Palm Sunday (Luke 19:28-40)

Palm Sunday (28^th March 2010)

Text: Luke 19:28-40

 

 

During the National Day celebration on 23^rd February there was a parade in Bandar Seri Begawan.  I was not there to witness it but someone sent me photos of the celebration and parade. A parade is a major part of a celebration like National Day or the birthday of a Head of State.  It is often composed of many different things: from brass bands, to floats, to people carrying banners, to marching teams and many more.  In a parade you never know what is going to come up next, whether it will be something you like or dislike; performances that will entertain or offend you.  

And life itself is like a parade. You never quite know what is coming next.  Sometimes good things may turn up.  Other times we get bad ones.  We simply cannot determine what is coming, and many of them are beyond our control.  For example, we cannot change our past, and neither can we stop many of the things that are happening around us right now. However, we do not want to live a life where we are at the mercy of what is happening around us.  Thus our choice of attitude is very important, because it helps us to be in control of how we feel inside and how we react to things that are happening around us. Someone said, “Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it”.  It means that we while we cannot stop or change things around us, the fact is we are in charge of our own attitudes.  If we have a lousy attitude, don’t blame other people for it. We are responsible for how we show ourselves. And bad attitudes are often destructive: they can ruin many things including our relationships with other people, our business prospects, and our potentials.

So this morning as we gather to celebrate Palm Sunday, I also want to invite us all to examine our personal attitudes.  In a way, Palm Sunday is about an impromptu parade coming into town. It was a parade that took many people by surprise; and I can tell you that when unexpected things happen, that is when you see real attitudes coming to life.   

Jesus knew that he had less than a week to live, and he decided that this must be the right time for him to tell the people who he was: that He was the Messiah Israel had been waiting for hundreds of years.  On this Palm Sunday Jesus declared to the people that he was the King that Zechariah was talking about more than 500 years earlier (Zechariah 9: 9).

Let us look at how the event took place.  In Luke 19: 29-30 Jesus called two of his disciples and told them "Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ’Why are you untying it?’ tell him, ’The Lord needs it’.” 

The moment Jesus called the two disciples and gave them a special task: that is the first opportunity for an attitude.  We are not told how the two disciples reacted when they were chosen to do this special work.  If it were you who had been chosen, would you try to find excuses?  Or if you were not asked to take up the job, would you be thankful?  

And the instruction that Jesus gave them sounds quite vague. Now imagine that Jesus tells two of you this morning, “Go to Swiss Hotel in KB.  Near the main entrance there will be a brand new white Mercedes Benz with a bunch of keys inside of it.  One of you get inside and drive the car back here.  If the security guard asks you what you’re doing in the car, just tell them that I need it.”  Would you obey without asking questions?  Or would you go with worry in your mind?  When God calls us to do something, but does not give us anything to get it done, except His Word, how do we react?  Do you carry out your responsibility base on your belief that Jesus has called you to do it? Do you choose the attitude of faith?  Or do you say, “God told me to do this for a reason, I believe he will keep His word”?

Sure enough, the two disciples found the colt exactly as Jesus had said, in the place where he told them it would be.  Everything was going fine.  But as they started to untie the colt, the owner shouted at them, asking why they were untying the colt?  All of a sudden they were being surrounded by some angry-looking guys who thought that they wanted to steal the animal.   Now if we were in that situation, what would we do? Do we try to defend ourselves by saying that we made a mistake?  Jesus did not tell the two guys to defend themselves.  He said, “Tell them the Lord needs it.”  When they said, “The Lord needs it”, the owners’ attitudes immediately changed from anger and suspicion to cooperation.  This could have been something that Jesus and the owners of the donkey could have arranged between themselves.   But Jesus did not tell them how He was coming to get it.  So when two ordinary-looking men came, they thought they were thieves. But when they heard, the words, “The Lord needs it”, they were eager to let it go.  So remember, we need the right attitude even with strangers, because Jesus could be using them to do his work.

Now there are two things that I want to bring to your attention here: (i) Why would Jesus want to ride on an unbroken colt?  It is an Old Testament teaching that animals and things used for sacred purposes must to be animals and things that had never been used before. In this case God has particularly set aside this young colt as a symbol of what is sacred or holy.  So this is also an important reminder for those of us who think that Church is a place for us to disposed things we no longer want in our homes.

