Responses

April 14, 2019                           NOTES NOT EDITED
Palm Sunday:  “Responses”
Luke 19:28-44

SIS – How one responds to Jesus Christ makes all the difference in this world, and for eternity.

One of the worst statements you can hear coming from your doctor is, “You are not RESPONDING to your medication.”  Responding to medication means that healing is taking place. A “non-response,” or a negative reaction means disease is still assaulting our bodies.  Our spirits are created to respond to God. A “non-response,”or a negative reaction to Jesus is a matter of grave eternal consequences.  In our text we will see a representative sampling of different responses to the Lord Jesus Christ, guiding us to respond to Jesus as the Triumphant King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

LET’S READ IT TOGETHER:  Luke 19:28-44.  We will look closely at the donkey’s response, the donkey owner’s response, the crowd’s response, the self-righteous response, and finally, what is “our response?”

1.  The Donkey’s Response (v30)

Go into the village ahead of you. As you enter it, you will find a young donkey tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here.

Next to Jesus, of course, one of the main characters in the story of the Triumphal Entry (Palm Sunday) is Christopher, the Donkey. Most people completely miss this ""Supporting Actor" in one of the grandest dramas in the New Testament. Christopher responds to Jesus by surrendering his back to the Lord. This is the essence of Christian devotion: bearing Christ into the crowd! How more of us need to be like Christopher. This donkey was the “Christ Bearer,” hence the name, Christopher.  Christopher comes from the Late Greek name Χριστοφορος (Christophoros) meaning "bearing Christ", derived from Χριστος (Christos) combined with φερω (phero) "to bear, to carry".

Every child of God should be a “Christ Bearer.”  We should be carrying the soul-saving, life-changing message of Christ into the marketplace of our world.  Our salvation experience should not end with our “forgiveness from sin,” but it should begin there.  Christians bear a message that literally changes eternity—if we do not shirk the duty of “carrying Christ.” Carrying Christ to the world is a heavy responsibility as we learned last week, but it is not a “burden,” in the sense of being a demeaning, useless task.  Of all the characters in that drama of the first Palm Sunday, the donkey had by far the greatest role in the supporting cast. 

Many misunderstand just how important donkeys were in the first century culture.  The donkey has been used as a working animal for at least 5000 years (Wikipedia).  Possession of a donkey was considered almost the bare minimum for subsistence in life (Job 24:3).  They were much cheaper than horses or oxen, but were steal not easily obtained by the poor who depended upon them for various tasks.  Often, multiple families shared the ownership of a donkey.  This donkey, in this text, has another application to the unfolding story of mankind’s redemption.  

 First, this particular donkey highlights the purity of his first rider.  No man had ever ridden this donkey.  It was “unblemished” by worldly use.  Matthew tells us that the young donkey would be accompanied by its mother (21:7).  This donkey represented purity and unblemished service for a pure and spotless sacrifice.  

 Second, by riding a donkey instead of a horse Jesus prophetically fulfilled the message of Zechariah 9:9, Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout in triumph, Daughter Jerusalem! Look, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey.   

Third, Jesus was identifying with the common man and distancing Himself from any idea that He came to be a military or political leader.   

Fourth, by riding a donkey instead of a horse Jesus pointed to His coming “victory over sin,” which would take place in a week’s time.  When military leaders went out to battle they usually rode great stallions.   When they returned after a victorious campaign, they often rode on donkeys.  So, this donkey, we might call Christopher, had a very significant part to play in the drama of redemption as he responded by “carrying Christ to the crowd.”

2.  The Donkey Owner’s Response (32-36)

³² So those who were sent left and found it just as He had told them.  ³³ As they were untying the young donkey, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the donkey?” ³⁴ “The Lord needs it,” they said. ³⁵ Then  they brought it to Jesus, and after throwing their robes on the donkey, they helped Jesus get on it.

There are some shocking, almost scandalous words in these verses.  “The Lord needs it.”  How can Jesus, the Son of God, need anything—much less a lowly donkey!  This is the same Jesus that provided a meal for 15 to 20,000 people with just five small cakes and two little dried fish!  This is the same Jesus who gave sight to the blind, strength to lame limbs, and cast out demons from hell!  This is the same Jesus of which the Bible says (Col. 1:16),

For everything was created by Him, in heaven and on earth,

the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.

