Luke 19:28-40

After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. ²⁹ As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ³⁰ “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. ³¹ If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it.’” ³² Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. ³³ As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” ³⁴ They replied, “The Lord needs it.” ³⁵ They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. ³⁶ As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. ³⁷ When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: ³⁸ “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” ³⁹ Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” ⁴⁰ “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

Dear Christian friends with the Presidential elections coming up this year, there is a lot on TV about the politically rallies. The candidate will show up and their supporters join together in a crowd to give their endorsement of this person. Over all it is very positive event, but every now and then, at these rallies some people who do not support that candidate will show up. Those people then try to quiet crowd around them because they do not feel that the candidate is worthy of being elected. Therefore there are two crowds standing before the candidate…one for, one against…in spite of the fact that there is a crowd saying that they don’t like the candidate, the candidate keeps going.

We notice something very similar to a political rally in our text for today. In the days leading up to this event Jesus had done many great miracles including giving sight to the blind and even raising Lazarus from the dead. He then knew it was time for him to enter Jerusalem, where he would eventually be killed. So he had sent two of his disciples into the city and because he was God he was able to tell them exactly where they could find a donkey and able to tell them what to say when the owner spoke to them about it. The disciples then went and found it exactly how Jesus told them it would be.

Then when they brought the donkey back to Jesus some of the disciples put their cloaks on the donkey and then they placed Jesus on it. The rest of the disciples spread their cloaks out on the road in front of the donkey as Jesus road along. As they came down the mount of Olives and the whole crowd of disciples began singing God’s praises because of how they had seen Jesus give the blind sight, made the deaf hear, healed those who were sick and even brought the dead back to life! “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!!” They sang.

But just like in the politically rallies of today the shouts from the people are not unanimous. There are some who offer descent. The same is true as Jesus was riding into Jerusalem. Not everyone there was singing his praises. Some of the Pharisees very much wanted the people to be quite. They wanted this so badly that they actually went up to Jesus and told him to tell his disciples to be quiet.

How strange would that be if one of those people who went to a rally to speak against the candidate actually went up to the President Bush or Senator Kerry and told them that they should tell their supporters to be quiet? Could you imagine that happening? Well that is exactly what some of the Pharisees did to Jesus. They said to him, “teacher, rebuke your students.”

The Pharisees basically said to Jesus, “we don’t believe in you and neither should they, so make them stop.” The Pharisees didn’t believe Jesus was worthy of praise. They had underestimated Jesus value. They looked at him as being just another person, like themselves. And the Pharisees had that basic human understanding that they were better than all the people around them and therefore all praise should come to them. In acting this way they had far overestimated their value.

We don’t know for sure exactly what steps they followed to get to this point, but what we do know is that Pharisees had lessoned God’s law so that they were able to keep it in their own eyes. Then they felt that they should be praised by all others for the way that they had kept the law. So when they looked at Jesus, they did not think that he was anyone worthy of praise and they did not see any need for a Savior. They thought the praise should come to them.

Do we ever feel that need to receive all the praise? When you see someone else being praised do you feel that need to prove you are the one who is better…that you are the one that should be recognized for how great you are?

We don’t like it when people around us receive the praise. When we see someone else get praised for their work on a test or they way they knew the answer to a problem, when we see someone get congratulated at work for their efforts on project we feel that twinge of jealousy in the pit or our stomachs. Even if it is a sibling who has done a nice job in cleaning their room. We feel this because we want the praise for ourselves.

That same trap…the longing for the praise to come to ourselves, which we fall into with the people around us, we also fall into with God. We underestimate the seriousness of our sins, feeling that we haven’t done anything “that bad.” So we feel that Jesus did not have to do as much for us as for another person and in thinking that, we give ourselves at least some of the credit.

Just like how there are times we feel we deserve praise, there are also times we think God doesn’t. We can feel this way because we are having trouble right now, it could be health, trouble in your relationship with loved ones or trouble at your job. Because things aren’t going as well as we would like them to, we feel that God is not worthy of our full praise. He hasn’t done enough to deserve it.

When we are angry because we don’t think God is doing enough in our lives. We can actually turn our frustrations towards other Christians because they recognize that God is working his power in their lives and they praise him for it.

It is so easy for human nature to forget how important God is in our lives. We forget that without him keeping our heart beating, it would stop. We forget that if it were not part of his will that we wake up this morning, we wouldn’t have. Everything in our lives depends on him and therefore he is the one who should truly be praised. But so often we don’t want to admit that because that would mean he would be the one getting praised, instead of us.

It all comes down to who we see is worthy of praise. Us or God. It is like we have two girls. They both would love to sing the National Anthem before Mount Marty’s Varsity girls basketball game. One of the girls is an excellent singer, the other is not, but constantly says she is. Because of her constant boasting this second girl is given the opportunity to sing the Anthem. Then in front of all the people, she opens her mouth and croaks out only a few off key notes before she fully understands that she is not qualified to be here only now…though now it is not just her that knows this…it is everyone in the entire gymnasium. The little girl runs out having never been more embarrassed in her life.

So often in our lives we are like that second little girl. We have a perfect singer in Christ, but we constantly blab on about how great we are. If we continue on God will eventually say, “fine, step up to the mic.” And then we will see things for how they truly are. It the Pharisees held to their opinions about Christ and themselves, think about where they are right now. That is where we deserve to be because of how we have evaluated Christ and ourselves.

Fortunately while Jesus was here he did not accept their or our evaluation of his worth. Jesus knew what he was worth and he also knew that if he turned and left, his enemies would win.

So like a king riding out into battle, he stayed his course moving straight into Jerusalem where he would fight to destroy the enemies and those enemies are sin, death and the devil.

Jesus knew that not everyone in the crowd believed he was their Savior. But that did not stop him from moving forward to make the Sacrifice for sin. Jesus was a willing sacrifice for everyone including us, for all those times we thought we could step up to the mic. Jesus rode on.

At the cross, Jesus finished his ride as our protecting king. He knew what he was worth and he knew that he was our only chance at peace with God, so in spite of and for all those times we wanted the glory for ourselves, he hung on the cross. In his death Christ defeated his enemies and paid for all our sins.

On Palm Sunday as Jesus was riding into Jerusalem…he disciples sang, “peace in heaven.” Because of what Jesus has done that is truly the case. God is no longer angry, thinking of all the times we have wanted to praise to go to ourselves instead of to him. Jesus has already been punished for them. He was raised to life to prove to us that God’s anger is no more.

Because of Jesus, this peace in heaven extends into our own lives. We sing God’s praises because we now know there is nothing to fear, whether from God or man. Our humble King has paid for our sins and is now watching over us. Jesus gives us strength through his Word to live lives of thanksgiving here on earth.

Out of joy for all the Christ has done for us we now join the crowd that praised him as he was riding into Jerusalem so long ago. We do this by joining in acts of service. The disciples in Jesus day joined in singing Christ praises as he road into Jerusalem. Like them we give of our time and abilities, helping do the things that need to be done so that his Word can be spread. Whether that is praising Christ as we go door to door inviting others to church or we help in the maintaining of this building so that the God’s people can gather together.

And just as the man was willing to part with his animal when the Lord had need and so were the disciples willing to give up their cloaks to honor Christ. So we are willing to give of our possession to bring glory to our Lord. Because he is truly worthy of praise.

Dear Christian friends in a political rally not everyone is for the candidate but the candidate still moves forward. As Jesus approached Jerusalem, not everyone praised him but he continued on. Our king has given his life so that we are free…let us join the crowd and sing his praises. Amen