Sunday 04/02/23
Message: Unscriptural expectations turn Hosannas into Crucify Him
Podcast: Download (Duration: 56:43 — 76.3MB)
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Unscriptural expectations turn Hosannas into Crucify Him
It’s Palm Sunday and as I’ve told you many times in the past I really do not know why we celebrate it.
The actual event was little more than a superficial hero’s welcome by the Jewish community into Jerusalem. It was something the disciples were quite unprepared for in that they would never have expected it!
The weeks leading up to this event had been fraught with threats and danger to Jesus. He had made the very public statement of “I and My Father are ONE” and this did NOT meet with the approval of the Jewish religious elite and was grounds upon which they sought to stone Him to death.
Jesus escaped from their induced mob and made Himself scarce from Jerusalem for a few weeks hanging out on the other side of the Jordan.
Now the Father is THE MASTER in terms of setting up illustrations which only those who have eyes to see and ears to hear will comprehend.
During this time away, Lazarus came down sick, and Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus about it. Now their hometown of Bethany was dangerously close to Jerusalem – less than 2 miles in fact.
The account is laid out for us in John 11,
“(1) Now a man was sick, Lazarus, from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (2) Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, and it was her brother Lazarus who was sick.
(3) So the sisters sent a message to Him: “Lord, the one You love is sick.”
(4) When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness will not lead to death, but to God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.“
It would be a mistake to make too many theological statements or draw too many conclusions from it. A face value take seems best and most safe. Key to this is that no reason is given for the death, but it was going to be used by God to glorify Himself in and through Jesus.
“(5) (Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus.) (6) So when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.
(7) Then after that, He said to the disciples, “Let’s go to Judea again.”
(8) “Rabbi,” the disciples told Him, “just now the Jews tried to stone You, and You’re going there again?”
(9) “Aren’t there 12 hours in a day?” Jesus answered. “If anyone walks during the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world. (10) If anyone walks during the night, he does stumble, because the light is not in him.” (11) He said this, and then He told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I’m on My way to wake him up.”
(12) Then the disciples said to Him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well.” (13) Jesus, however, was speaking about his death, but they thought He was speaking about natural sleep. (14) So Jesus then told them plainly, “Lazarus has died. (15) I’m glad for you that I wasn’t there so that you may believe. But let’s go to him.”
(16) Then Thomas (called “Twin”) said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go so that we may die with Him.”
(17) When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.
(18) Bethany was near Jerusalem (about two miles away). (19) Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother.
(20) As soon as Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet Him. But Mary remained seated in the house. (21) Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. (22) Yet even now I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give You.”
(23) “Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her.
(24) Martha said, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
(25) Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live. (26) Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die–ever. Do you believe this?”
(27) “Yes, Lord,” she told Him, “I believe You are the Messiah, the Son of God, Who was to come into the world.” (28) Having said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” (29) As soon as she heard this, she got up quickly and went to Him.
(30) Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still in the place where Martha had met Him. (31) The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw that Mary got up quickly and went out. So they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to cry there.
(32) When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell at His feet and told Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died!”
(33) When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, He was intensely moved in His spirit and deeply troubled.”
The word here translated as “intensely moved” is a strong display of emotion, which is somewhat difficult to translate. – “Shuddered, moved with the deepest emotions” are words you could use. It is a word which in other places has been used to describe a display of indignation, which would seem out of place here unless it was at the manifestation of satan’s kingdom represented by the death and decay of Jesus’ beloved relative and the grief and loss suffered by those who knew and loved him.
At any rate, this was NO passive response by Jesus. It literally moved Him to tears.
This is the God-man Who in both conditions as God and man loved this man and was personally wounded by His death, and by the effects of his death on those who knew and loved him.
How many times do we read in scripture that just before Jesus taught the people and healed their sick that He was first “moved with compassion” for them?
God is NOT far removed from the feelings of our infirmities but is deeply moved by them and suffers with us, even as He commands us to do with one another.
“Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.”
Please understand the full depth of this. This is not a superficial weeping which was common in that day. People used to hire mourners to attend grief stricken households at times of death and loss. These were essentially people who were paid to cry. Jesus’ heart was and is directly tied to both the Father and humanity. To see the expressions of one of Their hearts is to see that of the other. They love!
What a sobering and humbling reality to know that God is moved by what moves us so long as what moves us is not itself, selfish or superficial.
(34) “Where have you put him?” He asked. “Lord,” they told Him, “come and see.”
(35) Jesus wept.
(36) So the Jews said, “See how He loved him!” (37) But some of them said, “Couldn’t He Who opened the blind man’s eyes also have kept this man from dying?”
(38) Then Jesus, intensely moved in Himself again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. (39) “Remove the stone,” Jesus said.
