The How & Why of Receiving Christ – Matthew 20:17 – 21:17
(The following is a transcript of a talk I presented at Allowera Baptist Church on Palm Sunday 2008, March 16)
For several hundred years, Palm Sunday has held a place of significance in the Christian Calendar. It precedes Easter Sunday and in some tradition it also marks the end of a 40 day period of fasting and contrition known as Lent. Growing up as a Catholic, I distinctly remember Palm Sunday celebrations. All the children were given small palm leaves to wave as the procession of Christ into Jerusalem was celebrated and we marked the end of our sacrifice in Lent. I remember asking the priest to bless my palm leaf and rosary in order that by some means unknown I might receive some special grace through association and contact with these items.
Historically, the first Palm Sunday also held supreme significance in the Jewish calendar. For on this exact day a prophecy taking 483 years to complete would be fulfilled by the revelation and presentation of the messiah to Israel. This was foretold by Daniel the Prophet in Daniel 9:24 – 27. The seventy weeks are understood to be weeks of years and the end of the 69th week, when the messiah would be identified, came exactly to the day that Christ entered Jerusalem. The reaction of the people to Christ seems at first to be opposed to receiving him as messiah until you carefully read verse 26 and understand, that by rejecting and crucifying Christ, scriptural prophecy was fulfilled further confirming him as the promised messiah.
The section of scripture in Matthew provides a juxtaposition of the reasons behind why people seek Christ and their subsequent response once Christ is presented to them. In these comparison’s we can analyse our own motivations for seeking and serving Christ.
Prestige versus Perception – Matthew 20:17 – 34
Initially Jesus is being quite plain and open in explaining precisely what is about to happen as part of the work he accomplishing for his Father. In John’s gospel where a parallel account is given of these same events, John now a much older man notes:
John 12:16 His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him.
Sometimes regardless of how plainly or simply something in scripture appears we will be completely blind or choose to ignore what is said. Our hubris or arrogance gets in the way and we refuse to accept that scripture is not in and of itself just another ancient text. Paul said, “These things are spiritually discerned”. Isaiah said, “Having ears they will not hear, having eyes they will not see”. But the Psalmist said, “Open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things in your law”. We cannot but approach or respond to the text without our preconceptions, bias and slated agenda. If we’re clever and have been around Church, Sunday School, Youth Group etc for a few years, we know the lingo, we understand the nuances and subtleties and we can hoist a façade of spirituality and we can even force a few verses from the bible to justify our bold display of ignorance, insensitivity, lack of compassion and out right stupidity. However on occasion, we can be completely stubborn and reject everything we know to right and pure and just and go along blissfully. This is what James and John have done in this instance.
They were a few days away from Passover. This is the third time Jesus has given them notice of his approaching sufferings. He was not going to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover; he was going to Jerusalem because He WAS the Passover! He has specifically, sought to draw them aside privately so as to have a quite intimate discussion with them to explain what is about to happen. This is the culmination in the Fathers plan of redemption for all mankind and you guys have the inside story. But all James and John can think about is what personal gain can they accomplish. Where is the recognition and prestige for their efforts? In his response Jesus uses the opportunity to explain that Christianity is not about personal glory, it is about God’s glory.
When compared with the request by the blind men – who rightly acknowledge who Jesus is ahead of the procession that is about to take place. All they ask for is perception. Who are the real blind men in this scenario? Those that choose ignore Christ in favour of their own agenda or those that seek to worship him? We can ask the same thing at a corporate level as a ministry team and church body. In the activities you seek to pursue and promote, what is your agenda? Are you stuck in a rut? Are you stubbornly doing the same thing over and over because it just has to be done because you’re a slave to tradition or are you prayerfully seeking to be sensitive to God’s direction?
