The King’s Grand Reveal – Matthew 21:1-11

Good morning church! A warm welcome to all who have joined us here at the hall and our dear friends who have joined us online. We’re glad that you’re with us & pray that this time would help you know and love Jesus better.

As a church we usually prefer to study books of the Bible – chapter by chapter, verse by verse like we’re covering with our current series from the book of Job. But since it’s Passion Week, we’ll take a short break and pick it back from where we left off the week after Resurrection Sunday.

As most of us know, today churches all over the world would be celebrating Palm Sunday. In some churches, they’d even be distributing palm branches during the service. All over the world, churches are trying to reflect back on key events that took place in the passage that we just read this morning.

And so we’ll also be spending some time trying to understand the significance of those events but also trying to figure what significance does that have for our lives today? I think all of us would agree that we would want something more than just a palm branch in our hands as a take away this morning.  We would want something that would help us deepen our relationship with Jesus. That’s what we’ll try to do & for that we need God’s help to open this passage for us.                                                                 

(Pray)                                      

Sometime back I watched a reality TV series titled Undercover boss. The premise of this series is that business owners / CEOs choose to go undercover in their own companies, taking on low level roles to get a sense of the ground level reality within their company.

And at the end of each episode, there’s a pivotal moment when the business owner / CEO makes his / her grand reveal. And then to the shock and surprise of the ground level employees, they come to realize that the person that they’ve been interacting with the whole time was the main boss! But not just shock, sometimes embarrassment because of the things that they may have done or said in the presence of the main boss. The main boss’s grand reveal has some serious implications on them!

Similarly, as we arrive at this particular point in Matthew, Jesus is making His grand reveal! Until this point, Jesus has been relatively subdued & secretive. Of course he’s performed miracles and healings, cast out demons and preached to many people, but the grand reveal telling everyone that He is the Messiah King that they’ve been waiting for – that has been kept under wraps…right until now.

And so the moment has arrived when Jesus makes His grand reveal – telling people who He is…what kind of King He is…how is He as a King going to treat His subjects…and what kind of reception should be given to Him. All these things are being revealed right now.

Let’s break this down verse by verse.

[1]  Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives,

Now this may seem like a simple statement of facts but Matthew has specifically mentioned these locations to show how we have arrived at the climax of the redemptive story. You may ask how?

Firstly, Jerusalem was the centrepoint & hub of Jewish worship and religious life. After all, the Temple was there! If spirituality could be tagged to a location, then that location would be Jerusalem.

Not just that, anyone who was a spiritual somebody or a spiritual A-lister would be found in Jerusalem.

Interestingly, Jesus didn’t spend a lot of his time out there during His earthly ministry.

Most of his ministry by choice happened outside of Jerusalem. All in all he may have visited Jerusalem three or four times but in secret. So this is going to be Jesus’ first public appearance in the spiritual centrepoint & hub of Jerusalem.

Secondly, leading up to this passage, whenever Jesus referred to Jerusalem, He spoke about it as the place where He’ll face suffering and death (Matt 20:18-19). In Jesus’ mind, this is the place marked with suffering & death.

Thirdly, this passage mentions the Mount of Olives: Again, not a simple, trivial fact. In the book of Zechariah, it was prophesied that this was the chosen place where God would fight for His people against their enemies.

Zechariah 14:3-4 ESV

[3] Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. [4] On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward.

So Matthew is using all these ways to tell us that the climax is here! Whatever is going to happen after this is going to be a defining point in history!

But then in a sudden change of events, Jesus gives his disciples an unusual, strange instruction in V2-3:

[2] saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. [3] If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.”

This instruction was unusual and throws up alot of questions. Firstly, why did Jesus want a donkey in the first place?

Donkeys were beasts of burden – they were used to carry heavy loads from one place to another. They were not the ideal choice animal for a King’s grand reveal! It’s like announcing “Presenting to you the richest man on earth” and we’re expecting him to come in a Rolls Royce but he turns up in a cycle. In the eyes of the world, it’s not the best way to make a good first impression.

Secondly, how did Jesus know that the disciples would find an available donkey and colt in the village ahead?

And how was it that the disciples were told to get hold of a colt and donkey which they neither owned nor purchased? Did Jesus make some prior arrangements with the owner of the donkey and colt?

To my mind, this wasn’t a simple instruction for the disciples to follow because they had to fully trust Jesus’ plan and also be willing to answer the embarrassing question of why were they taking a donkey and colt which didn’t belong to them. So they really had to take Jesus at his word on this.

Let’s move on ahead with V4-5 because it does give us an insight into why Jesus wanted the colt & donkey:

[4] This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, [5]  “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”

Matthew says that this is a fulfillment of an OT prophecy from Zechariah:

Zechariah 9:9

[9]  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.

So Jesus wasn’t being random or eccentric. Everything that Jesus did, had a divine purpose behind it. And it’s clear that by doing this Jesus was identifying Himself as the Promised Messiah of the OT. By doing this, Jesus is saying “I am the One that you’ve been praying and waiting for all these years!”

The verse says “Your king is coming to you”. He is the One who takes the initiative to come toward you. He takes the first step in coming toward us. He’s not waiting for us to block an appointment with Him. He’s not waiting for us to reach a certain spiritual level before thinking of coming to us. Your king is coming to you.

But the next question is, “Okay,I get it that Jesus is coming toward me, but how is He approaching me? What does He have in mind as He comes to me? Is He coming to take advantage? Is He coming to punish?

