|
1. He Came In Fulfillment
Tomorrow is Palm Sunday. On Palm Sunday, Jesus rode on a donkey. On Palm Sunday, Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the back of a lowly beast of burden. He didn’t glide into town on the wings of angels. He didn’t arrive astride the chariots of the gods. He didn’t ride a sleek, snorting steed, dancing and prancing through Jerusalem’s streets. He wasn’t carried regally on a platform borne by servants. No, He rode a donkey into town. And thank God He did! In doing so, He fulfilled the prophecy: “Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” By fulfilling this prophecy, along with all the other prophecies He fulfilled, Jesus proved that He was indeed the long-awaited Messiah, the Hope of generations of Old Testament believers.
The prophet Zechariah held out hope to a bunch of disheartened and demoralized people. The Babylonian Captivity was over, and what was left of the people of Israel was released to go back and rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. Now 14 years later no progress had been made. The people were disappointed and discouraged. They realized that they would probably never again regain the glory that once was theirs. Zechariah was God’s man of the moment to point them to the day when a great King would come to lead Israel. He told his people to look forward to the day Jesus rode the donkey as the day they could expect their King.
Now, that day had come. Jesus chalked up another prophecy fulfilled by riding a donkey into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. For us, it is further evidence of the reliability of God’s Word and God’s faithfulness to His Word. He fulfills every prophecy. He keeps every promise. And He will keep all those promises, whose fulfillment lies yet in the future. So we thank God that He rode that donkey into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. But there’s a whole lot more behind Jesus’ choice of transportation than immediately meets the eye:
2. He Came in Mercy
Thank God Jesus came to be our King riding on a donkey. Think of what it could have been! When Adam and Eve committed just one sin in the Garden, God did not come on a donkey. He came with anger because they had spoiled the perfection of His creation. He cursed the ground with weeds and childbirth with pain. A word that they had only heard became a reality: death! Until now, they had no idea what that word entailed. And He placed an angel at the gate of the Garden of Eden so they could never again return to paradise this side of heaven.
When the world sinned in the days of Noah, God didn’t come humbly mounted on a mule. No, He came in judgment and drowned the whole human race except for the eight remaining faithful to Him. When the descendants of Noah became conceited enough to try to become their own gods and defy the living God by building a tower that reached the heavens, God did not come to them riding on the back of a burro. He let loose a little power from the heavens and confused their language to foil their plans.
When Pharaoh resisted God, the Lord didn’t come riding on a lowly beast of burden. Instead, He unleashed ten devastating and deadly plagues upon Egypt. He hardened Pharaoh’s heart. He killed all the firstborn in the land and drowned Pharaoh’s troops in the Red Sea. When Israel murmured in the wilderness, God didn’t march in on a mule; rather, He opened the earth to swallow up the complainers and sent poisonous snakes to silence their flapping mouths.
When His people chased after other gods in the promised land of Canaan, He didn’t come meekly on a mule. Rather, He used the two world powers of the time, Assyria and Babylon, as battle-axes to cut down His unfaithful followers, to take them captive, and to deport them out of their beloved land of milk and honey. Now aren’t you glad that this time God came on the back of a burro?
How do you think God should come to the world today? We live in America, a nation founded mainly by Christian immigrants. Sadly, today, we can scarcely call America Christian anymore. In fact, we can scarcely call Christianity Christian anymore. America has lost its heritage of Biblical morality and thrown in its lot with godless immorality. It endorses money-grubbing materialism, murder by abortion, divorce on demand, pornography as a profession, and sex outside of marriage. It has recognized homosexuality as a legitimate lifestyle. Christians are ridiculed as being hopelessly fundamentalist and out of touch with the times, yet it is many of those living in these times who are out of touch with God.
Many churches within Christendom have prostrated themselves at the altar of public appeal, telling people what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear. Many churches have shifted from the Gospel of grace to a gospel that really isn’t a gospel at all -- social gospel. Many believers today cannot be distinguished from unbelievers because they don’t act any differently, they don’t talk any differently, and sometimes they don’t even think any differently than their next-door neighbor, who cares little or nothing for the Lord. America is full of Christians who pose the cross on their walls and around their necks as decoration, but they are not willing to carry the cross of Christ in their lives. How should God come to us today? With an angel brandishing a flaming sword like at Eden? With a universal flood? With poisonous snakes? With war and captivity? With an atomic bomb? We deserve to expect the worst, don’t we? We don’t deserve the donkey, do we?
