there’s been some great ones in history. I think of Super Bowl 36 when the Patriots played the St. Louis Rams. Until that point NFL teams always used the standard introduction of players. On that night for the first time ever the Patriots elected to be introduced as a team and the underdogs went on to defeat the “greatest show on turf” and win their first Lombardi Trophy. That entrance epitomized and galvanized that team. It defined them.

Whether it’s the Undertaker at WrestleMania or Aladdin coming into Agrabah (“Prince Ali”), there have been some defining introductions. There have been some grand entrances; and then others not so much. We had our wedding reception in the church gym, fancy I know. You know how at receptions DJs introduce the wedding party and everyone cheers when they come in? We had about 300 people in the gym and they get to our introduction and the DJ announces Alex and Bethany Vadnais. This was after I had already been called Alexander during my vows, which is not my legal name. At this point I’m not even sure than I’m legally married.

What we just read is Jesus’ introduction to the city of Jerusalem as their king. This is the royal entrance that the people of God had been waiting for since the garden. Tension has been building since Mark 1 when Jesus showed up preaching the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. Jesus has been revealed as the king. Jesus has announced that he’s going to the cross. And now we’re finally here.  This pericope inaugurates the last third of Mark’s Gospel. And it’s the last week of Jesus’ life. He is coming into Jerusalem. It is Holy Week. By Friday afternoon he will be dead.

I’m thankful in God’s providence that we’re here celebrating Palm Sunday even on Reformation Sunday. Pastor Kevin preached Palm Sunday this year via live stream because of quarantine. But we get a bit of a do over. Let’s behold the king in his beauty together!

Palm Sunday is about the Fulfillment of the Prophets

Mark gives us grammatical and geographical cues that the narrative is transitioning. Jesus and his disciples are at the Mount of Olives about 1.5 miles east of Jerusalem. When you hear mount don’t think rocky or smoky. The Mount of Olives was more of a ridge about 100 feet high and it ran 1.8 miles north to south. From here Jesus sends two of his disciples on a mission. Mark doesn’t tell us which disciples Christ sent but he does make the point to note that two were sent. Rarely, if ever, in the New Testament will you see Jesus sending a Christian to do his work by himself. Christian work is community work.

Jesus sends the two into the village Bethany, and instructs them to bring him a colt that’s never been ridden. He tells them if anyone asks let them know the Lord needs it and you’ll bring it back when we’re done. Notice in verses 2-3 the word immediately used again twice. It’s that word εὐθὺς that we’ve seen consistently throughout Mark’s Gospel. It reads like an Aaron Sorkin script. Mark wants us to feel the urgency of Jesus’ mission. Jesus isn’t lollygagging; he is resolutely moving toward Good Friday.

Jesus’ command is kind of strange isn’t it? I mean is he committing grand theft donkey here? What’s going on? I think there’s two points for us to note. Scholars debate whether Jesus had already made plans with the owner of the colt beforehand. I don’t think that matters. Jesus is the creator Lord; he made the colt. Jesus can take what he wants when he wants to. When I was in high school my very first car was a white 1993 Chrysler New Yorker. In reality it was my dad’s car. He let me use it. But if he ever needed it I was tough cookies. Jesus is God. He created this animal and he will use whatever he pleases.

The second point is that sometimes as followers of Jesus we have to obey even when we don’t fully understand. The commands of Jesus may offend our culture, even our own flesh. We may struggle with why has called us to live or act in a certain way. While it’s healthy to wrestle with the Bible our ultimate call is obedience no matter what.

So the two disciples went and found the colt tied in the street and their untied it. More literally they loosed the animal. The word is λύω. When you take Greek λύω is one of the first words you learn. At Southern we memorized all of our paradigms with λύω. I know that doesn’t mean much to you but actually seeing this word in the text is so satisfying. Anyway, they loose the colt and just like Jesus said some people ask what they’re doing and they give the answer Christ gave them. There’s kind of a Jesus jedi thing going on here. “These aren't the droids you’re looking for; ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’ 

They then brought the colt to Jesus, threw their clothes on the animal and the ground, and others spread leafy branches on the ground. This is where the tradition of Palm Sunday comes from. The word Mark uses when he says they spread their cloaks on the ground is στρώννυμι. The only other time he uses it is in Mark 14.15 in the upper room when Christ transitions the Passover to the Eucharist. Palm Sunday is leading us to Maundy Thursday.

In the first century Middle East you wouldn’t just throw your cloak on the ground for anyone. The ground was dirty and you needed that cloak. But you would for a king. And that’s what Mark is saying. What about us? Are we willing to get dirty for the gospel? Are we willing to “let goods and kindred go this mortal life also. The body they may kill. God’s truth abideth still. His kingdom is forever.” What a good reminder for us that there is no stuff more important than king Jesus.