So, how could Jesus “need” anything, much less a lowly donkey?  This goes back to a question man has debated since creation—why did God create man?  Was He lonely?  No, He is a community unto Himself as the Holy Trinity?  Does God lack something we possess?  No, God is the very source of all we possess.  Need here must be understood in regard to God’s mission, not God’s person.  God DOES indeed need man to fulfill His mission of redemption.  Of course, He could have chosen a different means through which to extend His message of love and grace to the world, but He chose man—you and I.  He needs us because we are the linchpin of His divine program.  

The question becomes—“will we give up that which is most precious to us in this world so that others may gain what is most precious in eternity—that is, eternal salvation? 

As I said above, donkeys were prized possessions.  They were almost a basic necessity in life.  They were expensive, which is why this donkey may have had several families that owned it in common.  Providing this donkey might be equivalent to you and I giving our car to missions, or emptying our retirement accounts—or, it might mean even giving our lives to extend the Kingdom of God on earth as happens so often in other parts of the world.

In a word, these donkey owners responded with “sacrifice!” 

I’ve said before, we have done a greater miracle than Jesus Christ—Jesus died and rose again to make salvation “free,” but we, in our apathy live in such a way as to make salvation look, “cheap.”  The word, “free,” means someone else paid the price.  The word, “cheap,” means we see no real value in what Jesus did.  Hence, we have a Christianity in America today that knows little or nothing of real sacrifice.

May 26, 2002, a very significant man died.  I doubt any of you heard of his passing. His name was Joseph Bau.  Because of his sacrifice, over 400 fellow Jews escaped death in the Nazi prison camp, Plaschow. Joseph Bau was born on June 18, 1920, in Krakow, Poland. He was one of three boys in a prosperous middle-class family that lived in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods. Joseph had always been good at art, and at the age of 18, he enrolled in the University of Plastic Arts at Krakow.  But the war interrupted his studies. His family was forced to move to the Jewish Ghetto, and then later to the Plaschow concentration camp. Because of Joseph’s partial education in Art before the war, and because of his talent for Gothic lettering, the Nazis employed him in producing maps and signs for the camp. 

Joseph’s job also enabled him to save more than 400 Jews by forging false documents and identity papers that secured their release from the camp. When asked after the war, why he did not forge documents for himself, he replied, “Then who would have done it for the other Jews?”  Spending his young life in a monstrous place like a Nazi Prison Camp so others could go free was Joseph Bau’s “donkey.”  He did what he did because it needed to be done.  Oh, that we as followers of Christ would have such a spirit of willing sacrifice simply because,

“The Lord has need of it!”  The donkey owners responded to the Lord with a huge sacrifice.

3.  The Fickle Crowd’s Response (vv. 36-38; 23:20)

As He was going along, they were spreading their robes on the road.  ³⁷ Now He came near the path down the Mount of Olives, and the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles they had seen: ³⁸ The King who comes in the name of the Lord is the blessed One. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven!

I think the KJV in Matthew captures the atmosphere of that event much more eloquently than most modern translations:

the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; 38 Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.

Matthew also tells us that in addition to throwing their coats along the road for the Lord to ride upon, they also cut down palm branches from the nearby trees and placed them in the way.  Palm branches were a sign of celebration and victory.  Speaking of the martyrs who stood bravely for the gospel during the soon coming tribulation the Bible says (Rev. 7:9),

⁹ After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number,  standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were robed in white with palm branches in their hands.

The crowd of common men, women and children were in a near frenzy at the sight of Jesus riding into the Holy City of Jerusalem.  While reading over the description of the Triumphal Entry (Palm Sunday) of Jesus into Jerusalem, the response of the crowd captures my attention. The Life Application Bible states in the notes on this passage: "The people went wild!" Not exactly King James language but pretty accurate. We see that kind of excitement all the time at concerts, sports competitions, or political rallies. 