V5…humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

Donkeys were not a symbol of royalty, strength and power like horses and chariots. They were a symbol of humility and servitude. Hard labor, doing the lowly insignificant tasks that no one else wants to do – that’s why they are beasts of burden.

By deciding to sit on a donkey instead of a horse or a chariot, Jesus was identifying Himself as the humble king who lays Himself down to serve His people. As King, He’s willing to go down the hard, uncomfortable road in order to serve His subjects. He’s willing to get His hands dirty in order to humbly serve His people.

This should tell us something – Jesus wasn’t coming to dominate over us or to assert His authority over us or oppress us. That was the baggage that the Israelites carried. They were used to seeing kings come on their mighty horses and chariots to take advantage of them (like the Israelite kings) or destroy them (like enemy kings).

And this was a radically different posture of a king who was entering their territory with the only intention to look out for them and bless them.

Let’s take a moment to pause and ask ourselves – what is the thought that fills our hearts when we think about Jesus the King approaching us? Is it one of anxiety and uncertainty thinking He’s going to take advantage of you? Or Is it one of punishment where you think Jesus’ going to get you for all the bad things you’ve done?

Let this thought sink in – that here’s our humble King who is coming with the attitude to serve us & look out for us.

[6] The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. [7] They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. [8] Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

V8. Very interesting response from the crowd which I think we need to spend a little time on. First thing that stands out is that “most of the crowd” responded by spreading their cloaks and branches on the road. It was not a tiny minority, but a majority of the crowd had a similar positive response toward Jesus.

Secondly, it says that they spread their cloaks & cut branches on the road. Why did they do that? It was a gesture to say that they were honoring Jesus as their king. They were voluntarily submitting to His authority.

There was a similar precedent in the OT where once Jehu was anointed as king of Israel, people in haste took off their outer garments and put on the bare steps, blowing the trumpet saying “Jehu is king”. (2 King 9:13) So it was a way of them acknowledging Jesus’ kingship and their voluntary submission to Him.

Thirdly, it seems like they agreed to the fact that Jesus’ entry was a fulfillment of the prophecy in Zechariah. Had they not, their response would have been quite different – it would have resulted in chaos and protest.

But it’s not just through their actions, look at what they were saying.

[9] And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” [10] And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” [11] And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

Try and imagine this scene. There’s a massive crowd all around Jesus and they are shouting and “crying out” – “Hosanna to Son of David”. Hosanna means “Oh, save”. In other words, it’s a way of saying “I beg you, please save me!”

Not only are they recognizing Jesus as the person to save them – but they also recognize him as “the Son of David”. They are saying that He was the promised Messiah King who was in the lineage of David.  They recognize royalty.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord: They knew that Jesus was sent by God & had God’s stamp of approval on Him. And they were joyfully welcoming Him into their midst.

Hosanna in the highest: “I beg you to save, please extend God’s heavenly kingdom toward me”.

All this is happening, and V11 tells us the whole city was stirred up at Jesus’ entry where people asked “who is this?”. It’s so interesting that Jesus and his disciples don’t answer.

Instead it’s the crowd that came to Jesus’ defense saying that this was prophet Jesus of Nazareth of Galilee. By calling him as a prophet, they saw him as one appointed by God to speak the Word as it is. To heed to Jesus’ words is to obey God, to deny Jesus’ words is to reject God.

It looks like the entire crowd was drawn and attracted to Jesus completely. At this point – at V11 – if you and I were to rate the crowd’s spirituality, we’d probably conclude that these were the perfect examples of Christian devotion.

We’d probably do at least 5 bible studies on how the crowd responded to Jesus and how we should follow in their footsteps. Yet they were the same ones who shouted and cried with the same intensity saying “Crucify him” a few days later.

How is that even possible? Why would the same crowd turn against Jesus just a few days later? It makes no sense, why would they do that?

Though they seemed to have the right reception for a king and though they seemed to have the right expressions for a king, yet the truth was that they didn’t have the right heart to submit to a king.

They weren’t ready to fully surrender their lives to Jesus. They weren’t ready to have their lives turned upside down. They weren’t ready to

experience full scale life change.

Because for that they needed to admit to their sinfulness & moreover they needed to give up on their lifestyle of sin. That was too much to demand is what they felt.

They probably said Hosanna – “I beg you, please save me from the Roman rule”, but they weren’t ready to cry out desperately and say “I beg you, please save me from my sins”.

They were okay with convenience worship which says “I will worship God as long as it doesn’t demand me to make any change to my lifestyle”.

Before we get too critical of the crowd, let’s look inward and ask ourselves if we show the same tendencies as well. The reality is that we all also have the same tendencies too.

Some years back, I remember right after a youth worship set which I thought really came out well, the preacher challenged us to reflect if we understood the words that we just sang.

One of the songs we sang was “This is my desire to honor you. Lord, with all my heart I worship you. All that I have within me, I give you praise”…and he just asked us one question which hit right into my heart – is that really true? Would that be true of you on a Monday or a Tuesday when your church isn’t looking?

The problem is not with the song, but with us who are singing the song. We don’t mind singing the song, as long as we aren’t compelled to do it. What should we do? Do better, try better tomorrow?

To be honest, I don’t think any of us have the strength and power in us to willingly to yield to Jesus’ kingship. So what hope is there for us?

‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

Jesus left His heavenly abode to come to us. He took on the form of humanity and then went up on the cross to die for you and for me. He was buried and rose again on the Third Day so that you and I can joyfully and willingly submit to His Kingship. Not just that, He has also placed His Spirit within us to help us surrender ourselves to His Kingship.

What a wonderful King we serve?