But Zechariah has some good news for those of us who deserve to expect the worst: Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. Oh, what joy there is on Palm Sunday to see that God is coming to us on a donkey! What a pleasant surprise to see that instead of punishing us for the unrighteous mess we made of His world and our lives, God is sending us His Son, who is righteous for us. What love there must be in the heart of God that He continues to come to our rotting, sin-infested world today in 2024 with salvation through Jesus instead of the damnation that we deserve and should expect.
3. He Came in Meekness
There is still more behind Jesus’ entrance on a donkey that first Palm Sunday. Jesus’ ride on that humble beast of burden is a beautiful and loving picture of everything He did for us. He rode that donkey for us many times before He came to the gate of Jerusalem. He rode that donkey already when He decided to leave the glory of heaven for the griminess and grubbiness of earth. St. Paul describes that donkey ride: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.” In another place, Paul said: “Though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor.” The Son of God became true Man at a particular place and at a particular time and lived among us. Isaiah predicted that Jesus would be “despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces.” That donkey was symbolic of the beast of burden that Jesus Himself became: “The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all!” “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us.” “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” Thank God that Jesus rode that donkey -- all the way from high heaven to horrible hell on the cross.
Hollywood stars don't ride in on donkeys when they wheel up to the Academy Awards. Nor do they come on bikes or in old beater cars. They arrive in Lamborghinis, Bugattis, and Bentleys. When the President makes an appearance, he doesn’t drive up in an old jalopy. No, he is chauffeured in an expensive limousine. When the unbeliever wants to make his mark in this world, he does not consider humility and sacrifice to accomplish his goal. Rather, he sacrifices morals, ethics, and friendships to get ahead.
Let’s face it, the humble donkey lifestyle doesn’t seem very appealing to Christians either, does it? We don’t like to eat other people’s dust or dwell in other people’s shadows. We don’t take too kindly to washing other people’s feet. But all that we have to remember is not only how Jesus rode in (humbly) but how He rode out. Following the humiliation was the exaltation. Following the crucifixion was the resurrection, the victorious descent into hell to proclaim His victory over His enemies, the glorious ascension into heaven, and the sitting at the right hand of God.
In spite of the donkey, it is a King who is coming to us. Jesus may have looked like a loser, but He didn’t lose. He endured the crown of thorns and was rewarded with the crown of glory. He became King not by killing the enemy but by dying for the enemy. He rose because He was buried. He ascended because He descended. He is our King because He was willing to become our Servant. Because He humbled Himself, “God has also highly exalted Him, giving Him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”
Saints, how we will confess “that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” How are we going to worship King Jesus? Are we ready to get down off our high horses and ride the humble donkey? Are we ready to admit that the way Jesus saved us (in humility) is how He wants us to serve Him. Jesus Himself said: “The disciple is not above his master.” Are the troubles God is allowing in your life too lowly a beast to ride? Is the embarrassment and harassment you suffer for standing up for Jesus too humbling a ride for you -- so you hide your faith from sight? Is the weekly appointment that God has set for you in His house in worship a beast of burden that you refuse to lower yourself to mount? What is your donkey? Being poor when you want to be rich, single when you want to be married, sick when you want to be healthy? Whatever it be, ride that donkey proudly and be glad the Lord lets you ride it at all!
Dear Saints, look at your King! He went through the cross to the crown. He rode the donkey! And now He is sitting at God’s right hand in a position of honor, power, and glory. He’s been there. He knows how it feels. Talk to Him. He will help you mount that donkey. He will forgive you for the times you have scorned and spurned the lowly beast of burden. He will remind you that the time wearing the cross is so short and the time wearing the crown is so long -- forever and ever. Bear the cross, and you will wear the crown. Ride that donkey into the heavenly Jerusalem, and you will sit with Him at His right hand for all eternity! Yes, Thank God Jesus Came On A Donkey! Let’s mount up! Amen.
| 