Martha, the dead man’s sister, told Him, “Lord, he already stinks. It’s been four days.”
(40) Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” (41) So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You heard Me. (42) I know that You always hear Me, but because of the crowd standing here I said this, so they may believe You sent Me.”
…and we will see that it did indeed have that effect since it was at least in part due to this that the “triumphant entry” even happened.
“(43) After He said this, He shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
(44) The deadman came out bound hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him and let him go.” (45) Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what He did believed in Him. (46) But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
(47) So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do since this man does many signs? (48) If we let Him continue in this way, everybody will believe in Him! Then the Romans will come and remove both our place and our nation.”
(49) One of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! (50) You’re not considering that it is to your advantage that one man should die for the people rather than the whole nation perish.”
(51) He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, (52) and not for the nation only, but also to unite the scattered children of God. (53) So from that day on they plotted to kill Him.
(54) Therefore Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews but departed from there to the countryside near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim. And He stayed there with the disciples.
(55) The Jewish Passover was near, and many went up to Jerusalem from the country to purify themselves before the Passover. (56) They were looking for Jesus and asking one another as they stood in the temple complex:
“What do you think? He won’t come to the festival, will He?” (57) The chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he should report it so they could arrest Him.” ~ John 11:1-57
Amazing right?
After Jesus had prayed, He yelled loudly “Lazarus, come out!” and Lazarus came out bound hand and foot with death cloths, but Jesus commanded them, “Loose him, and let him go.”
You could NOT get a clearer pre-illustration of the triumphant entry, the week of the Passion, the death…burial and resurrection of Jesus and His church than this historic happening in the life of Jesus.
It was shortly following this event that Jesus prepared to enter Jerusalem again the week of His crucifixion. I use the word “week” loosely since it was likely more than a week and quite possible Jesus was not crucified on a Friday but on a Thursday, but I will not get into that today.
Remember I told you that the resurrection of Lazarus was one of the major reasons why the Triumphant entry into Jerusalem happened in the first place? Let’s look at what John tells us regarding this in John 12:9-11 & 17-18…
“9 Now a large crowd of Judeans learned that Jesus was there, and so they came not only because of him but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests planned to kill Lazarus too, 11 for on account of him many of the Jewish people from Jerusalem were going away and believing in Jesus.”
“(17) Meanwhile the crowd, which had been with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify. (18) This is also why the crowd met Him, because they heard He had done this sign.”
Now turn with me to Mark 11 and we will begin reading in verse 1.
“(1) Now when they drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples; (2) and He said to them, “Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it. (3) And if anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it,’ and immediately he will send it here.”
(4) So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it. (5) But some of those who stood there said to them,
“What are you doing, loosing the colt?”
(6) And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. So they let them go. (7) Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it.
(8) And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
(9) Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:
“Hosanna! ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’ (10) Blessed is the kingdom of our father David That comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
(11) And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.”
This was in fulfillment of the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9,
“Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout in triumph, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Matthew and Luke add to this account by recording that,
“When He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken, saying, “Who is this?” (11) And the crowds kept saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee!” ~ Matt. 21:10-11
and
“Some of the Pharisees from the crowd told Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out!” ~ Luke 19:39,40
Now earlier this past year we learned that this whole event had been predicted by Daniel in his well known prophetic revelation often referred to as the 70 weeks of Daniel.
We covered much of it in in a four messages entitled – 70 weeks have been determined for your people Pt. 1 & Pt. 2 , Gabriel’s Enigma and the Father’s Love and, The final week of Daniel’s prophecy.
You remember that Gabriel told Daniel, “Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;”
So we had 7 weeks + 62 weeks making 69 weeks. Of course they were “weeks of years” so we have 7 sets of 69 years making 483 years. Week 70… the final week (or 7 years) skips the time of the Gentiles and goes right to the 7 year tribulation.
Now, we discovered that there were a total of four similar commands to “restore and rebuild” but the first three were to “restore and rebuild” the temple the last to “restore and rebuild” Jerusalem which is the one Gabriel had indicated. This happened on March 14th of 445B.C. by the command of Artaxerxes I and was given to Nehemiah as is recorded in Nehemiah 2:1-8.
So, we had to begin our counting with 445B.C.. Now I will not go all the way back through all of those numbers and differing calendars but I will link those messages on the website of today’s message so you can refresh your memory should you desire.
Suffice it to say that the result was unanticipated. The 69th week landed on April 6, 32AD, on the very day of Jesus’ Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem. The day in which Jesus was finally, if not temporarily and superficially proclaimed as Messiah and King before He was crucified.
This is in keeping with Gabriel’s word to Daniel.