We don't see it as much in church. Somehow many (not all of course) churches have made human emotions, out-of-bounds, in regard to worship. Certainly, we should not be "emotional" for emotions sake, but how could someone in the Presence of God Almighty, not simply "go wild" with excitement? I think we need a bit more "energy" in most worship services than we currently experience. Maybe that will spring a new T.V. series: "Christians Gone Wild!"

I think that simply reading about this exciting day, modern believers have lost any connection with the almost riotous nature of this event.  This was a loud, raucous crowd that could not contain their excitement in the Presence of the King of Kings.  These people were full of emotion, full of energy, and full of hopeful expectation.  Their excitement continued growing like blowing air into a balloon.  At some point it just had to “pop!”

I can’t help but notice the contrast with most religious meetings I’ve been in throughout my life—most have been the polar opposite of this crowd’s response. I feel ashamed of myself that I have so often stood in the very Presence of God in worship without any real stirring of my emotions whatsoever.  How this must grieve Our Lord!  Now, I’m not suggesting we get “emotional,” for “emotion’s sake,” as I have said.  There is a cautionary note in regard to this crowd’s excitement that must be noted.  In just a few short days this same crowd with again be at a frenzied pitch, but with a much different response to Jesus.

^{Lk:23   20} Pilate, wanting to release Jesus,  addressed them again, ²¹ but they kept shouting, “Crucify! Crucify Him!”

Emotions can be a “fickle” thing.  We must guard against any sort of emotionalism that originates in the flesh and does not arise out of our spirit.  Yet, we cannot dismiss the fact that this crowd’s response to Jesus was one of almost “unrestrained enthusiasm.”  I believe we need a lot more of that in our worship services. 

The donkey’s response was of willing surrender to carry the Lord upon his back into the crowd.  The donkey owners responded to the Lord with a willingness to sacrifice anything and everything for the sake of fulfilling the Lord’s mission.  The crowd responded with an unbridled, enthusiastic worship of the King of Kings.  How did the self-righteous, religious group respond?

4.  The Self-Righteous Response (39-44)

³⁹ Some of the Pharisees from the crowd told Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” ⁴⁰ He answered, “I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out!” ⁴¹ As He approached and saw the city, He wept  over it, ⁴² saying, “If you knew  this day what would bring peace—but now it is hidden  from your eyes. ⁴³ For the days will come on you when your enemies will build an embankment against you, surround you, and hem you in on every side.  ⁴⁴ They will crush you and your children within you to the ground,  and they will not leave one stone on another  in you, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

I’ve taken the response of the Pharisees and married it with the response of the Holy City of Jerusalem as a whole because both the Pharisees and the Holy City represent the decay that inevitably comes when we respond to Jesus Christ with religion.  Part of the problem arises because of a misuse of the word, “religion.”  James tells us:

^1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

The Greek word translated, “religion,” occurs frequently in Greek writing outside the N.T.  Surprisingly, in the N.T., it only occurs 4 times, two times in James, chapter 1.  A reputable Greek lexicon defines this word as, “appropriate beliefs and devout practice of obligations relating to supernatural persons and powers.”  James uses the word in this context, as an appropriate response to the sovereignty and majesty of God.  This is why James uses the two modifiers, “pure and undefiled,” to describe godly religious practice.  True religion, that is Christian practice derives from a deep, abiding devotion to God through Jesus Christ—that is, a relationship.  True religion is not an “end,” or even a “means to an end,” but a result of a relationship with Almighty God.  It is always growing, always expanding.  This is what you hear people say, “Christianity is a relationship, not a religion.”  Religious practice is just the natural outgrowth of a inner relationship.

The Pharisees in particular, and Israel (represented by the Holy City, Jerusalem) in general represent “religion” as it is commonly practiced by men.  It is an “end” unto itself, or a “means” by which people seek to justify themselves.  Instead of a religious practice that develops as a natural outgrowth of a devotion to God, it is a religious practice that seeks to gain favor with God.  This type of “religious response” to God is actually self-defeating and results in a person drifting further away from God than being drawn to God.  This kind of “religious” response actually brings God to tears.  Jesus cried because he saw how far self-righteous religion had taken Israel away from God. 