(ii) Why would Jesus want to ride a young donkey instead of a horse?  Donkeys were used by kings when they entered the city in peace.  If a king came to declare war he would ride on a horse.  Remember also that the donkey was also an animal of service used to carry the burdens and loads for people.  So here you have a picture of Jesus coming into the city to fulfil the prophecy in Scripture, presenting himself as the King of peace as well as one who was ready to carry the burdens of others.

After the two disciples placed their coats and garments on the back of the colt, the parade began, and you will see more different attitudes starting to manifest themselves.  And the first attitude was those who wanted to immediately offer Jesus the best that they had.  The two disciples put their coats on the back of the donkey: these people took off their coats and clothing and laid it down the pathway as to form a royal carpet for the animals to walk on.  They were not concerned that their clothes might get dirty or that they would not be able to get them back.  Their focus was on going all out to honour Jesus Christ no matter at what cost.  Is this our attitude when it comes to serving God?  Do we give the best that we have, even to the point of losing what we value?  

Now compare that with another group of people who cut down the palm branches and laid them down as a means of honouring and respecting Jesus.  I know that palms are important; otherwise we won’t have Palm Sunday. But where did they get the branches?  As those branches were most likely to be taken from date palms, they must belong to someone.  Did those people took the branches from their own palm trees?  Or did they take them from someone else’s palm trees?  (While I say this, I want to remind you that our palm crosses are made from nipah palm leaves.  We did not steal them because they grow wild along the river banks).  I remember one incident when I was still serving in Bintulu.  One longhouse in Suai was building a chapel using a donation from St. Andrew’s Church, BSB.  When the building was completed, there was a proposal to cover the immediate surrounding of the chapel with gravels, and one man told me that he could instruct some lorry drivers in the company he worked to deliver a few trucks of gravels to the chapel for free.  I gently told him off, and warned that God’s church must not be constructed with stolen materials.  If we want to give something in honour of Jesus, then it must be something that it really belongs to us.  It cannot be something that costs us nothing.

There were many thousands of people there on Palm Sunday as Jesus marched into the city.   This was the only time in Jesus’ life that he allowed the people to declare him as King and to openly receive their praise and worship as a crowd.   So the people shouted out, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.”  Matthew tells us, the people were also shouting out “Hosanna to the Son of David”, which means “Son of David, save us now.”  They were shouting and going wild in their praises of Jesus, expecting him to save them from the power of Rome.

But not everybody became a part of the parade.  There were also those who stood alongside the road, who cheered a little bit and gave Jesus a handclap; but they were too concerned with other things to actually get involved.  As soon as Jesus passed them by, they went on about their business. It is a picture of people who like Jesus, but they are too busy to be committed to him.  They may come to church and pray to Jesus, but they never really surrender their hearts to Jesus.  And it was also possible that among those who proclaimed Jesus as King on that day, later on join the crowd in shouting “crucify Him, Crucify Him” on Good Friday.

But there was still another attitude at the parade.  Among the crowd were religious leaders who did not like what they saw and heard. These were people who knew that they had a lot to lose if the Roman soldiers were to come and attacked the crowd.  So they told Jesus to stop the people from shouting “Jesus is King”.  But there was nothing that could stop Jesus from being proclaimed a King.   Jesus said that even if the people were to be quiet for a moment, the very stones on the ground would cry out, “He is the Son Of God.”  Jesus was not exaggerating.  Do you know why, according to Matthew’s gospel, not only the owner sent the colt; he also asked the two disciples to take with them the colt’s mother as well?  Because he knew that an unbroken colt could turn aggressive if someone tried to sit on its back.  So he sent the mother donkey along in case the colt became impossible to ride on.  Yet, this colt that had never been ridden on before immediately became submissive, and allowed Jesus to sit on its back. It is a picture of contrast: the religious leaders failed to recognise their Messiah; but this donkey knew who its Master and Creator was. 

As we reflect upon this story, what sort of attitude is Christ trying to expose to us today?  Is it jealousy or envy?  Is it hatred and malice? Is our attitude one of indifference towards Jesus?  Is it an attitude that takes Jesus simply for granted? Or is our attitude one where we have completely committed ourselves to Jesus?  Is our attitude one that is filled with love and obedience to Jesus and hope in him?

Our attitude matters a lot, so much so that Jesus had to go to Jerusalem and to be crucified in order to put it right.  The palm crosses that we receive this morning are reminder to that love.  Jesus gave His life for us so that our bad attitudes are put right; and once they are put right, our relationships and our prospects will also be put right, so  that we may have peace, forgiveness and joy. As Jesus passes through our midst this morning, and what sort of attitudes are we showing?