“(25) So know and understand: From the issuing of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until an anointed one, a prince arrives, there will be a period of seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will again be built, with plaza and moat, but in distressful times.
(26) Now after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one will be cut off and have nothing.” ~ Daniel 9:25-26
The first 7 weeks was until Jerusalem was “restored and rebuilt” then began a countdown of 62 weeks or 434 years until Messiah would be declared Prince or ruler or king. Then Gabriel said, AFTER the 62 weeks an anointed one will be cut off and have nothing. This sounds like the way Isaiah worded it, “he was cut off from the land of the living”.
The old testament was replete with Messianic predictions which the Jews largely misinterpreted. They only partially read the words of Isaiah and Daniel, focusing in on those portions where the Messiah was supposed to usher in an everlasting Kingdom.
They believed that would happen at the close of these 69 weeks, which very likely played at least a small, if not a central role in the celebration of the Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem. However, they misunderstood the words of the prophets for they did not have eyes to see nor ears to hear what God was really saying to them.
We look at them and wonder how they could have missed what was right before their eyes, but truth be told we might as well ask what is it that causes any and all of us to be blind to the meaning of God’s words?
In a word, I believe it is selfishness. Something we have been discussing recently we have to suffer the death of!
We have our own desires and objectives and so when the only One Whose words could make a real and lasting difference speaks, we interpret His words through a “filter” which allows us to see and hear what we want.
They knew the prophet Daniel had prophesied about the Messiah, but they didn’t have eyes to see nor ears to hear EVERYTHING Daniel said about Him – only those portions which catered to their desires.
Daniel did in fact speak of Messiah setting up an everlasting kingdom, however, the everlasting kingdom spoken of in Daniel could NOT be a natural kingdom for in a natural kingdom the King spoken of would have had to physically live forever.
“Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.”~ Dan 7:14
The One Who was to rule this kingdom was Messiah, and yet, Daniel 9 reveals that will be cut off – meaning killed at the end of the 69th week.
Isaiah also predicted that Messiah would be,
“oppressed and afflicted, Yet He would not open His mouth;”
He was to be led “as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He would not open His mouth.”
He was to be taken from prison and from judgment, and be cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of Israel He was to be stricken.
They also knew that He was to make His grave with the wicked— But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth.” ~ Isa. 53:7-9
If Israel had had eyes to see and ears to hear – they would have known that the Messiah had to die and was not here to establish a natural kingdom first, but a theocracy without national boundaries.
In other words, He was coming to rule and reign in the hearts of all who would humble themselves under His reign – Jews & Gentiles alike across the whole globe!
So we can see that nearly the entire nation of Israel missed their day of visitation because of their false expectations regarding the Messiah.
For though they began the week by crying “Come now Lord and save”, but by midweek, these same people were so disillusioned by Him…so disappointed in Him, that they were shouting “Crucify Him”!
They believed Him worthy of death!
Ironically – for all the wrong reasons they were right – He was worthy to die.
Jesus was the only human since Adam who was worthy to die a sacrificial death for all mankind, that they might live through the judgment of death pronounced upon Him.
Wrap-up – how does this apply to me?
Now let’s close this out with my favorite “take” on what we call Palm Sunday. Let’s consider some thoughts which will bring it home for us in our lives.
Let’s not just piously witness the disbelief and disillusionment of His early followers.
Let’s jump right into the fray with them and walk where they walked. Let use our “filtered eyes” to Mis-see and mis-interpret some of the same things they saw and experienced and see where our devotion stacks up by Easter Sunday!
I can see you are smitten with eagerness to go down this ‘via dolorosa’ but we have it on good record that all who come His way will both suffer and stumble.
What did these Israelites see in that week that turned them so cold from their shouts of Hosanna?
What they saw in that week was someone entirely different than they expected and so, someone entirely different than they wanted!
In that week…
- Jesus entered the temple and drove out the money changers (for a second time).
- He taught some incredibly unpopular parables.
- His authority was challenged.
- He encouraged them to pay taxes to Caesar which as you can imagine was a huge hit!
- He confirmed His belief in the resurrection of the dead which made Him unpopular with the Sadducees and those who followed them.
- He warned people about the scribes – which undoubtedly upset the scribes.
- He put the Pharisees in their place a few times – making Him even more unpopular with them than He already was. He even pronounced 7 woes upon them.
- He foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple (also not popular)
- He spoke about the coming of the Son of Man (Which is Who He was – but this would have confused them – because they did not see a second coming only one)
- Then He again foretold His death and that it would be by crucifixion which according to the law would make Him a curse.
All of this conspired together to reveal a different Jesus than the one they thought they had honored and shouted Hosanna to- at the beginning of the week.