In fact, Jesus compares the unemotional response of the religious Pharisees with, “rocks that would cry out in praise to God.”  This is a huge put down by Jesus in regard to the “religion” of the Pharisees and the Jews in general.  A bag of “rocks” offers more praise to God than the religion of the Pharisees!  Don’t be a “bag-of-rocks!”

Now, the really important question in regard to the “Responses” to Jesus Christ at His Triumphal Reunion is not what is the donkey’s response, or the donkey owner’s response, or the crowd’s response, or the self-righteous response, but the really important question is: 

5.  What is YOUR Response?

This text begs for self-examination.  Are we willing to “give our lives to bear Christ into the crowd?”  Do we demonstrate our devotion to God by making everything we own, and everything we are, available to Him for use in His Kingdom?  Do we get emotional when we stand in the Presence of Our Lord in worship?  Or, do respond to God with self-righteous, ritualistic religion?  This passage begs us to examine how we are responding to Jesus Christ, the Lord.  In fact, all of eternity for you rests on how you respond to the Triumphant King.

Notice how verse 28 introduces the Triumphal Entry:  “²⁸ When  He had said these things, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.”

Said, “what things?”  Jesus had just told a parable about a wicked servant who refused to honor a King that had gone away and left His affairs in the hands of His servants.  He called 10 slaves and gave them each 10 minas (equivalent to 100 days wages).  He commanded the servants to engage in the work of expanding his kingdom, until he returned.  Each servant invested the king’s money getting varying returns, from 10 times the amount invested, to five times the amount invested.  Each time the returning king said, “Well done, good slave.”  But, one servant simply hid the master’s money until he returned. This slave did “nothing” in response to the master’s command.  He, in fact, openly rejected the master’s instructions, ignoring the master altogether.  To this servant, Jesus had some harsh word, “You evil slave” (v22).  The returning king took the 10 minas from the evil slave and gave it to the most faithful slave.  Then Jesus stated some of the harshest words of judgment mentioned in the Bible.  Jesus said,

²⁷ But bring here these enemies of mine, who did not want me to rule over them, and slaughter  them in my presence.’ ” (v27).

If those words shock you coming out the mouth of the Lord Jesus, then you are hearing them correctly.  Rejecting Jesus Christ, the Departed and Soon Returning King, is a “gross evil” for which the punishment is everlasting torment in hell. 

I know those are hard words, but they are true words.  They are also words that DO NOT NEED TO APPLY to any single man, woman, or child ever born.  If you will “respond to Jesus as YOUR King—the King of Kings and Lord of Lords—then you have absolutely nothing to fear.

Remember, I said that “responding to a drug” brings healing?  Well, responding positively and passionately to the Triumphant King, Jesus Christ, not only brings healing and hope for this life, but it bring salvation unto eternal life.

So, the most important question to be answered today is, “how will you and I respond to the Triumphant King, Jesus Christ?

When Jesus marches into a person’s life, everyone responds in one way or another.  How we respond makes all the difference in our lives, now, and forever.

I can’t verify that this story is true, but it certainly is enlightening.  One day in 1943 thousands of soldiers were preparing to leave for Germany and Italy. The Army, the Navy, and the Marines were preparing to load on the ships. The General decided to have a huge parade through New York City to seek prayer and honor for the men. Many of these brave men would never return home. A little old lady was sweeping off her sidewalk, and she heard the commotion of the crowd. She looked up to hear the cadence of the soldiers. She stood at attention and watched as the men marched by her. She cried and put her shoulders back as she saw the red, white, and blue flag go by. After a few minutes the old lady put her broom stick on her shoulder and started marching along side of the troops. Someone yelled out of the crowd: OLD LADY! OLD LADY GET OUT OF THE WAY! WHAT CAN YOU DO OLD LADY? The old lady yelled back with pride: I CAN SHOW ON WHOSE SIDE I AM! She kept on marching!

How will you respond to Jesus, today?  Will you make it clear “who’s side you are on?” Will you “keep on marching for Jesus every day?”