As Jesus rides this colt into Jerusalem we’re witnessing the fulfillment of the Prophets and specifically Zechariah 9.9, which reads, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Mark is revealing to us that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of not only this specific prophecy but of all of the prophets. He is the goal of all of their messages and he is the true and final prophet of God. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God (John 1.1). Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son (Heb 1.1-2).

So whenever you’re reading any Old Testament prophecy you must read it through the lens of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. If Old Testament prophecy is leading you to anything other than the gospel of Jesus Christ, you’re reading it wrong. All of the prophets, from Joshua to Malachi, find their yes in Jesus Christ (2 Cor 1.20). People can seem to get especially confused when it comes to prophetic passages and eschatology. Some start reading these pericopes through the lens of American politics instead of the gospel of Jesus (Trump, Obama, antichrist, Israel, rapture). The Old Testament prophets have nothing to do with global politics in 2020. They have everything to do with the sinless life, substitutionary death, and saving resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

Palm Sunday is about the Fulfillment of the Writings

While Christ is riding into Jerusalem on the colt the crowds are shouting Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna is a transliteration of the Hebrew הוֹשִׁ֘יעָ֥ה נָּ֑א, which literally means “save now.” By Jesus’ time it had become a liturgical term meaning both “save us” and a term of worship like “hallelujah!”

They’re quoting Psalm 118.25-26, Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord. Notice what Mark is doing some 30 years after Jesus died and rose again. The people are worshipping Jesus by asking him to save them and they’re doing so by quoting Scripture. This is the mood of most of the Old Testament writings, isn’t it? Think about the raw emotion we see in the Psalms, Job, Ecclesiastes. God allows his creatures to emotionally engage him honestly, but he doesn’t allow us to do it aimlessly. Honesty and struggle in prayer isn’t an end unto itself; the goal is Jesus. He is the fulfillment of the writings.

The kings, David and Solomon wrote much of the Old Testament writings and Jesus is the one who brings the kingdom. Christ is the fulfillment of David’s covenant. As you read the Psalms or other writings, as you pray, you must do so in a Christ-centered way. Jesus is the means and the goal of our interaction with God.

Palm Sunday is about the Fulfillment of the Law

Finally we see in verse 11 that Jesus is fulfilling the Law. Christ makes his entrance into Jerusalem with all of this pomp and circumstance and the only thing he does is go to the Temple, look around, and leaves. It almost feels a little anticlimactic, doesn’t it? Oh but don’t miss this. The book of Genesis begins with God’s creation of the cosmos and Moses paints a picture of YHWH creating his own cosmic temple – the creation. And the center of that Temple was the holy of holies – Eden. And in the holy of holies he placed his image – Adam and Eve.

And you keep reading in the Pentateuch about Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph, Moses and the Exodus. And then Exodus ends with the building of the tabernacle. And we see a bookend from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Exodus, from God’s cosmic Temple to its type there in the wilderness. Jesus walks into the Temple on Palm Sunday because Jesus is about to do everything that Temple shadowed for millennia. Jesus was about to offer the final sacrifice. Jesus was about to be the final sacrifice. Jesus was about to die as a substitute for his people bearing the wrath of God for their sins.

John tells us the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1.14). The word dwelt is the Greek word tabernacle. Jesus said,

“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple] and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. (John 2.19-22)

Jesus is the true and final Temple. There will never be another Temple. Notice also the pericope begins and ends with Jesus in Bethany. As you might image that’s one of my favorite words in the Bible. But did you know Bethany means “house of sorrow?” That’s not been my experience, unless it’s an ironic thing like if someone were to nickname me slim. But Jesus’ triumphal entry is sandwiched by the house of sorrow because Jesus is preparing to die for sinners.

This is why it is so fitting that we’re celebrating Palm Sunday and Reformation Sunday on the same day. Palm Sunday is about our justification. We are made right with God through the death and resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ. This is the great exchange: Jesus took our sin upon himself on the cross and when we place our faith in him alone, he imputes his righteousness to us. This promise goes all the way back to the beginning after Adam sinned when YHWH promised that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent (Gen 3.15). Trust in Jesus alone to save you. He is the king who went to the cross for sinners. There is hope for forgiveness and eternal life in him alone.

Conclusion

Jesus made an entrance, didn’t he? Yet in less than a week the voices that shouted “hosanna” will shout, “crucify him!” The Old Testament is about Jesus. The story of God’s people is about Jesus. And Palm Sunday and Reformation Sunday are really telling us the same story. It’s the story of how you can be right with God, the story of how you can know the forgiveness of sin. Faith in Jesus Christ alone, that’s the only way in the kingdom of God that you can make an entrance.