The Prophecy, The Procession and The Praise – Matthew 21:1 – 9
For the majority of the preceding 3 years, Jesus had suppressed the urge among the people to exalt him publicly as a hero, eluding them at the scenes of miracles, spending time in more obscure villages and less prominent locations throughout Israel. When the 5000 had been fed, he sped across the lake to escape their honours. He exemplified what he had taught his disciples about not seeking prestige and preference but went about doing the Father’s will in order to accomplish, God’s purpose and agenda. So it may seem at first that his lapse in receiving praise was contrary to the earlier mode of operation. Yet as we read, this too is part of God’s purpose in enlightening and clarifying that he, the Son of Man and Son of David was the Son of God and was the fulfilment of hundreds of Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah.
In Daniel a prophecy had been given telling that 483 years to the day, from the decree of Cyrus, Messiah would be announced immediately before being cut off from the people. Jesus has already explained the purpose of entering Jerusalem was in order to be crucified. In conjunction with this, Zechariah predicted the arrival of Messiah into Jerusalem was to be on the back of the foal of a donkey. Not on a large white war horse as may have been the custom of conquering hero’s but in humility as the Servant of the Lord. Christ had a singular purpose to accomplish the desire of God the Father. He was resolute.
Luke 9:51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.
The praise of the People may be attributed to the acclaim he had previously avoided. We know from the other 3 gospel accounts that many in the crowd that day had sought him out because of what had recently happened with Lazarus in Bethany. So while the shouts of the people may have partly euphoric, they also betrayed a fickle aspect of human character. We note in verse 8, “most of the crowd”, (in the ESV) so perhaps not all were pleased to herald the arrival of Christ in this manner. How many of this same crowd were amongst those a few days later when their voices cried in unison, “Crucify Him”? Perhaps the reasons for their change of heart we due in part to a lack or refusal to understand the purpose and place of God’s Kingdom on earth. It was not a political organisation. It was not an empire of merchandise and trade. It was not the establishment of a new republic that would overthrow the current Roman government. All of these things fly in the face of what we often seek to establish for ourselves in the name of Christ and Christianity.
Whilst there may be no sound argument against the idea that serving Christ produces fulfilment, satisfaction and even occasionally enjoyment, these are not the primary objectives of a servant of God. One of the foundational problems with a philosophy or theology that promotes prosperity and success as the purpose of both the individual Christian and the Church as both a local body and institution is that it contradicts and countermands the teaching and example of Christ. By doing so, you exchange the empty materialistic pursuits of secularism or the bondage of a regimented idolatrous religious system with an equally religious and equally idolatrous system that has self prestige as the ultimate goal. There is no occasion for true selfless compassion or equitable justice and there is certainly no promise of spiritual restoration and salvation.
The Perplexity – Matthew 21:10 – 17
It follows that upon the arrival of Christ in Jerusalem that the reception was agitated. The term in verse 10 describes an agitated ground swell of emotion, curiosity, and even irritation. The term is also used to describe the environmental effects of an earthquake. This is not a subtle reaction. When God intrudes upon our life we often employ the euphemism of being “shaken” by the events. Events transpire that spoil our plans or refuse to fit into our sphere of control and safety because when God rocks our world he more often than not does so in an unexpected manner.
Heralded as the miracle working Messiah, Jesus is lauded into Jerusalem by the crowds – clearly not expecting him to act the way he did when he arrived. He did not congratulate their enterprise and creativity in building a successful self funding temple ministry program. Instead he busted up the party.
The reaction of the leaders is worthy of note. It says they were “indignant”. That is a polite way of saying they were “ticked off”. When people don’t behave in a manner that we consider acceptable we get annoyed and self-righteous. Exactly the same thing happened with the disciples only a few hours earlier (Matt 20:24). It is very easy to fall into the trap of expecting God to act within the bounds of our control and then get upset when he doesn’t. Whether it is expressed through the way others behave toward or around us or some other circumstance we experience, our anger and indignation is often misdirected against other people and against events when we should be examining ourselves with the same level of criticism as in reality we are rejecting God’s work in our lives to his greater purpose. All of the frustrations and shortness of temper we feel is due to either unreasonable or selfish expectations of others and of God himself. God’s wisdom completely contradicts ours and we need a constant reprimand (or in the terms of scripture; reproved, rebuked and exhorted with long suffering and doctrine) in order to renew our mind so that we willingly surrender to His transformation in our heart and spirit.