The conflict between the Jesus they expected and the Jesus they encountered was profound…that disillusionment ran so deep within them that by week’s end they wanted Him dead!.
So, as you know I have this way about me where I find myself having to ask…
How is Jesus different in reality, than my expectations of Him? and I invite you to ask yourself the same thing.
It is an important question which is in step with where the Lord has so far been leading us this year in our Pursuit of knowing Jesus relationally.
Whatever your answer winds up being to this question – it is also what is keeping you from truly and completely knowing, following and conforming to Him.
Isaiah told us that all who come His way will stumble, by saying,
“He will be as a sanctuary, But a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense To both the houses of Israel, As a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” ~ Isaiah 8:14
We are not alone however, for Jesus was even different from what the disciples had expected as well and they fell into deceptions and temptations because of it.
Peter was perhaps the most profound example of this.
Peter had just recently received revelation from the Father that Jesus was the Christ the son of the Living God.
Later Jesus told them He was going to die, for which Peter rebuked Him.
Then Jesus upped the ante.
He began to set before them, in clear sight things which would challenge their loyalty to Him.
He told them they would have to eat His flesh and drink His blood if they were to have any part with Him.
They were offended as were a great majority of those who had been following Jesus who also left Him that day, never to follow Him again.
Now here is another unexpected thing from Jesus. Rather than turning to His disciples and saying, “now wait a minute boys, before you run away too, let Me give you some good reasons to stick around.” No, He actually turns to His disciples and asks them point blank “Do you want to go too?”
Didn’t see that coming!
You know for the life of me I cannot see a modern Pastor asking that question – or at least not many of them. Far from encouraging them to follow He was challenging them!
Then in the upper room, Jesus girds Himself with a towel and takes a basin filled with water, lowers Himself to His knees before His disciples feet and begins to wash them.
You know the story – Peter protests and Jesus says it again – if you do not let Me wash your feet, you can have no part with Me.
Then He tells them all that they will forsake Him, one would deny Him and one would betray Him.
Again Peter boldly and somewhat proudly proclaims that “though all these other guys might forsake You, I would die with You!”
Now Jesus turns and looks into Peter’s eyes with that penetrating gaze of His and confirms that his denial will be so complete that he will claim to have never even met Jesus!
Peter had no bag to put this in! Did Jesus not know him any better than that? Did Jesus really believe so little of him to assume he would or could deny Him?
Of course we know he did, but what caused Peter’s fall after such confidence that he would be willing to die with Him?
Was it simply pride? I don’t think so, though that undoubtedly played a part.
No, I believe it was something far more subtle than that, and therefore something we are all prone to. I believe his denial was birthed from wrong expectations of Jesus due to having eyes that did not see and ears that did not hear who Jesus REALLY was.
Up until this moment, Jesus was almost superhuman.
He was the Teacher no one could best. No one could outsmart Him in a discussion, corner Him with their arguments and they couldn’t even lay their hands on Him to kill Him though they’d tried before – even recently!
But that night…in the garden, Peter encountered a Jesus he did not expect!
A Jesus, Who could be taken away by sword and carried off to judgment.
Man…didn’t see that coming!
You know it’s easy to say, “Lord I’d die with You” when you truly believe in your heart of hearts that He could never die! But what about when they haul Him off and nail Him to a tree? Where’s our faith and undying devotion then?
I mean, what do you do with a Jesus like that?
It’s too easy for you and I to say, well I would die with Him, because you know the end of the story – Peter didn’t and it will be in just the same type of scenario where you will likely fail as well.
The sacred, protected and guarded Jesus of our imaginings will never challenge us – but none of us are safe against being offended and disillusioned with the REAL Jesus.
At points in your journey with Him, He reveals Himself to be not what you expected and that is something all true lovers of God have to encounter and that is the real message today.
Jesus entered Jerusalem a fair-weather hero. A superficially honored king. He exited Jerusalem to die.
He re-entered it to reign.
Will I let Him?
Will we let Him?
Will we love Him and long for Him enough to do as Paul said and pursue the knowing of Him even in the fellowship of His sufferings, even to the point of being conformed to His death so that we might reach true spiritual maturity into His likeness?
I believe we will. But I believe between then and now, will be for us, much like it was for them between the Triumphant Entry to His resurrection.
It is a journey which will demand that our desire of Him be escalated into a passionate requiring of Him.
He is our life!
An foreshadow of next week is found in Colossians 3:1-3
“Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. (2) Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth, (3) for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”~ Col 3:1-3
Key words – pursue and hidden.
The things which will offend you about Christ, are not play and open to the sight of casual passers by, but they are hidden in Christ with God and that is where life for you is found as well!
Blessings!
